Assemblymember Ron Kim welcomed Andrew Yang to his district on Friday in Flushing, and officially endorsed the candidate for mayor of New York City.
“He’s a leader of principle of character and a vision,” Kim said. “It is time for bold policies that center around New Yorkers closest to the pain and that’s why I’m proud to endorse Andrew’s policies.”
Yang visited NYCHA’s Bland Houses with Kim, where many residents were left without gas for months over the summer.
“No one should be living without heat in the 21st century in New York City,” Yang said. “There are resources we can activate to invest in these complexes to help make them safer, more modern, and make repairs that should have been made years ago.”
Kim and Yang followed this by a walking through La Jornada, Queen’s largest food pantry, where the mayoral candidate spoke about how it was designed to feed thousands, but “is now being asked to feed ten times that many.”
“That should not be the case in the richest city in the world,” Yang said. “We can do better than that.”
Kim also brought Yang to the site of where immigrant sex-worker Yang Song jumped to her death in 2018 after harassment by New York police officers.
“There are many people working as migrant workers in the sex industry that have been victimized and harassed,” Yang said. “We need to decriminalize sex work here in New York City to show a model for what the better approach is.”
Andrew Yang also called for sex work to be decriminalized in New York City today. pic.twitter.com/MjJpzz4Frw
— Jacob Henry (@jacobhenrylives) January 15, 2021
Kim said that he is endorsing Yang for mayor because the candidate is not just here for a photo, but to see the community’s real struggles, which have been made even worse due to the pandemic.
“Our poverty and pain cannot remain invisible to the top executive of our city,” Kim said. “I am proud to endorse Andrew Yang for mayor.”
Yang also spoke about how New Yorkers are frustrated with the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, and even wished that workers at the food pantry could be vaccinated.
“I wish that the protocols were more reflective of the situations and realities that people are facing everyday,” Yang said. “A lot of us want the state and the city to get on the same page. As mayor, I will be intent on working very closely to make sure that New Yorkers are not frustrated.
Throughout all this, the mayoral candidate was seen taking pictures and saying hello to dozens of Flushing residents who seemed excited about the prospect of having Yang running their city.
“We will alleviate extreme poverty in New York City and have a guaranteed minimum income,” Yang said. “that is my pledge as mayor. That was championed by Martin Luther King and many others. It is decades and generations overdue but we will make it happen.”
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Read more: Queens Ledger