Antonio Reynoso
Elected as the first Latino Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso is a native Brooklynite, born and raised along with two sisters in South Williamsburg to Dominican immigrants. Antonio’s early life was one of financial insecurity and reliance on social benefits while he also worked and contributed to his family’s livelihood. However, he found opportunities through education.
Education was the key to making it in life, and his parents instilled that belief in a young Reynoso. He attended La Salle Academy on a full-scholarship and received a BA in Political Science from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, also on a scholarship.
After graduation, he returned to Brooklyn and began working for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an international collection of autonomous community-based organizations that advocated for low- and moderate-income families.
In 2009, he joined the staff of City Councilwoman Diana Reyna, working in constituent services and quickly rose to become Chief of Staff. When the term-limited Councilwoman stepped down Antonio Reynoso, for the first time, ran for elective office as a candidate to replace his former mentor as City Council Representative for Council District 34, representing portions of Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens.
As a member of the City Council, Antonio Reynoso demonstrated his commitment to advocating for the residents he represented, and the thousands more throughout the city with similar needs. He focused his energy on quality-of-life issues, including waste-management, policing, tenant safety, transportation, and land-use where he took the lead in advocating for the rezoning of Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Experiencing and witnessing injustices in multiple facets of everyday life, he has dedicated his career to advocating for bold, progressive legislation citywide that improves the lives of his family, friends, neighbors, and constituents.
As two-time Chair of the Sanitation Committee, he had a resounding impact on a major concern that affected both the environment, and health of New Yorkers, as he led the charge to reduce the tonnage of trash in Northern Brooklyn by 50 percent. As thousands of Black and Latino New Yorkers were arbitrarily being stopped and frisked by members of the NYPD, Reynoso was instrumental in the passage of the Right to Know Act. Witnessing the rise of harassment of building tenants by unscrupulous landlords using construction and repairs as modes of harassment by making residency untenable, Reynoso had a crucial role in passing the Tenant Safety Act to protect tenants’ rights.
Now, Reynoso is serving Brooklyn to make the borough the progressive capital of the world by building on his extensive record in the City Council. Reynoso’s twin guiding principles throughout his life, have always been the concepts of justice and equity, and he has vowed to fight each and every day to give all Brooklynites the opportunity to thrive and succeed.
Antonio Reynoso lives in Williamsburg with his wife and two sons.