{"id":4928,"date":"2009-11-06T02:11:44","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T02:11:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-11-06T03:11:44","modified_gmt":"2009-11-06T03:11:44","slug":"Ethnic-Landscape-changes--Whites-the-Minority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=4928","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Landscape changes – Whites the Minority"},"content":{"rendered":"

A historic win for a black woman on Staten Island and a Chinese-American woman in Chinatown have helped make a little more election history \u2014 for the first time, people of color will hold the majority of seats on the New York City Council.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When newly elected members take office in January, the 51-person council will have 27 members of color, accounting for slightly more than 50 percent.
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The shift reflects demographic change citywide. Non-Hispanic whites make up 35 percent of the population, while Hispanics are 28 percent, non-Hispanic blacks are at 24 percent, and non-Hispanic Asians at 12 percent<\/strong>, according to Census estimates.<\/p>\n

"The fact that the City Council is resembling more the racial and ethnic makeup of the city is a positive development," said Carlos Vargas-Ramos, a researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. "Now we have to see what they do on policy."<\/p>\n

In the current session, members of the Black, Latino and Asian caucus hold 24 seats<\/strong>; it had been 25 until one member resigned from the council in July.<\/p>\n

After Tuesday’s election, those 25 seats will continue to be held by people of color, either incumbents or newly elected people of color replacing them.<\/p>\n

Pushing the minorities into the majority, will be Margaret Chin, the first Chinese-American elected to represent Chinatown<\/strong>, and Debi Rose, the first African-American ever elected on Staten Island.<\/p>\n

Both will be filling seats that were previously held by white men.<\/p>\n

"It’s an indication that democracy is getting better,"<\/em> said John Liu, the first Asian American on the council and now as comptroller-elect, the first Asian American to be voted into citywide office.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

"When the high level offices in government are filled by people of different faces, it’s good for everybody."
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

But merely having a majority of people of color on the council doesn’t automatically mean changes, Vargos-Ramos said, pointing out that a lot of power in concentrated in the hands of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

"You still have a very powerful mayor, that is not going to change," he said. "This is a mayor who is very good at getting his way."<\/p>\n

Councilmember Charles Barron said the important step would be getting minority councilmembers into positions of leadership on important committees like finance and land use, and into positions like Council Speaker.<\/p>\n

"I’m saying while the demographics have changed, so should the power equation change," he said.<\/p>\n

"New York City is now majority people of color," Barron said, but "unless there are policy changes, budget priority changes, power position changes, it’s just numbers."<\/p>\n

"The hope is we’ll be able to eventually affect the legislation so that people feel that it is much more representative of the city."<\/p>\n

Chin agreed, saying "I think it will be more reflective of the whole city and the concerns of the various communities across the city will have a voice."<\/p>\n

Source Associated Press<\/em>
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\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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