** News Flash **
It has been an honor to serve as a Commissioner on Advisory Neighborhood Commission ANC 3/4G, representing Single Member District 3/4G-05, since January 2021.
At the ANC 3/4G public meeting on July 25, 2022, I announced my decision not to seek re-election for a second term so that I can turn my attention back to high priority personal projects that deserve my full attention. I intend to serve out the rest of my term through December 2022 with vigor, dedication, and integrity.
You can find the video recording of the announcement I made at the ANC 3/4G public meeting here at minute 16:40. You can also read the entirety of my official announcement here or on this website here.
I am very happy to talk to anyone who would like to run. The nominating petition must be picked up at the offices of the DC Board of Election (BOE) which was made available starting on July 10th and a minimum of 25 signatures from registered voters in Single Member District ANC 3/4G-05 is required. You can declare your candidacy online and find the new redistricted map for this district by going to: www.boe.org. All forms and the nominating petition with required signatures are due to DC BOE by Wednesday, August 10th at 5 pm.
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Hello Neighbor! Thank you for dropping by.
My name is Connie K. N. Chang and I serve as a Commissioner for ANC 3/4G representing about 2,000 residents who live in Single Member District 3G-05. I was sworn in on January 2, 2021.
Here’s why I ran in the November 2020 General Election.
We have a great opportunity before us to reshape our neighborhood and build a stronger community that is vibrant, inclusive, and ready to tackle complex issues that affect us here locally and as Washingtonians. This matters a great deal to me.
The global pandemic has impacted our local businesses, our economic health, our children’s schooling, and our ability to socialize responsibly. Racial protests and calls for justice has forced us to confront our neighborhood’s history and find ways to reconcile past wrongs with who we believe we are. The reality of global warming reminds us that we each play an important role in maintaining ecological balance to hold our planet dear for future generations.
There are many important initiatives and opportunities for positive change that are underway.
We have an upcoming $38 million dollar renovation to modernize the Chevy Chase Community Center and the Chevy Chase Public Library and create a mixed-income, mixed-use campus that is large enough to accommodate affordable housing units and ground floor retail businesses, and serve as part of our neighborhood’s civic core. Those plans fit well with the exciting possibility of upper Connecticut Avenue’s designation by the Office of Planning as the “Chevy Chase Gateway” into our nation’s capital.
The DC Office of Planning kicked off the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan in March 2021, which “will be a guiding vision for inclusive growth rooted in a people-centered planning and design approach that aligns with citywide priorities of housing production, economic recovery, and equity and racial justice.” The planning process is underway and focuses on “land use, housing, urban design, and community development, supported by technical analysis, community engagement, and public outreach.”
At the start of October 2020, we learned that the non-profit District Bridges was awarded a grant under the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development program for a Chevy Chase Main Street program that aims to revitalize our commercial corridor. The 110 letters of support from the community most definitely strengthened their application and indicates strong support for assistance to our local businesses.
We must take advantage of these once in a lifetime opportunities by getting involved or by being informed, and I intend to do both and have worked hard since the start of 2021 to play a positive role.
Here’s a bit of who I am.
I have lived in DC for the past 26 years–23 of them in this neighborhood when my husband Nathaniel and I purchased our first home on Nevada Avenue between Legation and Livingston. We were lucky. Housing prices had been stagnant for over a decade and a half before we became only the third family to own this 1930s colonial brick home so our timing was good. We were lucky because racially restrictive covenants that prevented Blacks, Jews, and Asians from purchasing property were dismantled by the time we came along. We were lucky also because we somehow landed in an excellent school district.
Our oldest daughter was born two years after we settled in and attended Lafayette Elementary School, Deal Middle School, and Wilson High School plus early childhood years in Montessori School of Chevy Chase. She is now in her second year of college. Our youngest is a seventh grader at Deal. I hope that our neighborhood allows for other young couples, families, individuals to be as lucky as Nathaniel and I when we were just starting out to find a home we could afford, send our children to public schools without worrying about their safety, and grow older in a neighborhood we love.
My professional career has been focused on the intersection of business, government, and technological innovation. I have worked as a financial analyst for an investment bank; as a supervisory economist for a staff of economists and policy analysts; as a business manager for over twenty multi-million dollar technology development projects for the Federal government; and as a research director supervising large study contracts on innovation. I have had my own private consulting practice for over a decade serving as an evaluator-consultant in assessing the operation and impact of large university-industry collaborative research centers engaged in areas of national priorities. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wellesley College, a master’s degree in International Management and Comparative Technology Policy from UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, and am a dissertation short of a doctorate in Political Economy and Science, Technology & Public Policy from MIT.
I was born and raised in New York City to educated parents who emigrated from Taiwan in search of opportunity and the American dream. I grew up straddling two cultures—public school where few looked like me, and weekends in Manhattan’s Chinatown where my parents owned a thriving retail furniture business helping new immigrants furnish their homes.
I know the importance to communities of locally grown businesses, available and attainable housing, and public spaces where residents can gather and meet. I also know the intangible benefits of hospitality where a warm welcome can drive the local economy with the fuel and energy of immigrants and other newcomers who are eager to build a better life for themselves.
Here’s what I promise.
I will bring to the ANC a dedication to public service, strong coalition building skills, and experience with public-private partnerships. I will learn what I do not know. I will communicate what I do.
My campaign motto is “Building Better Together … Do Better | Be Better | Live Better.“
We have an opportunity to reimagine and reshape our neighborhood for decades to come. I want to be in the arena doing my part.
I seek to build bridges, keep my eyes on the big picture, and get the details right.
Thank you for visiting here. Feel free to contact me.