[6] Lopez began his career with the New York City Department of Social Services, at the Stanhope Street Senior Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
His first attracted citywide attention by organizing in November 1981 an assembly of 100 senior citizens at Brooklyn Borough Hall to protest what they saw as the "serious neglect" shown to them in programs for decent housing, nursing homes and medical facilities.
This led his to conceive the idea of creating a not-for-profit that would enter into government contracts to provide services for senior citizens, which he planned would focus on Bushwick and the neighboring Italian-American community of Ridgewood, located in the borough of Queens.
[11] Over time as the Council increased in size and importance, Lopez used it to generate loyalty among constituents for which it provided services and to employ locals to create an administrative staff.
[14] At that time, the council had $100 million in state and city contracts to build affordable homes, provide meals to seniors and run after-school programs.
He has sponsored a competing bill that provides no window, but would change current law to allow lawsuits against public institutions without requiring a 90-day notice of claim.
By Doctoroff's account, this happened the day before the city council vote; time was limited, and after midnight Doctoroff called the head of the agency that oversaw daycare centers, woke him up, and secured the million dollars for the center to meet Lopez's demand and pass the rezoning.
[28] In mid-May 2013 the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics issued a report which described in detail the behavior alleged by multiple women, which prompted prominent Democrats, including Governor Andrew Cuomo and Speaker Silver, to call for his immediate resignation.
In response Lopez, citing a report by special prosecutor Staten Island District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan Jr. that he would not bring criminal charges.
On May 17, 2013, he announced he would resign from the Assembly at the end of his term in June 2013 and in the fall run for a seat on the New York City Council.