La Guardia urges action on housing bill before adjournment. Washington, D.C., August 3, 1937. Asserting that thousands of inhabitants are living in cities in "firetraps" and "dangerous surroundings" La Guardia, Mayor of NYC and President of the US Conference of Mayors, appealed to the House Banking and Currency Committee today to speed action on the Wasgner-Steagall Housing Bill before adjournment. Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (December 11, 1882 - September 20, 1947) was the 99th Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934-45 as a Republican. Only five feet tall, he was called "the Little Flower". He revitalized New York City and restored public faith in City Hall. He unified the transit system, directed the building of low-cost public housing, public playgrounds, and parks, constructed airports, reorganized the police force, defeated the powerful Tammany Hall political machine, and reestablished merit employment in place of patronage jobs. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1947 at the age of 64. Photographed by Harris & Ewing, March 1936.