LOWELL — At-large City Councilor and candidate for reelection Vesna Nuon thinks better days are ahead for Lowell as long as the council continues to invest in its people.
He first ran for council in 2012, and he says the issues he believed in then are the issues he believes in still.
“Back in 2012, I ran because of the lack of representation,” he said by phone on Monday. “My theme has always been making sure that representation is there. If you’re not at the table, things aren’t going to get done the way you want it.”
Nuon is one of the more than 13,000 members of Lowell’s Cambodian diaspora, when he and his family — his parents, three sisters and three brothers — left a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand in 1982, and resettled in Massachusetts.
By the early 1990s, he was working for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office as a victim witness advocate for at-risk Asian-American youth in Lowell. His task force team helped secure a grant from the federal government to hire the first two Cambodian officers with the Lowell Police Department.
Following his 2012-2013 term, Nuon ran again in November 2017, to reclaim his seat — the first minority candidate in Lowell’s history to place first in a City Council election. Nuon was sworn into office in January 2018, and was selected by the council to serve as vice mayor, the first Asian American to serve in the position.
Social justice and quality-of-life issues remain a key part of his personal identity, as well as his political agenda, and he’s most proud of his motions and work on the council around economic development for small businesses in both the central business district and city neighborhoods, affordable housing and addressing Lowell’s homeless crisis.
“I believe that together we can address those issues,” he said. But to be successful, he believes the city has to find revenue from sources beyond just Mill City taxpayers.
“We need to continue to seek out outside source…
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