Harrison, Julia, 1920-

Julia Harrison was born on June 10, 1920 in Rochester, New York to Henry and Magdalena Hirsch. Henry and Magdalena emigrated from Hungary as children. In 1919 they married and started a family in Rochester. Henry worked as a laborer and in a factory. Magdalena worked as a house cleaner and also in a factory.

At some point after 1930 the family moved to New York City where Julia attended Public School 9 in Manhattan and graduated from New York Evening High School. In the mid 20th century Julia Hirsch married Joseph Harrison and moved to Flushing.

While living in Flushing Ms. Harrison became a civic activist, participating in the union movement, parent-teacher associations, housing co-ops and more. She did not become politically active until 1968, when Eugene McCarthy and the anti-war movement convinced her that she could make a change. She became active in the local peace movement and enrolled in Queens College as an undergraduate. In 1972 she graduated cum laude from Queens College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

She joined the Democratic Club of Flushing, Whitestone, College Point and was elected the Chair of the Queens County New Democratic Coalition. In 1972 she was elected the District Leader for the 26th Assembly District, Part A. Throughout the 1970's she continued to be re-elected though many of the elections were challenging. In 1978 she unsuccessfully ran for New York State Senate. In 1983 she ran and won the New York State 26th Assembly District seat vacated by Leonard P. Stavisky when he won the New York State Senate seat.

She served in the New York State Assembly for just two years. Her time in the Assembly was too short for her to establish much of a record. She was a co-sponsor of a number of bills.

In 1985 she ran for city council and in November voters of the 19th council district elected her to represent them. This election heralded a first for Ms. Harrison -- the first woman on the New York City Council from the borough of Queens. The 19th council district covered a fairly large swath of northern Queens including Flushing, Whitestone, Beechhurst, Corona, Bayside and Douglaston. However the city's were changed and her district became the 20th covering Flushing and a small part of Whitestone.

She was on the Committees for Aging, Education, Government Operations, Health and Standards and Ethics. In 1991 she was the chair of the Standards and Ethics Committee. She was also the chair of the Committee on Aging for a number of years. As chair of the Aging Committee, she successfully led a campaign to assist senior citizens with two housing programs: Senior Citizens Homeowners Exemption (SCHE) and Senior Citizens Rent Increase Exemption Program (SCRIE). Her committee was also active in other areas including -- the investigation of elder abuse; elderly drug abuse; Expanded In-Home Services for Elderly Program and more.

She was also the chairperson of the Legislative Panel on Medical Technology. This panel investigated the use of acupuncture to treat health threatening issues such as crack addiction, HIV-AIDS and sexually-transmitted diseases. The panel actively engaged the health community to support acupuncture. Their engagement and advocacy was instrumental in opening the first acupuncture drug detoxification clinic in Queens at Queens General Hospital. This clinic in cooperation with the first Drug Court in New York became an alternative to incarceration. The panel created legislation to install condom machines in public sleeping facilities and to license prostitutes to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

In 1989 Councilwoman and other community activists created the Coalition for a Planned Flushing. This began her office's decade long attempt to implement a controlled plan for downtown Flushing. In 1990 she used her councilwoman Land-Use powers to plan certain areas of her district, including downtown Flushing. Her office successfully re-zoned downtown Flushing. She acquired city council funds to hire an architect to create a plan for Flushing. For more information about this, see the Councilwoman Julia Harrison Records, subgroup John P. Watts Records finding aid.

As with any elected official Councilwoman Harrison was responsible for addressing constituent issues and concerns. The issues ranged from the mundane requiring a few letters, to the complicated requiring petitions, press releases, protests, numerous correspondence, photographs, legal records and more. The complicated issues she addressed included airplane safety, prostitution, the MTA's renovation of the Main Street/Flushing Subway Station, the disrepair of Flushing's Municipal Parking Garage, the construction of a grocery store and parking lot at 41-60 Main Street, "Mega-Stores" in Flushing, Korea Town Plaza, Korean War Veterans Memorial Association, Martin's Field and more.

In 1996, Councilwoman Harrison attracted immense controversy when a New York Times article quoted her as saying Asian immigrants were "invaders" and "criminals" She apologized for the remarks and stated they were taken out of context. Many were upset by the comments, but many others supported her. The incident did not affect her political career and she was re-elected that fall for her final term in office.

Along with many of her city council colleagues, Councilwoman Harrison's city council career ended on December 31, 2001 when for the first time New York City politicians could not run for the same office they previously held. She was undeterred by these term limits. She continues to run for state offices, albeit unsuccessfully.