GreenLine: The E-Newsletter of the Green Party

GREEN SPOTLIGHT: Joyce Chen, Alderwoman, New Haven, CT

Right Chemistry to Represent

When Joyce Chen was a sophomore at Yale, a friend encouraged her to run for Alderman. At that time, Chen was a chemistry major with dreams of going to medical school, becoming a doctor and starting a neighborhood clinic. In some ways, her dream is coming true, but in a different way than she first envisioned. Now in her second term as Alderwoman, Chen has been improving the health of her community the old-fashioned way - listening to her constituents and finding the right cure for their concerns. Chen is busy addressing the real issues that they care about most.

Before winning her first election, and still a student at Yale, Joyce worked with the homeless and helped start a community center called "Harmony Place." Harmony place, which serves the homeless community, is jointly run by students, people who are homeless and other members of the community.

By the time she was a senior, her friend's words reverberated in Chen's mind, and she decided to explore the possibility of running for Alderman, a city-council type position in which the elected official represents a city ward. Chen represents New Haven, Connecticut's Ward 2G, a diverse neighborhood that is predominantly African American and Latino, with approximately 1500 voters. Acting on the advice of a former Alderman, Chen knocked on doors in Dwight neighborhood, speaking with the people and trying to gauge the need for her service. Seeing an obvious need, Chen decided to run and spent most of her campaign time visiting with people in her ward and listening to their concerns. The Democrat incumbent, perhaps feeling a sense of entitlement to her post, was no longer in touch with most members of her community. Chen, who knew many of her constituents by name, won the election with 55% of the vote.

"As a little girl I watched my mother's struggle for survival in Harlem: a single woman getting no alimony, an Asian in an unfamiliar culture, working late hours to put food on the table. This hardship only fueled my desire to serve the most needy, throughout high school and then at Yale University, where I embraced the New Haven community as my own. When I decided to run for Ward 2 Alderwoman, nobody believed I had any chance of winning: a 22-year old novice to political campaigns, an Asian-American in a primarily African-American Ward, a Green Party candidate in a city dominated by the Democratic machine. I did not let these hardships stop me. I went out and knocked on a thousand doors. I truly listened to my neighbors and I have not stopped fighting for them since."

During the next election two years later, the Democrat machine brought in another candidate to run against Chen. Spending approximately $25,000 (as though it were an assembly race), the powerful machine and its candidate lost the race to Chen, who spent about $1,500 and won 60% of the vote once again.

Chen is pleased with many of her achievements as Alderwoman. She has a shared experience with many other elected Greens across the nation. "A lot of what we do is keep things from happening," she said, referring to fact that elected Greens often find themselves fighting against policies that have torn apart communities, taken away jobs and further disenfranchised the poor. On Howe Street, a former haven for prostitution, small business owners had transformed the area into a thriving district with ethnic grocery stores, restaurants and cafes filled with students. Then suddenly all this effort seemed for naught, when the mayor decided to tear down the Howe Street section to build a school. While Chen was not opposed to building a school, she felt there were much more suitable places for one. She felt it didn't make sense to destroy this thriving section of town. Chen helped negotiate with the mayor to find a better location for the school and Howe Street was rescued from the wrecking ball.
Now, Chen wants to represent her constituents and the Green Party values in the Connecticut General Assembly. Joyce Chen is taking the Green Party agenda door-to-door in an unprecedented grass-roots effort.

"As Alderwoman, I fought for environmental justice, championed the cause of labor unions, created a commission on slavery reparations, established programs to combat street violence, and promoted public and alternative forms of transportation. In 2004, I won my re-election bid and rose to my position as Minority Leader. Now I want to bring grassroots democracy to the state level."
For more information about Joyce Chen's campaign, visit www.votejoycechen.com.