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Fog/Mist Michael Giangregorio: the ‘quality-of-life’ candidate
Longtime autism advocate, former Herald Person of the Year
When he moved from Queens, Michael Giangregorio was seeking a higher quality of life. Now, as he is running to replace Steve Rhoads on the Nassau County legislature, he seeks to pay it forward and ensure that future generations can enjoy that same quality of life in Nassau.
Born in Brooklyn, Giangregorio was adopted by parents who first lived in Flatbush, but then relocated to Queens. In fact, that’s where he grew up, attending P.S. 87-The Middle Village School, and then Christ the King High School.
It was during these years he found his initial interest in activism and politics.
“We lost a lot of teachers because they were on strike for a good period of time,” Giangregorio told reporters at a recent Herald Roundtable session. “My senior year, we had just come out of it and I was on student government. I called myself the public relations person because I wanted to get the image of the school back to where it was. I guess it was back then that the volunteerism in my life started.”
Out of high school, Giangregorio worked for a now-defunct bank called Irving Trust Co. From there, he joined the now-defunct L.F. Rothschild merchant and investment banking firm, working his way up the ladder to eventually become manager of government operations.
After his tenure there, Giangregorio moved into a similar role at Refco Securities — even working in Bermuda for a number of years — before moving into a trading role at the same company.
He met his wife Alison when he returned to New York — a marriage that has now lasted 25 years. He joined JPMorgan Chase & Co., in 2006, where he still works today as a vice president.
Giangregorio and Alison have two sons: Michael and Nicholas.
“My son Nicholas is profoundly affected by autism,” Giangregorio said. “He’s 21 now. And autism is a lifelong disorder. Individuals are adults much longer than they are children. So I’ve done a tremendous amount of advocacy work because when my son was diagnosed, we realized what was lacking.”
Giangregorio became a fierce autism advocate, seeking to provide a support system for families affected by autism that goes beyond the public school support system. For a number of years, he has overseen seasonal walks at Jones Beach to raise money for autism awareness through the nonprofit Autism Speaks.
Giangregorio lobbied at the local and state level, helping pass a state bill in 2011 requiring New York-based insurance companies to fund autism treatments.
For his efforts on autism advocacy, Giangregorio was named the Merrick Herald’s 2013 Person of the Year. But now Giangregorio wants to be everyone’s advocate as he seeks a seat in the county legislature.
“I am certainly not a one-issue candidate because I have very strong feelings on everything that affects Nassau County,” Giangregorio said. “We want to make sure that Nassau County is accessible to all.”
During all that, however, he continued his advocacy work as board chair of the Eden II program at the Genesis Outreach Autism Center in East Meadow.
“During the pandemic — with budget cuts and never receiving a fair allocation that we’re entitled to from the state — we learned to do more with less,” Giangregorio said. “I’m not afraid of being creative if I have the good fortune of being elected.”
Giangregorio describes himself as tough on crime, working with Hempstead town councilman Christopher Carini on removing graffiti from public areas. To Giangregorio, stopping crime is yet another quality of life issue that needs addressing.
“We’re very fortunate here in Nassau that you don’t see some of the tragedies you hear about across the country,” he said. “And I credit that to the proper training that our Nassau County police officers receive, as well as the support they receive.”
But the tax assessment system certainly needs fixing, Giangregorio said. And with the current freeze on new assessments continuing another year, now could be the time to get it done.
“We’ve been in an interest rate environment that has been so low for a number of years, and now we’re on the rise,” he said. “So mortgage rates have gone from the lowest of 2 percent to upward of 6 percent. If we’re going to freeze, now’s probably the time to take a step back, and think about assessment. A true assessment is comparing one against the other. How do we do that properly? I don’t know if I have the answer, but I’m willing to explore.”
Living in Queens was nice, Giangregorio said, but he and his wife sought a more quiet, suburban lifestyle — something they found moving to Merrick in 1997. He recalled renting a cabana at Nickerson Beach in their first few years living on Long Island, deciding this lifestyle was for him.
Giangregorio is now dedicated to preserving that lifestyle, even as Nassau grows increasingly urban. To do this, he must speak against what he described as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s elimination of zoning in townships as a way to put up more multifamily homes.
“I’m not opposed to housing, of course,” Giangregorio said. “But eliminating rules that are in place for a reason — like to maintain a certain quality of life — is not the right way to do it. Thousands of families moving into close proximities to train stations, can our infrastructure support that? No.”
Giangregorio is pro-environment as well, and aims to live by the Boy Scout mantra of “leave no trace,” which he described as leaving a place better than when you found it.
It’s all how Giangregorio describes himself as a candidate, and hopefully come Feb. 28, a county legislator.
“I want to be the voice of people in government,” Giangregorio said. “I want to make sure that our community has a voice. I want to be the community that the candidate that is accessible. You know, when I go to door-to-door and meet people, I want to be able to say, ‘Is there something I can help with?’”
