Marlon Meyer
Northwest Asia Weekly
Greg Wang
Greg Wong grew up poor. His first job after college was answering calls from the homeless or others in need.
“Every morning, I call all the shelters to see how many beds are available,” he told Northwest Asia Weekly.
That way, he can assign callers a bed for that night. It is colloquially known as working on a “bed”.
Things have changed a lot since then, at least for Wang. However, Seattle’s new deputy mayor for external relations says there is one thread that shapes his goals, even though he has roughly gone through successive stages.
Huang’s father is from the Philippines and his mother is from Indiana, and they met at the University of Washington. His father spoke several Chinese dialects in addition to English and Tagalog.
“He can talk to almost anyone,” Wong said.
And this may be a line or principle that Wang hopes to emulate—familiarity with multiple areas of society.
He grew up in Highland Park and the White Center area. He saw some of his friends get into serious trouble.
“I have a lot of friends whose life paths have set them down, either as victims of crime or involved in the criminal justice system itself. A lot of kids I know and I think there is a lot of hope and will be in the world Friends who do great things end up on different paths in life because of some of the obstacles they face,” he said.
Meanwhile, taking the bus to other schools in other parts of the city made him aware of other life trajectories and socioeconomic realities.
“I was exposed to many parts of the city as a child and met people from all over the world, and it made me very grateful to know the city as a whole.”
It was his awareness of the vast contrast between the different “paths in life” and how these were often determined by economic circumstances, which was not only another guiding force in his life, but cultivated in him a kind of him. Consciousness to try. do something.
“I was able to see the difference, and I think it made me obligated to help those poor people bridge those differences – because I saw the difference, it gave me a sense of responsibility.”
After two years as a homelessness and low-cost housing specialist at the King County Crisis Clinic in Seattle, Wong was a little frustrated. The problem he is solving is immediate, but the root of the problem is systemic and not so easy to fix.
Looking around and reflecting on his past, he came to believe that education was the way to truly bring about change.
“I thought about it and I think education is one of the best means of bringing about long-term change, if you can change the education people get, you can give them a different chance in life, which of course I saw in my childhood A different path,” he said.
Through Teach for America, a national nonprofit, he was assigned to rural teaching jobs in the Mississippi Delta. His first impulse was to refuse.
“At first I said no, no way,” he said. He had imagined teaching in the city center. “Then I thought about it and thought what a great opportunity it was.”
What changed his mind was the realization that there were so many stereotypes about that part of the South that his curiosity was piqued. He found that the stereotype was wrong, but poverty was worse than he was growing up.
“These families are located in the rural South and have very limited economic opportunities. It’s not as hard as Seattle, but you can get jobs. There’s no economy at all in a small town,” he said. “But I learned that we have a lot in common…
Children are children. They often have the same desires and want the same things. They certainly have different cultural backgrounds. But we have a lot in common. “
Wang taught there for two years and might still be teaching there today if he hadn’t met the woman who would become his wife at a training course in Massachusetts.
She taught in New York, and he moved there to be with her while continuing to teach in America and is now a teacher recruiter.
Then 9-11 happened.
The family has a young child and thinks Seattle is a better place to raise a child, especially since Huang’s family is still there. They moved, and Wong started running a tutoring center in Rainier Valley, mostly serving immigrant children.
At the time, it seemed to him that the next logical step was training to be a principal. But then a friend in law school said that Wong really liked it.
“I kind of thought — why not, I’ll take the LSAT, I’ll apply to some schools, and I’ll see what happens. It’s an idea, and if I don’t like it, I can leave at any time,” he said.
But he found he enjoyed it.
“It’s an interesting option. The more I get to know some of the lawyers in Seattle who are very strong civic leaders doing community law, whether they’re practicing lawyers or other professions, the more interested I get.”
He had two children when he entered law school, a third born during his studies.
“It was a busy time,” he said.
Soon, Wong found himself working for a well-known law firm. He says his success comes from the fact that he always focuses on the areas that really matter to him and affect the public good, not to mention a lot of luck and timing.
“Just going to law school doesn’t guarantee you anything,” he said. “I know very well what kind of lawyer I want to be, and I work really hard. I’ve also been fortunate to work with people who have some experience and that builds up over time.”
He’s “biting his teeth” on education and “responsible for the school tax for Seattle Public Schools,” he said. “You start building experiences in one field that impact another.”
His expertise is constitutional and appellate law, which means he can see how a case develops when it is appealed and goes to a higher court.
A major initiative he collaborated on was limiting the purchase of assault rifles to those under 21. Later known as Initiative 1639, it also governs the storage of firearms in secure containers.
The process of getting it through involves a storm of opposition.
“I can’t count the number of legal challenges, and we won every one of them,” he said. “It takes a lot of effort.”
When asked why he gave up his legal practice to work for the city (he briefly served as interim director of the Department of Communities), he said he wouldn’t take the job if he didn’t think he could make a difference.
“We do have a lot of problems, we’re at a crossroads, and I want to make sure that the outcome of the past few years is a stronger, better, more prosperous and fairer place for its residents,” he said.
However, Wong seems less convinced that the Chinatown-International District (CID) is facing existential challenges, such as a potential transportation hub that would shut down much of the neighborhood for up to ten years, or a new mega shelter for the homeless May attract more violence against its residents and those of the CID.
“I understand why people get discouraged. My kids are older now. I worry that their generation may feel hopeless. There are multiple reasons for this. The Trump era for Seattleites, the pandemic, climate change, the economy. It’s a very real thing. But I also feel like, in the course of human history, is this the darkest period that humanity has ever experienced? I don’t think it’s true,” he said.
For example, he said, World War II was a dark period.
“I wasn’t there, but I guess people thought it might be the end of the world. Or during the Cold War. I remember we had to do drills in schools in case the bombs fell.”
That doesn’t mean today’s fears are unreal, he said.
“It’s just that we’ve had tough times before and we can get through them. And there’s a way that we can take some hope that we can actually fix things and we can actually do better,” he said.
Wang felt a strong connection to Chinese culture through his father.
“Dad did a really good job of making sure we had a lot of cultural pride and awareness in everything — he observed cultural festivals and observances, he tried to teach us Chinese at home,” Wong said. “He still sends long emails about Chinese history.”
Even earlier this month, during the Lunar Mid-Autumn Festival, his children across the state were watching the moon at the same time, eliminating the physical space between them, a tradition China joined.
“I’m also biracial,” he said. “The Chinese will say you are not Asian and you are not Chinese. So I work in two worlds.”
Mahlon can be contacted by info@nwasianweekly.com.
