Scott M. Stringer, a native New Yorker, is the 26th Manhattan Borough President. Since taking office at the start of 2006, he has dedicated himself to making Manhattan more affordable, livable…and breathable – preserving the sense of neighborhood for the 1.6 million residents of what is best known as a world capital of culture and commerce.
The foundation for much of the borough president's work is the change he's brought to Manhattan's community boards.Energizing these formal institutions of neighborhood democracy was a top priority of Stringer's upon becoming borough president.A new merit selection process, combined with an infusion of badly needed resources – such as dedicating to each board a graduate student from the city's architecture and planning schools – has served to strengthen the voice of Manhattan's neighborhoods in debates over city planning.
The impact of this reform is already visible around the borough: A rezoned West Harlem will maintain the neighborhood's character and increase its stock of affordable housing while benefiting economically from ColumbiaUniversity's expansion.New commitments for public schools in the Flatiron district, East Midtown and other neighborhoods are part of a larger plan to add school seats before, not after, high-rise residential towers crowd classrooms with additional students.
Stringer's community-based approach also has succeeded in accelerating New York's urban greening effort.The borough president has launched "Go Green" campaigns in three Manhattan neighborhoods – East Harlem, the Lower East Side, and Washington Heights – to improve residents' health, and to serve as a model for other environmentally neglected neighborhoods.East Harlem now has new farmers' markets, a growing number of street trees, its own Go Green cookbook, and is looking forward to a stand alone, state-of-the-art asthma treatment center created with the goal of reducing asthma hospitalizations by 50 percent.
Stringer has redoubled his longtime commitment to public safety.When New York City's building boom claimed the lives of 15 construction workers, he forced changes at the Department of Buildings. When a child was killed falling from a broken elevator in a New York City Housing Authority building, the borough president discovered that a simple, already-required device could have prevented the tragedy, and that the housing authority's own inspectors had given unsatisfactory ratings to some three-quarters of its elevators.
Continuing his career-long fight for affordable housing, Stringer conducted the first ever borough-wide survey identifying vacant lots and abandoned buildings, and then worked with state legislators to enact new tax incentives that will encourage development of these properties.
Stringer has authored a number of ground-breaking policy reports on issues of importance to every New Yorker, including parental involvement in our public schools, nursing home emergency preparedness, transportation, paid leave for employees, school overcrowding, and wasteful tax breaks for fast food restaurant and gas stations.
Prior to being elected borough president, Stringer served for thirteen years in the State Assembly, where he authored legislation to protect victims of domestic violence, led the successful fight to end "empty-seat voting" in Albany, and voted against every attempt to weaken rent regulations.The New York Times credited him as having "a sterling reputation as a catalyst for reform."
