View source for Louis DeSalvio

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}}
'''Louis F. DeSalvio''' (May 29, 1910 – August 17, 2004) served in the [[New York State Assembly]] for over 38 continuous years, longer than all but one other member in the history of that body.<ref name=jolly>Maurice Carroll, "[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/01/18/109382276.pdf  Fledglings Find DeSalvio a Jolly Sage]," New York Times, January 25, 1975.</ref>   From 1941 to 1979, he represented districts that included the southern end of [[Manhattan]] (including the [[Lower East Side]]), [[Liberty Island]], [[Ellis Island]], [[Governors Island]], and (after 1972) the eastern edge of [[Staten Island]].<ref>Associated Press, "Large Area, Small Vote for DeSalvio," Cumberland (MD) Evening Times, June 28, 1968, at p. 37.</ref> From 1975 to 1978, he served as the Assembly's [[speaker pro tempore]].  In that capacity, he often presided over the body.

==Personal background==
DeSalvio was born in [[New York City]], the son of district leader John DeSalvio, who also boxed under the name "the Legendary Jimmy Kelly."<ref name=jolly/> He attended the City's public schools and graduated from [[DeWitt Clinton High School]].<ref name=redbook>New York Red Book, Vol. 80, 1971–1972, p. 172 (1971).</ref>  He married the former Elvira Mongillo, with whom he had two children, John and Maria.<ref name=redbook/> He was employed as a deputy collector for the U.S. [[Internal Revenue Service]].<ref>Empire State Report, Vol. 3, p. 63 (1977).</ref>  In 1939 DeSalvio lost a race for an at-large seat to represent Manhattan on the [[New York City Council]].

==State Assembly==

===Elections===
First elected to the New York State Assembly in November 1940 to represent New York City's 2nd District, he represented that district from 1941 to 1966, sitting in the [[163rd New York State Legislature|163rd]], [[164th New York State Legislature|164th]], [[165th New York State Legislature|165th]], [[166th New York State Legislature|166th]], [[167th New York State Legislature|167th]], [[168th New York State Legislature|168th]], [[169th New York State Legislature|169th]], [[170th New York State Legislature|170th]], [[171st New York State Legislature|171st]], [[172nd New York State Legislature|172nd]], [[173rd New York State Legislature|173rd]], [[174th New York State Legislature|174th]] and [[175th New York State Legislature]]s.

After redistricting was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court's "[[one man, one vote]]" decision in [[Reynolds v. Sims]], 377 U.S. 533 (1964), he represented the 66th District in the [[176th New York State Legislature]] in 1966 while chairing a legislative committee responsible for developing a final district map. The map proposed by his own committee separated his home address from most of his district, leading him to declare that the new plan would ruin his chances unless he moved.<ref>"[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/01/07/79269701.pdf  Hearing is Begun on District Plan]," New York Times, January 7, 1966.</ref> DeSalvio moved later that year, and represented the 60th District in the [[177th New York State Legislature|177th]], [[178th New York State Legislature|178th]] and [[179th New York State Legislature]]s from 1967 to 1972.

Redistricting in 1972 combined most of the old 60th district with part of [[Staten Island]] to form the new 62nd District. Those changes caused Democratic and Republican-Conservative strategists to doubt DeSalvio's chances of re-election.<ref>"[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/10/15/90722530.pdf  State's Democrats are Gloomy About Maintaining Their Seats in Legislature]," New York Times, October 15, 1972.</ref> Nevertheless, he was re-elected that year and three more times, representing the 62nd District in the [[180th New York State Legislature|180th]], [[181st New York State Legislature|181st]], [[182nd New York State Legislature|182nd]] and [[183rd New York State Legislature]]s from 1973 to 1979.

His closest race was for renomination in 1970, when he won a three-way primary with 80 more votes than his nearest challenger, Republican Hyman Dechter.  While he consistently ran as a Democrat, he received the endorsement of the State's Conservative Party at least once (in 1974). DeSalvio resigned a few days into his last term, on January 9, 1979, to take a job with the State Insurance Fund.<ref>"[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/02/14/111073336.pdf  Viggiano Called Favorite to Win DeSalvio's Seat; Special-Assembly Election Scheduled for March 20]," New York Times, February 14, 1980.</ref>

On January 10, 2009, New York Assemblyman [[Richard Gottfried]], who had been elected in 1970 to a term beginning in January 1971, broke DeSalvio's record for continuous service. Gottfried continues to serve.

