NYC Asian Americans: 12 percent of the population; 1 percent of city budget
On the 17th, Mayor Bloomberg will announce next year’s budget. The 12% and Growing Coalition, consisting of close to 40 Asian-American organizations, gathered in front of City Hall on February 16th to urge the Mayor to recognize that although Asians make up 12 percent of the New York City population, it gets less than 1 percent of the funding. They want Asian American organizations to get equitable funding, instead of a slashed budget.
Standing in front of City Hall, Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-District 1) pointed out that every year the City spends a large amount of money to hire outside consultants and vendors. These decisions need to be carefully looked at, she insisted, indicating possible savings could be used to support services in the community.
About 100 members from Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, and Pakistani organizations braved the chilly weather to attend the press conference, clamored for fairness and protested against budget cuts, affecting services for youths, women, immigrants, low-income residents, and the elderly. They held signs that read: “Protect the Elders;” “Protect the Youths;” “Support Women;” “Asians Demand Equitable Budget;” and “Protect Minority Communities.”
Chinatown Manpower Project vice-chair Stephanie Lau, Vanessa Leung, deputy director of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, and Steven Cho, from Minkwon Community Action Center, all pointed out that Asian Americans communities make up more than 1 million residents and are the fastest growing minority groups in the city; however, not even 1 percent of the city budget is allocated to their communities. Furthermore, they stated, Asian-related services were left out during the budget discussions. The groups worried that services needed in the Asian communities will again be sacrificed in Bloomberg’s next budget.
According to statistics provided by the 12% and Growing Coalition, in FY2011, the total giving of the speaker’s pot and City Council funding, which includes individual youth, aging and discretionary dollars, totaled close to $50 million, but Asian organizations only will receive $710,000. The Immigrant Opportunities Initiatives has a budget of $150 million, of which Asian organizations will receive $610,000.
Meanwhile, the needs of the communities are growing. According to Stephanie Lau, there are 200 people on the waitng list to take English language classes at the Chinatown Manpower Center and demand for other classes has increased by 25 percent. Yet, last year, its budget was cut by 15 percent and the level of funding for next year is uncertain. Other organizations are also worried about the budget. Wang Zhijie, of Second Community Committee, said that he is proposing that its members write to the City Council to request support proportional to the size of their communities.
By Echo Liu, World Journal, 17 February 2011. Translated from Chinese by Connie Yik Kong.