hites, which is one of the lowest proportions in any district. Great Democratic strength here has been consistent with other mainly minority districts. Another consistent pattern is low voter turnout. This is the result of recent immigration status, political alienation and poverty. A range of inner-city problems affects the residents of the 16th. It has the lowest median family income of the 435 House districts. More than 40 percent of all residents live in poverty, and less than half of the people 25 or older have high school diplomas. Once a major factory area, the South Bronx still has a handful of industrial employers, as well as two large wholesale food centers, the Hunts Point and the Bronx terminal markets, not to mention Yankee Stadium which is near by also. The 16th district comes to a northern point in Bronx Park, site of the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Garden.Congressman Serrano moved from Puerto Rico to South Bronx with his family, when he was seven years old. There he attended public schools and later graduated from Lehman College of the City University of New York. Then he served in the 172nd Support Battalion of the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Fort Wainright, Alaska during the Vietnam War. During his 27 years of public service, Serrano has pursued a consistent legislative philosophy. He believes the primary roles of government are to provide a climate in which all people should be treated equally and compete based entirely on their ability in an economy. Before his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Serrano had a distinguished sixteen-year career in the New York State Assembly, including six years as chairman of the Education Committee. He was first elected to the State Assembly in1974. When he was the Education Committee Chairman, in 1983, Serrano also wrote legislation that doubled state funding for bilingual education programs in 125 languages and provided $50 million in funding for New York City to combat the ...
