Carol Berman | |
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Member of the New York Senate from the 9th district |
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In office 1979–1984 |
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Preceded by | Karen Burstein |
Succeeded by | Dean G. Skelos |
Personal details | |
Born | September 21, 1923 |
Political party | Democratic Party |
Residence | Lawrence, New York |
Carol Berman (born September 21, 1923) is a New York Democratic Party politician from Lawrence, in Nassau County, New York, United States, who served in the New York State Senate from 1979 to 1984. Berman first achieved attention for her efforts to prevent the landing of Concorde and other supersonic transports at nearby John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Berman had been part of the leadership of the Emergency Coalition to Stop the SST, which sought to stop Concorde from using Kennedy Airport, whose runway approaches pass over her Lawrence home. Protesters led by Berman and other groups opposed to Concorde ran a series of protests at Kennedy Airport starting in May 1977 in which as many as 1,000 cars drove along the main airport roadway at the 6:00 p.m. peak, driving at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Berman announced in August 1978 that her group was seeking to raise $100,000 to be used to help fund a lawsuit against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and encouraged other area residents to sue the Port Authority.
Berman had been a district aide in the offices of Assemblyman Eli Wager and of Representative Herbert Tenzer. She had been vice chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee and was a delegate for Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson at the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City.
Berman was a member of the New York State Senate from 1979 to 1984, sitting in the 183rd, 184th and 185th New York State Legislatures. She was first elected in November 1978 in the 9th District which included portions of southwestern Nassau County, including the Atlantic Ocean communities of Point Lookout and Long Beach, along with the Five Towns, and then crossed over into southeastern Queens, including Rosedale, Springfield Gardens and South Jamaica, all of which encircle Kennedy Airport. The district was split evenly between Queens and Nassau, contained roughly equal numbers of African American and White voters, and had a strong Democratic majority. The New York Times opined in 1979 that "Berman could make a lifetime career in the Senate seat since the district is predominantly Democratic with a large Jewish population in Nassau and a large black population in the Queens portion." In the Senate she served on the Corporation and Authorities Committee, the Transportation Committee and was the ranking minority member on the Commerce and Economic Development Committee.