on the board of the Heart Institute of Staten Island, a cardiac care facility. He is also on the board of the Sisters of Charity Health Care Corporation. In 1991, in the memory of his late wife, Molinaro helped dedicate a local dialysis unit in her name. In 2000 St. Elizabeth Ann's Health and rehabilitation Center opened the James P. and Carol E. Molinaro Health Care and Rehabilitation Center Atrium. Molinaro has been critical of how Italian-Americans and Staten Island residents are both portrayed in the media. In 2010 he penned the introduction of Andrew Paul Mele's Italian Staten Island (Images of America). Accomplishments Overdevelopment Reacting to the development pressure threatening the character of Staten Island, Mr. Molinaro spearheaded the largest down zoning on Staten Island in more than 40 years. It affected more than 41,459 individual properties on . Ultimately, this down zoning has reduced by 25% the total number of potential new dwelling units on Staten Island. Parks Since entering Borough Hall, Molinaro has aided in the allotment of nearly 100 million dollars to Park acquisition and maintenance. The renaissance of the South Beach Boardwalk, new recreational fields, an expansion of the Blue Belt and a quarter-mile-long fishing pier are just some of the parks related actives that have benefited from his capital funding. Currently, 25 percent of Staten Island has protected Parkland, a higher percentage than any other borough. Molinaro is a self-identified environmentalist. Economic development Molinaro was instrumental in bringing Visy Paper, Inc. to Staten Island in 1997. The company, a subsidiary of Australian-owned Pratt Industries, created hundreds of new jobs when it opened its cardboard recycling facility on Victory Blvd. near the Arthur Kill, representing the largest single investment in manufacturing in New York City in the last 50 years. Molinaro was also involved in the 2007 restoration of a freight rail service, linking Staten Island to the rest of the nation by rail for the first time in 16 years. Education Molinaro has allotted $500,000 from his capital budget to purchase wireless laptop computers for all of Staten Island’s Intermediate schools as well as many elementary schools. He has also worked closely with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to bring additional schools to Staten Island including P.S. 58 (opened in 2003) and I.S. (scheduled to open in 2007). Molinaro has also allocated $1,000,000 from Staten Island's capital budget for "electronic" blackboards for each public school on