Corey Johnson (politician)
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Corey David Johnson (born April 28, 1982) is an American politician and lobbyist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Speaker of the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...
from January 2018 to January 2022. The third district includes Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, the
West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...
, as well as parts of Flatiron,
SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
, and the Upper West Side of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. He also concurrently served as Acting New York City Public Advocate for a few weeks in early 2019. Johnson was first elected to the council as the member for the 3rd district in 2013. At the time, Johnson was the first out gay man to serve as speaker, and the only openly HIV-positive politician in New York State. In 2019, Johnson announced he was running for
mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
, but he stopped fund-raising in March 2020, and in September 2020 withdrew from the race, saying he had had depression since May 2020 and did not think he could campaign and be effective as speaker while monitoring his mental health. He instead ran unsuccessfully for comptroller.


Early life

Johnson was born in
Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Sho ...
, and raised in nearby wealthy Middleton, by his mother, Ann Queenan Richardson (who worked at a variety of jobs, including at a thrift shop that she founded and manages), and his stepfather, Rodney Richardson, owner of Middleton Tire Service and a truck driver. Johnson's father, David Johnson, the son of an American father and a Korean mother, left the family when his son was very young. Johnson made national headlines in 2000 when, while co-captain of the Masconomet Regional High School football team, he publicly came out as gay. His story was reported by major national news outlets, including ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and '' 20/20''. He graduated from high school in 2000. In 2004, Johnson was diagnosed as HIV-positive. In 2009, he acknowledged to himself that he had been addicted to alcohol and
cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
for six years and had to stop, deciding to become sober.


Early career

Johnson spent less than one month at
George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
before dropping out. He then moved to New York City and engaged in
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...
activism. He was a contributor and eventually the political director of the
LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
blog Towleroad. In 2005, he joined Manhattan Community Board 4 (CB4). From 2008 to 2010, Johnson was the
government relations Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by various entities, in ...
director at GFI Development, a Manhattan-based real estate developer. He was elected chair of CB4 in 2011, becoming New York City's youngest community board chair at the time. The same year, ''
City & State ''City & State'' is a political journalism organization based in New York City. The company publishes a weekly magazine covering politics and government in New York City and New York State that is distributed to New York State legislators, co ...
'' profiled him as a "rising star" in New York City politics.


New York City Council

In 2013, Christine Quinn ran for mayor of New York City, as her term in the city council was expiring. Johnson, then chair of Community Board 4, ran to succeed Quinn in the 3rd district, and was elected in November 2013 with 86% of the vote. He took office in January 2014. Johnson's district includes all or part of the West Side neighborhoods of Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen,
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, west
SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
, Hudson Square, part of the Upper West Side,
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
, FlatIron, Hudson Yards, the Theater District, and the Garment District. The council elected him speaker in January 2018. He was the first out gay man to serve as speaker. At the time, Johnson was also the only openly HIV-positive politician in New York State.


Health

As chair of the council's Committee on Health, Johnson oversaw hearings on health issues such as the proliferation in the city of synthetic marijuana, also known as K2. Johnson's legislation to require transparency regarding health services administered at Rikers Island was signed into law in June 2015. In April 2016, Mayor
Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who was the List of mayors of New York City, 109th mayor of New York City, mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of t ...
signed into law Johnson's bill prohibiting the use of smokeless tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, at sports stadiums and arenas that host events that require a ticket for admission. The legislation effectively banned chewing tobacco from professional baseball in New York City. A similar ban had previously been enacted in San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
pitcher Andrew Miller noted: "It's a completely legal substance. It's available to purchase at any
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", and his teammate third baseman Chase Headley wondered, "How is it legal around town, around wherever else, but just at the ballpark it's not?"
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...
outfielder Curtis Granderson said, "The only question we have is, the guys who do it, how do they know what's going on? ... if a player accidentally chooses to do it, will he get a citation? Will we stop the game? And will the same thing happen to the fans in attendance? That hasn't been identified yet, so we're still waiting to hear that." In 2017 Johnson along with others occupied the offices in the U.S. Capitol of Senate Republicans to protest efforts to repeal the
Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
, and was arrested and zip-tied. During the protest, Johnson screamed: "'ACT UP!' 'Fight back!'". He later tweeted, "By occupying offices of Senate Republicans, we demand they cease attempts to strip health care from millions!" He was charged with "misdemeanor incommoding, a District of Columbia statute that prohibits demonstrations inside the Capitol complex."


