Lander spars with progressive activist group that previously backed him

On multiple occasions, protesters with New York Communities for Change have interrupted Brad Lander at unrelated press conferences with chants of “BlackRock Brad.” 

Following the protests, the comptroller took to Substack to write a lengthy blog post on Oct. 22. 

“A few of you have asked why New York Communities for Change are protesting me,” Lander wrote in the post. “I don’t like to criticize activist groups; I’ve done my share of direct action, after all. So, I’ve tried to be a good sport about their disruptions. But I would like to set the record straight.”

NYCC, along with a coalition of other environmental groups, has been haranguing Lander about a commitment he made regarding three of the city’s main pension funds: the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) and Teachers Retirement System (TRS). Lander’s team is currently conducting a review of the funds’ asset managers – including BlackRock – to determine which ones are sufficiently climate-friendly and which ones are not, the idea being that dirty companies will get sacked and replaced. 

But the activist group feels that Lander is taking too long. They’ve argued that his office hasn’t been responsive enough about where they’re at in the process, and that the clock is ticking with just two months left in the comptroller’s term. In particular, NYCC accuses Lander of missing a self-imposed September deadline to complete the review, since a staffer for the comptroller’s office previously told the group that the review should be finished by September. In his Substack post, Lander insisted that his timeline for the review hasn’t changed and said that the review will be complete before Thanksgiving.

It’s the latest installment in a series of spats between Lander and NYCC, who say they have real trust issues with the comptroller on climate. Lander promised in his initial campaign to prioritize climate and act more swiftly on it than his predecessor Scott Stringer, which earned him NYCC’s endorsement at the time. But that goodwill has since eroded. 

NYCC Climate Campaigns Director Pete Sikora said that his team feels Lander’s office is just leading them on.

“It took about a year and a half of drifting meetings where we would go over the same ground over and over and over again – answering the same questions, rebutting, going through it – where him and his staff would sort of pose like they were really open to it and want to do it, but wouldn't really commit,” Sikora said. “It’s like trying to grab water.”

Lander’s office declined to comment and instead directed City & State to the comptroller’s Substack post. 

Lander has spoken repeatedly to the press about holding asset managers like BlackRock to account on climate over the years. In February 2023, he announced his Net Zero Implementation Plan, which set a deadline of 2025 for all asset managers to have “net zero goal or science-based targets.” In April 2025, Lander publicly announced that those plans had to be submitted by June 30 – and, according to NYCC co-director Olivia Leirir, he also gave the activist group a more definitive confirmation that he’d follow on putting investment strategies out to bid. 

That temporarily eased the tension between Lander and NYCC. Leirir said the comptroller’s commitment was how Lander earned a #2 ranking in NYCC’s mayoral endorsement slate during the Democratic primary. 

By September, NYCC had once again lost faith in Lander.

“He had four years and was delaying the entire time,” Sikora said. 

“We are living up to the commitments we made,” Lander wrote on Substack. “I have no interest in further dialogue with them about this.” 

NYCC also accused Lander of pretending his hands are tied where they’re not. The comptroller has said that other pension trustees aren’t ready to vote on a related divestment policy targeting private equity companies with ties to fossil fuels, but Sikora insists that he knows the votes are there. 

If NYCC is frustrated with Lander, the feeling is clearly mutual. In his Substack post, Lander harshly criticized the group’s disruptive protest tactics.

“New York Communities for Change are acting in a bad-faith, counterproductive way, with ad hominem attacks, disrupting the events of other nonprofits, unions, and community groups, including a rally for affordable housing, a picket line of striking workers, and a workforce development graduation for public housing residents (none of which were my events),” he wrote.

“It is an unusual thing for an elected official in his kind of position to engage in that sort of attack,” Sikora said. (NYCC also fired back at Lander in a thread on X.)

“Like most politicians, Lander does not like to be held accountable. But as organizers, we know that is exactly our role – to hold elected officials to their word and push them towards progress,” the NYCC account wrote.

In the Substack post, Lander listed a number of his office’s climate-related achievements, which included completing the divestment of $4 billion in fossil fuel reserve owners from the portfolios of NYCERS, TRS and BERS. “This process was begun under the previous comptroller,” Lander wrote. “But it was stuck and had not been completed when I took office … I got it unstuck.” 

This drew the ire of Lander’s predecessor Stringer, who ran against Lander in the mayoral primary and was happy to join in on NYCC’s thread bashing Lander for the Substack. 

“If it was stuck, he stuck it. Not me. We were fine,” Stringer told City & State. 

Leirir said she doesn’t think any of this needs to be personal, and emphasized the campaign is “not about Brad.” Depending on how things pan out in the pension department, she’s not ruling out supporting him in future endeavors – like a potential run for the 10th Congressional District. 

“We believe that we have to hold our elected officials accountable,” Leirir said. “That’s what we’re doing here, and you know, clearly he doesn’t like it. But once he keeps his promise and actually does this … we can reevaluate the relationship after that.”

Lander is not the only politician that NYCC has sought to pressure. Politico recently reported that NYCC had prepared a campaign targeting New York City Council Member Julie Menin, who hopes to be elected the body’s next speaker – but backed off once Menin signed a key environmental bill.

“As an organization, we're in it with politicians to get results,” Sikora said. “We're not in it to be friends.”