Iwen Chu – Part of the Current Political Machine – You Won’t Receive More Representation
Iwen Chu is running for the new senate district that was just announced last week – seen in the map below. (Find out if your address is in the new district here)
This woman is a staffer to Peter Abbate and she uses the name, Irene. I have never seen her use the name Iwen (that must be an “election thing.”)
The Democrats used redistricting to super gerrymander Brooklyn for Andrew Gounardes. His area is shown in yellow in the map below.
An “Asian district” was made so you don’t notice the ridiculous gerrymandering that is being done. People in Brooklyn should not be divided by ethnicity in 2022.
If Democrats cared about Asian people, they would not have split Chinatown into different district. They would want Chinatown to be one district that has a strong voice in government! The Asian people asked for Chinatown not to be split and Democrats like Andrew Gounardes did not care. (See here)
Everyone should have a seat at the table. We don’t need white men forcing “an Asian District” on Brooklyn and pretending they are “helping” when they are just hiding the severe gerrymandering. A leader who is Asian or any ethnicity should be able to lead in ANY area of Brooklyn that they want.
Gerrymandering is undemocratic. Racial Gerrymandering should be unconstitutional. (See here) Both Senator Andrew Gounardes and Peter Abbate should have spoken out against gerrymandering as the Republicans did the same thing to Brooklyn years ago.
Ironically, this newly formed area voted overwhelmingly more for Trump over Biden. That’s how they will silence Republicans.
Irene Chu knows that Brooklyn was gerrymandered under the Republicans to benefit Andrew Gounardes. No district lines should look like this:
As the head of the Stars and Stripes Political Club, we should have heard Irene speak out against continuing gerrymandering in Brooklyn because it is undemocratic, but Irene has been silent.
Irene Chu didn’t criticize the redistricting plan because she is looking to make a career move. She knows her boss, Peter Abbate, didn’t share the new district lines with the community.
Kathy Hochul signed the new districts into law on February 2nd. Irene Chu had already purchased the domain http://iwenchu.com on January 31st.
Irene put up a website (see here) for a position that most people didn’t know was created. That’s a sign she is part of the existing machine.
Chu was chosen by a group of male politicians because she is an echo for them. Irene Chu has never called out any of these politicians for their lack of help towards the Asian community or for the corruption we have seen from some.
We noticed that Irene Chu didn’t mention working for Peter Abbate on her site. On See Through NY’s site, Chu, I Wen has worked for Abbate since 2013. She has been the Chief of Staff since 2019. (See here)
In 2018, while working for Abbate, Chu went on social media to speak out against Mayor de Blasio cancelling afterschool one day due to a snowstorm. Instead of Irene asking her boss, Assemblyman Abbate to call the Mayor, she put a message to Justin Brannan on social media. Why didn’t Irene call Brannan since she personally knows him!
All The Times Irene Chu was Silent:
1) Garbage cans were removed from Fort Hamilton Parkway – why didn’t Peter Abbate and Iwen Chu have the service restores. Businesses on Fort Hamilton Parkway are suffering because they are getting tickets for garbage flying around. This is blocks from Assemblyman Abbate’s office. (See here)
2) Lobbyists have been behind the red light cameras. In 2018, Irene Chu wrote online that she wanted the red light cameras for safety.
