From crisis to crisis, Bronx beep Gibson
details a ‘challenging’ fi rst month in offi ce
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Vanessa Gibson’s fi rst couple
days in her post as Bronx
borough president were celebratory.
In addition to cementing
her place as the fi rst
Black woman to become borough
president of New York
City’s northernmost borough,
Gibson also celebrated the installment
of her diverse administration,
a crew she assembled
and touted as the
most creative and boldest
minds in the Bronx.
But the honeymoon
was quickly upstaged by
numbing tragedy, as the
following weekend the Twin
Parks North West high-rise
apartment in the Fordham
Heights section lit ablaze
killing 17 people on Jan. 9.
Since then, the work to repair
systemic and qualitative
cracks in the Bronx has been
an unrelenting challenge for
the Gibson administration.
“The month started out on
a good note, announcing the
fi rst Latina, Janet Peguro,
as my deputy borough president,
and unfortunately that
weekend we had a horrifi c
fi ve-alarm fi re that claimed
the lives of 17 neighbors, eight
children and nine adults,” the
Bronx beep told the Bronx
Times. “Fast-forward t0 fi ve
weeks later and we’re still
working with these families.”
In her fi rst month as borough
president — she assumed
the offi ce on Jan. 1
— Gibson seemed to be everywhere
except her offi ce.
For any elected offi cial in
a new role, it’s about fi nding
their sea legs and for a unique
position like the Bronx borough
president — a ceremonial
role in nature, outside of
certain responsibilities such
as land-use oversight and
board appointments — Gibson
has became the face of a
borough grappling and shifting
from one crisis to another.
In her fi rst month as
beep, the Bronx saw a rise in
crime— 150% uptick in shootings
from last January — and
incidents where an 11-month
old girl was hit in the face by
a stray bullet while in her car
seat, a Belmont cop was shot
and a building explosion in
Longwood that sent close a
dozen people to the hospital
were emblematic of a borough
in fl ux.
“It’s just been very challenging,
and January was a
very tough month, not just
for the Bronx but for the city
of New Yorker,” said Gibson.
“Mayor Eric Adams has
been in the Bronx more than
I thought he would be at this
point. We’ve been side-byside
at funerals, shooting responses,
visiting hospitals,
and while it’s been a challenging
time, one thing I’m committed
to being is visible for
all my Bronx neighborhoods.”
Gibson’s rise in local politics
— a journey that started
when she succeeded her late
mentor Aurelia Greene as a
state assemblywoman in 2009
followed by a run as a city
councilwoman beginning in
2013 — opened a new chapter
when the District 16 councilwoman
received 79% of the
vote on her way to succeeding
Ruben Diaz Jr., as the Bronx
beep position.
A battle-tested politician,
Gibson told the Bronx Times
that the administration’s response
to the Twin Parks
North West fi re — coordinating
aid and transition plans
for displaced families of the
fi re as well as managing myriad
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F 24 FEBRUARY 18-24, 2022 BTR
hiccups for victims such
as cramped hotel accommodations
or expediting travel
visas for immigrant families
hoping to mourn their
loved ones in New York — has
served as a litmus test.
Impressively enough, Gibson’s
team was able to secure
funerals for the 15 victims
within two weeks of the fi re.
However, a month later issues
still remain for families upended
by the fi re.
“There were a lot of these
challenges that these families
faced, because these hotels
weren’t exactly fi ve-star, and
some of the rooms were not
conducive to hold the size of a
family,” she said. “We needed
to asses the immediate needs
of the victims … We had to get
a collection of money so that
funeral and burial services
could be accommodated, we
worked with the chief medical
examiner’s offi ce to expedite
death certifi cates so bodies
could be released to the
funeral home. It’s been a lot,
and fi ve weeks later there are
still families we are trying to
help.”
In light of a high-variance
January, Gibson said
she’s been encouraged by the
groundswell of support people
have shown for the victims
of the Bronx fi re, as well
as the work done with other
Bronx leaders to push for
meaningful fi re safety legislation.
Gibson said one of the biggest
obstacles facing her administration
is easing safety
concerns of Bronxites across
the borough, hoping to quell
the city’s surge of gun violence
from each corner of the
Bronx.
“The general theme I continue
to hear from residents
is that they don’t feel safe, and
they feel like the city is out of
control,” Gibson said. “There
are individuals that possess
weapons illegally and they
are using (these weapons) to
shoot and kill each other and
innocent New Yorkers and
bystanders are being caught
in the middle, and we are
burying too many children at
younger and younger ages.”
Stabilizing the Bronx,
which the beep defi nes as fullfl
edged effort to address the
borough’s success out of the
pandemic and mitigating evergreen
boroughwide issues
such as food insecurity and
its last-in-the-state health disparities,
remains a focus for
this administration and will
not be accomplished without
strong intra- and outer-borough
relationships.
So far in February, things
have slowed down, somewhat
for Gibson and her team. The
administration has began
conducting its regular business
— scheduling interviews
with BIDs across the borough,
workshopping with community
board leaders and planning
trips to each locale in the
Bronx chatting with residents
and shareholders alike on
what the Bronx could be under
this administration.
“There’s a lot of ground to
cover, and I feel like January
did not give me the ability to
do everything I wanted because
I had to respond to tragedies,
the fi res and the shootings
in the borough and that
took me away from the offi ce,”
she said. “We’re still in the
beginning of our new administration,
but I am not new to
public service. I’ve been able
to cultivate great partnerships
with all members of government,
in addition to the respect
given to Bronx borough
president title, which will help
keep us aware of what’s happening
in the city.”
Vanessa Gibson became the fi rst Black woman to hold the mantle of Bronx borough president, but her fi rst
month was a challenge navigating through a crisis-heavy January. Photo | Adrian Childress
Bronx Borough President Vanessa
Gibson speaks to precinct offi cers
at a candlelight vigil for slain police
offi cers killed in the line of
duty in Harlem last month.
Photo Jewel Webber