8 FEBRUARY 6, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
New challenger emerges to fi ll Van
Bramer’s City Council seat in 2021
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
A third candidate has emerged to replace
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer when he
is term-limited in 2021.
Hailie Kim, 27, an adjunct professor of English
at Hunter College, filed her paperwork with the
Board of Election last Friday, and she hopes to
represent District 26 which includes Sunnyside,
Woodside, Long Island City and parts of Astoria.
“My family moved from Seoul, South Korea,
when I was six and I really loved growing up in
this neighborhood of Sunnyside Gardens,” Kim
said. “As a student at P.S. 150, I felt I couldn’t get
a better start and I went to high school in Astoria
at the Baccalaureate School for Global Education.
I have a real passion for education and as soon as
I received my U.S. citizenship I decided I would
run for office to make the schools in this district
even stronger.”
Kim joins civic leader Brent O’Leary and
Giselle Burgess, the co-founder of the first Girl
Scout Troop for homeless girls when she and her
children lived in a Long Island City shelter.
“I think both are incredibly good candidates
and it would be an honor to run against them,”
Kim said. “Brent and I share a passion for more
funding for education and doing something
about the escalating rents in Queens and Giselle
Burgess did an amazing thing and her story is
wonderful.”
Kim believes there is a place for her in the race
because of her immigrant experience. In fact, her
name would appear on the ballot as Heajin Kim,
her legal name.
“When I was 12, I got fed up with my teachers at
P.S. 150 mispronouncing my name so I changed it,
which a lot of immigrant students do,” Kim said.
“But when I was filing to become a citizen I didn’t
want to give up my name, officially.”
Kim does not own a car and has suffered with
other straphangers over the years before service
on the 7 subway line improved.
“There is much that needs to be fixed at the
MTA and in the meantime I want to stand up
for the Triboro rail line that would connect the
Bronx with Queens and Brooklyn,” Kim said.
“Like Councilman Costa Constantinides says all
the jobs are no longer just in Manhattan. Public
transportation that connects the outer borough
is more important than ever.”
Kim said she is interested in learning more
about the BQX streetcar line that would run along
the Queens and Brooklyn waterfront connecting
Astoria and Red Hook, Brooklyn.
“It is crucial that there are connections to
employment centers in Brooklyn and elsewhere
are very important,” Kim said. “But we must be
vigilant about displacement and gentrification
going forward.”
Also crucial is the lack of affordable housing
in Queens.
“Someone has to go up against the real estate
developers for the lack of affordable housing,”
Kim said. “I look at rent prices now and they are
simply not accessible. I remember when Queens
was all about the middle class. That is no longer
the case.”
She agreed with Van Bramer’s opposition to
Amazon building an HQ2 campus in Long Island
City.
“I understand people who talk about the 25,000
jobs, but there were no guarantees that they
would go to local residents and I didn’t agree
with the tax breaks the state and city were offering,”
Kim said. “In general, I would say Jimmy
Van Bramer accomplished a lot in improving our
neighborhoods, especially the number of schools
that have been built in the district as well as the
extensions to existing schools. But there are
things we can do better.”
Kim believes it’s great to fund new school construction
but it’s equally important to properly
fund them in the future.
“When I went to Baccalaureate we had a great
teacher that the school wanted to layoff. We
started a petition to keep him but in the end the
school couldn’t afford to keep him,” Kim recalled.
“And while we were laying off a great teacher, the
Frank Sinatra School was getting a huge beautiful
building. It’s nice to build schools but in the end
it’s about two people. The one being educated and
the one doing the educating. We have to keep that
in mind when we consider educational funding.”
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
For the past 70 years, the Rego
Park-Forest Hills Lions Club has
been dedicated to serving their
community’s issues and concerns.
The Rego Park-Forest Hills Lions
Club, established in 1949, is a local
chapter under Lions Club International,
the largest service club organization
in the world with more than
1.4 million members in more than
46,000 clubs worldwide in over 200
countries.
Founded in 1917, the International
Lions Club’s mission is to empower
volunteers to serve their communities,
meet humanitarian needs, encourage
peace and promote international understanding
through Lions Clubs.
Heidi Chain, president of the Rego
Park-Forest Hills Lions Club, takes
pride in the club’s eff orts to help others
in need.
“It’s marvelous, here’s a club that
has helped hundreds and thousands
of people,” Chain said.
In December, the club celebrated
70 years of service to the community
and has received proclamations from
local elected offi cials, including a
Declaration of Honor from Borough
President Melinda Katz. With a
rough estimate of at least 25 members,
Chain says they’re certainly looking
to welcome new members into the
club.
The Rego Park-Forest Hills Lions
Club fulfi lls its mission locally and
beyond, according to Chain, and with
more people, the more events they
can organize and provide assistance
to those seeking help.
Following the aftermath of Superstorm
Sandy in 2012, the club
distributed generators that were
transported down south from the
Carolinas, Chain said.
“Our club literally did a handoff and
drove the generators to a police facility,”
Chain said. “God forbid there is
a disaster, there are some necessity
items the Lions Club has and it’s another
way to bring needed resources
to New York City.”
Additionally, members and the club
donated supplies and monetary funds
to victims that were impacted by Hurricane
Dorian in September 2019.
Besides hurricane relief, the club
also organizes Forestdale children’s
events, toy drives, health safety fairs,
and diabetes awareness activities, in
collaboration with other organizations.
Last year, the club collected 800
donated eyeglasses.
By conducting vision screenings,
equipping hospitals and clinics,
distributing medicine and raising
awareness of eye disease, Lions work
toward the goal of providing vision
for all. Through the support of the
Lions Clubs International Foundation
(LCIF), Lions have helped provide
more than 153 million treatments for
river blindness and 72 million doses
of a sight-saving trachoma medication
through the SightFirst program
along its partners. Lions and LCIF
have also helped provide vision
screenings for more than 22 million
children through the Sight for Kids
partnership program.
The Rego Park-Forest Hills Lions
Club is inviting community members
to its next upcoming meeting at
Ridgewood Savings Bank located at
107-55 Queens Blvd., on Tuesday, Feb.
18, at 7:30 p.m. with special guest State
Senator Joseph Addabbo.
“We welcome people to hear about
us and to participate and become
members,” Chain said.
Sunnyside’s Hailie Kim fi led to run for Councilman
Jimmy Van Bramer’s seat. Courtesy of Hailie Kim
Rego Park-Forest Hills Lions Club empowers volunteers to serve their communities
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