About Jin “PJ” Kim

Why I’m Running

Lower Manhattan is the fastest growing residential area in NYC but government services have not kept pace.  The City continues to view much of Lower Manhattan as primarily a commercial, manufacturing, or tourist area.  As a result, we have not received our fair share of resources for schools, parks, public transit, affordable housing, and social services.  I am running for City Council to ensure that local government responds to the needs of Lower Manhattan’s residents, and not just its workers and its tourists.

I live in the Greenwich Street South neighborhood of the Financial District and served for two years on Community Board 1, with appointments on the Quality of Life Committee and the World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee. I see firsthand that government services and local politics have not kept pace with the tremendous changes in Lower Manhattan.

I have experience both in business and fighting for social justice.  I brought the lessons I’ve learned from the private sector to my work as a nonprofit executive, and I would bring all of my diverse work experience to serve you in government.

I believe the City Council needs a dose of progressive professionalism and reform.  The “slush fund” scandal and the undemocratic way that term limits were reversed have severely damaged the credibility of the entrenched political order.  It is time for new blood.

I hope you will join me:  Our new challenges demand new leadership to bring our diverse community together.

My Background

I am a first-generation immigrant from South Korea. When we moved to the US, my parents were graduate students, earning only $500 a month for five years. We lived in subsidized student housing and I ate free school breakfast and lunch. Even at a young age, I knew our poverty was only temporary because my parents’ education would lead to better opportunities. But I also knew that many of my classmates and friends were not so lucky.

Personally experiencing income inequality and seeing
its limiting effects on human potential
was a formative experience that I’ve never forgotten.

Education and Business Experience

I was fortunate to receive financial aid so that I could attend Princeton, where I studied public policy and eventually served as a Young Alumni Trustee.

After graduation, I moved to New York City and worked at McKinsey as a management consultant, helping to improve the impact of businesses and nonprofit organizations, such as Teach for America and St. John’s University’s campus at 101 Murray Street.

I left McKinsey to attend Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government to earn a joint MBA/MPA degree. Instead of returning to finance and the corporate world, I decided to enlist my passion for public service and business experience to expand economic opportunity for all New Yorkers.

Common-Sense Solutions to Poverty

I have spent the past few years helping to start and lead nonprofit anti-poverty programs that have helped tens of thousands of low-income residents in New York City and across the country to access public and private assistance, move out of economic crisis, and begin to build assets.

As Director of Income Policy at FoodChange, now part of the Food Bank of New York, I helped forge innovative partnerships between corporations, labor unions, foundations, community organizations, and local government to deliver tangible results. I led 200 employees and 400 volunteers across all 5 boroughs so that 43,000 low-income New Yorkers could stay out of poverty through almost $80 million in annual tax credits, and thousands of enrollments for subsidized health insurance, food stamps, free bank accounts, and free legal and financial counseling.

As Vice President of Programs and part of the start-up team at SingleStop USA, I helped replicate this “one-stop-shop” model throughout New York City and in San Francisco, New Mexico, and Newark.

I’m proud of my work to help families survive financial crisis and build assets because I believe that inequality of opportunity is a major threat to our shared future.

There is much work to be done to ensure that all of the families of Lower Manhattan have equal access to uncrowded public schools, clean parks, modern public transit, well-paying jobs, and vital social services.

I look forward to working together with you to move Lower Manhattan forward as a great place to live.