A lifelong activist

For Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, advocating for the Upper West Side has been a matter of family since hers settled there as refugees from Germany. Rosenthal, 48, still lives in the apartment she moved into with her grandmother after graduating from the University of Rochester; the same apartment that kicked off her career in politics and public service. “Whether it was needing to get more heat over the winter months, it frequently took more than one request,” she said of how she learned the challenges New Yorkers face. When the landlord tried — unsuccessfully — to evict her, Rosenthal found out it was illegal and stood her ground. “He didn’t realize he was minting a lifelong tenant activist,” she said.

Since then, Rosenthal and her staff have helped hundreds of tenants stay in their homes and fight for their rights. Though at first community organizing was more of a hobby, she met then-Assemblymember Jerry Nadler during her work with the Community Free Democrats and went to work for him after he was elected to Congress. A little more than a decade later, when her predecessor Scott Stringer announced he was running for borough president, Rosenthal was encouraged to campaign to replace him. “I had never intended on having a career as the elected official,” she said. “I was very happy behind the scenes.” That background continues to influence the way she approaches her current office. “I still retain part of the perspective of a staffer,” she said. That includes trying not to make her aides work on weekends so they can, she joked, “have a life.”

She won that election, and has represented the 67th District in the Assembly for almost 11 years. Throughout her tenure Rosenthal has passed more than 70 bills, becoming known for her animal rights advocacy, housing issues and her chairing of the committee on alcoholism and drug abuse, among other things. “I got into [animal rights] when I learned about domestic violence situations, where often one of the tip-offs that someone will be physically abusive to their significant other is when they attack [their pet],” she said. The legislation she passed extending orders of protection to companion animals was one of the first such bills in the country.

Rosenthal loves her neighborhood, and was especially honored to help designate the Riverside-West End Historic District that she admired as a little girl. She describes her constituents as “involved, caring, intellectual and community-minded,” and her district as “vibrant.”