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This new development is expected to bring an economic boom. But it also threatens to squeeze out longtime residents who no longer will be able to afford the high rents in the neighborhood. And it threatens to change the character of El Barrio, the cultural and historical hub of the Puerto Rican and Latino community in New York.

Here, the challenge is to balance the need for investment and economic development with the need to protect the character of the area and provide affordable housing for longtime residents and the working class.

Five candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination for City Council in District 8, which covers East Harlem and portions of the South Bronx and the Upper West Side. We believe Melissa Mark Viverito has the background and the expertise to energize the people of the district and successfully advocate on their behalf in the New York City Council.

Mark Viverito, a labor organizer for 1199 SEIU, the health care workers union, has been politically and socially active in the community. She is founder and president of Women of El Barrio, an organization that promotes the development of women as leaders in the community, and chairwoman of the Violence Intervention Program, which seeks to end domestic violence against women and children.

In addition to affordable housing and planned development, the candidate says community health is a priority. Despite high asthma rates, the city reopened a bus depot on 100th Street in 2003. And a proposed project, Uptown New York, between 125th and 127th streets, would include commercial space, apartments, and a garage for cars and MTA buses.

In a district that is 54 percent Hispanic, it will be empowering for voters to elect a Latina as their representative. For all these reasons, we endorse Melissa Mark Viverito for City Council.

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