Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates: Gigi Li
By: Morgan Pryor
Tags: City Council, NYC, Local Elections, City, Meet The Candidates

Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates: Gigi Li

Li was among several District 1 candidates to share their platform at a forum hosted by NYU College Democrats ahead of the June 22 election. Morgan Pryor Follow Apr 20 · 5 min read

Graphic by author.

HJJ NYU College Democrats hosted a Zoom forum with City Council District 1 candidates in March, which included seven of those in the running for the district’s soon-to-be-open seat — Susan Lee, Sean Hayes, Gigi Li, Jenny Low, Christopher Marte, Denny Salas, and Tiffany Winbush.

This year’s primary election, which will take place on June 22, is especially noteworthy; 35 out of 51 Council seats are open due to members terming out or not running for reelection. As a result, over 300 candidates are vying for seats across the city.

There are ten candidates in the running for District 1, according to a map by THE CITY, which was last updated March 9. Not in attendance at the forum were Maud Maron — who RSVP’d but cited a family emergency as her reason for cancellation earlier that day, according to an email sent to NYU College Democrats — Jacqueline Gross, and Susan Damplo.

Top row, from left to right: NYU College Democrat Policy and Communications Director Mikey Lampel, Candidate Denny Salas, and Candidate Gigi Li. Middle row: Candidates Jenny Low, Christopher Marte, and Sean Hayes. Bottom row: Candidate Susan Lee, Candidate Tiffany Winbush, and NYU Dems member Aaron Stein.

One of the candidates in the running for District 1, which includes most of Lower Manhattan up to Washington Square Park, will take the place of current Democratic incumbent Margaret Chin, who has represented the district since 2010.

“The City Council controls many issues that have a profound impact on New Yorkers’ lives,” said moderator Mikey Lampel, NYU College Democrats’ Policy and Communications Director and a CAS senior studying Environmental Studies and Public Policy.

NYU Democrats members had several questions prepared; some could only be answered with a yes or no and others allowed for a minute-long response. Today’s installment of “Meet The NYC City Council District 1 Candidates” will focus on Gigi Li and her stance on the city issues brought up during the forum.

Li, who has been endorsed by NYU Democrats as well as Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, immigrated from Hong Kong at a young age with her family, who ran small businesses. After graduating from Smith College, Li served as a counselor for domestic violence victims at Womankind. She received a Master’s in Social work from Columbia, worked at the Neighborhood Family Services Coalition for ten years, and was appointed to Community Board 3 in 2009. She’s served as Chief of Staff to Margaret Chin for the past two years.

Pandemic recovery

Li said that first, it’s important that the next Council member works with federal and state officials to ensure that the relief funds coming from D.C. fund what they are supposed to.

She added that when it comes to small businesses, NYC needs to make sure that the money goes to local community development organizations “that are accessible, that speak the languages that our small business owners speak,” because “a lot of these small businesses are not going to be able to be filling out tons of paperwork” and reporting for PPP loans.

Housing and the SoHo/NoHo proposal

“The top line here is that it is a housing equity issue,” Li said about the SoHo/NoHo rezoning, which would which add about 3,200 apartments to the two wealthy neighborhoods.

Li supports the plan, adding that she believes it would make a difference for families with children to have access to the schools and resources of the area. “Rezonings where there are new affordable housing being built should not be relegated to low-income communities of color,” she said. “This proposal will allow those families to really benefit and it could potentially change lots of people’s lives.”

Criminal justice reform and closing down Rikers Island

Li, who supports the closing of Rikers, said that though she supports the borough-based jail plan, which would replace Rikers with four borough-based jails by 2026, does not support the plans moving forward to build a jail in Chinatown.

“I think that we need to reinvest in alternative to incarceration programs,” Li said. “We need to think about ways to end the school to prison pipeline, which includes investing in youth programs.” She added that money should go towards over-policed, low-income communities of color to make sure there is “diversion and support for individuals to stop the criminal justice trends.”

Bike routes, bus lanes, and open streets

Li noted that she supports congestion pricing, which adds a surcharge for vehicles during peak in-demand hours, but she thinks that there needs to be some tweaks for Lower Manhattan residents because “a lot of the congestion coming from SoHo/NoHo are tourists and visitors.”

“There needs to be congestion pricing and at the same time, we really need to invest in our public transportation infrastructure,” Li said, adding that she supports adding bike lines and making them go east to west as well as north to south.

NYC schools and desegregation

Li said that she believes in integrating the NYC public school system, and continuing the Gifted and Talented program. “There has not yet been an alternative [test]… that makes sense,” she said.

While Li does support the High School Admissions Test, she also supports “comprehensive reforms in that regard, including increasing the number of schools and adding more criteria so that it is not a one-test, high-stakes situation that determines which school you can and cannot go to.”

Supports reducing the NYPD’s annual budget and shrinking the scope of its work? Yes.

Supports the City Council’s use of member deference for land use decisions? (With member deference, a Council member decides whether or not to vote yes or no on a proposal in their district and the rest of City Council follows.): Yes.

Supports staff unionization? Yes.

Supports the establishment of the 10 Wooster Street homeless shelter? Yes.