Lovely Warren

Career

Warren graduated from Wilson Magnet High School. She graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and from Albany Law School of Union University with a Juris Doctor degree. Warren served as a legislative assistant and chief of staff to New York Assemblyman David Gantt. She clerked for Rochester City Court Judge Teresa Johnson. She served as summer law clerk to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. In 2004, Warren was admitted to the bar.

In 2007 Warren was elected to the Rochester’s City Council. In 2010 she was elected as the fifth President of the Rochester City Council, the youngest in Rochester’s history.

In 2011, she was a participant in the We Live NY Summit at Cornell University. She has appeared on panels sponsored by Rochester Downtown Development Corporation and the Rochester Chapter of the League of Women Voters. She also hosts a youth event at City Hall for students of the Rochester City School District. She has been a guest speaker at events for young people in the Rochester City School District and colleges including, the University of Rochester, Albany Law School of Union University, Towson University and Howard University.

Warren was sworn in as Rochester's 69th mayor on January 1, 2014.

In 2016 Warren put a red, white and blue sign next to Susan B. Anthony’s grave the day after Hillary Clinton obtained the nomination at the Democratic National Convention; the sign stated, "Dear Susan B., we thought you might like to know that for the first time in history, a woman is running for president representing a major party. 144 years ago, your illegal vote got you arrested. It took another 48 years for women to finally gain the right to vote. Thank you for paving the way." The city of Rochester put pictures of the message on Twitter and requested that residents go to Anthony’s grave to sign it.

2013 Mayoral election

She won the 2013 Democratic primary over incumbent mayor Thomas Richards 57 percent to 42 percent.

While Richards endorsed Warren and ended his active campaign, he remained a candidate on the Independence and Working Families lines. The Independence Party created the grassroots Turn Out for Tom campaign in an effort to get Richards re-elected mayor. Warren defeated Richards in the general election 55 to 39 percent.

Actions as mayor

In December 2016, Warren announced plans to get rid of the city's red light cameras. The insurance industry objected, citing its own studies which showed that cities that had used red light cameras between 2010 and 2014 had had a 21% drop in the number of fatal red light running crashes, while cities that had stopped using the cameras had had a 30% increase in such deaths. In response to these studies, Warren justified her decision to remove the cameras by saying, "I reached the conclusion the benefits simply don't justify a further extension... I'm very concerned that too many of these tickets have been issued to those who simply can't afford them, which is counter-productive to our efforts to reverse our city's troubling rates of poverty."

Personal

Her grandfather, Cecil McClary, was seriously wounded while working as a security guard for Wegmans Food Market in 1984. This incident gave Warren the motivation she needed to pursue a career as an attorney to, in her opinion, right wrongs and make Rochester a safer, better city. McClary died at age 87 on January 2, 2014, a day after Warren was sworn in as mayor at his bedside. Her parents worked for Eastman Kodak Company and Xerox.

Warren's Facebook account was compromised and suspended on December 22, 2014 when pictures of a chat log were shared over the internet and social media.

Warren is married to Timothy Granison and they have a daughter, Taylor.