Former Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon died on August 27, 2023. Unfortunately, he is best remembered not for his notable work in the borough’s development, but for a major corruption scandal that ended with the politician’s imprisonment. In this article on bronx-yes, we’ll tell you how it all happened.
The Path to Presidency
Stanley Simon was born in Manhattan on March 3, 1930, to immigrant parents from Russia. The family later moved to the Bronx. His father managed to start a small business, a candy store. Stanley and his sister Miriam always had friends, since the Simons had plenty of candy in their pockets and were happy to share with everyone.
In 1946, Stanley graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and enrolled at New York University. His parents were able to give him a prestigious education. In 1952, Simon earned his law degree from Brooklyn Law School. During that period, this New York institution produced the most graduates who went on to major political careers.
Stanley Simon began his career as a Democratic Party district leader in Riverdale. He also served for a time as president of the Bronx Bar Association. In 1973, he was elected to the City Council, where he primarily focused on budget issues and monitoring city services.
Simon had a good reputation in political circles and had good relationships with everyone. So when the sitting Bronx Borough President, Robert Abrams, took the post of state attorney general, the City Council chose Simon to serve as acting borough president. After the election, Stanley Simon remained in the president’s chair, this time with full authority.
Stanley Simon in Power
In total, Stanley Simon was elected Bronx Borough President three times: first for a two-year term to finish out Robert Abrams’s term, then two more times for full four-year terms in 1981 and 1985.
But in 1985, Simon hesitated over whether to run for another term as president or to submit his candidacy for a judgeship on the State Supreme Court. His main opponent in the race, José Serrano, had considerable voter support. Simon was afraid he would be left with nothing if he lost. But he took the risk and entered the political contest with Serrano, though as future events would show, he should have left the presidency to his rival.
Stanley Simon’s years in power weren’t marked by anything truly extraordinary, but it can’t be said that he was a bad president. He succeeded in improving the overall cultural, economic, and public safety in the Bronx, but he was never able to bring order to the South Bronx in particular.
In 1981, Simon organized free concerts by the Bronx Arts Ensemble in Van Cortlandt Park and Keating Hall at Fordham University.
In 1982, with Simon’s initiative and support, the Bathgate Industrial Park was opened. It was a hub for food distributors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and academic and vocational training centers.
In 1983, along with philanthropist Brooke Astor, Simon acquired a new, spacious building for the Bronx Museum of Art that had previously been a synagogue. A few months later, the renovated museum opened a new exhibition of 20th-century artworks.
In 1985, Stanley Simon finally secured all the permits and funding for a new police precinct. The borough president had been trying to implement this crucial project for the Bronx for seven long years, as fighting crime had always been a separate point in every political platform, and problems in this area were always abundant.
The new 49th Police Precinct on Eastchester Road served 100,000 Bronx residents in the Pelham Bay, Van Nest, and Allerton neighborhoods. The staff consisted of 135 police officers, and the budget allocation was $4.8 million.
The celebration of the new precinct’s opening was the last significant event in Stanley Simon’s political life.
The 1987 Corruption Scandal
In 1987, a wave of corruption scandals swept the Bronx, and it soon reached the very top. The Borough President, Stanley Simon, came under suspicion. He and several other officials were accused of taking bribes from the Wedtech Corporation. This contractor from the South Bronx manufactured naval pontoons and engines for the army. All firms involved in the military sector were under strict government control. All approvals and contracts went through the offices of high-level politicians. To gain favor with the government, Wedtech Corporation took an illegal route, and the officials, in turn, showed a weakness for easy money.
The executives of Wedtech Corporation pleaded guilty and testified as the main witnesses at the trial. At the time, everyone said it was revenge from Wedtech Corporation’s competitors. After all, it had once been a small workshop that quickly grew into a large, powerful company and became one of the biggest employers in the South Bronx. Wedtech Corporation was always known for its complex fraudulent schemes and connections to powerful politicians. But everything eventually comes to an end. This was the simultaneous end of the Wedtech Corporation’s success story and Stanley Simon’s political career.
In 1988, a jury found Simon guilty of accepting a $50,000 bribe from Wedtech Corporation for helping them with a waterfront real estate lease. Stanley Simon was also charged with several other offenses, including tax evasion. The court proceedings dragged on for almost two years. The politician was sentenced to five years in prison. In January 1989, Simon was transferred to the federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The former president appealed several times, but the court denied his requests. Then, in July 1991, Stanley Simon was released. Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley shortened his prison sentence to three years without providing a reason. Granted parole, Stanley Simon returned home. In total, he spent two years and 14 days in prison. In many ways, Mr. Simon’s story was similar to that of many public servants in New York City at the time. Everyone was dividing up money and power and flaunting their ambitions.
Read about how voting rights were violated in the Bronx at different times in this article.
Serving His Sentence
Simon’s wife, Irene Urist, whom he married in 1961 when she was a city speech improvement teacher, says that Stanley had a very hard time in prison.
Some politicians who returned from the Allenwood prison camp in Pennsylvania described it as a kind of country club where you could relax and not have to think about anything.
Stanley Simon, on the other hand, said that everyone he met in prison would have given their right arm to never have to go back. Simon lost 27 pounds and said they were locked in barracks for seven hours, forced to work, and had almost no time to rest. The former president worked as a clerk and courier in prison, walked 5 to 10 miles daily, and suffered from high blood pressure and gout. Simon was no longer a young man when he was released, he was 61 years old, which might be why those months behind bars were so difficult for him. It’s truly hard to believe that the conditions at Allenwood camp were anything like those of an average American prison. It’s difficult to imagine what Simon would have said if he had spent even a few days there.
Regardless, Stanley Simon genuinely wept when he received the news of his release. After that, he rarely appeared in public, living a quiet, peaceful life with his family and passing away at the venerable age of 93.
Read the article about the current candidate for Bronx Borough President here.