===Issues===
DeSalvio was instrumental in two preservation battles with New York redevelopment czar [[Robert Moses]].  In 1949, he teamed with State Senator [[Elmer F. Quinn]] to draft a bill, known as the DeSalvio-Quinn Bill, to convey [[Castle Clinton]] (at the southern end of Manhattan) to the [[U.S. federal government|federal government]], in order to frustrate Moses{{'}} plans to demolish it.<ref name=DeSalvio-Quinn>[http://www.nypap.org/content/de-salvio-quinn-bill  The DeSalvio-Quinn Bill], at [http://www.nypap.org/ The New York Preservation Archive Project], accessed October 8, 2011.</ref> President Harry Truman had designated Castle Clinton as a [[National Monument (United States)|national monument]] in 1946, but that designation could not actually protect the property until it was owned by the federal government. Both houses of the state legislature passed the DeSalvio-Quinn Bill and in April 1949 Governor [[Thomas Dewey]] signed it, thus securing the protection of the site.<ref name=DeSalvio-Quinn/>

In the 1960s, DeSalvio became instrumental in defeating construction of the proposed [[Lower Manhattan Expressway]].  Moses was the Expressway's chief proponent. DeSalvio made a famous speech at a hearing before the [[New York City Board of Estimate]] in which he characterized Moses as a "'stubborn old man" and the proposed  expressway as "a mad visionary's dream."<ref>[[Jim Rasenberger]], "[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/01/nyregion/coulda-woulda-shoulda.html Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda]," New York Times, August 1, 2004.</ref> Paradoxically, DeSalvio introduced bills in 1962 and 1963 to purchase Ellis Island from the federal government and use it as the site of a new state  university campus<ref>"Bill Urges State Buy Ellis Island," Syracuse Post-Standard, February 4, 1962, at p. 36.</ref> and as a hospital and research center for narcotics addicts.<ref>"Proposes State Buy Ellis Island," Syracuse Post-Standard, 1963-01-13, at p. 32.</ref> Neither bill became law.

In 1966, DeSalvio criticized the State's plan to construct the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]], complaining that the twin towers would be unnecessary, except perhaps for use by [[NASA]] as part of a slingshot to launch astronauts toward the moon.<ref>James Glanz and Eric Lipton, "City in the Sky: the Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center," p. 152 (2003).</ref>

[[Sports Illustrated]] mocked him in 1963 for proposing what it described as a "weird suggestion," that state-operated horse tracks allow betting not only on races at that track, but also races at other tracks shown live on closed-circuit television.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140312212237/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1135248/2/index.htm Scorecard], Sports Illustrated, December 23, 1963.</ref>  This "weird suggestion" became an important part of New York's [[off-track betting]] system.<ref name=naming>Sanna Feirstein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7ourZIpRoJEC&q=louis+deSalvio%3A&pg=PA60 Naming New York: Manhattan Places and How they Got their Names]," p. 60.</ref>

===Honors and associations===

[[DeSalvio Playground]] (originally named "John DeSalvio Park") on the corner of [[Spring Street (Manhattan)|Spring Street]] and [[Mulberry Street (Manhattan)|Mulberry Street]] in [[NoLita]] honors Louis and his father.<ref name="nycgovparks.org">[https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/desalvio-playground/ "DeSalvio Playground"] [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]] website</ref>

DeSalvio was the permanent grand marshal of the [[Feast of San Gennaro]] in the [[Little Italy]] section of lower Manhattan.<ref>Calvin Trillin, "Confessions of  Standup Sausage Eater," The New Yorker Magazine, reprinted in ''Disquiet Please!:  More Humor Writing from the New Yorker,'' pp. 488, 491 (2010).</ref> He was also a close friend of [[Carmine DeSapio]],<ref>Victor J. Papa, "[http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_73/rememberingmyfriend.html Remembering my Friend, Neighbor, and Assemblyman],"Downtown Express, October 1, 2004 to 07.</ref> leader of [[Tammany Hall]] in the 1940s who became [[New York Secretary of State]] before suffering electoral defeats and, in 1969, a federal criminal conviction for conspiracy to bribe a state water official.

After his retirement from public life, Louis F. DeSalvio Corner in Mid-Lower Manhattan, was named for him.<ref name=naming/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{s-start}}
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{{succession box | title = [[New York State Assembly]] <br>New York County, 2nd District | before = [[Louis J. Capozzoli]] | years = 1941–1965 | after = district abolished}}
{{succession box | title = [[New York State Assembly]] <br>66th District | before = new district | years = 1966 | after = [[S. William Green]]}}
{{succession box | title = [[New York State Assembly]] <br>60th District | before = [[Robert F. Kelly (New York)|Robert F. Kelly]] | years = 1967–1972 | after = [[Lucio F. Russo]]}}
{{succession box | title = [[New York State Assembly]] <br>62nd District | before = [[Andrew Stein]] | years = 1973–1979 | after = [[Paul M. Viggiano]]}}
{{s-end}}

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[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly]]
[[Category:DeWitt Clinton High School alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American legislators]]
[[Category:20th-century New York (state) politicians]]