Our physical infrastructure and social, cultural, and political stability are all badly in need of buttressing—or a gut renovation. The vast majority of us agree the country’s headed in the wrong direction. We’re right, and admitting the problem is the first step in overcoming it. But it’s just the first step. We have to re-engineer the whole country From The Ground Up—its social fabric, its economy, its politics, and its physical plant. That’s my mission. I hope you’ll join me.
From The Ground Up is a prescriptive nonfiction title, complete at 72,000 words. Consider it constructive criticism for re-engineering America, from the man who rebuilt NYC after 9/11
For all his polarizing rhetoric, Donald Trump hit at least one nail squarely on the head: Our country really is a disaster in need of recovery. Regardless of our disparate political leanings, a plurality of Americans simply know in their bones that we’re in real trouble. The mandate Americans gave Trump in 2016 highlights the crises that threaten to break us, economically, politically, spiritually, and literally, if we don’t start immediately improving our infrastructure and other key aspects of our country. Sure, we’ve undergone tough times before, but today an unprecedented barrage of calamities has coalesced into the perfect storm, a mega-disaster that will either swamp us once and for all—or offer an opportunity for us to re-engineer and rebuild From The Ground Up.
From humble beginnings in a small southern Italian village, Gargano came of age in Depression-era Brooklyn, becoming a construction laborer in his teens, as had his father and grandfather before him. He studied business and engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering, after which he earned both an MBA and a Master’s in Transportation Engineering at Manhattan College. He paid his dues in the trenches of field operations at scores of large and highly complex civil engineering and construction projects at J.D. Posillico Engineering and Construction Company, a New York-based general contractor. He quickly ascended to Executive Vice President and General Supervisor of its 800+ employees, and for 20 years there oversaw the successful development of public works and critical infrastructure on Long Island and the Tri-State region beyond.
In 1980, Gargano gathered a diverse coalition of politicians, celebrities, and industry giants, from whom he raised disaster relief aid. Then he traveled to Italy with a small contingent after the Irpinia earthquake nearly leveled his home town. Together, the group brought hundreds of thousands of private donation dollars to support the families of the 10,000+ casualties. They were so successful, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, asked to personally thank them, which he did in his private living room at the Vatican, along with the wife of the prime minister.
After that significant public service and informal diplomatic mission, political leaders who’d observed him on that journey – most notably John Volpe, former two-term governor of Massachusetts, US Secretary of Transportation, and Ambassador to Italy – suggested Gargano run for office. But he preferred to stay in the background, supporting principles and principals he believed in.
Later, leaders of the New York State Republican Committee – under their “boss,” newly-elected US Senator Alphonse D’Amato – asked Gargano to run for Governor of New York, but again he chose instead to work behind the scenes with D’Amato and others in order to get a Republican elected—which they eventually did with Pataki, for whose campaign Gargano served as chief fundraiser. He served as Director of President Ronald Reagan’s electoral campaign in New York, where Reagan won a second landslide victories in 1984.
In 1981, Reagan appointed Gargano Deputy Administrator of the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA), now known as the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), where he fought to improve US mass transportation, which includes buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, monorail, passenger ferry boats, trolleys, inclined railways, and people movers. This was not an easy feat in the wake of the Air Traffic Controllers debacle. In addition to his political acumen, his prodigious skills as a Republican fundraiser were crucial to the re-elections of Reagan in 1984 and of D’Amato in ’84 and ’86, as well as to the elections of both Presidents Bush and of Governor George Pataki, for whom he raised a record-breaking $14.5 million in 1994.
Gargano became US Ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, first appointed by Reagan and then again by George H.W. Bush, representing our interests on those wealthy industrial islands for three years ending in political upheaval.
During his 12-year tenure as Chairman and CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation, he brought major business deals to Manhattan, and famously cut inefficiency and waste from government. He also made a name for himself by bringing billions of dollars of private capital into projects that would serve the public.
Gargano was also key to the launch of the Tribeca Film Festival, now one of the largest and most influential film festivals in the nation, if not the world, and counts its co-founder Robert De Niro as a good friend. Gargano has also appeared in five feature-length films, starting with The Devil’s Advocate in 1997, and finishing with World Trade Center in 2006, in both cases playing himself. He’s also played an FBI agent in Witness to the Mob(1998), a golf announcer in Serendipity (2001), and a maître d’ in De Niro’s Analyze That (2002).
He’s received four honorary doctorates (from Pace University, New York City College of Technology, Stony Brook University, and Manhattan College), received awards and honors from countless orders, organizations, and charities, and continues generously donating to causes, from cancer and advanced cardiovascular research to centers for infants, children, and the elderly. As a fundraiser, organizer, and board member for dozens of businesses, foundations, and political associates, as well as in his current post as Executive Director of the US Immigration Fund, Gargano remains a determined and powerful force for the structural and ideological evolution of the nation along Conservative lines.Now at the start of his ninth decade, Charles A. Gargano remains an indefatigable conservative force, cementing a formidable legacy in politics, business, and urban development.
A film is ready for distribution as a companion film to the book.
From The Ground Up is a 30-minute biographical documentary about world renowned New York developer Charles Gargano. Focused on managing change through core values, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and the early 20th century immigrant experience, From The Ground Up provides real life solutions from the man who rebuilt Ground Zero after 9/11, and revitalized the New York Theater District and Harlem in the 1990s.
It is also a story about Public Service, loyalty to family, and dedicating oneself to a life of service to the community. We follow our protagonist on an inspirational pilgrimage to his ancestral home town, a small mountain village in Italy he spent three decades rebuilding after it was leveled by an earthquake in 1980.
Shot on location in New York City and Italy, this is a timely recollection of life lessons from a builder, an engineer, and a patriotic American who meets challenges head-on, builds teams, and teaches us how to start over, From The Ground Up.
Newhem, the book ghost, worked with filmmaker Steve Sabato, on the film. Sabato is the founder and President of Sabato LLC, a Sarasota, FL-based media development and consulting company that produces news, commentary, public affairs and documentaries for broadcast, cable and digital distribution.
Sabato is an Emmy award winning producer with extensive local TV station management experience including General Manager, News Director, and Executive Producer. He’s a graduate of The London Film School.
The Ground Zero Museum is a major partner in the From The Ground Up Movement, and we’re excited that its founder, Gary Marlon Suson, the Official Photographer for Ground Zero, will provide some iconic and unpublished photographs for the book.
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Endorsements
Trump
—President Donald J. Trump
—President Donald J. Trump
Pataki
—George E. Pataki, 53Rd Gov. of New York State
—George E. Pataki, 53Rd Gov. of New York State
De Niro
—Robert De Niro
—Robert De Niro
D’Amato
—Sen Alfonse D’Amato
—Sen Alfonse D’Amato