Ydanis Rodriguez has a long track record of fighting, and winning, for our community when City Hall has let us down. Time and again, when Washington Heights/Inwood and Marble Hill were denied much needed services, Ydanis helped deliver them. When developers and their government sidekicks initiated plans that would destroy Northern Manhattan’s quality of life, Ydanis led the way and fought back.
Born in the Dominican Republic, son of Catholic farm workers, and one of eleven siblings, Ydanis came to the Washington Heights community when he was 18 years old. Determined to set a positive example, Ydanis worked tirelessly to help lift his family out of poverty. While earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the City College of New York, he worked as a taxi-driver. He went on to pursue his Master’s degree in Bi-lingual Education.
Ydanis is one of the founding teachers of Gregorio Luperon High School, a school dedicated to the educational success of new immigrant families. As the demand for enrollment increased and schools faced overcrowded classrooms, he helped form a coalition of community leaders and parents to advocate and demand increased school capacity and higher quality facilities. They took the fight from their community to the steps of City Hall, resulting in a new state of the art facility to house Gregorio Luperon High School.
What Ydanis learned from the education system he quickly applied to other areas in need. Some of his accomplishments include: improved translation and interpretation services in local hospitals; leading the fight to shut down a proposed correction facility on 182nd street; saving subway token booths in District 10 with former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields; working with parents to defeat a proposed suspension site on 169th street; derailing a proposed toll on Northern Manhattan bridges with Assemblyman Espaillat; Opposing fare increases with the Straphangers Campaign; exposing abusive and corrupted landlords with tenant organizations; and founding a program which provides access to academic and extra-curricular resources to first generation high school and pre-high school students and their families—a program acclaimed by today’s Governor Paterson.
Ydanis resides in the Marble Hill community with his family. With their help, he continues to give back to his community. His 14 years of teaching has only heightened his sense of responsibility and passion for serving the communities of Washington Heights/Inwood and Marble Hill. For more than 20 years he has dedicated his service with unflinching courage, complete honesty and unquestioned integrity. Precisely the qualities that our community demands and needs in these trying times.
For more information about Ydanis Rodríguez go to http://www.ydanis.com/
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario