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Darren bloch says he thinks he has found something close to his ideal job as Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s director of intergovernmental & community relations. The position allows him to express his passion for policy and tackle the challenge of moving from policy to devising practical solutions.
Bloch, 31, waged an aggressive street campaign for City Council last year in one of the most crowded Democratic primary races in the city, the 2nd District, on Manhattan’s East Side.
“I felt like I had something to offer that dialogue and I’m glad I gave it a shot,” he said.
By age 25, Bloch had already served as chief of staff to the Nassau County Legislature and worked as executive director of the Nassau County Democratic Party. While in that position in 1999, he had what he called one of his greatest professional achievements to date, as he helped Democrats gain control of the county legislature for the first time in 80 years.
More than Mark Green’s, Gotbaum’s public advocate office has provided a citywide platform for handling one-on-one constituent complaints. The office has addressed issues from helping the city’s elderly and under-served to weighing in on land use, education, health and transportation issues.
But it was Gotbaum’s second-term goal of redefining the office and its role in city government that particularly appealed to Bloch.
“This job allows me to touch a range of critical issues important to me and to our city’s future, but it was Betsy’s personal commitment to bringing real change to city government and to people’s lives that really interested me in joining her team,” he said.
Bloch’s position has proven a springboard for aspiring politicians in the past—City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) held the post from 1994-1998, and former City Council Member Guillermo Linares (D-Manhattan) worked briefly for Gotbaum before leaving to make a run for State Senate. (He did not win, and is now commissioner of the mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.)
Though Bloch’s name was often mentioned in speculation about who might fill the Assembly seat formerly held by Steve Sanders (D-Manhattan), and currently by Sylvia Friedman (D), Bloch insisted that his time running for public office was behind him.
“What I enjoyed about running and why I ran is because someone has got to fight for our communities, to be part of the solution, to not sit on the sidelines and complain,” he said. “For that reason alone, the possibility exists, but I don’t see jumping in again anytime soon.”
In his early years, he was an accomplished athlete. In addition to playing collegiate baseball and football, he was a nationally ranked downhill skier.
Injuries forced him to scale back: he blew out both his knees along the way. He has also had pins placed in each wrist (snowboarding), broken several bones in each hand (baseball, football, skiing), had several concussions (skiing) and broken three vertebrae in his lower back (a young foray in competitive gymnastics), Bloch recounts.
“In sports you often hear about an invisible line between being in control and out of control,” he said. “I never really had a good sense for that line.”
Working in government, he has tried to harness that same energy, explaining that sustaining it was his biggest challenge.
“Sometimes, it seems like you’re pushing water uphill, and progress is often slower than you might like,” Bloch explained.
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