City Council's Deputy Leader Endorses Choe for District 20

During a tour of the Flushing community, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Deputy Leader of the New York City Council, and John Choe, executive director of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, co-endorsed each other for Queens Borough President and City Council respectively. Both candidates are running people-powered campaigns that uplift Queens’ working families.

Van Bramer is the only candidate for Queens Borough President to reject real estate money, uplift small businesses, and put communities at the center of the land use process. Van Bramer opposed the Special Flushing Waterfront District and co-sponsored two small business protection bills— Small Business Jobs Survival Act and Commercial Rent Control in the New York City Council.

“I am thrilled to endorse John Choe for City Council District 20 and to have his endorsement as we fight for a Queens that works for all of us! John is a fierce champion for Flushing and Murray Hill small businesses, especially in the face of this dual pandemic of COVID and Asian hate. I am proud to have fought alongside him against the gentrification and luxury development of the Special Flushing Waterfront District, and look forward to continuing to work together to put people first,” said Jimmy Van Bramer.

Van Bramer is a life-long activist who’s been fighting machine politics for over two decades. He is the son of union workers and a lifelong Queens resident. Before being elected to the City Council, he organized for LGBTQ rights, public financing of elections, and for the Queens Public Library.

Van Bramer was first elected on November 3, 2009, and eventually became the Deputy Leader of the New York City Council. Van Bramer, a founding member of the Council's progressive caucus, has worked tirelessly to fight for the rights and quality of life of all working people. His father, William Van Bramer, was a member of Printers’ & Pressman’s Union Local 2, and his mother Elizabeth Van Bramer helped support the family — even through bouts of homelessness and food insecurity — by working as a meat wrapper and cashier at local supermarkets as a member of Local 1893 of the International Brotherhood of Painters.

Van Bramer's first foray into organizing was when he was a St. John’s University student in 1993, leading a queer group of students who fought to be officially recognized by the largest Catholic university in the country. Later, he organized for Ed Sedarbaum’s 1998 State Senate race, gravitating towards the nascent movement to elect queer people in Queens and starting his personal decades-long fight with the Queens County Democratic Party machine.

In 1998, Van Bramer organized with Citizen Action of New York to create what became today’s City campaign finance system with matching funds. At the same time, he led civil disobedience actions with LGBTQ members of the Irish community who had been banned from marching in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parades.

Van Bramer helped lead the opposition to the proposed $3 billion package of tax subsidies for Amazon HQ2 and was the first Queens elected official to endorse Tiffany Cabán for Queens District Attorney. He currently lives in Sunnyside Gardens with his husband Dan Hendrick. Van Bramer married Hendrick on July 28, 2012, becoming the first openly-gay elected official to get married in the borough of Queens.

"Jimmy Van Bramer and I have fought together for two decades to empower our communities in opposition to luxury developers displacing local residents and small business owners in neighborhoods like Flushing, Long Island City and Sunnyside," stated John Choe, candidate for City Council in District 20. "I'm proud to have fought side by side with Jimmy for affordable housing, good jobs, public transit, libraries and the arts as well as fighting for the human rights of all, including immigrants, people of color, and lesbian, gay and transgender New Yorkers. I know Jimmy Van Bramer has the courage and commitment to continue this fight at Borough Hall and wholeheartedly endorse his campaign to become our next Queens Borough President.”

Choe is a longtime community activist and business leader who led efforts to enact the City's first language access bill, secure $1.5 million for small businesses, fought against gentrification and luxury development— such as the Special Flushing Waterfront District—and advocated for transportation improvements to reduce congestion and improve street safety in District 20.

Choe was born in South Korea and immigrated to New York as a teenager. His father was a North Korean refugee and Vietnam War veteran who worked as a mechanic. His mother was from South Korea and worked as a seamstress. Like many immigrant families in District 20, Choe's parents worked hard to earn a living and eventually started a grocery store. Choe attended the State University of New York, earned his Masters in Public Policy at University of Chicago, and became a post-graduate Fellow in Public Affairs at the Coro New York Leadership Center.

Choe has been a community activist since college. When then-Councilmember Julia Harrison scapegoated her Asian constituents in 1996, Choe organized protests in District 20 and City Hall. This experience led him to campaign for John Liu, who became the first Chinese American elected to the NYC Council in 2001. John served as Councilmember Liu’s Legislative Director and Chief of Staff, organizing campaigns against social injustice and spearheading landmark legislation, including New York’s first language access law.

Choe founded the Flushing Interfaith Council in 2007 and launched the One Flushing project in 2010, creating a coalition of community members to solve common issues in Flushing. In 2014, Choe transformed the One Flushing project into the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, which continues to foster economic prosperity by supporting small business owners. When the Chamber joined the Flushing for Equitable Development & Urban Planning (FEDUP) Coalition, Choe organized alongside other community advocates against gentrification. Today, he continues to fight for residents and small business owners being displaced by skyrocketing rents and luxury developers. Choe has also taught as an adjunct professor at Queens College.

Choe stepped up to run for elected office in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated issues in District 20. Many long-time small businesses have shuttered. Thousands of people line up in the streets of downtown Flushing every week for food. Anti-Asian hate crimes are rising and City government has done little or nothing to help. As the next Council Member to represent District 20 at City Hall, Choe looks forward to provide strong, visionary leadership, reform our government, and restore power to the everyday New Yorkers who live and work in District 20. For more information about Choe's campaign, visit www.johnchoe.nyc.