Eric Gioia is a tireless worker and a tenacious advocate for all New Yorkers.
Eric was born and raised in Woodside Queens, where his family has owned a small flower shop on Roosevelt Avenue for over a century. He attended local public schools P.S. 11 and I.S. 125, and St. Francis Prep and then paid his way through NYU working nights as a janitor, doorman and elevator operator and member of SEIU Local 32BJ.
Eric attended Georgetown Law School, where he got his big break – landing a job working in the White House Counsel’s office in the Clinton Administration. Eric practiced law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and worked on Vice President Gore’s 2000 presidential election, where he met his wife, Lisa Hernandez Gioia. In 2001 Eric ran for a seat on the New York City Council. He won the Democratic primary by a three to one margin, and won the general election by the widest margin in the city.
Called “energetic” by The New York Times, Eric spent his first year in office visiting every public school in his district, speaking to parents, teachers, principals and students. He made education a top priority, securing millions for computers and technology in his district’s schools to ensure that students are prepared for the 21st Century, dramatically expanding after school activities, and working to increase access to higher education by supporting free college counseling and SAT preparation. When Eric heard that teachers were spending money out of their own pockets to pay for basic school supplies like paper and markers, he went to work and got money to reimburse them.
When visiting schools, Eric also heard from teachers that many students' performance was suffering because they came to class hungry. Since then, he has been a leader in the fight to end hunger in New York City, where over 400,000 children go to bed without enough to eat every night. In May 2007 Eric took the “food stamp challenge” by living for one week off the equivalent of what a person on food stamps is allocated, $28 per week in New York City. His participation drew much needed attention to the hunger problem in New York City and raised awareness on the importance of increasing benefits. After multiple investigations into the difficulty of accessing food stamps, Eric’s laws and advocacy have led to improved access to food stamps, with offices now open longer, an application that has dropped from 24 pages to 4, and beginning this winter, online applications to make it easier for people like working moms, who are most likely to be eligible for food stamps but not apply.
As Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, Eric has exposed inefficiency, waste and mismanagement, and worked to make government cost less and work better. He has uncovered deplorable living conditions for homeless New Yorkers with AIDS, excessive wait times for mammogram screenings, sexual predators illegally living in public housing, and defective bulletproof vests sold to the NYPD. Eric’s hard-hitting hearings have shined light on egregious worker safety violations and resulted in a massive whistleblower education program for City workers. Using the findings of his investigations, Eric worked with his colleagues to pass laws to ensure the wide availability of emergency contraception to all women in New York, and to strengthen the Tax Payer Bill of Rights. After Eric’s investigation into the widely varying cost of prescription drugs, the New York State legislature took up his recommendations and created a website to notify seniors and other consumers of the lowest prices for needed medications.
In his district, Eric has led the renaissance in Long Island City, where the waterfront is being opened up to the public after decades of neglect with new parks, schools and homes. Eric has advocated for more affordable housing for working families and the middle class. He passed the first-ever inclusionary zoning plan in Queens, which the Daily News called the “housing plan that could save Queens,” shepherded through the City’s largest middle-income housing development on the Queens waterfront, and encouraged innovative new programs for affordable homeownership. In Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing development in the country, Eric funded security cameras that led to a significant decrease in crime, and worked with residents to bring a bank to the neighborhood, giving residents an alternative to check cashers and payday lenders and helping them begin to save and break the cycle of poverty.
Eric is not afraid to take on tough fights for the neighborhood. He sued a landlord on behalf of tenants living in deplorable conditions and won them repairs and three months back rent. Eric fought back when MTA service cuts were shutting down the #7 train, cutting off access for Queens residents and businesses. After a massive blackout left Western Queens without power for 9 days, Eric stood up to electric giant Con Ed to demand accountability and has continued to press for improved technology, efficiency and oversight. He sued Exxon to force them to clean up their massive underground oil spill in Newtown Creek – fifty percent larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. In 2008, Eric spoke out against changes to the City’s term limits law, defending the twice-voted will of the people.
Eric was reelected in in 2003 and again in 2005 to represent Long Island City, Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria and Maspeth. He and his wife Lisa Hernandez Gioia live in Queens with their daughter Amelia.