When more red light cameras were added to our area, Justin Brannan was lobbied. (Information) In July 2021, the newspaper revealed that speed cameras caught Councilman Brannan speeding 16 times. Speed cameras have many repeat offenders that no one wants to talk about. Irene Chu was silent. Irene never spoke out or told the media that Brannan made Brooklyn less safe. (See here)
3) In August 2021, when a child was killed in Dyker Heights, Peter Abbate told the newspaper that a traffic light at that location was not enough. Yet, he didn’t do anything to remedy the street. This accident was just a few blocks from Abbate’s office. When Abbate didn’t take action, why didn’t Chu call for action from other politicians or the community? (See here) Andrew Gounardes also represents the area and each time someone dies, he says he is heartbroken and does nothing. Today was no different:
4) Senator Andrew Gounardes failed to do the right thing in landmarking Angel Guardian home, the developers were bold and they took down part of the building before it could be seen by the NYC landmarking commission. The commissioner noted this in his video. Both Gounardes and Brannan accepted donations from the developer, Irene Chu didn’t speak out against it. (See here)
5) Irene Chu stood with Justin Brannan as he ran for re-election, even though a large portion of the district voted against him:
On social media, Justin Brannan was asked about defunding the police and he responded, “Ya, I am in.” (See here) While the NYC Council budget didn’t go as far as defunding the NYPD by a billion dollars, as liberals wanted, the term “defunding the police” was harmful to NYC. During the NYC Speaker debate, Brannan and other candidates were question by Errol Louis on Channel 1 about the NYPD’s budget being cut. (See here)
6) Irene Chu shows up to events as a political staffer, she is not a passionate leader for Brooklyn. When an Asian grandmother was set on fire, not one politician rallied in Brooklyn. A rapper named China Mac came to Brooklyn because politicians failed to speak out. Why didn’t Irene rally any of the politicians who seek support from the Stars and Stripes Club? (See here)
7) A homeless shelter was proposed for 65th Street and 7th Avenue: When business owners on 65th Street and 7th Avenue banned together, Stephanie Wong spoke loud and clear! Stephanie Wong should be running for this position because she is a passionate voice for people. (See here) Irene Chu was a translator but she didn’t do what Stephanie Wong did. See the video
8) Irene Chu supports students taking the SHSAT for high school and is leading with that as a reason to vote for for her. Why didn’t Irene Chu tell the community which politician flip-flopped on the SHSAT? One politician’s staffer even spoke out against parents who were for the SHSAT.
When the vote came out for politicians who supported closing Riker’s Island, Irene Chu shared the votes on social media. Those in blue voted to close Rikers and put the jails in communities.
Why didn’t Irene Chu share the information about which politicians were not supporting the SHSAT for admission into high schools, if that topic was important to her?
9) This Summer, there was a serious storm and 13 people in Queens drowned in their basement apartments. (See here) NYC did nothing to remedy that situation, although they do know of an adjustment that can be done on the basement apartments. Justin Brannan headed the NYC Council Committee for Resiliency and didn’t do anything to stop this from happening in the future. Abbate and Irene didn’t take action for residents in Brooklyn! The Times reported there have been over 8,000 reports of potentially illegal converted homes so far this year.
10) Property taxes are a big issue for many people in the new senate district, yet Irene Chu has one line on her website. Her boss could have passed legislation in Albany by now, but he hasn’t done anything. We have never heard Abbate or Irene speak out for home owners in Brooklyn.
Finally, the thing that stands out the most about Irene is that in March 2020, right before the coronavirus became known to the general population, Irene went with politicians to Park Asia Restaurant on 8th Avenue. (See photo) The Brooklyn politicians claimed they were “Team Dimsum” and that people in our area were discriminating against Asian restaurants. The reality was that Asians in Brooklyn were not eating out at the restaurants because they heard how deadly the coronavirus was from their relatives overseas and they were afraid of dying.
Senator Gounardes wrote the text below because he didn’t understand what was going on. Why didn’t Chu tell him what was happening? There is hate towards Asians, but this was not it.
Hate crimes against Asians increased more than three times from 2020-2021. See article Why didn’t Assemblyman Abbate take action? Why didn’t Irene Chu ask Senator Andrew Gounrades to do something to support the Asian Community? He tweets, but that’s about it!
Hopefully someone with passion for the community will run for this new senate seat! Be someone who can speak out against hate loud and clear.
We hope there are other Democrats and Republicans running for this seat because Chu is an echo of existing politicians. (Let’s hope there are!) The current politician’s plans aren’t working and they aren’t changing course either!
Hugs,
marlene
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
February 27th, 2022 at 9:42 pm
I went searching to do some research on Irene and this comic sans blog was the best investigative local journalism I have ever seen. This is really good work.
I can’t stand machine politics. Stagnant public servants are a stain on democracy regardless of which party. (I’m saying this as someone who votes Blue about 75% of the time).
February 28th, 2022 at 12:09 am
I’ve been following local politics for over ten years. I wish Irene was an outspoken women who fought for the community, but sadly she is someone who is benefitting from super gerrymandering in Brooklyn.