Catherwood LibraryILR School

In recent decades, working-class residents of Queens are slowly being displaced by professionals from Manhattan seeking lower rents. Business owner Ali Ahmed lived in Astoria for twenty years before the neighborhood’s trendy appeal eventually priced him out, forcing his family to move to the Bronx. Now, Ahmed commutes an hour both ways to get to his store, which he runs himself while driving for Uber part-time to make extra cash on the side. It’s a struggle that resonates strongly with many New Yorkers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won the Democratic primary last week against ten-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley who outspent her ten to one. The twenty-eight-year-old Latina will most likely become one of the youngest Congresswomen ever in 2019. When her father passed away from cancer during the recession, she took on three jobs to help her family stave off foreclosure. Ocasio-Cortez’s intimate understanding of the uphill battle facing working-class New Yorkers no doubt helped propel her into victory on a platform which includes Medicare for all, fully funded public schools and universities, $15 minimum wage, and housing as a human right.