Mark D. Levine

Mark D. Levine (born April 30, 1969) is the Council member for the 7th District of the New York City Council. He is a Democrat. The district includes Morningside Heights, West Harlem, part of the Upper West Side and Washington Heights in Manhattan.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Levine grew up in Columbia, Maryland. He majored in physics at Haverford College and the University of Seville, Spain. He received a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1995.

Levine taught bilingual math and science at Junior High School 149 in the South Bronx from 1991 to 1993. He was a Teach For America corps member in the program’s early years.

In 1994 he founded Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, a cooperatively-owned financial institution serving low-income families in the Washington Heights section of Northern Manhattan. Levine ran for the New York City Council in 2001, finishing second in a ten-way Democratic field.

In 2007 Levine was elected Democratic District Leader in the 71st Assembly District, Part A, representing parts of Hamilton Heights/West Harlem and Washington Heights. He was an early supporter of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primary, and ran on Obama’s delegate slate that year in New York’s 15th Congressional District. In 2009 Levine founded the Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan, a progressive, reform-oriented local political club. In 2010 he ran for New York State Senate in the 31st District, finishing second in a four-way race with 39% of the vote.

Levine took office in January, 2014. He chairs the City Council's Parks Committee, and is a member of the following committees: finance; education; housing and buildings; government operations; and rules. He is chair of the New York City Council Jewish Caucus, is a member of the Progressive Caucus, and is founder and co-chair of the Council's Affordable Housing Preservation Taskforce.

Issues Levine has focused on in his first term include: legal representation for tenants in housing court, greater equity for parks in low-income neighborhoods, improved police-community relations, safer streets and expanded mass transit, expanded access to medical marijuana, and acceptance of bitcoin for payment of NYC fines and fees.