Petitioning is underway for those seeking to get on the electoral ballot to become candidates in the upcoming June primaries in New York City, and Danielle Herbert Guggenheim, a self-described, single mother, Black and Caribbean American who has served 25 years with the City’s Board of Education, and has tutored children with special needs, is among them.

 

Guggenheim, a cofounder and former vice-president of the Unity Democratic Club, launched in 2022, is seeking to win the Bronx Democratic primary for the district 11 city council seat held, since 2022, by Council Member Eric Dinowitz, son of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), and a former special needs teacher. The local assembly district and council district overlap substantially.

 

Council District 11 covers some or all of the neighborhoods of Bedford Park, Norwood, Kingsbridge Heights-Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge, Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil, and Wakefield-Woodlawn, along with Woodlawn Cemetery and Van Cortlandt Park. Guggenheim now co-chairs the Unity Democratic Club’s political affairs sub-committee, shaping policies and endorsements.

 

“People are power, but that power must be amplified and mobilized if we’re ever going to elevate The Bronx to where it belongs in the larger story of New York City,” Guggenheim said on launching her campaign in December 2024. “My people are crying out for a leader in City Hall who will confront the towering challenges suffocating our borough. The Bronx needs a fighter, not a caretaker, and it’s time to rise to that call.”

 

Guggenheim was elected previously as a [Bronx] county committee member for Assembly District 78 from 2022-2024. A county committee member is an unpaid, elected role within The Bronx Democratic Party. Responsibilities include advocating for the community, highlighting critical issues and community concerns to elected officials, helping to decide the guiding principles and goals of The Bronx Democratic Party,
and choosing local judicial candidates for general elections.

 

She also previously served as a board member of Jerome Park’s James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center. In this role, she said she has addressed child education, food and housing insecurity, and bringing zero-emission buses to The Bronx, scheduled to roll out in 2025. She is also a judicial delegate for Assembly District 78, which broadly covers Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights, University Heights, Fordham Manor, and Belmont.

 

On launching her campaign last year, Guggenheim said she was ready “with a commitment to social justice and equity,” to bring “bold leadership and representation to the district, tackling significant issues that have been overlooked in a borough that has the highest home insecurity, pollution, inequitable education opportunities and little access to healthcare.”

 

Though Guggenheim has a broad agenda, the Unity Democrats said her key campaign issues are housing, tackling pollution, healthcare, and education. On housing, Guggenheim said rents in The Bronx are crushing working families and pushing the unemployed and working poor toward homelessness. “In District 11, 27% of residents live in poverty, well above the city average,” she said. “We need immediate action to unite and empower tenants, community boards, and city planners to work with nonprofits, developers, and landlords to create solutions prioritizing people over profit.”

 

On pollution, Guggenheim said, “The Bronx is choking under the weight of relentless industrial pollution, waste transfer stations, and constant truck traffic. The air we breathe is killing us, manifesting in the highest asthma rates in the nation.” She said “Asthma Alley’ was not just a nickname known in the borough but a tragic reality. “We must demand cleaner air and limit pollution in our school zones, parks, and high foot traffic areas because every Bronx resident deserves to breathe without fear of becoming sick,” she added.

 

In terms of healthcare, the candidate said the bridges connecting the borough’s sick and vulnerable to life-saving healthcare have collapsed. “This gap is a moral crisis that demands immediate action,” Guggenheim said. “Despite healthcare being the largest employer group, The Bronx has the worst healthcare results in the City.”

 

She said new, stronger bridges must be built “by collaborating with hospitals, clinics, schools, and healthcare leaders to ensure a higher patient-to-provider ratio, and better emergency response capabilities.” She added, “Support having doctors and nurse practitioners do rotations in public schools to service all community stakeholders.”

 

When it comes to education, Guggenheim said Bronx schools need more funding, are overcrowded, and are in dire need of necessary school materials. “This disparity contributes to an achievement gap that disproportionately affects students from low-income families,” she said.

 

Guggenheim said because of this, the borough’s children are being denied their right to a quality education. “The future of The Bronx depends on leveling the playing field, investing more in historically disenfranchised public schools and infrastructure investments to open new schools,” she said. “Teachers should be supported to ensure that every child, regardless of their ZIP code, has an equal shot at success.”

 

For his part, Dinowitz first won his council seat in a special election in 2021, after the former councilman Andrew Cohen resigned before his term ended to take up a judgeship. The move sparked controversy at the time because some felt it was an abrupt strategic decision by the so-called and all-powerful “Bronx Democratic Party machine” to ensure the assemblyman’s son was guaranteed to win the seat.

 

Outside or new candidates typically find it harder to win public support without the backing of the Party’s stalwarts, which the councilman’s father was considered to be, and since the Party usually has its own candidates in mind for each role.

 

During a special election, with a shorter campaign cycle, name recognition is also regarded as a major advantage, and with the assemblyman’s name already well known in the district since he holds the A.D. 81 seat since 1994, this likely helped his son’s campaign. At the time, the assemblyman denied being part of any orchestrated effort within the Party to nominate his son for District 11, and said he abstained from voting on the matter.

 

However, he has built up several alliances within the Party over time who are no doubt loyal to him. There were also allegations at the time of lack of transparency by the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club around the club’s endorsement of the councilman’s candidacy.
He ultimately won the special general election with 63.6 percent of the vote in 2021, despite opposition from five other candidates. Progressive Democrat Mino Lora came closest, winning 36.4 percent of the vote.

 

During that election cycle, one of the points raised was the fact that District 11 has typically always been represented by a candidate from its wealthier northwestern side e.g. the broader Riverdale area, as opposed to anyone from the lower-income neighborhoods of Wakefield, Norwood, Kingsbridge and Bedford Park. The latter areas typically see a much higher rate of crime and social problems.

 

The councilman recently sponsored a new law that aims to enhance the 311 complaint experience for residents in terms of follow-up and accountability by City officials to 311 complaints. [More to follow]. In January, he led an event at City Hall to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Jewish people from Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Poland during World War II.

Pushing ahead with her petitioning campaign, Guggenheim told Norwood News, “I am a proud resident of Norwood. I went to J.H.S. 80 on Mosholu Parkway when it was a junior high school. I am a true daughter of The Bronx. Born and raised here, I remember when communities in District 11 were neighborhoods one felt good to raise a family in.”

 

She continued, “That has changed. COVID highlighted the inequities that exist in our borough. I just knew a social reconstruction would happen. For so long we have been the overlooked borough. My candidacy is about building a Bronx we want our children to inherit. All children deserve to experience joy in their communities. All of District 11 deserves better: better education, better housing opportunities, better healthcare.” She vowed, “We leave no one behind. I am not doing well if my neighbor isn’t. ¡Nadie Atrás! [(Leave) nobody behind!]”

 

Editor’s Note: In a previous version of this story, it was incorrectly reported, based on information received from the candidate, that Guggenheim was the Bronx County Committee member for District 31. This has been updated to read Assembly District 78. Also, Guggenheim clarified that while she previously served on the board of the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center, a nonprofit organization, she later resigned from that role, to avoid any conflicts of interest.