Vito Lopez

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Vito J. Lopez (b. 1940) represents the 53rd District in the New York State Assembly, which is comprised primarily of Bushwick and Williamsburg. Mr. Lopez is a life long Brooklynite. He graduated from James Madison High School and holds a BS in Business Administration from Long Island University. He received his M.A. in Social Work from Yeshiva University.

First elected in 1984 and began his twelfth term as Assemblyman in January 2007., Lopez is the current Chairman of the Housing Committee as well as the Co-Chair of the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force. Additionally, he serves on many committees that benefit the needy citizens of New York, such committees include: Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, Rules, Social Services. He is also the current Chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.

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[edit] Educator

Mr. Lopez has been a committed activist and educator throughout his career. He has served as a part-time Adjunct Professor of Human Services at LaGuardia College and was also an Instructor at Molloy College, Empire State College, and Yeshiva University. Also, he established a community-based education program in Bushwick through Long Island University, giving district residents the opportunity to receive an affordable college education.

[edit] Political Activist

Lopez has participated in various forms of political activism in addition to his duties as an Assemblyman, establishing Brooklyn Unidos, which is a coalition of local Latino leaders. With the Assemblyman's assistance, Brooklyn Unidos has become one of the leading advocacy groups for Latinos in Brooklyn. Also, he created the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, Inc. (RBSCC), which was founded in order to provide services to senior citizens within the respective neighborhoods. However, over the years RBSCC has grown into one of NYS largest not-for-profit organizations. Today, RBSCC serves the youth, middle-income families, the homeless, and of course the seniors.

[edit] Fighting the Housing Issues

The Assemblyman also created and continues to work with the local public housing tenants' coalition within his district. This coalition is responsible for greater access to the NYC Public Housing Authority as well as a forum for the resolutions of Public Housing tenants issues. Assemblyman Lopez's efforts have focused on the affordability and availability of adequate housing for all residents who need it. [1]. As a supporter of middle-income citizens Mr. Lopez, as Chairman of the Housing Committee, was successful in Modifying the 421-a Legislation. (Under the 421-a program, begun in the 1970s to spur housing development of any kind, developers have received a 10- to 25-year exemption from the increase in property taxes that results from their work. When the real estate market in Manhattan revived in the 1980’s, the program was modified to require developers in central Manhattan to build not just market-rate apartments but some lower-priced units to obtain the tax break. [2])

Mr. Lopez insisted that it be used exclusively to help low-income people and not to subsidize gentrification. Under the agreement, 20 percent of the units in most rental buildings receiving the tax break would have to be affordable to people making on average no more than 90 percent of median income for the area, or $64,000 for a family of four. That could include some apartments for households making as much as 120 percent of the median income and some making as little as 60 percent or less, as long as the average for the lower-priced units was 90 percent. [3]

[edit] Stance on Gay Marriage

During an October 13, 2006 meeting with the Lambda Independent Democrats-a powerful political club of gay Democrats in New York City-Vito Lopez publicly declared his support for extending the right of civil marriage to same-sex couples for the first time in his political career. He also intimated that he would help to enact legislation that would recognize same-sex marriages, which the highest court in New York State refused to recognize earlier that year. [4]

[edit] Chairman of the Kings County Democratic County Committee

In addition to being an Assemblyman, as Chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Mr. Lopez has been instrumental in giving a voice to the people of Brooklyn. He has been instrumental in assisting 11 out of 12 Judicial Candidates in winning their elections, without asking for anything in return. He has brought respect back to the wounded Democratic Party of Brooklyn. In one week, Mr. Lopez has been able to get two significant elected officials to speak to the Brooklyn Delegation of Elected Officials. On Monday, October 15, 2007, Presidential Candidate and U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton came to Williamsburg to speak on her goals as a Presidential Candidate; also, on Friday, October 19, 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer spoke to the delegation about his vision for the State of New York.

With the help of many visionary leader of Brooklyn, Mr. Lopez was successful in having a notable County Dinner that honored Doug Steiner, president of Steiner Studios, Dennis Quirk, president of the NYS Court Officers Association, Roy Hastick, president of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce, Ronald Tawil, co-chairman of the Sephardic Community Federation, Domenick Napoletano, president of Columbian Lawyers Association, Daniel Igor Branovan, Medical Director of the New York Eye and Ear infirmary and David Hernandez, President of the Puerto Rican Bar Association.[5] The theme this year, like last year, is "Brooklyn is Back," a not-so-veiled reference to the organization's scandal-plagued era of Lopez's predecessor, Clarence Norman. [6]

[edit] Questionable Practices in the 2008 Democratic Primaries

Vito Lopez got the vote out for Hillary Clinton to produce lopsided victories. However, in his native 53rd Assembly District, which voted at the John C. Hylan school in Bushwick, Senator Clinton totaled a 160 to 4 victory even though anecdotal evidence suggests large numbers of the neighborhood voted for Senator Barack Obama. Assemblyman Lopez claims to have get the vote out for this primary "the old fashioned way." [7]

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Preceded by
Victor Robles		 New York State Assembly, 53rd District
1985 – present		 Incumbent