Community Rallies to Hold Councilmember Accountable in District 26

At a rally in Sunnyside's Bliss Plaza, community members tried to hold Councilmember Julie Won, representing New York City Council District 26, accountable for her broken campaign pledges, her disastrous Fiscal Year 2023 budget vote, and a long list of ethical violations and abuses.

Local residents and small business owners testified about concerns regarding Councilmember Won’s troubled record ahead of this year's Primary Election. Early voting is June 17-25. Election Day is Tuesday, June 27, 6am-9pm. For more information, visit vote.nyc.

Roque Rodriguez, a small business owner in Sunnyside, spoke emotionally about his own experiences with police brutality and his outrage when CM Won broke her pledge her commitment to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Won signed the “People's Budget” and Courage to Change PAC pledges in 2021 as a candidate and promised not to support any budget that increased the NYPD budget at the expense of social services. Once in office, she subsequently voted to fund a record high police budget that defunded schools by $469 million along with deep cuts to libraries, parks, housing, and other critical services needed in our community.

Thomas Muccioli, a union member with the Campaign Workers Guild, pointed to Councilwoman Won’s claims to be a proponent of workers rights after she repeatedly refused to support "The Secure Jobs Act," legislation introduced in the City Council and sponsored by nearly every member of the Progressive Caucus. It is endorsed by multiple progressive organizations (including Sunnyside Community Services). Muccioli also criticized Won’s claim that she is a proponent of tenants when she doesn’t show up for them. Muccioli specifically pointed to Won’s abandoning tenants in the Phipps Apartments, where Won lived before she became a Councilmember. After her election, Won quietly left the building and her promise to help the tenants.

Muccioli bore witness to Councilmember Won’s campaign manager (and husband) Eugene Nohand his history of toxic behavior, including multiple accounts of him harassing and abusing community members. Most recently, the NYCCouncilstaffer posted a video of him at Woodside on The Move’s Annual Street Fair showing him cursing at two minors (high school students) giving out election information. It is an open secret in the community that Won enables her husband’s public bullying. Muccioli called on Won to remove Eugene Noh as campaign manager to prevent further harm to the community.

Grace Frutos, a bilingual speech teacher in Sunnyside, spoke about the devastating impact of cuts to local schools, which directly resulted from Counilmember Julie Won’s vote for a Fiscal Year 2023 budget that defunded the Education Department by $469 million. Frutos also detailed how Councilmember Won is further supporting the school to prison pipeline.

“By pushing through the InnovationQNS deal, Councilmember Won introduced a Trojan Horse into our community. Luxury developers are holding the promise of affordable housing hostage and demanding Albany bring back the billions in taxpayers subsidies they enjoyed under 421(a). Won’s reckless deal will devastate neighborhoods across the city suffering from displacement by luxury developers,” stated John Choe, executive director of the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce. “I was also repulsed by Won’s cozying up to Yoon Suk-yeol, who led a homophobic, anti-woman and anti-labor movement to become South Korea’s new president. As a Korean American activist, it’s embarrassing to have to explain that Won does not represent our values or commitment to equality and justice for all.”

To close the rally Kayla Almanzar, a social worker in Sunnyside, facilitated a conversation with spectors around what they want to see in city council district 26.

A second community rally is planned for Saturday, 6/24 at 11am, in Lou Lodati Park, located at 43rd Street & Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside, Queens.