Finance and teaching Louis co-founded the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union with
Mark Winston Griffith in the spring of 1993. The two were known as "the hip-hop bankers". Louis taught urban studies at
Pratt Institute.
Politics On September 9, 1997, Louis ran in the Democratic primary for
New York City Council District 35 against incumbent
Mary Pinkett and police officer
James E. Davis. Louis had charged Pinkett with being absent in the community, and he was endorsed by Congressman
Major Owens, State Senator
Velmanette Montgomery, and Assemblyman
Roger L. Green. Louis lost to Pinkett with 27.82% of the vote, but then ran against Pinkett again in the November 4, 1997, general election on the
Green Party line, with Davis on the
Conservative Party and
Liberal Party lines. Louis was defeated with 8.54% of the vote. Louis declared his candidacy in the 2001 Democratic primary for the same City Council seat, but he had dropped out of the race by August 2001. Louis also served on the
editorial board. On June 23, 2008, Louis became host of the
Morning Show, a three-hour talk program on radio station
WWRL; in 2009 he was succeeded by
Mark Riley. In November 2010
The Village Voice named him the city's best newspaper columnist and radio show host. Louis joined
NY1 in November 2010 as political anchor and the host of
Inside City Hall, a program about New York City politics that airs nightly. He is the Director of the Urban Reporting program at the
City University of New York's
Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a
CNN contributor and has made frequent appearances on
Lou Dobbs Tonight and other CNN news programs. In 2025, Louis was spoofed by American late night comedy variety show,
Saturday Night Live, as the host of a fictional NY1 debate between
Zohran Mamdani,
Curtis Sliwa and
Andrew Cuomo, candidates for that year's New York City mayoral race. Louis was played by show veteran, actor
Kenan Thompson. In 1996 Louis was named by
New York Magazine as one of "10 New Yorkers Making a Difference", "with energy, vision and independent thinking." ==Personal life==