Chris Banks represents the 42nd Council District which includes the communities of East New York, Starrett City, Brownsville, Canarsie, Remsen Village, and East Flatbush. He is a lifelong Brooklyn resident who was born and raised in the neighborhood of East New York.
The son of an immigrant mother from Trinidad and Tobago and a hardworking father from Houston Texas, Chris grew up in an entrepreneurial and labor focused household, where he learned the virtues of hard work, collaboration, and respect for others.
As a true community public servant, Chris has always believed in giving back to the community that raised him. From his first job at the local Police Athletic League as an education group leader and adolescent coordinator, to running after school and summer youth programs for the East New York Local Development Corporation, providing services to hundreds of area youth, Chris has always centered his work around strengthening his community.
Seeing the community through a grassroots lens, Chris believes conditions could be made better by building community-based power through partnership and collaboration while identifying ways to amplify the voices of the traditionally unheard. It has always been Chris’ philosophy that strong advocacy is essential when fighting for the needs of the community.
Chris is a results-oriented community and tenant organizer and a man of action with a proven record of leveraging relationships to achieve wins for his community. Chris has successfully organized residents of Starrett City to prevent a proposed significant rent increase, organized seniors to prevent the closure of Pink Houses’ Theresa Moore Senior Center and the Penn Wortman Senior Center, preserving vital services for area seniors. He also organized community members and worked with local elected officials to prevent the closure of the community’s NYPD Community Center. Chris has fought for repairs, clean drinking water, restoration of gas services, heat, and other serious quality of life issues in several NYCHA buildings and has worked with area homeowners and other community residents as part of the East New York Coalition to prevent the creation of additional shelters within the East New York Community. Where protecting the rights of the community is concerned, there isn’t a fight Chris won’t take on.
Chris has built on this philosophy of building community by founding or co-founding effective community-based programs including the East New York United Concerned Citizens Inc., an anti-poverty organization that provided senior and youth services to thousands of residents of East New York and the surrounding community. The organization provided housing advocacy, youth mentoring, support services for seniors, and a youth scholarship fund. Chris was also the co-founder of the East New York collaborative, along with Rabbi Avrohom Hecht and then community activist Nikki Lucas, an organization focused on building community through collaboration.
His public service has included serving as the President of the 75th Precinct Council where he has merged his advocacy and love for his community with his efforts to improve police community relations in an area with a history of over policing. Chris revitalized the Van Siclen Block Association, where he served as the president, leading the organization in the production of various events and initiatives including recreational and social events that have built cohesion on the block and addressed numerous quality of life issues, through block clean ups, snow removal, green thumb planting initiatives, graffiti removal, and public art beautification initiatives. Additionally, Chris is a former member of Community Board 5 where he has served as the co-chair of the Aging, Transportation, and Education committees, as well as serving as a member of the Executive Committee as the Sergeant at Arms. Chris also served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Boulevard Houses Nursery Day Care where he oversaw several City Contracts of more than $1 million. Chris also wrote the green jobs curriculum and performed community outreach for the Italian American Civil Rights Group based in Starrett City and East New York.
Chris believes in maintaining a strong spiritual and educational foundation. A member of East New York’s Changing Lives Christian Center since 2008, Chris attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice building on the education he received while attending PS 213, PS 273, and Anointed Minds Christian Academy, all in East New York, before graduating from Leadership Public Service High School in Manhattan.
Councilmember Banks is a proud resident of East New York which he commits to making bigger, better, and brighter through service.