☞ MEET: Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia

One of East Harlem's most memorable citizens and arguably one of the greatest mayors of all time, Fiorello LaGuardia helped the city recover during the post-Depression years of the 1940's. Fiorello's name translated literally to "the little flower," an apt description since he was quite diminutive at about 5'2" in height. Although his name and statues mark prominent, present-day public spaces in New York City, many New Yorkers were not around to remember his deeds.

Born in 1882 in Greenwich Village to an Italian father and a Jewish mother, "Fio" would start his career by representing the Lower East Side and eventually moved to the Little Italy up in East Harlem so that he could represent the Italian district in Congress. Using his cultural background, LaGuardia won the Lower East Side by being able to speak to the heavily Jewish population in Yiddish, and he was a strong detractor of the Nazi Party. In 1923, the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem was at its peak, and many new immigrants were living in poor conditions along with a heavy criminal and often times Mafia presence. Fiorello would preside over the district until 1933 when he would run for Mayor of New York.

As the Mayor, LaGuardia was known for bringing New York City back on its feet. An avid fighter of slums and crime, Fiorello would first take on remnants of Tammany Hall and the mafia while constructing more park spaces with his new Parks Comissioner, Robert Moses. Though this was the beginning of the hyper Urban Renewal that would eventually scatter his old neighborhood, it did help provide work and hope for New Yorkers. LaGuardia was the most unlikely Republican because of his ethnic background and that he was an avid fighter of social injustices.

Fiorello spent his early career fighting for children's rights and would be known as a fatherly figure to the city. In 1906, LaGuardia worked for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Children and was himself a father by the time he moved to East Harlem. When the nation was at war in 1945 and newspapers were no longer delivered, the Mayor decided that he could not let the children of the city be deprived of reading their weekly comic strips.  He took to the airwaves and read popular cartoons of the period, laughing at the jokes he recounted.

Mayor LaGuardia would be known for his quick and effective policies but would be remembered by most for his unfettered love for the people of New York City.