State Assemblyman Landon Dais Speaks to Riverdale
As corruption and vested interests increasingly corrode public confidence in American institutions, youth voters feel increasingly disillusioned and hopeless. The Pew Research Center reported in April of 2024 that 78 percent of Americans do not trust the American government to do “what is right.” Youth voters want leaders who are active and tenacious in their work and understand the experiences of their communities, and who are sincere enough to say “I don’t know” when asked difficult policy questions.
In a recent interview with The Riverdale Review, State Assembly Member for the South Bronx Landon C. Dais shared his concern about the gap between policy and his community, and his plan for how to bridge it. Mr. Dais discussed his personal story and vision for legislation, his connection with the Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Dr. Reverend Calvin O. Butts III was senior pastor, his suggestions for how Riverdale students can contribute to development efforts in our district.
A newcomer to politics, Mr. Dais’ sincerity in his legislative work and the strength he derives from his community inspired us to examine the important role of local politicians in shaping the experiences of our community members.
When asked about his political heroes, Mr. Dais first told The Riverdale Review about his Grandma who “escaped Jim Crow South [and] was not allowed to vote in South Carolina.” Mr. Dais is the descendant of a migration of black individuals who sacrificed everything for political liberty. “She always instilled [the importance of] voting,” he continued “because she knew what it was like not to have that right.” Mr. Dais’ career path, from being an attorney to a construction manager to a father and youth baseball coach, and now an elected government official, is an extension of his grandmother’s lesson. He hopes to protect the economic and civil liberties of his majority Black and Latino district through a transparent community-first approach, maneuvering the New York City bureaucracy to deliver tangible results. This mission has brought Mr. Dais to a place he never expected to be: The New York State Assembly, where he can elevate the voices of his community while crafting and introducing creative legislation.
Mr. Dais believes that he can best improve his community by creating a “bustling commercial corridor right here in the 77.” He asserted that businesses “don’t need to go to San Francisco; it doesn’t have to be downtown Manhattan. We can create an economic center right here in the Bronx.” With this goal in mind, his rallying cry on the campaign trail was “77 new businesses and 7,700 new jobs within the 77th Assembly District.”
He is ready to put in the work to see this vision come to fruition; his career has been marked by creative problem-solving through public-private partnerships and economic development in a district he describes as “drowning in debt.” This began with his work as a construction manager for the new Yankee Stadium in 2009 and has guided his legislative agenda.
Additionally, in his short time in office, Mr. Dais has already seen and contributed to substantial legislative victories in crime prevention and community improvement. He told The Riverdale Review that his first major accomplishment was criminalizing deed theft to protect the vulnerable senior citizen population. He noted another major accomplishment: “[expanding] the number of civil judges and family court judges to 28 across the state, and [getting] the Bronx alone…three additional judges.” This proposal came from an intimate understanding of pressing community issues: “Our family courts are tremendously backlogged…. by putting more judges in there, you can get that system moving and make sure that those kids can get the justice that they deserve.”
This kind of honest and creative problem-solving is central to Mr. Dais’ strategy, though it feels lacking in our national discourse. It is precisely this approach that will bring his district to where he wants it to be.
When asked about what he hopes his district will look like in ten years, Dais shared his vision with The Review: “My baseball parks are renovated, updated with lights and other updated materials, so kids can play baseball and softball. Vacant lots that currently exist are turned into affordable housing, specifically homeownership opportunities…Community clean-ups are occurring without my office, on their own…Flower pots [are] in all the schools around my district…And lastly the Yankees have won at least one World Series!”
Mr. Dais does not yet know how far he will go in politics, but he hopes to continue amplifying the experiences of his community members and fighting to improve their lives, one bill at a time.
