Rent protections for all New York State tenants.

Eliminate the Erstadt Law. Let local legislators who are more familiar with local housing problems, determine housing regulations.

Create zoning laws that retain the character of the neighborhood and protect landmark areas.

Encourage low-density, low impact, site-specific designs that encourage human-scale development and environmentally sensitive planning.

Eliminate vacancy increases.

End all privatizing of state-funded public housing, and Mitchell-Lama rent housing.

Flushing is being overdeveloped, and priced out of the reach of working-class and middle-class families. Apartments and homes in Flushing are among the highest in the boro. Rents are so high that the poorest workers are forced to live in houses and apartments illegally chopped up to provide little more than bed space. Families unable to pay rent increases are evicted and forced to live in homeless shelters, or to double up with relatives in spaces designed for one family. For many, it has become a challenge to pay rent and still have money to live on. Saving for the future becomes incredibly hard.

Middle-class families wishing to buy their first home are forced to look outside of Flushing. Small businesses find it hard to survive with skyrocketing rents, and are forced to close down. At the same time, however banks and brokerage houses are springing up on almost every corner. For them, housing is something only to be speculated on, another investment to turn a profit.

I believe affordable housing is a necessity to build a strong city. I want to put a moritorium on the zoning of high-priced high-rise co-ops and condos until we can build more affordable housing in Flushing. I want to increase the Section 8 housing program; end the attack on rent control, and build on-site Day Care Centers.

I want to eliminate the Erstadt Law so that housing regulations will be determined locally instead of in Albany. Eliminate vacancy increases, and make apartment improvements a temporary surcharge and not a permanent rent increase. I want to extend rent protections to all New York City tenants.

THE ENVIRONMENT:

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE:

I believe in a living wage. No one who works a full-time job, should remain at poverty level. Too many people work hard everyday and still find it impossible to support themselves or their families. Everyone deserves fair pay for their work and reasonable hours whether they are office workers, factory workers, restaurant workers, WEP workers or corporate professionals. I oppose the exploitation of sweatshop workers and believe they should be entitled to the same wages and benefits as other workers. They must be allowed to build strong unions and not "management's unions". I oppose the exploitation of professionals who are forced to carry beepers and cell-phones; work longer hours; work from home, and in many cases be "on-call" at all times. This overwork is negatively impacting family life. Many car accidents these days are not from driving drunk, but falling asleep at the wheel.

CRIME:

HEALTHCARE:

Personal health is also connected to the health of a community. Many easily communicable diseases such as tuberculosis are known to spread quickly among undernourished people living in overcrowded groupings.

The emotional stress of being jobless, underpaid or overworked, leads to health problems. Even those with the high-paying jobs we admire, are under incredible mental stress. Many carry a beeper and cell-phone, to be on call at all times, ready to work long overtime on a regular basis. Stress is being accepted as a normal part of living, when it is a killer. We must strengthen the unions, and workers rights, which will in turn improve the physical and mental health of our community.
Hunger leads to health problems. Polluted air leads to health problems. It is not enought to fund campaigns to tell schoolchildren to "use their asthma inhalers" without eliminating the causes of citywide pollution. Evergreen Chou wants to deal with health problems at their source. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

EDUCATION:

It is important to balance academics with real life skills. Internships and life credits in the community should begin in the ninth grade. Schools should provide academic training and vocational skills. A high school diploma alone does not prepare young people to be self-sufficent. Parenting skills should be part of any sex-education class.

I would like to see a recruitment program to encourage students of color to go into educational careers, so that the city's teachers are more reflective of today's student population. The curriculum also needs to be reflective of the communities the New York City public school system is serving, to help foster understanding and respect among students and teachers from different cultures.
In today's world, the ability to speak two-languages is not only a plus, but a necessity. I would like to see pilots for the Two-Way Immersion Education Program; where English-speaking students and students of another language BOTH study in a bilingual atmosphere.

I would like an investigation of why so many children, primarily Black and Latino boys, are being funnelled into Special Education, and why the numbers of school-children who are prescribed Ritalin are spriralling ever higher. If there really is a new epidemic; have any less toxic alternatives been studied? Why are so many of our children unable to cope, and are they being cured or merely sedated? How much of our children's behavior is a reaction to the environmental effects of poverty; substandard housing; communities where they do not feel secure and protected; and environmental and dietary toxic assaults?
I want to eliminate rBGH milk, fast foods, soda's and candy from the school system; and to provide nutritious, preservative and additive free food for our children. Vegetarian meals - not merely a peanut butter sandwich - should be available for the growing numbers of young people who wish a meatless diet. For many years, higher education in the CUNY system was free. The majority of our recent politicans received their education without paying. It should be free again. Politicians talk about education being the way to success; well it's time to make that education available to all. I would like to begin with tuition-free community colleges, the restoration of tuition-free education for our Senior Citizens, and the return of free remedial classes at our CUNY schools.

CREATING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY:

Our public schools can also serve as a place for community events and learning/training centers for residents of all ages. The creation of recreational centers for the very young, and Senior Centers for our Elders have been proven to benefit these two age groups. Evergreen Chou feels that it's time to move away from the artificial generation-gap designed to make us better consumers. The Elders, the youth, and those in the middle need a safe place to come together, to work, play and to share ideas on how to make Flushing a better place.

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