Eddie Perez (politician)

Eddie Alberto Pérez was born in 1957 in Corozal, Puerto Rico, where he spent much of his childhood. In 1969 the Pérez family moved with Eddie and his eight siblings to Hartford, Connecticut, which at the time had a growing Puerto Rican community. The family moved 14 times between the Clay Arsenal and Frog Hollow neighborhoods while Perez was growing up. During his youth, he was a member of the Ghetto Brothers gang. Perez graduated from Hartford Public High School and holds an associate degree from Capital Community College and a bachelor's degree in Economics from Trinity College (Connecticut).[5]

Beginning in 1979 as a Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) volunteer, Perez founded Organized Northeasterners/Clay Hill and North End Inc. (ONE/CHANE), a grassroots neighborhood organization dedicated to improving the housing and economic conditions in North Hartford. He then joined Make Something Happen, a program in Hartford's Stowe Village, as its director for two years.[5]

In 1990, Perez became director of community and government relations at Trinity College.[6] In 1999, Perez became the president of the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, an organization sponsored by Trinity College and Hartford Hospital. As SINA's president, Perez was instrumental in the foundation and implementation of the $110 million Learning Corridor complex.[7][5]

In his first run for political office in 2001, Eddie Pérez made history as the first Hispanic American to become mayor of a New England capital. A native of Puerto Rico, Pérez also broke new political ground by forging a bipartisan coalition of community activists and corporate leaders that contributed to his landslide victory. Elected on a platform of administrative reform, educational improvement, and housing development, Pérez received seventy-five percent of the vote on election day. Pérez credited grassroots support for giving him the victory. He also pointed to the reinvigorated sense of citizenship that his campaign had generated in Hartford's Hispanic community. "There was no sense of building social, economic, and cultural capital as Americans, "he told the New York Times shortly after his election, "We have to begin to rebuild that foundation."

Perez, a Democrat, was re-elected in 2003 in a landslide victory and again in 2007.[8] In 2007 an Editorial in the Hartford Courant credited Perez with helping to reform the Hartford public school system, reduce crime, increase the city's historically low homeownership rate, increase the number residents with access to high-speed internet and spark economic development.[9]

Perez gained a reputation for pushing forward urban redevelopment in both the central business district and neighborhoods of the city.[10] At the same time, he worked with grass-roots unions such as UNITE HERE to make sure jobs at new developments went to city residents.[11] Mayor Perez resigned from the office following his conviction on corruption charges in 2010.[12]

Since leaving office Perez has served as a consultant for non-profits. In 2013, along with two partners, Perez opened an insurance firm on Park Street in Hartford.[21] The firm closed soon thereafter.[22]

Since 2015 he has been employed as a transportation coordinator for the Capitol Region Education Council with a salary of $47,034 per year.[20]

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• About Hartford's Mayor. Hartford city government. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-01-29.