01-05-2004, 02:52 AM
God damn Aol
Ex-Gang Leader Is Elected Mayor in Connecticut
By MATT APUZZO, AP
HARTFORD, Conn. (Jan. 3) - Eddie Perez was not a typical gang leader. He was scrawny, read books and went to school. A Puerto Rican boy growing up in Hartford's mostly black North End, he founded the Ghetto Brothers in the early 1970s. And though he was younger than the rest of his crew, they followed him.
AP
Mayor Eddie Perez arrives at a news conference at City Hall in Hartford.
In those days, he was known on the street as ''The Professor.'' These days, he is Mayor Perez.
After two years as a City Hall figurehead, a charter revision that took effect Thursday gave Perez, 47, sweeping new authority to run one of the oldest cities in America.
Raised by a single mother on welfare, Perez is now the most powerful mayor in Hartford history. He will be officially sworn in Monday for a second term.
Perez says he will orchestrate a Hartford renaissance. His new authority comes at a difficult time: Taxes, crime and unemployment are up; revenue, home ownership and the city's population are down.
But Perez is confident. He's lived the city's problems. He ran with a gang, lived in poverty and moved between burnt-out apartments.
''It's one of the best assets he has,'' said Hernan LaFontaine, a former school superintendent and Perez ally who is about to become City Council president. ''You're in survival mode when you're a young person growing up like that. You're always on the lookout. How can you keep moving? How can you get ahead? He's got regular street smarts.''
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Perez's family left Corozal, Puerto Rico, and arrived in Hartford in 1969. He was 12, the second-oldest of nine children. His mother could afford only the worst apartments in the worst neighborhoods, Perez said. He remembers stepping over an overdose victim while playing in an abandoned lot.
''It wasn't uncommon for us to have to move in the middle of winter because of a mechanical failure to the heating system where we were living,'' he said.
He attended five different elementary schools and moved a dozen times during high school. A year or two after arriving in Hartford, Perez formed the Ghetto Brothers with his brother and two friends. They wore bright yellow and purple jackets and staked the North End as their turf.
''Most of my peers, a lot of my eighth-grade class, died of gang violence, drug overdoses,'' he said. ''Between 18 and 26, I went to a lot of funerals.
''Still when I lecture at prisons, I see old friends. Ninety percent of the people I grew up with didn't succeed.''
Perez left the gang in 1976. He spent his free time playing basketball at a local church and got involved with its youth group. He started a civic group in his neighborhood. Working out of a broken stall in a self-serve car wash, he organized tenants and annoyed landlords.
"Still when I lecture at prisons, I see old friends. Ninety percent of the people I grew up with didn't succeed."
-Eddie Perez
He pestered one insurance company into making a $20,000 donation, then leveraged that to get matching money from another. He earned a reputation as a strong community organizer.
''At 21 years old, I could produce 400 people like that,'' he said, snapping his fingers.
Trinity College hired Perez as city liaison. He did not have a degree, but spent years negotiating with community members on behalf of the college.
The buzz about Eddie Perez becoming mayor begin in 1995, when Trinity put him in charge of the $175 million Learning Corridor, an effort to build new schools and businesses on 15 desolate city acres.
He went door-to-door, persuading owners to sell their land and business leaders to invest.
''I poured concrete on land I didn't own for the foundation of the school,'' Perez confesses. ''Is that winging it? I call it a calculated risk. I knew if I didn't pour then, I'd lose $1 million in construction delays. I had a handshake agreement on the land.''
It worked out, and so did the Learning Corridor. When then-Mayor Mike Peters decided not to run for re-election, Perez ran and won.
Though technically powerless under the city's charter, Perez upended Hartford politics. When fellow Democrats in the City Council challenged him, he aligned himself with a Republican and a Green Party member and took control of the council.
He ran the school superintendent out of town, even though he had no authority to fire him. He laid off 220 city workers and raised taxes to close a $48 million budget deficit, even though he was not the budget chief. With murders and drug violence on the rise, he pushed out the city's police chief.
His critics called him dictatorial.
''He told me, 'You're either with me or you're not. And if you're not, you're out,''' said Marilyn Rossetti, a former Democratic councilwoman who found herself isolated after crossing Perez.
But, she adds: ''In some ways, what a job. Who the hell would want it?''
Perez said he knows what he has gotten himself into. He has staked his political future on Hartford's success. He predicts the city will soon make national headlines.
''Of course, you've got to put up or shut up now. No doubt about it,'' said LaFontaine. ''He definitely knows it.''