Criminal justice reform

In August 2016, the City Council passed legislation introduced by Johnson and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to create a city office responsible for the coordination of social and healthcare services for ex-cons who have been released from the New York City Department of Correction system. In 2018, Johnson sponsored a new law requiring that inmates in New York City jails be provided with free telephone calls. At the time, poor inmates were already given three free calls per week, and sentenced inmates were given two free calls a week, but under the new law all inmate calls are free of charge. In May 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Johnson called for the New York Police Department to stop making low-level arrests. He also called for the police to stop executing bench warrants for failure to appear in court. Johnson supports making it legal for sex workers to provide sexual services, but not for their clients to be free from criminal prosecution. He supports the Defund the Police movement.


LGBT rights

In 2014 Johnson introduced legislation to remove surgical requirements for
transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
New Yorkers to change the gender on their birth certificates. The legislation passed the City Council in December 2014 and was adopted in January 2015. In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the
Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of ...
, sparking the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, ''
Queerty ''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay- and LGBTQ-oriented entertainment and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors. History ''Queerty'' was ...
'' named Johnson one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people". During the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, in 2020 a 68-bed field hospital was run by Samaritan's Purse and Mount Sinai Hospital in Central Park. Johnson spoke out against it, due to the evangelical Christian aid group's requirement that their employees commit to a statement of faith, including a traditional view of marriage and sexuality.• • • • • • The charity's CEO Franklin Graham said, "we have never asked any of the millions of people we have served to subscribe to anything. In other words, as a religious charity, while we lawfully hire staff who share our Christian beliefs, we do not discriminate in who we serve." The field hospital was dismantled in May 2020. It had treated over 300 patients. Mount Sinai eventually severed ties with the organization due to the protests against its participation.• •


Animal welfare

Johnson worked with Council member Elizabeth Crowley in 2014 to introduce a set of bills to regulate the sale of pets in New York City, with the purpose of animal rights protection. The bills regulate breeders, provide for the accounting of animals, and ensure that known animal abusers are unable to obtain animals. The legislation passed in December. The bills also banned the sale of rabbits, and required that pet shops spay or neuter dogs in their care. In 2015 Johnson introduced legislation mandating that either fire sprinklers or supervision be present in all establishments that house animals for more than 24 hours. In 2016, Johnson co-sponsored legislation by Council member Rosie Mendez to ban the use of wild animals and exotic animals in
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
es for public entertainment; the legislation exempted dog shows and camels for Manhattan's Radio City Christmas Spectacular. In October 2016 he held a hearing in the Health Committee and spoke in support of the legislation, saying to the media that "trucking wild animals in and out of the city strictly for entertainment purposes is not a humane way to be treating them". The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said that if the legislation passed, its circus would stop coming to New York City. In June 2017, Johnson chaired a meeting of the Health Committee that passed the bill by a vote of 7–0, and the full council passed the bill later in the month. Bill de Blasio signed the bill into law in July 2017. In 2019 Johnson urged the council to adopt a bill he introduced banning the sale of fur garments and fur accessories, with fines of up to $1,500 and forfeiture of money made from the sale. He said the fur industry was brutal, and received support from animal activists. But Black pastors and rapper Safaree staged protests, arguing that wearing fur is a sign of achievement in the Black community, and that Johnson's proposed ban elevated animals over Black lives and conflicted with centuries of cultural tradition. At the same time, Jewish Hasidic
rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
s, concerned with the elimination of hats made of fur known as shtreimels or spodiks that Hasids customarily wear on
Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...
and
Jewish holidays Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' (, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed by Jews throughout the Hebrew calendar.This article focuses on practices of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. ...
, said Johnson's proposed prohibition conflicted with centuries of religious tradition. ''
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'' wrote, "Johnson, who is eyeing a mayoral run ... cannot afford to draw the ire of those groups." Fur shop owners and garment manufacturers also expressed concern that such a prohibition would lead to the loss of jobs in New York City, the nation's largest fur retail market, with 150 fur businesses creating 1,100 to 7,500 jobs. The owner of one city fur company said, "There's a political agenda. If this ban happens, the leather industry will be attacked, the
meat industry The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is ...
will be attacked. There's a slippery slope. Are politicians going to tell us what to do, what to wear and what to eat? It's a little bigger than fur." Councilman
Chaim Deutsch Chaim M. Deutsch (born April 15, 1969) is an American politician who served as a New York City Council Member for the New York City's 48th City Council district, 48th district from 2014 to 2021. He is a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat. ...
echoed the sentiment, saying: "Once you start with one thing ... What is next? We can't eat chicken? We can't eat meat?" Larry Cowit, vice president of Madison Avenue Furs, mused: "There has to be a line, or we're all going to eat tofu and walk around in plastic sandals. Where does it end?" Similarly, ''
The New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in tabloid format, and rea ...
'' wrote in an editorial:


Women's issues

Johnson's first legislation to pass the City Council was a bill granting a presumption of eligibility for people transitioning from domestic violence shelters to Department of Homeless Services shelters. The bill allows these individuals to bypass extensive intake procedures they already underwent during their first shelter placement.


