We will nurture collaboration for diversity and inclusion to create equity in ideas and innovation among:

• The BIPOC Community
• The LGBTQ+ Community
• The Women’s Community
• The Startup/Entrepreneurial Community
• The Small Local Businesses
• The Creative Community
• The Environmental & Clean Energy Community
• The Educational Community
• The Science Community
• The Cultural, Arts, and Entertainment Community
• The Technology Community
• The Financial Community

• What role do you believe the city and state should play in funding community colleges? Should such colleges be tuition-free?

Yes. I believe that city and state colleges should be free. I believe that they should play a very active role as funders ONLY – without influencing the curriculums. I feel that we can generate revenue for CUNY and SUNY through alternative means of funding through fresh new ideas. 

• What role do you believe the state should play in funding senior colleges? Should such colleges be tuition-free?

Yes. I believe that these colleges should be tuition free. Similar ideas apply here. I believe that the city and state should be funding these colleges. However, education should be left to the scholastics, and not those funding these programs. 

• Do you support restoring funding for CUNY ASAP, which received a cut during the pandemic?

Absolutely. Immediately. Education is one of the pillars of our society, and must be treated as such. 

• How would you expand job opportunities for CUNY students and graduates?

When you look at the 19 different agencies that NYC has, having people who work for the City with CUNY backgrounds should get a priority in opportunities. I would also love to create a program which also fast tracks local city business to hire graduates. 

• Would you expand mental health and wellness funding and services for CUNY students? If so, how?

Yes. This is a top priority for me. We should be hitting alternative sources of funding from the private sectors and big companies rather than public health funds, which are already scarce. I would also create a platform for CUNY students which connects them to the wellness and mental health services around the city based on fitness, meditation, and mindfulness. I am also extremely adamant about increasing the financial and civic literacy to help improve stress. 

• How would you support CUNY students experiencing food and/or housing insecurity?

Considering my background of owning a daily meal delivery program, I would work with restaurants and grocery stores to create a new platform which connects students to order food, which is funded by the city. Students would get these meals for free if they qualify, or they could use it as a voucher program. As for housing insecurity, I believe that community college students should get lower renting rates, and expedited access to affordable housing options. 

• How would you decide who to appoint to the CUNY board of trustees?

I’d look at it from a position of social impact; diversity, inclusion and equity. Assessing who really stands in the community for proper education and investment in the future of these students; as they are the future of NYC.

• If (re)elected, please describe the three programs/activities you would select as priorities for new or additional public funding.

1st – I would put forth funding for CUNY education creating more programming, in particular an undergraduate degree for city employees free to them. Plus funding for mental health for all CUNY students and city workers. 

2nd – I would put funding towards homeless rehabilitation centers, by repurposing vacant commercial (office space and hospitality) for living, learning, and healthcare (especially mental health) support to support them change the course of life they are currently in. I see this as a potential extension of CUNY in conjunction with NYC Hospitals, Public Health, and other departments.

3rd – I would put funding towards teaching and training all city workers, including, but not limited to the NYPD, FDNY, DSNY, DOT, for psychology, sociology, humanities, communication, history (city), culture, world religions education as part of a continued education program to help better the relationship between city agencies and the different communities within the over 300 plus neighborhoods in all 5 boroughs of New York City. 

This will assist in social justice reform, which is a major component to my platform – United Neighborhoods of NYC, through emotional reform and economic innovation.

• Asian-American communities, especially Chinatown, have been hit by xenophobic sentiments as a result of COVID-19. As of September 2020, 82 restaurants in Chinatown have closed down. At the same time, small businesses across the city are suffering from a lack of effective outreach and multilingual resources to assist small businesses in applying for relief. How will you seek to specifically support the needs of Asian-American small businesses and communities in relation to this?

This will take a multi-pronged approach. First off we need to develop and implement proper marketing campaigns that debunks these xenophobic ideas. We need to humanize the Asian-American communities, and undo the marginalization that Trump has preached. We need to raise awareness, through whatever marketing tactics necessary, through ambassadorships, through partnerships with large corporations. Chinatown is a staple of NYC and institutions like Wo-Hop and the Duck House, are very intertwined with the identity of  NYC. We need to preserve this. We need to urge people to shop and visit these small businesses while we also counter the xenophobia. 

Additionally, we are going to have to create an outreach program, aided by the government and private coalitions, which consists of social workers who are multilingual and able to address language and cultural barriers that the typical Asian-American may face. With this, we hope to help them reach whatever resources they need. 

• Chinatown has suffered from xenophobia leading to a loss in major business revenue and tourism. Many immigrant small business owners face barriers to accessing government relief programs. For example, the New York City’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS) does not currently include 10013 in the Hard-Hit Low and Moderate income Communities Program (LMI). Because of this, many Chinatown businesses are losing access to valuable, business-sustaining financial relief because of its proximity to SoHo and TriBeCa. How will you help small business owners in the city access government programs and assistance?

