Henry J. Stern (born May 1, 1935; was a member of the New York City Council from 1972 to 1983 and appointed as the Commisioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation from 1983 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2001. May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... New York City Hall The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. ...

Early life

Political career

He began in public service as law clerk to a New York State Supreme Court Justice, Matthew M. Levy. He was appointed Secretary of the Borough of Manhattan in 1962, and was an assistant to Borough Presidents Edward R. Dudley and Constance Baker Motley. In 1966, Parks Commissioner Tom Hoving appointed him executive director of the agency. He later became Assistant City Administrator in the office of Deputy Mayor Timothy W. Costello. In 1969, the new Consumer Affairs Commissioner appointed him Associate Commissioner and the next year he became her first deputy. He continued to serve until the end of Betty Furness' term in 1973. Manhattan is a borough of New York City, USA, coterminous with New York County. ...

City Council

In November 1973 he was elected to the City Council as a Councilman-at-large for Manhattan on the Liberal Party of New York State line, defeating the Republican candidate by about 1000 votes to win second place (two were elected per borough). His at-large close colleague on the Council was Robert F. Wagner, Jr. and the two worked together on many matters, including the sale of neckties to raise funds for libraries. The Liberal Party of New York is a minor political party active only in New York State. ... Mayor Wagner greets the Little Rock Nine (1958) Robert Ferdinand Wagner, Jr. ...

He was re-elected in 1977, winning by 16,000 votes. In 1981, he received the Republican as well as the Liberal nomination, but the position was abolished by the Federal courts.

Parks Commissioner

In February 1983, Mayor Edward I. Koch appointed him Commissioner of Parks & Recreation; he served for Koch's second and third term. Ed Koch, a Democrat, speaks at the 2004 Republican National Convention in support of the re-election of President George W. Bush. ...

The election of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in 1993 brought Mr. Stern back to city government; he was appointed Parks Commissioner, starting January 1, 1994. He was one of the few Giuliani commissioners to serve the entire eight years of his mayoralty, plus a month with Mayor Bloomberg. Rudolph William Louis Rudy Giuliani III, KBE (born May 28, 1944) served as the Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 through December 31, 2001. ...

Civic life

Citizens Union

NYCivic

On February 4, 2002, Henry J. Stern returned to the civic world as founder and president of NYCivic. In the last five years, he has written 362 articles on public policy. He sends them to a list of people who have requested them, which now includes 14,000 subscribers.

Legacy

External links

• Henry J. Stern's non-profit NYCivic