Of the 11 cities and towns in Massachusetts with the largest voting-age Asian populations, only two communities – Waltham and Worcester – had smaller Asian turnouts than Quincy’s. In the 2012 presidential election, for example, 49 percent of registered Asian voters in Quincy went to the polls, compared with an 80-percent turnout citywide, according to UMass-Boston. However, voter turnout among Asians has lagged. Voter registration among Quincy’s Asian residents has nearly doubled over the past decade or so, from 7.7 percent of all registered city voters in 2003 to 14.7 percent in 2012, according to a study by UMass-Boston’s Institute for Asian American Studies. In 2012, the city started printing voting ballots in Chinese to comply with a federal mandate that says non-English-speaking populations of a certain size must have access to ballots printed in their native language. I think that that is the part there’s a lack of.” “But on second thought, it’s like, before we voice our opinion, we need to formulate our opinion. “What I’ve been hearing people saying is that Asians are quiet, that we don’t voice our opinion,” Yau said. She said the more informed residents are, the more likely they’ll get involved. Yau said the city has improved its outreach services to Quincy’s Asians, but there’s always room for more progress. It’s shown on the first and third Mondays of every month at 7 p.m. In 2012, the Asian Advisory Committee started producing “Eye on Quincy,” a live show on QATV that shares city news in Cantonese and Mandarin. Yau, 52, helped found the mayor’s Asian Advisory Committee, which creates materials in Chinese that explain some of the city’s services, such as trash pickup, how to vote and pay tax bills, parking restrictions, and advisories about upcoming events and meetings. There are signs that the city is trying to get Asians more involved.Īfter Koch took office in 2008, he hired Betty Yau, a native of Hong Kong, to work on his constituent services team. For example, he said, there’s an opening in the treasurer’s office that he’d like to fill with an Asian worker who is fluent in English along with Cantonese, Mandarin or both. Mayor Thomas Koch said he tries to hire qualified Asian workers whenever there’s an opportunity. On the fire department’s Civil Service list, only three of 99 candidates are fluent in an Asian language. “We haven’t found the need to do that,” Keenan said.Ĭurrently, only two of the city’s 198 firefighters, or 1 percent, are Asian. Police Chief Paul Keenan said the department can request a list that favors bilingual candidates who speak English and an Asian language, but the department has enough bilingual officers right now. Ten of the 203 police candidates on the most recent Quincy police Civil Service list say they are fluent in an Asian language. Of Quincy’s 207 police officers, six are Asian, roughly 3 percent of the force. In addition, Asians weren’t considered a minority under the decrees, which were focused on blacks and Hispanics. However, Quincy was never bound by the decrees because its population at the time was less than 1 percent minority. A number of Massachusetts communities had to abide by the decrees, and several are still bound by them. In the 1970s, two federal court decrees ordered police and fire departments in communities with a minority population of more than 1 percent to actively seek out minority job applicants until the diversity of the force reflected that of the community. “But it isn’t there yet, as most communities aren’t there yet,” said Paul Watanabe, director of the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s Institute for Asian American Studies. Quincy is making strides toward inclusion and equity. Among Quincy’s 1,079 full-time city hall and public service employees, only 27 (21/2 percent) are Asian.Īs small as that number is, it’s 40 percent greater than during the years prior to 2010 when 16 Asians working for the city. The number shrinks considerably when schools are taken out of the equation. Of the city’s 4,170 full- and part-time employees across all departments, less than 5 percent of workers, 201, are Asian. QUINCY - In a city where roughly one in four residents is Asian, you won’t find many on the job at city hall, wearing a police badge, putting out fires, teaching in city schools or exercising their right to vote. USE THE GOOGLE TRANSLATION OPTION IN OUR EPAPER. CLICK HERE TO READ PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS. CLICK ON THE ARROW ON THE PHOTO TO SEE MORE.
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