Bronx Community Board 10 has a new district manager, with longtime city government official Socrates S. Solano taking over the East Bronx board after more than 25 years working in public service.
Solano comes to CB10 with experience across several corners of city government, most recently serving as Associate Executive Director of Intergovernmental and External Affairs for NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln. He has also worked in the Mayor’s Office Community Affairs Unit, the Public Advocate’s Office and the City Council.
For Solano, the move to Community Board 10 brings that experience closer to the neighborhood level.
“My motivation stems from a lifelong career dedicated to public service in New York City and a deep commitment to neighborhood-level advocacy,” Solano told the Bronx Times.
Community Board 10 represents a wide section of the East Bronx, including Co-op City, City Island, Throggs Neck, Country Club, Pelham Bay, Westchester Square, Schuylerville, Edgewater, Locust Point and Silver Beach, among other neighborhoods.
Solano said his previous positions gave him experience working across city agencies while dealing with both everyday quality of life concerns and larger issues involving planning and development.
“To me, this position is about ensuring that every corner of District 10, whether a single homeowner in Country Club or a resident in Co-op City, has a responsive, transparent and highly effective channel to City Hall and municipal agencies,” Solano said.
Solano said that while at Lincoln Hospital, he worked on intergovernmental efforts to bring additional capital and program funding to the South Bronx hospital. Those efforts included funding for a $14 million cardiac catheterization laboratory and a $10 million allocation for a new neonatal intensive care unit. He also worked with Congressman Ritchie Torres’ office to secure $350,000 for the hospital’s Guns Down Life Up youth violence prevention program.
That experience working with different levels of government is something Solano said he plans to bring with him to CB10, particularly when residents find themselves struggling to get answers from city agencies.
“Navigating city bureaucracies can be overwhelming for residents,” Solano said. “I know exactly which bureau chiefs, agency liaisons and chief staff members to contact when an issue stalls, bypassing administrative bottlenecks to resolve neighborhood concerns efficiently.”
Solano also plans to put an emphasis on the board’s District Service Cabinet, where representatives from city agencies come together to address issues affecting the district. He said his existing relationships with agencies including the Department of Transportation, Department of Sanitation, NYPD, Parks Department and Department of Environmental Protection can help move outstanding community concerns forward.
His background also includes experience coordinating with elected officials and government agencies on infrastructure, land use and public safety issues.
Solano succeeds Matthew Cruz, who became Community Board 10’s district manager in June 2017.
Now in the district manager’s seat, Solano said his role is not to set policy for the board, but to make sure the decisions made by its members and the concerns raised by residents are followed through with the appropriate city agencies.
For Solano, that means using the relationships and knowledge of city government he has built over more than two decades and putting them to work for the neighborhoods of the East Bronx.
