Yusef Salaam

Council member, District 9, New York City Council

We identified Salaam’s voice at 32 meetings across 11 bodies. Named Harlem eight times, more than any other official.

7 of 17transcribed meetings with their voice identified

1.0min a meeting at the New York City Council, at least

22 of 23present at roll calls, from the clerk

Chairs the Committee to Combat Hate; sits on 6 more committees

See all

Next New York City Council meeting: Thu, Nov 12, 1:30 pm · Agenda

Two clips, newest first

Yusef Salaam · Member · Committee on Housing and Buildings · Mar 9, 2026 · 55:45
“What targeted outreach and technical assistance is HPD providing to landlords in high-poverty communities of color before they reach the distress threshold so TPT is truly a last resort and not the first response?”
Yusef Salaam · Chair · Committee to Combat Hate · Jun 23, 2026 · 39:26
“As a diverse city, I’m concerned about antisemitic people writ large. And of course, Arabs are ethnically Semitic. Arabs and even Aramaic are Semitics, and, you know, there’s— these are Semitic languages, of course. And what we’ve seen is that, um, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all born in the Semitic region.”

Issues Salaam raised, by number of meetings

Rikers and city jails2 meetings

We count who raised an issue, not which side they took.

Every roll call, and Salaam’s other bodies

Present at 22 of 23 roll calls at the New York City Council

From the clerk’s own record. We don’t compare members on it.

PresentExcusedAbsentOldest first, 1 square per roll call

Absent 1. Oct 29, 2025 to Oct 22, 2026.

Official roll call, from the clerk →

Committee on Small Business: 1.8 min of speech a meeting, range 0.8–3.3. In the same range as three other members.
Committee to Combat Hate: talk time not compared. Presides over its meetings, so isn’t compared with the members.
Committee on Criminal Justice: talk time not compared. Seated for only 6 meetings in 12 months.
Committee on Housing and Buildings: talk time not compared. Seated for only 5 meetings in 12 months.
Committee on Public Safety: talk time not compared. Listed on the roster as Chair, so isn’t compared with the members.
Committee on Land Use: talk time not compared. Fewer than four members can be compared fairly.
Committee on Parks and Recreation: talk time not compared. Seated for only 7 meetings in 12 months.
Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises: talk time not compared. We could name only 10% of the speech they may have given; we compare members at 30%.
Committee on Aging: talk time not compared. Seated for only 2 meetings in 12 months.
Committee on Finance: talk time not compared. Seated for only 7 meetings in 12 months.
Committee on Small Business: present at 8 of 8 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee to Combat Hate: present at 4 of 4 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Criminal Justice: present at 5 of 5 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Housing and Buildings: present at 10 of 11 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Public Safety: present at 2 of 2 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Land Use: present at 13 of 14 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Parks and Recreation: present at 11 of 13 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises: present at 27 of 31 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Aging: present at 3 of 3 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Finance: present at 7 of 7 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Committee on Civil Service and Labor: present at 4 of 4 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk
Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions: present at 5 of 5 roll calls. Official roll call, from the clerk

Neighborhoods Salaam named

8 places Salaam named in meetings

Lines where Salaam named the place, read by two AI readers that both agree it means that place. Each dot plays the newest one; brighter means named more often.

New York

Harlem 8 times, the most of any official
Manhattan 7 times
Staten Island 2 times
Bronx 1 time
Brooklyn 1 time
Hunts Point 1 time
Port Morris 1 time
Queens 1 time

Places are drawn at the centre of their own boundary in the city’s 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs) file (NYC Department of City Planning, via NYC Open Data). A dot says the place was named, not where Salaam was or what was said about it.

Meetings

Every meeting where we identified Salaam’s voice

32, newest first. The date opens the meeting; the time plays the video at Salaam’s first remark.

Oct 7, 2026Committee on Small Business2.6 min4:44
Sep 24, 2026New York City Council0.1 min29:32
Sep 23, 2026Committee on Criminal Justice1.5 min1:11:10
Sep 16, 2026Committee on Small Business1.9 min1:02:16
Sep 10, 2026New York City Council2.1 min1:01:20
Jul 14, 2026Committee on Land Use1.9 min6:57
Jul 1, 2026Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises0.6 min1:32:59
Jun 30, 2026New York City Council1.8 min2:03:55
Jun 25, 2026Committee on Criminal Justice1.7 min1:00:14
Jun 23, 2026Committee to Combat Hate27.1 min2:40

Show all 32Show fewer

Jun 8, 2026Committee on Small Business5.8 min6:14
May 6, 2026Committee on Small Business1.5 min46:37
May 6, 2026Committee on Parks and Recreation0.6 min1:17:43
Apr 16, 2026New York City Council5.2 min11:49
Apr 15, 2026Committee to Combat Hate1.9 min0:14
Apr 1, 2026Committee on Parks and Recreation2.8 min1:07:21
Mar 26, 2026Committee to Combat Hate4.7 min0:26
Mar 24, 2026Committee on Criminal Justice0.8 min2:22:12
Mar 24, 2026Committee on Housing and Buildings0.8 min1:28:24
Mar 23, 2026Committee on Small Business2.8 min35:40
Mar 23, 2026Committee on Land Use1.7 min43:59
Mar 10, 2026New York City Council1.8 min50:01
Mar 9, 2026Committee on Housing and Buildings1.5 min51:31
Feb 25, 2026Committee to Combat Hate7.7 min30:05
Feb 9, 2026Committee on Housing and Buildings0.7 min27:17
Dec 18, 2025Committee on Public Safety3.6 min0:27
Dec 18, 2025New York City Council2.0 min1:08:37
Dec 18, 2025Committee on Finance0.1 min16:36
Dec 9, 2025Committee on Aging0.6 min48:36
Dec 3, 2025Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises0.8 min18:12
Nov 19, 2025Committee on Public Safety19.2 minVideo
Nov 12, 2025New York City Council3.5 min7:19

How we identify who is speaking · blind check, pooled across five cities: of 410 council lines drawn, 352 right, 0 wrong, 1 unclear, 57 couldn’t be judged

A meeting missing here means we couldn’t attribute the voice, not that Salaam was absent. Claude and Gemini each read every transcript with that day’s roster. A voice gets Yusef Salaam’s name only when both agree and a code check finds the name said on, or just before, their turn. Voices our transcripts merge with someone else’s are never attributed, so every count here undercounts what Salaam said. For councils and their committees, of 410 lines drawn, 352 were right, 0 wrong and 1 unclear, and the checkers couldn’t judge 57. We have since removed the voices behind 110 of those lines (0 wrong, 1 unclear, the rest we had already held for other reasons). Of the 300 lines we still publish, the checkers could judge 268: all 268 right (90% lower bound 0.99). They couldn’t judge the other 32. The check is one sample pooled across the five cities, not of Salaam or of New York alone.