Eddie Pérez (politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eddie Alberto Pérez (born 1957, in Corozal, Puerto Rico) is the first Puerto Rican in history to be elected mayor of Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1969, at the age of 12, he arrived with his family in Hartford. They found substandard housing and limited opportunities for Latinos. In seeking a safe environment and avoiding social turmoil in Hartford during the 1970s, the family moved frequently.
Pérez graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1976 and in 1976 he left the gang. He participated in the youth group led by Father Tom Goekler at Sacred Heart Church. Goekler and "Big Brother" David Lowery became father figures for him, and encouraged his interest in community service.
In 1978, Pérez took a job as a VISTA volunteer to address tenant issues in the North End. That position led to his role as the founder of O.N.E./C.H.A.N.E. Eventually he earned an Associate’s Degree from Capital Community Technical College.
In 1986, he became the Director of MASH (Make Something Happen), a welfare-to-work effort (before that term became a national slogan) for families in public housing.
In 1989, Trinity College chose him as its first Director of Community Relations. While working full time in that position, Perez completed a degree in economics at Trinity, and in 1994, became the college's Associate Vice President of Community and Government Relations.
In June of 1999, he became President and Executive Director of the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (SINA), an organization initiated by Trinity and Hartford Hospital. Under his tenure, it completed its $112 million Learning Corridor and undertook its $220 million Neighborhood Initiative. These programs have been described as national models for comprehensive community revitalization.
Pérez was elected as the first Puerto Rican/Latino mayor of Hartford in 2001. Under 2002 changes to the city charter, he became the CEO of Hartford. He was reelected in 2003.
Perez has also put in place one of the largest WIFI networks in the USA. The WIFI effort has the goal of closing the digital divide in one of the poorest cities in the country. [1]
He has been criticized for micro-managing city affairs and keeping a thumb on the city council and the city Democratic Party. But there is no question that he is the absolute authority in all that happens in the city.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
<references />
