Meet Shekar
Shekar Krishnan is the NYC Council Member for District 25, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Woodside, Queens, the most diverse immigrant communities in the world
He is the first Indian-American ever elected to the City Council in NYC history. As Chair of the Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation, Shekar negotiated the highest budget ever for NYC Parks. He has approached access to parks and green space as a matter of social, racial, and immigrant justice.
Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Woodside are home to thousands of essential workers—many of whom are immigrants—who carried this city forward during the pandemic and continue to keep our City running. Shekar has been a champion for them, fighting to: protect our taxi workers, invest in public hospitals like Elmhurst Hospital, treat housing as a human right, end the practice of solitary confinement at Rikers Island; and expand public space for neighborhoods like our own that lack it.
In his first 18 months, Shekar has made transformative investments in our health, our safety, and our public spaces, from a new infectious disease clinic at Elmhurst Hospital to safe play streets in front of five public schools to Jackson Heights’ first public dog run. He has also uplifted every member of our diverse community, funding Drag Story Hour and LGBTQ+ services in the face of persistent hate while renaming two streets to celebrate our immigrant heritage: Little Thailand Way and Bangladesh Street.
Before his election to City Council, Shekar was a long-time community activist in Queens and a civil rights lawyer fighting housing discrimination. He co-founded the housing legal services organization Communities Resist.
Shekar is the son of immigrants from South India who made enormous sacrifices and worked tirelessly to build a life for their family in this country. He is also a father of two young children and husband to Zoe, an immigration public defender and reproductive justice advocate.
OUR FIGHT & OUR WINS
Now is the time for bold, inclusive change which both roots out corruption in politics and puts power in the hands of the people, especially our workers, our immigrants, and our families. See our goals and what we’ve achieved.
Shekar has spent years fighting alongside our community as an advocate and parent. He has organized with his neighbors around a number of critical community initiatives, including:
- educating immigrant tenants on their housing rights;
- fighting for racial justice and dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline;
- coordinating the collection and delivery of PPE directly to the frontline workers at Elmhurst Hospital at the height of the pandemic;
- standing with the LGBTQIA+ community to root out hate and intolerance;
- advocating for safer streets for children and seniors;
- demanding far more public school funding; and
- mobilizing to protect and expand vital park space in Jackson Heights.
