Former city councilman Paul Vallone dead at 56, Queens mourns

Former city councilman and education advocate Paul Vallone is dead at 56.

At the time of his death, Vallone served in the Adams administration as deputy commissioner for external affairs within the city’s Department of Veteran Services.

Mayor Adams remembered Vallone as a “fighter” for the blue-collar people in the Queens community he represented.

“In that role and as a member of our administration, he was a committed advocate for veterans — serving those who have served our country,” Adams said in a statement. “It was an honor to serve alongside him, and I know New Yorkers will join me in keeping the Vallone family in your hearts today.”

Vallone died from a heart attack Saturday night, according to the Queens Chronicle. He was married and had two daughters and a son.

Queens Civic Congress president Warren Schreiber called Vallone’s death “a big blow” to the community. He told the Chronicle Vallone was “upbeat” at an event the two attended together shortly before the community leader died.

Vallone spent eight years on the City Council, where improving education in northeast Queens was a high priority. That reportedly included working to reinstate the New York City Council Merit Scholarship, known also as the Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship. He left the council in 2021.

Vallone is also credited with leading a decade-long effort to renovate Bowne Park in Queens that concluded last year.

He came from a civic-minded family, starting with his grandfather Charles Vallone Sr., who’s a former civil court judge. His father, Peter Vallone Sr., was the City Council’s first speaker. Paul’s brother, Peter Jr., has been both a councilman and a civil court judge.

Vallone discovered there’s sometimes a price to pay for unpopular decisions in 2021 when the word “refund” was scrawled across three of his cars in Murray Hill after he voted in favor of cuts to the NYPD budget. But when he ran for office in 2014, Vallone was supported by several police unions and supported the city’s stop-and-frisk policy. He enjoyed the endorsement of the Queens Democratic Party and several local officials in his bids for office.

His family reportedly asked supporters to donate to St. Mary’s Hospital For Children or the Alzheimer’s Association in lieu of flowers.