MORRISANIA — The Herman Badillo Post Office has officially arrived, and the renaming ceremony to honor the longtime Bronx pol came with another hint at a possible mayoral run by Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
Diaz and Rep. Jose Serrano both spoke at Monday morning's ceremony, and Serrano referenced Badillo's mayoral campaigns during his remarks, saying it did not matter that he never won because he still paved the way for other politicians to consider running for the office.
"He dared do these things and therefore gave us — and other people in this room — the opportunity to think about running for mayor," he said.
"Not me," he clarified, to knowing laughter from the audience.
Diaz is a possible candidate to challenge Mayor Bill de Blasio next year.
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Badillo was born in Puerto Rico in 1929 and moved to New York City with his aunt at age 11, where he became a fixture in the city's political life for decades.
He served as the country's first Puerto Rican congressman, Bronx borough president and deputy mayor, and he ran for mayor four times.
Badillo passed away in December 2014 at age 85.
Diaz first proposed honoring Badillo by renaming the Morrisania Post Office at 442 E. 167th St. after him in his 2015 State of the Borough address, and President Barack Obama signed the measure into law in July.
Diaz stressed that Badillo had myriad accomplishments in a life that took him from being a lawyer to an accountant to a member of Congress.
"But he was much more to many of us than those titles and those letters," Diaz said. "To us, simply put, Herman Badillo was a hero."
His widow, Gail Badillo, described her husband as a trailblazer and said she hoped people who used the post office would see and be inspired by his name.
"It is my fervent hope that all who pass through the doors of this post office, especially young people, will be inspired by Herman's story," she said, "to know that your circumstances and environment of birth are not your destiny."