01/03/04 01:44 EST
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
[Edited on 1-5-2004 by RangerD1]
Ex-Gang Leader Is Elected Mayor in Connecticut
By MATT APUZZO, AP
HARTFORD, Conn. (Jan. 3) - Eddie Perez was not a typical gang leader. He was scrawny, read books and went to school. A Puerto Rican boy growing up in Hartford's mostly black North End, he founded the Ghetto Brothers in the early 1970s. And though he was younger than the rest of his crew, they followed him.
AP
Mayor Eddie Perez arrives at a news conference at City Hall in Hartford.
In those days, he was known on the street as ''The Professor.'' These days, he is Mayor Perez.
After two years as a City Hall figurehead, a charter revision that took effect Thursday gave Perez, 47, sweeping new authority to run one of the oldest cities in America.
Raised by a single mother on welfare, Perez is now the most powerful mayor in Hartford history. He will be officially sworn in Monday for a second term.
Perez says he will orchestrate a Hartford renaissance. His new authority comes at a difficult time: Taxes, crime and unemployment are up; revenue, home ownership and the city's population are down.
But Perez is confident. He's lived the city's problems. He ran with a gang, lived in poverty and moved between burnt-out apartments.
''It's one of the best assets he has,'' said Hernan LaFontaine, a former school superintendent and Perez ally who is about to become City Council president. ''You're in survival mode when you're a young person growing up like that. You're always on the lookout. How can you keep moving? How can you get ahead? He's got regular street smarts.''
Talk About It
· Chat | Post a Message
Perez's family left Corozal, Puerto Rico, and arrived in Hartford in 1969. He was 12, the second-oldest of nine children. His mother could afford only the worst apartments in the worst neighborhoods, Perez said. He remembers stepping over an overdose victim while playing in an abandoned lot.
''It wasn't uncommon for us to have to move in the middle of winter because of a mechanical failure to the heating system where we were living,'' he said.
He attended five different elementary schools and moved a dozen times during high school. A year or two after arriving in Hartford, Perez formed the Ghetto Brothers with his brother and two friends. They wore bright yellow and purple jackets and staked the North End as their turf.
''Most of my peers, a lot of my eighth-grade class, died of gang violence, drug overdoses,'' he said. ''Between 18 and 26, I went to a lot of funerals.
''Still when I lecture at prisons, I see old friends. Ninety percent of the people I grew up with didn't succeed.''
Perez left the gang in 1976. He spent his free time playing basketball at a local church and got involved with its youth group. He started a civic group in his neighborhood. Working out of a broken stall in a self-serve car wash, he organized tenants and annoyed landlords.
"Still when I lecture at prisons, I see old friends. Ninety percent of the people I grew up with didn't succeed."
-Eddie Perez
He pestered one insurance company into making a $20,000 donation, then leveraged that to get matching money from another. He earned a reputation as a strong community organizer.
''At 21 years old, I could produce 400 people like that,'' he said, snapping his fingers.
Trinity College hired Perez as city liaison. He did not have a degree, but spent years negotiating with community members on behalf of the college.
The buzz about Eddie Perez becoming mayor begin in 1995, when Trinity put him in charge of the $175 million Learning Corridor, an effort to build new schools and businesses on 15 desolate city acres.
He went door-to-door, persuading owners to sell their land and business leaders to invest.
''I poured concrete on land I didn't own for the foundation of the school,'' Perez confesses. ''Is that winging it? I call it a calculated risk. I knew if I didn't pour then, I'd lose $1 million in construction delays. I had a handshake agreement on the land.''
It worked out, and so did the Learning Corridor. When then-Mayor Mike Peters decided not to run for re-election, Perez ran and won.
Though technically powerless under the city's charter, Perez upended Hartford politics. When fellow Democrats in the City Council challenged him, he aligned himself with a Republican and a Green Party member and took control of the council.
He ran the school superintendent out of town, even though he had no authority to fire him. He laid off 220 city workers and raised taxes to close a $48 million budget deficit, even though he was not the budget chief. With murders and drug violence on the rise, he pushed out the city's police chief.
His critics called him dictatorial.
''He told me, 'You're either with me or you're not. And if you're not, you're out,''' said Marilyn Rossetti, a former Democratic councilwoman who found herself isolated after crossing Perez.
But, she adds: ''In some ways, what a job. Who the hell would want it?''
Perez said he knows what he has gotten himself into. He has staked his political future on Hartford's success. He predicts the city will soon make national headlines.
''Of course, you've got to put up or shut up now. No doubt about it,'' said LaFontaine. ''He definitely knows it.''
01/03/04 01:44 EST
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
[Edited on 1-5-2004 by RangerD1]