About Karen
Karen Koslowitz is a long-time advocate of quality of life issues in Queens. From 2002 – 2009, she served as Deputy Borough President in the administration of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. As Deputy she presided over a county of 2.2 million people in the most diverse area of the United States. Among her main responsibilities were to oversee Constituent Services and the borough’s 14 Community Boards; she remains Director of both Constituent Services and Community Boards at Queens Borough Hall.
Karen began her career in the private sector at Fischbach and Moore, Inc., electrical contractors. She entered the world of public service as a Legislative Aide for Congressman Gary Ackerman and subsequently for Council member Arthur Katzman. She then became the full-time Special Assistant and Queens Ombudsman to City Council President Andrew Stein.
Karen was elected to the New York City Council, serving the 29th Councilmanic District in Queens. The district includes Forest Hills, Rego Park, Maspeth, Kew Gardens, and Richmond Hill. She held this position starting in 1991 when she succeeded Arthur Katzman in a special election. Council member Koslowitz sat on the Aging, Civil Service & Labor and General Welfare Committees of the City Council. She was Chair of the Committee on Consumer Affairs.
Council member Koslowitz fought side-by-side with her neighbors to close an all-nude club in a residential area, and she introduced legislation to ensure that this type of club may not open in similar neighborhoods. She successfully opposed a sludge plant opening in Maspeth. She was actively involved with the local Chamber of Commerce and other civic associations to help maintain a graffiti-free, clean, and safe shopping environment for local residents.
Some of the major legislation that Karen sponsored as a Council member included:
Senior citizen tax relief (by increasing the income eligibility standard)
Full and free access to reproductive health care facilities for women
A one-year ban on adult entertainment establishments opening in New York City
Streamlining the bureaucratic red tape involved in locating and retrieving a towed vehicle
Karen devoted much of her Council tenure helping women and families to improve their standard of living. These are among the initiatives that she sponsored and/or participated in:
She joined the Queens County Women’s Bar Association in an annual walkathon to raise money for the fight against breast cancer
She brought back recreational park managers (“parkies”) to several parks in her district so that children could play in safety
She arranged for the transfer of over 500 toys provided by a local constituent to the Schneider Children’s Hospital – Long Island Medical Center to brighten the smiles of seriously ill children
She funded much-needed school construction at various local elementary schools, and made sure that schools in her district were equipped with computers
She funded Queens Boulevard pedestrian improvements along with former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman
She sponsored a resolution calling upon the Federal and New York State governments to enact legislation requiring the testing of newborns for HIV and the disclosure of the results to the newborns’ parents
She sponsored legislation ensuring access to reproductive health care facilities so that no woman would be denied entrance
She sponsored legislation with former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields to ban the sale of realistic-looking toy guns
Karen was raised in the Bronx and is a graduate of the city’s public education system. She has two daughters who were raised in Queens and attended public school in District 29. Her daughter Heidi is a graduate of C.W. Post and currently works in the Queens Court system. Her daughter Marcia Shinbrot is a Stonybrook College graduate and is the mother of three children.
