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American politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leland Cheung (born c. 1978)[1] is a former City Councillor in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] He served from 2009-2017.[3]
Leland Cheung | |
---|---|
Cambridge City Councillor | |
In office 2009 – December 2017 | |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1978 (age 45–46) |
Political party | Democratic Party |
Children | 1 |
Education | Stanford University (BS, BA, MS) Harvard University (MPA) MIT (MBA) |
Website | Official website (archive) |
Cheung was first elected to the Cambridge City Council in 2009 while pursuing a Masters in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to returning to graduate school, Cheung earned a BS in Physics, BA in Economics and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford University. Following graduation, Cheung worked as a Senior Associate at Masthead Partners, a Cambridge-based venture capital firm focusing on digital media, mobile, and internet infrastructure.[2]
From 2000–2005, Cheung served as Chief Information Officer at Space Adventures in Arlington, VA,[4] the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space.[5] Cheung ran an unsuccessful campaign as the Republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2005.[6] Cheung lost a campaign in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 2014.[7] He had been endorsed by The Boston Globe.[8] On September 8, 2016, Cheung lost the Democratic primary for the Massachusetts State Senate in the Second Middlesex district.[9] Cheung announced he was not running for reelection in a statement released August 1, 2017.[10]
As a City Councillor, he advocated for open data, Net Zero Zoning, composting and recycling programs. Cheung was a vocal critic of Harvard University and MIT laying off some workers and cutting hours of others.[11] As City Councillor, he was an early supporter of the Harvard divestment from fossil fuel movement.[12] Additionally, he showed his support for the Responsible Investment at Harvard when they campaigned to end Harvard's management of Argentina Timber Plantations.[13]
His top priorities included shifting the increased burden of property taxes to contractors and developers, completing the green line extension, and implementing universal pre-K. He also supports lifting the charter school cap and overhauling education reform by increasing the overall budget, as Massachusetts ranks 47th in spending on education as a percentage of the total budget.[14] He also proposed anticipating the policy issues of the future, addressing driverless cars' impact on transportation, the gig economy's impact on income inequality, and Airbnb's impact on the housing market.
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