At age 7, Qian Julie Wang and her family moved from China to Brooklyn. She’s not alone.

“It is really a meeting ground for the newest immigrants of New York City and therefore, to America,” said Wang. “And so to have an attack happen at that place really hits at the heart of what New York City stands for.”

Wang’s still reeling from Tuesday’s shooting at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, which is home to more than 90,000 Hispanic and Asian New Yorkers. Wang said, even before the attack, she was fearful of taking public transit due to a steady rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.

What You Need To Know

  • Qian Julie Wang immigrated to Brooklyn from China in 1994

  • Wang says Sunset Park is home to tens of thousands of immigrants who rely on the subway every day

  • According to city data, 30% of Sunset Park residents are Asian, another 40% are Hispanic
  • 29% of Sunset Park residents live at or below the poverty line

“After an unprecedented global event, so many of us relate to this need to feel safe, this basic need of humanity that maybe many of us took for granted for a long time,” Wang said.

After the attack, Wang took to social media to offer some perspective. She said many people outside of New York don’t know Sunset Park and the people who live there. She hopes to change that.

“I wanted to give a real face and dimensionality, the people who were born and raised here, the people who take the subway across the borough to serve this beautiful city,” she said.

Wang calls the subway “the artery of the city” — a form of transportation so many people in Sunset Park rely on every day and deserve to feel safe on.

“I hope that Asian Americans can build that sense of community and I hope that we can start to forage outward and keep each other safe together because it is up to the community to protect all of us.”