Meet: Wei-Li Tjong

The Lower East Side is full of impressive, talented, giving, and immensely interesting people of different backgrounds, persuasions, and styles. More For LES is delighted to showcase neighbors from 10002 who contribute to making the community richer, more welcoming, and complete. Today we meet Wei-Li Tjong.

Wei-Li Tjong is a Founding Partner at Tjong & Hsia LLP and lives on the Lower East Side. More For LES spoke with Wei-Li, and this is what he had to say:

Do you live, work, or both live and work in the neighborhood?

I live here.

How long have you lived and/or worked in the neighborhood?

I grew up in Seward Park Cooperative and later purchased my own apartment here, where I have continued to live and volunteer for the past 25 years.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am the son of immigrants and a first-generation American raised in this community that shaped everything I have become.

My father came to the United States in 1971 with almost nothing. Early on he shared a tenement bed with a shift worker. He worked translating for Chinese and Spanish speakers by day and waited tables at Chinatown restaurants by night so he could afford a tenement apartment for my mother, who arrived from Brazil a year later.

When I was born, my mother and I spoke Portuguese at home until 1978, when we learned English together.

Both of my parents eventually became New York City public school teachers. My mother taught preschool and kindergarten, and my father ran bilingual education programs for District 1 before returning to the classroom at PS 20, where there is now a scholarship named after him.

In the mid-1970s my parents won a lottery apartment in Seward Park Cooperative, when it was still Title I housing. I grew up there and later recommitted to this community by purchasing my own apartment. For the past 25 years I have continued to live here and volunteer, helping lead our diverse community of more than 5,000 residents, currently serving as president.

If you work in the neighborhood, what do you do professionally?

I am an attorney. Over my career, I have practiced law in New York, including work at Skadden Arps and Chadbourne & Parke, serving in-house at AllianceBernstein, and working as a New York City Administrative Law Judge.

Fifteen years ago I founded my own law firm, Tjong & Hsia LLP, which has grown to a team of 16 attorneys.

What do you love to do in your free time?

Given my various commitments, I don’t have much free time. However, I love to frequent some of the neighborhood’s establishments, popping over to Betty for a bite, Eastwood for a drink, and Clandestino — my old stomping grounds — to close out the night.

What’s something you’ve experienced here that makes the neighborhood feel special to you?

Growing up on the Lower East Side meant growing up alongside the neighborhood’s evolving diversity — Jewish, Chinese, Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and many other communities.

I attended Torah Head Start at MTJ and PS 124 at Confucius Plaza, played stickball off East Broadway, rode bikes through Loisaida, and played in the Chinatown YMCA Softball League.

These experiences reflect the immigrant story and the American story that have shaped this district for generations.

What’s something you’d like to see change or improve in the neighborhood?

For many years I’ve been actively involved in our community — serving as President of Seward Park Cooperative, and serving as State Committeeman for Assembly District 65, while also working in partnership with local elected officials including Christopher Marte and Grace Lee.

Through those roles I’ve focused on strengthening civic participation and policy effectiveness, advocating for better communication among state committee members, improved education and orientation for new representatives, expanded educational curricula addressing bodily and sexual autonomy, and supporting measures that would restructure ICE to better safeguard human rights and due process.

I’m now ready to take my involvement to the next level as I run for public office. (Learn more about my campaign here.)

As both a resident and a concerned citizen of the Lower East Side, the issues I care most about — and where I believe our community needs strong advocacy — include addressing the affordable housing crisis, protecting immigrants, keeping our neighborhoods safe from crime and hate, lowering healthcare costs, helping seniors age in place, improving access to affordable food, expanding and improving parks and community spaces, and increasing funding for our public schools.

Favorite local spots — where do you go, and why do you love them?

I grew up attending the Church of St. Mary on Grand Street, which has long been an important part of the neighborhood’s community life.

Are there any buildings, parks, or street corners that you think of when the Lower East Side comes to mind?

Seward Park Cooperative is central to my life and to the lives of thousands of residents who have built their homes here. Having spent so much time here, though, I can probably share a memory from every street corner across every decade of my life.

Anything else you’d like to share with your neighbors?

This community gave my family everything. I have always had a deep desire to serve the neighborhood that shaped my life, and I hope to continue giving something back to it.