James Molinaro, is the 14th and current Borough President of Staten Island, New York. He was born on March 11, 1931, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan of Italian immigrants. He was one of six children, four brothers and two sisters. He is a widower since 1990 when his wife of 28 years, Carol, died of complications relating to Sclaroderma. The couple had two sons, Peter and Steven, and lived in the neighborhood of Fort Wadsworth since 1964. Borough President is an elective office in New York City. ... For other uses, see Staten Island (disambiguation) Staten Island, shown in an enhanced satellite image Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located on an island of the same name on the west side of the Narrows at the entrance of New York Harbor. ... March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Fort Wadsworth is a former military installation on Staten Island, New York. ...

Molinaro was elected against his Democratic opponent Jerome X. O'Donovan, with 50% of the vote to 43% on November 6, 2001. He took office on January 1, 2002. Molinaro won re-election for a second and last term on November 8, 2005, with 45,979 votes (59%) to 32,617 (41%) for his Democratic challenger John Luisi. November 6 is the 310th day of the year (311th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 55 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

His political career began when, in 1964, he joined the New York State Conservative Party. In 1974, he was elected as Chairman of the Richmond County Conservative Party and subsequently as Vice Chair of the State Party. In 1989, he was elected Executive Vice Chair of the New York State Conservative Party, a post he still holds today.

Prior to becoming Borough President, Mr. Molinaro served for twelve years as Deputy Borough President to former Borough President Guy V. Molianri. Mr. Molinaro also served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Guy V. Molinari, representing New York's 14th Congressional District.

Mr. Molinaro has a long record of community service. Over a 20 year period he has served on the Board of Directors for the Veterans Memorial Sports Complex, Staten Island Community Television, New York State Regional Organ Transplant and Bayley Seton Hospital. He was also the Chairman of the St. Elizabeth Ann's Health and Rehabilitation Center which he helped to create.

In 1989, Mr. Molinaro also helped to establish Staten Island’s first AIDS day care center and AIDS medical care facility.

Currently, Mr. Molinaro serves on the board of the Heart Institute of Staten Island, a modern cardiac care facility. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Sisters of Charity Health Care Corporation. In 1991, in the memory of his late wife, Mr. Molinaro helped dedicate a local dialysis unit in her name. In 2000 St. Elizabeth Ann's Health and rehabilitation Center opened the James P. and Carol E. Molinaro Health Care and Rehabilitation Center Atrium.

Accomplishments

Overdevelopment

Reacting to the development pressure threaten the character of Staten Island, Mr. Molinaro spearheaded the largest down zoning on Staten Island in more than 40 years. It affected more than 6,000 individual properties and over 40,000 acres of land. His comprehensive down zoning has reduced the number of new homes that can be built on the Island by 75,000.

Parks

Since entering Borough Hall, Mr. Molinaro has aided in the allotment of nearly 100 million dollars to Park acquisition and maintenance. The renaissance of the South Beach Boardwalk, new recreational fields, an expansion of the Blue Belt and a quarter mile long fishing pier are just some of the parks related actives that have benefited from his capital funding. Currently, 25% of Staten Island is protected Parkland, a higher percentage than any other borough.

Economic Development

Borough President Molinaro was instrumental in bringing VISY paper to Staten Island; this is the first manufacturing firm to come to New York City in 50 years creating hundreds of new jobs. Currently, VISY is planning an expansion of this project that will further create new jobs and increase employment of Staten Island. Mr. Molinaro was also involved in the recreation of a freight rail service linking Staten Island to the rest of the Nation for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Education

Mr. Molinaro has allotted $500,000 form his capital budget to purchase wireless laptop computers for all of Staten Island’s Intermediate schools as well as many elementary schools. He has also worked closely with Mayor Bloomberg to bring additional schools to Staten Island including P.S. 58 (opened in 2003) and I.S. (scheduled to open in 2007)