The 2024 Power of Diversity: Asian 100 | Council Korean Americans (CKA)

City & State presents the 2024 Power of Diversity: Asian 100 Lev Radin/VIEWpress

New York’s Asian American leaders.

As Asian Americans gain greater representation in government, it’s clear that the cohort is not a monolith. Brooklyn Assembly Member Lester Chang, who notched one of the most notable upsets in recent years, is a Republican. At the other end of the ideological spectrum is a fellow first-term Assembly member, Sarahana Shrestha, who also knocked out a longtime incumbent in the Hudson Valley in 2022. And one of the newest members of the New York City Council, Susan Zhuang, may be a Democrat, but she’s making a point of positioning herself right in the middle.

At the same time, Asian Americans winning elected office or assuming other positions of political power increasingly display a more diverse range of backgrounds and family nationalities. Following an early wave of Taiwanese Americans in electoral politics in New York, there have in recent years been a string of breakthrough candidates whose families arrived from other parts of Asia, including Southeast Asia, South Korea or the Philippines.

City & State’s Power of Diversity: Asian 100 list – researched and written in partnership with journalist Natasha Ishak – features the most influential leaders in government, businesses, advocacy and other sectors who are ensuring that Asian Americans have not just a voice, but many voices.

1. Meera Joshi & Maria Torres-Springer – New York City Deputy Mayors

As New York City deputy mayors, Meera Joshi and Maria Torres-Springer are navigating some of the most pressing and high-profile issues facing the city. Joshi, the nation’s former chief trucking regulator, oversees the city’s transportation, infrastructure and construction in her role as deputy mayor for operations. She is overseeing such projects as reimagining the Cross Bronx Expressway to address air pollution and community connectivity issues in the South Bronx and the future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which the city was just awarded federal funding for planning. Joshi recently joined the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is in the midst of a groundbreaking rollout of congestion pricing. Torres-Springer is in the thick of the debate over the city’s housing future, in her role handling economic development and housing. The deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce has been pressing state lawmakers to spur the creation of more housing to address the low vacancy rate. Torres-Springer also co-chairs a new Tenant Protection Cabinet created by Mayor Eric Adams to address tenant issues and coordinate tenant policy across city agencies.

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