Four Months Into Job, Sen. Gustavo Rivera to Move into District Office Next Week

[UPDATE: Cruz wanted to respond to this post by sending over a statement:  "Senator Rivera is excited that the New York State Senate has finally approved the lease for his permanent office. The office was identified in December and the process of approval began in January. This lengthy process that Senator Rivera and his constituents have experienced is a very tangible illustration of the need to reform the way business is done in Albany." Cruz also said she was told by a staffer for senate Democrats that there other legislators who are still trying to secure office space. She added that while she and Rivera have worked from home, Rivera's team has either worked from the senate offices at 250 Broadway or the mobile office locations. For constituents, I've posted those mobile office hours at the bottom of the post.]

Looks like the Gustavo Rivera Watch will come to an end next week when the 33rd District state senator begins the long-delayed move into his new district office in the Poe Building on the Grand Concourse, just south of Fordham Road. (The address is 2432 Grand Concourse for those looking to Google map it.)

Conchita Cruz, Rivera's communications director, said final approval just came through this morning and that the state senate would be shipping furniture to the office on Tuesday.

Rivera is the only state senator without a district office. For the past three and a half months, when he hasn't been in Albany, he's been working out of his Kingsbridge-area apartment or downtown at the state senate offices near City Hall. His staff has been holding mobile office hours at various locations and working out of their own homes.

Cruz has said the delay wasn't some nefarious plot by the Republican majority, but rather just typical Albany bureaucracy slowly working its way toward accomplishing something as simple as approving and signing a lease on a district office. (It remains unclear which explanation is a sadder illustration of Albany's problems.)

In any case, Cruz said they will probably hold some kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony or open house in the next couple of weeks.

As for the Gustavo Rivera Watch, a count-up that somebody launched a few days ago, starting the clock from the day he won the primary seems slightly unfair. Technically, Rivera's been office-less for 111 days so far. Not as bad as his predecessor, Pedro Espada, Jr., who didn't open an office -- it turned out to be just outside of the district and was his "majority leader" office -- until he was nine months into the job.

In the meantime, below are Rivera's mobile office hours, which Cruz said they are committed to keeping for the next couple of weeks:

--Monday: 10-2pm, Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, 3450 DeKalb Avenue
--Monday: 1-5pm, Asm. Castro's Office, 2175 Jerome Avenue, Suite C Bronx, NY 10453
--Tuesday: 2-6pm, Councilman Koppell's office - 3600 Waldo Ave.
--Wednesday: 10-1, 2-4, CB 7 Office, 229A E 204th St
--Thursday: 12-5 CB 6 1932 Arthur Avenue, Room 709