STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 The man tasked with figuring out how to pay for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s ambitious affordability agenda is no stranger to Staten Island.<\/p>\n
In fact, Sherif Soliman knows the borough better than most working in city government, having grown up and started his career here on Staten Island.<\/p>\n
Soliman, who moved to New Springville with his family at 11 years old, will serve as director of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Management and Budget<\/a> for the incoming administration.<\/p>\n Though not born here and no longer living here, Soliman still considers himself a Staten Islander at heart, having spent most of his formative years in the borough.<\/p>\n Last week, Soliman sat down the Advance\/SILive.com for an exclusive interview to discuss his experiences on Staten Island and what he views as the highest priorities for the borough in the coming years.<\/p>\n After moving from Queens to Staten Island in 1986, Soliman attended the Rocco Laurie Intermediate School (I.S. 72) in New Springville before graduating from Port Richmond High School.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best friends I have today are friends I grew up with on Staten Island,\u201d said Soliman.<\/p>\n Like any former Staten Islander, he reflected fondly on the borough\u2019s pizzerias, shouting out Denino\u2019s, Joe and Pat\u2019s and Brother\u2019s. <\/p>\n \u201cGoing to Port Richmond High School, we used to always stop at Brother\u2019s to get squares, as we called them, or the Sicilian slices, which were among the best I\u2019ve had still to this day,\u201d he reminisced.<\/p>\n Soliman is well aware of Staten Island\u2019s perception as the forgotten borough, having grown up in New Springville near what was once the city\u2019s literal dumping grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom New Springville, you would see the heaps and heaps of garbage and the smell that came along with that sometimes was unbearable. So that sort of was my first impression of how Staten Island needed to move beyond being the place where all the garbage went,\u201d said Soliman. \u201cSo I\u2019m acutely aware of the residents of Staten Island feeling like Staten Island has been the forgotten borough.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to discuss some of the borough\u2019s longstanding transportation issues, including heavy car traffic, battered roadways and a lack of mass transit options compared to the rest of the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re attuned to those concerns of Staten Islanders. Again, I\u2019ve lived it, and so that is the kind of knowledge that I\u2019ll bring with me to the Office of Management and Budget, and knowing the concerns of Staten Island, hopefully be in a position, as we move forward on putting out the budget, to address some of those issues,\u201d Soliman said.<\/p>\n Soliman acknowledged that the city will need quite a bit of help in order to fund Mamdani\u2019s ambitious affordability agenda, which includes proposals like free buses and universal childcare.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are ongoing conversations with the state of New York, with the governor and her team. The governor has been public about the desire to do something on childcare, and so we\u2019re looking forward to continuing those conversations, and hopefully they\u2019ll bear fruit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The administration also plans to work with various city agencies to identify potential efficiencies that could reduce existing costs and reallocate those funds towards affordability initiatives.<\/p>\n When asked about funding priorities for Staten Island, Soliman reiterated the need to improve mass transit options and make the borough more affordable, but also noted the need to continue enhancing environmental resiliency to reduce flooding and better prepare the borough for future storms.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will look at our capital plan, we will look at our budget, and we will look at where there are ongoing efforts to address environmental resiliency, and we will look at opportunities to enhance those, or to look at ways that we can move projects forward,\u201d he said. \u201cI know that that\u2019s really a concern in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Soliman\u2019s career<\/p>\n Early in his career, Soliman was chief of staff to former Assemblyman Eric Vitaliano. He was later tapped to lead the New York State Legislative Affairs team<\/a> and had roles that included serving as director of communications at the New York City Employees\u2019 Retirement System and chief of staff for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Operations.<\/p>\n