Chan takes oath of office

Republican Steve Chan took the oath Jan. 8 as the new state senator for the 17th District.

The district includes parts of Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Gravesend, Kensington and Sunset Park.

Chan defeated Democrat Iwen Chu, who held the seat for two years.

“It feels great,” he told this paper. “I feel like I’m a constituent and I’m looking at ‘the guy’ that I voted for. That guy who wore the same shoes as me, that guy who went to work at a young age like I did, that guy who raised a family like I did. That’s the guy.”

Chan also said that he and his colleagues are calling for the resignation of MTA chairman Janno Lieber. 

“The man who makes more than the president of the United States to lose billions a year,” he wrote on Facebook. “And he jokes about how the subway is safe and it’s our imagination that it’s dangerous. He had a countdown clock for congestion pricing. Is this guy kidding me?”