Kevin D. Kim serves as the commissioner for the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), a dynamic city agency focused on equitable economic opportunity. Initiatives launched under his leadership include the largest public-private partnership loan fund in NYC directed to small businesses ($85M to 1046 businesses); Cannabis NYC, the city’s first support for the newly-legalized market; and Small Business Forward – more than 90 reforms to violations.
If you could give your younger-self advice, what would it be?
Though I had learned at one point to be proficient in Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean, I now wish I had learned to speak fluent Spanish.
Do you have any event/movie/music suggestions for our readers to check out in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month?
“Who killed Vincent Chin?” and “Linsanity”
How has your heritage shaped the person you are today?
Being proud of who you are, where you come from, understanding cultural differences for a young child, especially an immigrant child, is never easy. As you grow older, however, you begin to appreciate more and more how those “differences” can be powerful assets. For example, it allows you to bring unique and fresh perspectives when problem solving.
What can New York policymakers do to support the AAPI-community in the short-term? In the long-term?
Roughly speaking Asian Americans comprise about 16-18% of the NYC population, yet the community receives less than 1% of all government social service dollars. If such a disparity exists, NY policymakers should better understand why this is the case. In addition, NY policymakers should require disaggregation of data to better understand how the needs of different communities within the extremely diverse AAPI community varies.
