First of all I have to congratulate the man for his hard work to improve the life of Dominican immigrants in New York. Aside from my mother and father this person has been the most influential person in my life Ydanis Rodriguez now a NY city council and My EX-TEACHER at Gregorio Luperon High school in NY the first school I attended after arriving from DR the first time. To me the smartest Dominican I have ever met and hold a lot of respect for the man who personally once told me."Saying you are Dominican doesn't mean you love Dominican Republic the love for the land is something that cannot be expressed with nothing else but action". This quote has been stuck with me for almost 15 years now.

Here is his profile from www.ydanis.com
Ydanis Rodriguez on the left:


Ydanis Rodriguez has a long track record of fighting, and winning, for our community when City Hall has let us down. Time and again, when Washington Heights/Inwood and Marble Hill were denied much needed services, Ydanis helped deliver them. When developers and their government sidekicks initiated plans that would destroy Northern Manhattan’s quality of life, Ydanis led the way and fought back.

Born in the Dominican Republic, son of Catholic farm workers, and one of eleven siblings, Ydanis came to the Washington Heights community when he was 18 years old. Determined to set a positive example, Ydanis worked tirelessly to help lift his family out of poverty. While earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the City College of New York, he worked as a taxi-driver. He went on to pursue his Master’s degree in Bi-lingual Education.

Ydanis is one of the founding teachers of Gregorio Luperon High School, a school dedicated to the educational success of new immigrant families. As the demand for enrollment increased and schools faced overcrowded classrooms, he helped form a coalition of community leaders and parents to advocate and demand increased school capacity and higher quality facilities. They took the fight from their community to the steps of City Hall, resulting in a new state of the art facility to house Gregorio Luperon High School.

What Ydanis learned from the education system he quickly applied to other areas in need. Some of his accomplishments include: improved translation and interpretation services in local hospitals; leading the fight to shut down a proposed correction facility on 182nd street; saving subway token booths in District 10 with former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields; working with parents to defeat a proposed suspension site on 169th street; derailing a proposed toll on Northern Manhattan bridges with Assemblyman Espaillat; Opposing fare increases with the Straphangers Campaign; exposing abusive and corrupted landlords with tenant organizations; and founding a program which provides access to academic and extra-curricular resources to first generation high school and pre-high school students and their families—a program acclaimed by today’s Governor Paterson.

Ydanis resides in the Marble Hill community with his family. With their help, he continues to give back to his community. His 14 years of teaching has only heightened his sense of responsibility and passion for serving the communities of Washington Heights/Inwood and Marble Hill. For more than 20 years he has dedicated his service with unflinching courage, complete honesty and unquestioned integrity. Precisely the qualities that our community demands and needs in these trying times.

Very inspitational!! What we can all achive if we work hard, and never give up until we reach our goal!!
I did not know who he was until you posted this Belly!!

Our youth should be looking up to this gentleman as their role models not the pro athletes and rappers!! I CERTAINLY will be showing this post to my children!!

I had the pleasure of being his student and knowing him as a person since I use to be around him a lot because to me he was always a interesting person. Ydanis is a man of unquestionable integrity and very honest I should say. This man is unquestionable hero in the Dominican community and many are benefiting from his past and present work for the community like me.I remember him staying after school non-pay to help students with their work for free. I'm glad he is succeeding and glad he was one of the founding members of Gregorio Luperon High school in 181st in NY because it did made life much easier since they thought the classes in Spanish and gave English classes until student know enough English to integrate into a regular High school like I did by going to John F. Kennedy High school in the Bronx,NY. The funny thing is I still got my ID from there with me 14 years later.

To me he is the most influential and under rated Dominican in NY. I wish he runs for president in DR he would be what we need there or I should say the second Juan Bosch

How is encouraging people to stay in school and make school a priority even for those who came into the country new somehow a liberal policy. Education is the foundation of every society maybe you should try it some and you will understand business don't survive for too long without educated people behind it. So he kept me down according to you, Well let me give you a reality check my friend he didn't because encouraging people to stay and graduate not just from High school but college too is not keeping them down is raising them up but anyways something you probably wouldn't understand since you think that is keeping people down.

How lucky you have been Belly, to have a mentor of such high caliber and integrity as Ydanis. He is a model and example to other young Dominicans that aspire to better themselves, and that there is life besides quick enrichment at any costs, loud music, indulging in spirits and harmful foods, and behaving like immature children.
Those among us that shout the loudest, are the most perverted, promoting heavy drinking like it was a contest, endless partying and a life free of any responsibility, very similar to animals that do not have the ability to think logically, or do simple reasoning tasks.
These humanoids of simplistic thoughts and oral fixations are hopefully the past, the future resides in persons like Ydanis and yourself, and a few other contributors that get rewards and satisfaction from raising the floor below them, not just living a life constantly feeding their huge egos, just worried about satisfaction of their animal desires.

General Thank you for your comments as I have told you many times and I will keep saying it your comments are really appreciated by me. I would have love for the many Dominicans who met the guy. In my lifetime I have never personally met another person with such integrity as Ydanis. Ever since I met him in school he was my favorite teacher from day one for some reason I always saw him to be to much of a man to be just a school teacher and always thought he was going to be bigger than that. General I wish he was our President because if he was I would be able to sleep happily every night. To me this guy even though has a ways to go should be positioned in the caliber of such people as Juan Bosch and Peña Gomez.He has done so much work behind the scene for the Dominican community in NY and I feel he doesn't get the credit just because he really doesn't care about being recognized, all he cares is about doing the work without complaining about the conditions. I do pay him a visit every time I'm in NY and have donated to his campaign a couple of times already. General I wish you had the chance to meet him too and quickly you will know what a hero looks like in real person.

The DR needs many more like him, we have to be focused and not be entrapped by messianistic thinking, that just one man is going to arrive and solve all the problems for the majority.
I have not met Mr. Rodriguez, but I am a good judge of character, and I see compassion in his face,
as well as a dedication for service.
When it warms up in NY, and time permitting I can visit the big apple, and will call on you to provide his coordinates.

Worst kind of Liberal. A Liberal NIMBY!