Education

Johnson introduced legislation with Council member Vanessa Gibson to require the NYC Department of Education to report on the use of disciplinary measures in public schools. The legislation passed in September 2015, and was signed into law the following month. Johnson later introduced legislation requiring the Department of Education to regularly report on student health services in public schools, to ensure that such services are adequately serving students. De Blasio signed the legislation into law in February 2016.


Rent regulation

Johnson was the prime sponsor of legislation declaring a housing shortage emergency in 2015, which allowed rent stabilization laws to be extended. On June 3, 2015, he and others occupied the offices of Republican senators in Albany in an act of civil disobedience while protesting for the extension of rent regulation and the reform of New York's rent laws, and he was arrested and handcuffed, charged with disorderly conduct, and given a desk warrant. Fifty-five protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance to Governor Andrew Cuomo's office, and Johnson said that a number of protesters occupied Senate office buildings, which he said "shows how much is on the line". It was Johnson's fourth arrest for civil disobedience.


Transportation

In May 2015, the City Council passed Johnson's legislation requiring all heavy-duty vehicles in New York City's fleet to be equipped with side-guards, devices meant to reduce casualties that large trucks at times cause to pedestrians and cyclists. In December 2018 Transportation Alternatives gave Johnson its first-ever Vision Zero Leader of the Year Award.


Labor

In response to a growing trend of hotel rooms being converted into luxury
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
s, Johnson introduced legislation to limit the number of condo conversions hotel owners can make. The legislation's goal was to protect jobs in the hotel industry. The City Council passed it in May 2015 and it was signed into law the next month.


Environment

In 2018 Johnson supported a ban on plastic straws. In 2019 he supported a five-cent fee on paper bags and banning styrofoam food containers.


Election history


2021 campaigns

In 2019, Johnson began accepting contributions for a potential run for
mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
. He stopped fund-raising in March 2020 and announced that he would not run in September 2020. He said he had had depression since May 2020, and did not think he could campaign and be effective as speaker while monitoring his mental health. In March 2021, he launched his run for the 2021 New York City Comptroller election, but lost the Democratic primary, 51.9%–48.1%, to Councilmember Brad Lander.


Lobbying


While holding public office

Johnson was a real-estate lobbyist or
government relations Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by various entities, in ...
director at GFI Development from 2008 to 2010. Anna Sanders reported Johnson received around a tenth of his mayoral campaign donations from "people who work for or serve hundreds of entities that have gotten millions in discretionary funds from the Council"; Johnson denied allegations of pay-to-play. Sanders and other sources mention other close ties to lobbyists, especially the Kasirer lobbying firm, as one of its vice presidents, Jason Goldman, served as Johnson's deputy chief of staff.


Cojo Strategies

Soon after ending his campaign for mayor, Johnson moved to start a government relations consulting firm, Cojo Strategies, which began advising to a subsidiary of the
Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), ...
and the Central Park Conservancy. An Israeli tech firm hired Johnson as its United States government relations advisor, with a focus on New York. He will advise and "liaise with municipal and state officials". Johnson represented Saferwatch, a company developing a "panic button" app who sought to provide it to schools in the City of New York. Johnson met in 2022 on the company's behalf with New York City Schools chancellor David C. Banks. The following year, the city engaged the Saferwatch app in a pilot program at five schools. Saferwatch ceased being represented by Johnson in early 2024, and hired the government relations services of Terence Banks, the New York City Schools chancellor's brother.


See also

* LGBT culture in New York City *
List of LGBT people from New York City New York City has been described as the gay village, gay capital of the world and the central node of the LGBTQ+ political sociology, sociopolitical ecosystem. It is home to one of the world's largest and most prominent LGBTQ populations. LGBTQ ...
*
NYC Pride March The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBT culture in New York City, LGBTQ community in New York City#Sexual orientation and gender identity, New York City. The largest pride parade and the List of largest LGBT events, larges ...


References


External links


Official website

Campaign website
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Corey 1982 births 2020 United States presidential electors Speakers of the New York City Council American politicians of Korean descent Asian-American people in New York (state) politics Candidates in the 2021 United States elections American gay politicians American LGBTQ city council members LGBTQ people from Massachusetts LGBTQ people from New York (state) Living people Masconomet Regional High School alumni New York (state) Democrats New York City Council members New York City public advocates People from Beverly, Massachusetts Politicians from Essex County, Massachusetts People from Middleton, Massachusetts People with HIV/AIDS 21st-century American LGBTQ people Asian-American New York City Council members