Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr.

Adolfo Carrión, Jr., the Bronx’s 12th chief executive since municipal incorporation in 1898, was born in Lower Manhattan and moved with his family to the Baychester section of the Northeast Bronx when he was in fourth grade.

The son of a Protestant minister and a mother who gave him a daily dose of the golden rule, Carrión graduated from Kings College, a Christian liberal arts college then located in Westchester County. He served as an associate pastor at a Bronx church and later as a public school teacher in the west Bronx.

After earning a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College, part of the City University of New York, Carrión worked for three years in the Bronx office of the New York City Department of City Planning.

Carrión then became the district manager for Community Board 5 in the Bronx, overseeing the delivery of services to over 150,000 residents. He later became Vice President of Human Services and Community Outreach for Promesa, a community development organization.

In 1997, Carrión ran for and won a seat in the City Council representing the Bronx’s 14th District including the West Bronx neighborhoods of University Heights, Morris Heights, Kingsbridge and Fordham. As a member of the City Council, Carrión sat on the Economic Development, Education, Higher Education, Environmental Protection, Governmental Operations and Land Use committees. He also served as chairman of a special Subcommittee on the 2000 Census. 

Carrión committed his administration to the leadership principles he stressed in his campaign – a promise to work for improved schools and housing, more jobs at a living wage and safer streets for Bronx families. Believing that leadership and accountability go hand in hand, Carrión challenged Bronx residents, and himself, to look for outcomes and not just promises in assessing the progress and growth essential to the future of the borough’s 1.4 million people.

The Bronx is leading the way in providing housing opportunities for people of all incomes in the borough.  Since Carrión took office in 2001, over 2.2 billion dollars has been invested in residential real estate – resulting in 25,000 new units being built.  He has directed 40% of his 2007 capital funding to housing development.  Carrion created The Bronx at Work Housing Series to address critical housing needs in the borough for both consumers and developers.  He has hosted an Annual Free Homebuyers Fair, a symposium on Market Approaches to Affordable Housing and created the Bronx Homebuyer Education Initiative Program. In 2005, 1,222 new addresses were issued in the borough, a 97% increase since 2002.

The Bronx has seen a pace of development never before experienced in the history of the county.  Carrión has ensured that this development does not occur in a vacuum and has always insisted that the community must be involved.  By working with developers Carrión has created a set of standards for economic development in the Bronx.   Simply put if you want to do business in the Bronx, you must do business with the Bronx.  And this is working.  Residents, Bronx businesses, community groups and neighborhoods have benefited from the economic development taking place throughout the borough.  Jobs, new and improved parkland, better infrastructure, contract opportunities for Bronx businesses and benefits for community organizations are all a part of his building a stronger Bronx policy.  Total investment in the borough has increased from $400 million in 2001 to almost $1 billion invested in 2005, a 236% increase.  Since Carrión took office in 2001, over $3 billion has been invested throughout the borough. Commercial land use and investment has increased by 116 %, the Bronx has created 71% of private sector jobs for the city, property values have increased by 40%, and the unemployment rate has dropped nearly 6%. 

Carrión, 46, is married to Linda Baldwin, an attorney. He has three daughters – Raquel, Sara and Olivia – and a son Adolfo James, known as AJ. He lives with his family on City Island in the Bronx.