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Queens lawmaker, activists promote legislation
to tackle gun violence in Queensbridge Houses
BY BILL PARRY
Council members Nantasha
Williams and Linda
Lee were elected to serve as
co-chairs of the Queens delegation
to the City Council by
their colleagues.
The duo will replace former
Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz,
who chaired the delegation
from 2015 to 2021, when she was
term-limited out of office.
The new leadership team
will lead the delegation’s budget
negotiations during the
city’s discretionary budget
process for Fiscal Year 2023.
Under Koslowitz last year, the
delegation helped secure more
than $20 million in funding
for capital projects across the
borough.
The Queens delegation secured
and distributed $540,000
last year in discretionary
funding to various nonprofit,
community-based organizations
as part of the city’s Boroughwide
Needs Initiative,
which provided funds for
neighborhood beautification
and sanitation projects, entrepreneurial
and technological
training programs and educational
programs for Queens
schools. The delegation also
allocated $1.1 million to more
than 50 organizations to support
individual food pantry
programs.
Williams and Lee were
elected in November and said
they were proud to serve as
co-chairs of the delegation.Lee
represents the 23rd District in
Eastern Queens and she was
recently appointed as chair of
TIMESLEDGER | Q 18 NS.COM | FEB. 18 - FEB. 24, 2022
the Council’s Committee on
Mental Health, Addictions and
Disabilities. Prior to becoming
the first Korean-American
ever elected to the City Council,
Lee served as the president and
CEO of Korean Community
Services.
“In Queens, we find
strength in our unity and our
diversity,” Lee said. “Throughout
the borough, we have so
many different communities,
priorities and needs, yet we recognize
that we can only achieve
these things by working together.
As co-chair of this delegation,
I promise to lead with
fairness, open-mindedness and
equity for all, and will cherish
the trust placed in me by my
colleagues.”
Williams represents District
27 in southeast Queens
and was appointed chair of the
Committee on Civil and Human
Rights. She also served as
a leader for the SEQ Wellness
Ambassador Initiative, leading
her team during the first wave
of COVID-19 to provide wellness
checks in lieu of senior
center closures. Williams also
served as the project manager
for M/WBE Compliance and
helped initiate community outreach
efforts for the JFK Redevelopment
Program.
“Working together will
strengthen our distinct bonds
and showcase the importance
of partnership and diversity
presented in our districts,”
Williams said. “I believe in an
equitable distribution of funds
for all districts and finding
common ground within the
delegation while respecting
our differences and respective
decisions. I am committed
to collaboration to help bring
change to our communities
and eager to foster relationships
with my colleagues in
government as co-chair of the
Queens delegation.”
BY JULIA MORO
Queens leaders and activists
joined together at the
Queensbridge Houses in Long
Island City on Thursday, Feb.
10, to discuss the dire need to
get guns out of the neighborhood,
just one week after President
Joe Biden visited the
district to hear from residents
and local leaders on how they
are combating gun violence.
During the press conference,
Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney spoke about a
package of bills she introduced
last year focused on gun safety.
On Jan. 28, Maloney and Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand re-introduced
bills geared towards
gun trafficking and purchasing
illegal firearms.
Maloney stressed that the
time to act on this issue is now,
with a president who is willing
to sign off on drastic gun
control legislation and a democratic
majority in Congress.
Maloney invited Stephanie
Chauncey, a resident of the
Queensbridge Houses and an
activist, to speak about what
she sees on the ground in the
largest housing development
in the country.
“We cannot continue with
this lawlessness,” Chauncey
said. “This summer — it was
scary. When we come out of our
houses, you have no idea what
we’re going to have to face—
coming home from work and
not knowing if you’re going to
get home safe. It’s a crisis and
we’re facing it as a community
but we don’t know what to do.
We want to be safe. The gun
activity in this community has
become outrageous.”
Gun violence has increased
in the city, with 100 reported
shootings in January alone
and a 38.5% increase in nearly
all major crimes. According to
NYPD statistics, gun arrests
have drastically increased
from 2,952 arrests in 2018 to
over 4,000 in 2020.
Many of the illegal firearms
do not come from New
York City or even the state. The
“Iron Pipeline,” which many
politicians have blamed for the
gun violence crisis, describes
the route guns take from corrupt
sellers south of New York,
along the I-95 corridor. According
to the U.S. attorney general,
about 70 percent of likelytrafficked
guns recovered in
New York originated in Iron
Pipeline states like Pennsylvania,
Virginia, the Carolinas,
Georgia and Florida.
Maloney’s set of bills would
make trafficking guns a felony
and impose stricter penalties
for people who buy guns for
convicted felons and others
who are prohibited from buying
guns on their own.
“Trafficking and selling
thousands of illegal guns
should be a felony, not a slap
on the wrist,” Maloney said.
“I think it is a national scandal
that we have so many gun
deaths. We will be fighting and
working very hard to bring it
to the floor for a vote.”
Read more on
PoliticsNY.com.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney speaks about her package of bills
to combat gun violence. Photo by Julia Moro
CITY COUNCILWOMEN NANTASHA WILLIAMS AND LINDA LEE
Williams, Lee elected co-chairs of
Queens delegation to City Council
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