New York City Council Member Margaret Chin

Margaret Chin has been the District 1 council member since January 2010. Chin, a Democrat, was the first Asian American woman elected to city council. She has been actively participating in the fight to protect schools, senior citizens, and community organizations from budget cuts, having “called on Albany to support an additional surcharge on the top 2% of New York households,” according to her city council website.

Chin moved to the United States with her family from Hong Kong, China, when she was nine years old. Chin grew up in Chinatown, attending P.S. 130 and JHS 65 for school. After attending the Bronx High School of Science, she attended the City College of New York, receiving a degree in education.

Photo courtesy of council.nyc.gov

Following college, Chin became very active in enriching the rights of Asian immigrants. She helped found Asian Americans for Equality, a group that was designed to help Asian Americans and other immigrants who were in need. Chin served as the president of the group from 1982 until 1986. Chin also worked at a continuing education community college, helping immigrants get a college education. Chin’s father came to America before the rest of his family did, and his struggles during that time period have always motivated Chin to helping improve the quality of life for immigrants.

District 1 in Manhattan in made up of the lowest parts of Manhattan. Canal Street serves as its northern border, going all the way down to the bottom of Manhattan. District 1 includes the Financial District, Battery Park City, Tribeca, Ellis Island, and Governor’s Island.

Chin has been dealing, as has everybody in the area, with Occupy Wall Street.. She has come under fire recently for not marching with on Zuccotti Park with other members of the City Council, despite being one of the most liberal members of the Council. Multiple articles have sighted that while in college, Chin was a member of the Communist Workers Party. Her response for why she was not at the march was due to a “scheduling conflict”, adding, “I have been to so many marches.”

Chin also serves as the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee Chair, having recently conducted a research project about furthering preliminary cancer research. Chin is married to Alan Tung, a public school teacher, and has a son, Kevin, who graduated from Syracuse University.