On November 24th, 2025, Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani announced his list of appointments to his transition committee to “advance his affordability agenda”. Among those appointed, Lisa Alvarado Sorin was selected to join the Committee on Small Businesses and MWBEs (Minority and Women-Owned Businesses). Lisa was also selected by current Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson to serve on Bally’s New York Casino Community Advisory Committee, which, to the Community’s dismay, recently voted to approve the Bally’s Casino at Ferry Point, formerly known as Trump Golf Links. So, who is Lisa Alvarado Sorin?
Since 2019, Lisa has been the President of the“New Bronx” Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization that “supports economic development in The Bronx”. Before her appointment at the chamber, she had held a variety of high-ranking positions across the borough, from cultural institutions such as The Bronx Council on the Arts, Casita Maria Center for the Arts and Education, and the Bronx Children’s Museum to Business Improvement Districts and Community Boards, and even the MTA. According to our research, she has no original ties to The Bronx. Some sources list her place of birth as Wingdale, NY, while others have her linked to Portchester, NY. However, for the last 20+ years, Lisa has lived in The Bronx and has managed to deeply engrain herself not only into the cultural but also the economic fabric of the borough. You see, business is Lisa’s life, so much so that despite spending roughly 2 decades working alongside community members, in 2020, Lisa chose to protect “Brick and Mortar” shops over that of her living and breathing neighbors during the FTP4 protests in Mott Haven, resulting in the kettling and brutalization of over 300 people.
According to court testimony from Chief Officer Terrance Monahan, who swore under oath, the NYPD was receiving “numerous phone calls from the elected officials in the Bronx and from the Chamber of Commerce, from The Hub saying they had information that looting was going to take place…in regards to this march.” Video footage by on-the-ground journalists revealed the opposite; footage revealed 300 bodies moving peacefully in unison until “just after 8 pm the police moved in on the protesters, unprovoked and without warning, whaling their batons, beating people from car tops, shoving them down to the ground, and firing pepper spray in their faces.”
Now, let’s be clear, this is not the first time Lisa has prioritized the “well-being” of property over that of the community members she was supposedly serving. Back in 2004, Lisa, alongside the then Chairwoman of Community Board 2, Marta Rivera, was forced to resign from their position on the board due to a conflict of interest investigation spearheaded by fellow board member Majora Carter. (Oh, the irony!) You see, Lisa at the time was a paid consultant for New York Organic Fertilizer Company in Hunts Point, which is owned by the Houston-based Synagro, “North America’s leading company for recycling biosolids, organic waste and residuals from water treatment and other industries,” as well as the head of Community Board 2’s economic development committee.
In 2003, Synagro obtained a contract with the City of Honolulu to build and operate a $34 million facility to convert sewage sludge to pelletized fertilizer at the city’s Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, and in December of that year, it decided to fly out their Bronx-based consultant to testify on behalf of the corporation. If Lisa were traveling alone as a paid consultant, that would be one thing; however, Lisa invited Marta to join her. Synagro paid for both Bronx Community Board members to travel across the country to testify favorably so that the company may increase its corporate reach. Meanwhile, back at home, local community groups such as Sustainable South Bronx and the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition were demanding accountability from Synagro for polluting the neighborhood and contributing to rising asthma cases in The Bronx.
“I believe in what they do,” said Lisa during a 2004 interview with the Honolulu Star. In 2002, Synagro settled out of court with the family of Shayne Conner, a New Hampshire man who died in his sleep a month after the spread of such fertilizer on a neighboring field. In 2009, The Bronx County Supreme Court filed court complaints against Synagro stating “since shortly after 1991, when the Facility began operating, people living and working nearby have suffered adverse physical effects from the noxious odors, including severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, constriction of the throat and chest, difficulty in breathing, and asthma attacks; residents of nearby neighborhoods have had their daily activities curtailed and interrupted by putrid odors; students, faculty and staff at the four local public schools have also suffered adverse physical effects from the Facility’s odors, including nausea and headaches; the schools have been forced to keep windows closed during the hottest months of the school year to prevent the Facility’s odors from entering classrooms; and odors from the Facility have disrupted the teaching process and outdoor athletic classes and events.” In 2024 “a group of Texas farmers filed a lawsuit against Synagro Technologies, Inc. (“Synagro”) for manufacturing and distributing a biosolids-based fertilizer that allegedly contaminated the plaintiffs’ properties with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as “PFAS.” According to the plaintiffs, the contamination has caused damage to their farming operations and resulted in health problems. The lawsuit, filed in a state court in Maryland, claims that Synagro either knew or should have known that its fertilizer was contaminated with PFAS, and that the company negligently sold a defective product.”
Property over People… this is the story of Lisa Alvarado Sorin. Stay tuned for part 2 as we dive deeper into Lisa’s Bronx connections, her rise to power within the Borough, and what NYC may look like with this Bourgeois “guiding” the way.
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