Week In Review: Standing Against Anti-Asian Hate Crimes, Five Borough NY Recovery Tour, and Policies To Overcome The COVID Crisis

THE CITY [2/26]

Andrew Yang to the Rescue: Mayoral Candidate Helps Photographer Attacked on Staten Island Ferry The man appeared to recognize Yang and became less aggressive as they chatted — and said towards the end of their exchange that he’s supportive of his candidacy.  “I’m really grateful that he became less aggressive upon seeing me. I had no certainty that he would know who I was, I just thought of myself as a bystander trying to defuse the situation,” Yang said.

CNN interview after the Asian American Federation Rise Up Against Asian Hate Rally [2/27]

“You’re a father. Everyone is getting set to go back to school, how worried are you about what kids may experience as a result of this rise in violence against Asian Americans?” “I think kids will have a very distinct version of this, where we know kids can be unmindful and sometimes very mean. So we have to do everything we can to let our children know that treating someone differently on the basis of their race is wrong, it’s very destructive, and it’s going to send a really, really difficult message to a lot of Asian kids who are heading back to school that if they feel they are somehow having the coronavirus or pandemic attributed to people of Asian descent, it’s not the kind of lesson you want a child to learn.” - Andrew Yang.

Fox 5 Good Day NY Interview [2/23] “Your numbers are soaring, that has to make you feel good.” - Rosanna Scotto  

Vanity Fair on Mayor’s Race [2/24] Yang’s unlikely celebrity was on display as he stumped in Harlem on the morning of February 17. “We love you, Andrew Yang!” a driver shouted from the open window of an orange juice delivery truck rumbling down 125th Street. A few minutes later a high school student nervously sidled up to Yang. “I’m only 16, but when I can vote, you have my vote,” he said.  

Daily News [2/22]

Op-ed: Safety first: Andrew Yang’s blueprint for a NYC crime turnaround [L]ike I called for over a week ago, we need more police on our subways. But now that the city and MTA have agreed to do that, we need to be strategic about how we deploy them. Patrolling platforms is one thing, keeping transit hubs safe overall is another. Women have been attacked not just in subway stations, but near them. CBS This Morning [2/25] "WE ARE NOT A VIRUS": As hate crimes rise against Asian Americans, members of the #AAPI community share their experiences with racism during the pandemic and why it's important to speak up against hate. “People have been assaulted, beaten, stabbed in public for no other reason than they are of Asian descent.” - Andrew Yang

Slate [2/26] In Charge and Online: Meet the mayors who spend all day on Twitter Being terminally offline gave de Blasio cover to ignore widely shared videos of police violence last summer. It is hard to imagine Andrew Yang getting away with “I have not seen the video.” He reads the replies.”

Vanity Fair Interview [2/22] "You’ve said that you want a civilian commissioner to lead the NYPD. How else would you rein in police officers?” “...And one thing that I’m very happy to say that it seems like people have caught onto is that we should have new police officers live in the city, preferably in the communities that they’ll be policing. This is something that actually applies to other city employees, and I think most people would agree that having policemen understand the communities that they’re serving and protecting would be even more important than having another city employee that lives in the city.”

Newsweek [2/23] Andrew Yang Wants to Repurpose Underused Hotels to Help Homeless "We should be repurposing under-utilized hotel properties right now. In some cases, the city is actually paying a nightly rate, which doesn't make sense. We should be repurposing some of those properties as affordable housing as quickly as possible," the Democratic candidate said.