Trailblazing former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman has died
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former borough president claire shulman was honored by the qjcc in september 2019. eagle photo by walter karling
By David Brand
By April 16, the coronavirus was surging in Claire Shulman’s beloved borough, killing thousands of her neighbors and former constituents. COVID-19 proved particularly lethal for older adults, many of whom no doubt cast their ballots for Shulman during her four terms as Queens borough president from 1986 to 2002.
As the city and state scrambled to secure additional hospital beds, the effort was personal for Shulman, a registered nurse before her career in politics. An Eagle article that ran in print that day caught her attention.
Investment banker Stephen Berger, the chair of a state task force that pushed a sweeping hospital closure plan in 2005, said he stood by the shutdown proposal, even as COVID-19 strained facilities like Elmhurst Hospital — “the epicenter within the epicenter” — and made Queens an international symbol of the public health crisis. The Berger Commission’s cost-cutting plan led to the closure of five facilities in New York City, including Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills.
Shulman, who died Sunday at age 94, was still angry with the penny-pinching philosophy that informed the shutdown plan. She had fought to save local hospitals and, in 1997, helped prevent the city from selling off Queens Hospital Center, a public facility in Hillcrest where she once worked as a nurse. Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani committed to rebuilding the deteriorating facility in a project that became synonymous with Shulman and her advocacy.
“I fought like the devil to get Queens Hospital Center,” she said that day in April. “The government has to invest some money to make sure there is good medical care for every citizen.”
But after Parkway, two more hospitals shut down too.
“They were really awful,” she said of the closures. “It should have been different. They should have figured out ways to provide proper care without cutting out buildings and facilities for people who needed it.”
The 30-minute conversation in April, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Queens, demonstrated Shulman’s command of the borough’s history and modern developments, more than 18 years after she left office.
In the months before her death, she remained deeply invested in Queens and its politics. She endorsed Councilmember Donovan Richards for borough president and appeared with him when he announced his candidacy. Richards won the Democratic primary for borough president last month, meaning he will likely take over Shulman’s longtime office after the general election in November. He credited Shulman’s friendship and guidance for helping him secure the nomination and better understand the borough he hopes to lead.
Shulman “was one of a kind,” Richards tweeted Sunday night. “Her commitment to building institutions and fostering opportunities for people from all walks of life in Queens can’t be overstated.”
Shulman continued to read the local papers and recalled the complexities that paved the way for present day battles, many of them stretching back into the early days of her tenure as county executive.
She became borough president in 1986, taking over in an interim capacity when Donald Manes resigned amid a major corruption scandal. Shulman won her first election to serve as borough president later that year and held the position until 2002, when term limits forced her to leave office.
During her tenure, she presided over dozens of rezonings, including the 2001 plan that would pave the way for skyscrapers in Long Island City.
She also worked to establish or grow major cultural institutions in Queens, including the Queens Museum of Art, Queens Theatre, the Museum of the Moving Image and Flushing Town Hall, which honored Shulman at their 40th anniversary gala last year.
“Flushing Town Hall, like many of our fellow cultural institutions in the borough, would never have existed without Claire’s determination and support,” said Flushing Town Hall Executive and Artistic Director Ellen Kodadek. “It would be hard to imagine the richness of our cultural life of Queens, and of the borough itself, without Claire Shulman’s hand.”
Before her election as Queens County executive, Shulman worked as deputy borough president and director of community boards, beginning in 1972. She was first appointed to a community board in 1966.
Shulman was a pioneer, becoming the first woman to serve as Queens borough president and laying the foundation for 35 years of female representation. Helen Marshall was elected borough president after Shulman, followed by Melinda Katz, who vacated the office on Jan. 1 to take over as Queens district attorney. Acting Borough President Sharon Lee has held the position since Katz’s departure.
Lee called Shulman “larger than life” and said she provided crucial guidance over the past several months.
“In a borough known for its trailblazers, few have led a life of dedicated public service as robust and as effective as Claire Shulman,” Lee said. “She transformed the landscape of the city's largest borough, and so much of what we see and enjoy today are the results of her extraordinary vision and decisions made over 18 years ago.”
“No one loved Queens more than Claire Shulman, and in turn, she was widely respected and deeply loved,” Lee added.
Katz remembered Shulman as “a fierce leader who dedicated her life to bettering the lives of all Queens residents and paved the way for women leaders in the borough.”
“Claire was absolutely pivotal to the vibrancy and prosperity of Queens County that we continue to enjoy today.”