We need to implement the appropriate advocates for these communities, who aid in their representation and addressing their needs, not the needs we assume them to have. If we don’t already have a support system then we need to create it, and if it does exist then we need to investigate the inner workings of this system and assess effectiveness for these communities. 

• Since the arrival of COVID-19, there has been a surge in hate and violent crimes targeting Asian-Americans, especially with many being the subject of racial bias. if (re)elected, how will you enforce accountable responses to crimes against members of the Asian-American community? 

Community outreach and awareness. Implementing programs which remind New Yorkers that the Asian-American community is part of this community. They are New Yorkers. We are a united neighborhood. Realize what their business provides to the economy. We can’t just treat them like they don’t belong. 

• As access to the COVID-19 vaccine continues to grow, it is critical that the City dramatically expands its outreach efforts to our monolingual and immigrant populations–especially with seniors. We know immigrants and communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, and our senior population continues to be incredibly vulnerable to the virus. While vaccinations were recently opened up to people over 65 and essential workers, eligible recipients are being left behind without targeted, community-specific outreach in the language they are most comfortable with. Please list three changes you would make immediately to resolve this problem.

First – Transparency about distribution of these vaccines. Which communities? How are these programs being implemented? Fix it so that it does reach the most vulnerable populations, taking into consideration ethnicity and age. 

Second – Assemble a team who go door to door, make phone calls, while taking protective measures. Reaching out to these individual community leaders who are not necessarily public officials. Identify the influencers within these communities to help raise awareness about these vaccines. 

Third – Create a process in order to execute giving this vaccine – so that it  is effectively verbally communicated, individuals fully understand the importance of the vaccine.

• In your opinion, what is the best way to integrate schools and provide good opportunities for students in marginalized groups? We ask that you specifically discuss the role of Gifted and Talented programs and the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test in your response.

We need to make everything accessible to everyone, period. We need to make that process as transparent and available to the public as possible. If education is a human right, then different tiers should also be a human right, regardless of social status, cultural background, race. We need to eradicate all racism, xenophobia, “tokenism” and have the system based on students’ capabilities purely. 

We need to also encourage these communities and let them know that they are being represented and that they can have access to these opportunities. 

Providing extra tutoring sessions, special help for those who need it – for both families and students. 

Shrinking class sizes to a 1-5 teacher ratio. All kids should be getting more attention, especially those in these marginalized groups. This will be funded by the city and private organizations. 

• If elected, how do you plan to involve our club in your decision-making and activities? *

I would like to have a representative for UDO in the administration on staff.

• What are your top environmental and climate-related priorities?

We need to get down to a net zero carbon emission. We need to be part of the green new deal. We need to import the Wellbeing for Future Generations Act from Whales into NYC. Let’s start using more renewable energy, let’s promote biodiversity by introducing more green spaces into our city. We need to encourage sustainability as a lifestyle. 

• How would you prioritize the creation of climate jobs in New York City and investment in communities of color, if at all?

How I will prioritize this, taking my platform into consideration (which at its core is basic human rights, public health & wellness, community & culture, encased in ethics) is; I will listen to the community of climate and sustainability activists, as well as, the BIPOC communities, to identify the problems. From this, we will create the jobs necessary to address these problems and fill in these gaps. We will then use innovation and entrepreneurial approaches to reeducate and retrain New Yorkers to fuel climate and social change. 

• How would you advance the City’s goal of implementing 100% clean, affordable energy and maximizing greenhouse gas and co-pollutant reductions?

This is where we address infrastructure and government & policy problems within my platform. We need to use the Green New Deal, and the Wellbeing for Future Generations Act, as a template for creating modern and sustainable regulations, in order to create 100% clean affordable energy. In order to maximize our reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and co-pollutants, we need to partner our parks and recreation departments with our zoning and building departments, to create more greenspaces within our city, creating more parks emitting oxygen, and less skyscrapers emitting carbon. 

• How would you support the affordable and low-income housing sector in improving energy efficiency, enhancing residents’ comfort and living conditions, and meeting the City’s emissions reductions goals?

Firstly, we need to point out the problem at its core, which is city government and agency inefficiencies, based in bureaucratic red tape and special interest groups: specifically private business. We need to create stronger development regulations and policies, which are grounded in sustainable efficiency. These policies will hold developers accountable. Violators of these policies will not only be impacted with financial penalties, but also their ability to develop within the city. Take a look at the St. Patrick’s cathedral, heated completely by geothermal energy – why can’t that become the norm? That is what our regulations need to address, the cheaper, more sustainable solutions, which enhance comfort and living conditions, and reduce our emissions. 

• How would you support the expansion of clean public transportation in the City?

