Changing city gets new test

Even some of Sam Yoon's friends think the idea of a Korean-American on the Boston City Council sounds like a bit of a stretch. Some even suggested that he might be better off pursuing a political career, if he simply must, in Los Angeles or New York -- places where he might enjoy a traditional political base.

Instead, the 34-year-old housing activist has decided to test the reality of the much-heralded New Boston and see whether he can do what no Asian-American has ever even attempted by winning a City Council race next year.

Though the field has yet to fully take shape, he can count on tough competition, even if some of the four incumbents were to decide not to seek reelection. But by merely jumping in the race, he is making history.

''I don't come from the kind of culture where politics kind of runs in my family," he said recently. ''I'm not a native Bostonian. But I have been working in community development for about 10 years, so my interest in politics comes from the grass roots up. I think Boston could use someone who comes from that mold, and now seems to be the right time to do it."

It is dangerous to invest a lot of meaning in any City Council election, especially one months away. Still, Yoon's candidacy is another encouraging and tangible sign that Boston's politics are changing. Not long ago, Chinatown was a political backwater, and there was no such thing as an Asian politician. Activists, yes. Even a City Hall insider or two. But no one who depended on popular support, of which there was little. Chinatown has been represented on the council for two decades by Jim Kelly, representing a sliver of a district defined by South Boston.

So Yoon, who lives in Dorchester and is running citywide, is following a largely uncharted path. Born in Seoul, he grew up in rural Pennsylvania, moving to Boston to attend graduate school. Despite earning a master's in public policy from Harvard in 1995, he had no real plans to run for anything.

But his work as housing director for the Asian Community Development Corporation convinced him that politics was essential to any kind of lasting change. For more than two years he has been running a campaign to force the Big Dig to sell a parcel in Chinatown to a coalition of neighborhood groups for $1. It is the latest step in a real estate battle that has raged between Chinatown and the state since the 1950s.

''It was essentially my work in Chinatown that opened my eyes," Yoon said. ''When you have elected leadership that gets it, in terms of what's going on at the neighborhood level, things work."

He's had a good vantage point to watch the increasing politicization of the city's Asian community. ''Chinatown has had to respond politically to the enormous pressures facing the community," he said. ''I think that's fueled a greater civic engagement. In November some of the longest lines I saw at any of the polls were in Chinatown. I think it's palpable."

Yoon was encouraged as well by the warm embrace voters have extended to Councilor Felix Arroyo and Sheriff Andrea Cabral in the past two years, both of whom cruised to surprisingly easy victories. Arroyo was among those who encouraged him to seek office, even though they will be running against one another. If they both win, they could make history. But the question is whether there is room for both of them.

''They both show that increasingly the Boston electorate looks for candidates who diversify the council and bring a kind of professional credential to the job," Yoon said of Arroyo and Cabral.

Ultimately, as he is the first to say, Yoon will succeed or fail on his own merits, regardless of who else is in the race.

''We imbue individuals with our hopes, our anxieties, our aspirations," he said. ''That's essentially what an elected leader is. If a voter doesn't relate to a person, they're not going to follow. It's not an abstract kind of enterprise."

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.