Brad Lander Endorsed by Chinatown District Leader Justin Yu; Launches AAPI Agenda and Community Listening Tour in Chinatown
View the event photos; read Lander’s AAPI plan
NEW YORK, NY — Today, during AAPI Heritage Month, Brad Lander was endorsed by influential Chinatown District Leader Justin Yu during a community listening tour in Chinatown where he unveiled his AAPI agenda. Lander participated in a roundtable and Q&A discussion on issues important to Chinese-American New Yorkers with over 100 community members present. Lander then did a small business walk in Chinatown, meeting small business owners and patrons, followed by a visit to the Confucius Plaza senior center.
“We have so many people running for Mayor, but only one knows the City like he knows his finger!” said Chinatown District Leader Justin Yu. “The choice before us is clear! Put Lander #1 on your ballot — don’t forget.”
“New York is home to the second largest AAPI community in the nation, all 1.5 million of whom make the corners of our City flourish, with the Dragon Boat races in Flushing, kimchi in Koreatown, Lunar New Year in Sunset Park, Bangla Mela in Kensington, Diwali in Jackson Heights, and soup dumplings in Chinatown,” said Brad Lander. “However, our AAPI neighbors still face long experienced challenges. As Mayor, I will deliver safety, opportunity, and inclusion for AAPI New Yorkers by expanding language access, combating hate crime and retail theft, investing in education and small businesses, and ensuring every community has a voice in City Hall.”
At the event, Lander unveiled his AAPI agenda to address the issues many in the AAPI community face — such as barriers to starting and growing a business, retail theft, discrimination, harassment, hate crime, and increasingly unaffordable costs of living — that were only heightened by the pandemic.
As Mayor, Lander will continue to focus on inclusivity, transparency, and equitable resource distribution to ensure that all New Yorkers can access vital information and city services. His plan, NYC for All: Agenda for Asian American and Pacific Islander New Yorkers, has robust public safety, education, economic opportunity, and quality of life components.
To keep our AAPI community, and all New Yorkers, safe, Lander will end street homelessness for people with serious mental illness and work to end hate crime. To promote and support our small AAPI-owned businesses, Lander will establish commercial rent regulation for small, mom-and-pop businesses, reduce retail theft, and reduce the burdens of fines by shifting the focus from punishment to support. He’ll also improve quality of life by reducing the overconcentration of shelters in our neighborhoods.
None of this work is new to Lander. As Comptroller, Brad has prioritized language access and cultural inclusion, setting a high standard for interpretation and translation services by partnering with community-based providers to ensure high-quality, accessible communication for all New Yorkers. Brad’s hard-hitting audit of the City’s spending in ethnic and community media outlets uncovered an 84% decrease in City spending on the outlets that provide crucial information to the City’s diverse AAPI communities.
In the City Council, Brad championed the development of the community language interpretation bank as a promising model for broader City investment and collaborated with the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families to launch “AAPI Classroom” – a student-led cultural education initiative that teaches NYC public school students about Asian American history and traditions to combat hate. Brad has consistently embraced opportunities to host cultural celebrations like Lunar New Year, AAPI Heritage Month, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, honoring AAPI communities with the expressions of solidarity, joy, and respect that uplift AAPI voices in public life.
Read NYC for All: Agenda for Asian American and Pacific Islander New Yorkers.
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