I address this problem directly in my platform as well. The MTAs relationship with the department of transportation, the city, the state and the federal government is an identifiable problem; it leaves the city in the problem zone of being unable to get cleaner transportation systems. We need to fight for modern, innovative technologies in the forms of monorails, trams, bicycles, all of which being able to operate off of renewable energy sources. 

• How would you upgrade local industrial port infrastructure in a way that is both sustainable and equitable?

I would look at Rotterdam, Tokyo, Singapore; all of which are port cities which have implemented sustainable technologies far ahead of New York. We need to implement similar values at lower prices. Creating these regulations with teeth that hold private sectors accountable so that we can create alternative revenue from city, state and taxes. 

• How would you develop climate resiliency infrastructure on public lands to protect New York City’s most vulnerable communities?

I will assess the available research and data to identify the most vulnerable communities, and better understand how our infrastructure and different parts of the infrastructure (ie: energy creation and commercial waste centers) has impacted certain neighborhoods. We put forward the Renewable Rikers Program and introduce legislation and executive orders that can protect these specific communities. Ultimately, we need to act now and move quickly to implement proper aggressive rules and regulations, with aggressive timelines. We must also reshape how we dispose of our waste, be it private or public sanitation. We must create more innovative and sustainable ways to remove waste. 

• How would you support the Renewable Rikers proposal?

I would absolutely support the Renewable Rikers Proposal. How I would support it is by finding alternative and effective means of funding, as well as raising the awareness of what it is and what it means for New Yorkers, and our city; ultimately raising the support for it. 

• How would you support the City in meeting its target of becoming zero waste by 2030?

Ultimately, becoming a zero waste city starts with our consumption. We need to assess what we are taking in to understand what we are putting out, it is a zero sum system. Putting legislation and provisions in place to ensure that we are not overusing single use plastics, creating more packaging free stores, potentially implementing packaging free policies in our big supermarkets. We also need to be building infrastructure which is cleaner and more sustainable to our environment. We need to find more innovative ways of harnessing renewable energy sources and implement them throughout our city (ie: solar powered streets/sidewalks).

• Commercial Waste Zones and Local Law 199 is an example of the sort of comprehensive and transformative climate justice policy that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emission while also raising labor standards, and its implementation will likely happen under the next mayoral administration. How will you ensure that the ambitious goals of the policy are prioritized and accomplished in its implementation?

As per my platform, which promotes basic human rights and public health & wellness; these policies are highly aligned. These goals aim to ensure a healthier City as well as its residents, and is therefore a critical move to make. It is paramount to me that these laws gain the proper support and funding to hit the ground running. I believe that there are alternative revenue streams that we could utilize in order to accomplish these goals – reaching out to private corporations and big businesses, creating partnerships with big players such as Amazon, and getting them to put a percentage of income into these goals rather than taxes. Again, the better we are about our consumption and removal of waste, the better we can reallocate our resources to the bigger sustainability issues which are harder to tackle.

• How would you invest in the New York City workforce for a future of climate jobs, if at all?

I want to use innovative and entrepreneurial thinking to better understand how to tackle the problems which face all of the communities in New York City. Let’s start with our education system, reshaping both the scholastic and vocational training, so that we can create a larger workforce of people who can build, maintain and manage our city in more sustainable ways; all of which leading to New York being a true public health capital of the world. We need access to clean water, to greener spaces, better hygiene. We need to audit the city budget across the board to evaluate where our money is being spent, and based on this, reallocate the funds in the city budget to back our city workers. 

• How would you implement measures to ensure the creation of high road jobs, if at all?

We must be building high road jobs, on the infrastructural and roadway level, towards our future. I will create better systems of flow that do not disrupt our neighborhoods, and rather allow for more access points in and out, and around the five boroughs. I want to create space for cleaner, as well as more, means of transportation such as: trams, monorails, bicycles; which will ultimately create more jobs. 

• Is there an innovative idea, policy or otherwise, that you believe would allow NYC to be a leader in our quest for Climate Justice?

Yes. There are a multitude of other innovative, sustainable ideas that I have, that the rest of the world has been implementing. There are more efficient, and cleaner, greener ways of doing things – prevention is the best solution. We need to tackle the problem at the core, rather than finding ways to dispose of our waste, to remove the damage we have done. As New Yorkers, I want us to become the leaders of the sustainability movement. I am relieved that under our new national government, we are again a part of the Paris Agreement, but we have a duty in NYC to do our part towards those goals. 

An interesting idea that I have, which addresses the sound pollution of NYC, as well as the congestion and traffic. Sirens, traffic jams, and congestion on our roads disturb our peace. We can solve this by integrating our transit lighting systems with emergency and amber alert software, to change our traffic lights and alert our drivers that emergency vehicles are coming – which will also help improve emergency response time.