By Linda D. Mitchell

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields believes that New York City will see its first woman Mayor in the very near future. And she is not shy about stating that she aspires to be the one that breaks through the barrier.

“It is going to happen soon, very soon and I would like to be the one that does it,” said the former social worker who entered the often treacherous currents of New York City politics more than a decade ago and has become one of its rising stars and a leading spokesperson for education and economic equity in the nation’ largest city.

“Indeed I would like to be Mayor,” says Fields whose life of public activism began when she joined Dr. Martin Luther King in the struggle for civil rights as a young teenager, braving among other things, the fire hoses of Birmingham Alabama, and went on to distinguish herself, after moving to New York City 1970 as a social service provider, working for the Children’s Aid Society, the National Board of the YWCA and New York City Release Program and also as a volunteer community leader in thee Harlem community in the two decades that followed.

The long-time community leader and public official said of her ambitions for Gracie Mansion. “It is something I definitely aspire to because I know that I can bring a whole wealth of knowledge and experience to the position.”

That experience includes two terms as a City Council member representing the Harlem community where she distinguished herself in helping to create increased affordable housing opportunities in the community, while working to increase opportunities for local small businesses, fighting to save valuable social service programs for youth and seniors, and helping to make sure that each child has access to a quality education.

After becoming Manhattan Borough President she continues the fight for many of the same causes, among other things helping to support the establishment of an empowerment zone for the Eight Avenue corridor between 110^{th Street and 135th Street, which has not only pumped in millions in subsidies to help energize the business community of upper Manhattan but has helped attract other commercial developers to the area. “The empowerment zone in Harlem and other areas of the city helped many local people, particularly women, establish business and find opportunities while giving others the chance to expand their businesses and create opportunities for others,” she said.}

Going hand-in hand with the rebirth in business in many of Manhattan’s minority communities is another program Fields has strongly supported which has provided tax incentives to developers who have invested in many of the borough’s poorer neighborhoods, helping to redevelop much of the community’s abandoned or severely deteriorated housing along with other related facilities such as attached parts, playgrounds and community centers.

Fields is also currently leading the fight to have the MTA expand the Second Avenue subway project, which initially called for the new line to serve only midtown, to include all of Manhattan from 125th Street through the Battery, the entire length of Second Avenue.

In addition, she has successfully fought for more than $2 million in additional state funding for public schools and ahs recently become involved in legal action to require the state to provide equitable funding for New York City schools.

Fields was also one of the original sponsors of a bill, which has become law, banning the sale of realistic-looking toy guns, a law which many say has already saved many lives.

She has criticized Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the past over the issue of what she an many believe to be numerous instances of excessive force used by the New York City Police Department.

And while publicly criticizing the Mayor, she strongly supported his then opponent, First Lady Hillary Clinton in the upcoming race for New York’s open seat in the US Senate. “Hillary victory will be a landmark victory for all women in New York State. Fields added, Clinton’s presence in the Senate, representing New York State will give the state and the city a new found respect and power in Congress while helping to give greater visibility to the abilities of women in high elected government office.

For Fields, a victory by Clinton would generally help pave the way for other ground breaking political victories for women in the future, and specifically serve as inspiration for Fields to realize her goals of being the city’s first woman Mayor.

She’s traveled a long way from the fire hoses of Birmingham and she intends to travel even further in the years to come.