couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Diaz Sr. did not respond to requests for comment.
The two Diazes don’t completely veer from one another
in the public sphere. The borough president said
while “the list just goes on and on about where we differentiate,”
they’ve worked together to bring services,
jobs, housing and recreational activities to their constituents.
Diaz Sr. recently wrote a Dec. 16 op-ed in the New
York Post criticizing Democrats’ bail reform efforts.
He pointed to Alexis Dubouchet, 38, who allegedly
stabbed Samuel Diaz, his supervisor at his NYCHA job
– Diaz Jr.’s brother and Diaz Sr.’s son – in the back of
his neck and twice in the head in the summer of 2020.
The same suspect, who had 20 prior arrests and was let
out on bail, allegedly shot and killed Anthony Rios, 38,
the following summer while awaiting trial for Samuel
Diaz’s case.
In 2019, Democrats in Albany passed legislation
that ended cash bail for low-level crimes and misdemeanors,
which has led to concerns over repeat offenders
who can no longer be jailed – while awaiting court
– based on the discretion of judges.
Diaz Jr. said while his father’s claim that the policy
will turn Democratic Hispanic and Black voters Republican
is political theatre, they are both frustrated
with violent repeat criminals being romanticized under
the guise of reform. “When we speak of reforming
the system, we’re not talking about everybody,” Diaz
Jr. said. “And people are getting frustrated. And a lot
of the advocates who want to protect even the guy who
attacked my brother are folks who don’t really feel that
level of violence in their community, on their block.
But for some of us, including my family, we’re not immune
to that.”
DIAZ’S RECORD AS BEEP
In Diaz Jr.’s 12-year run as Bronx beep, he fi rst took
offi ce in 2009, he touted his brand of pragmatic progressivism
as a means for rebuilding the borough’s
image of crime and overseeing its gradual change in
economic and infrastructural philosophy in the era of
his predecessor Adolfo Carrion.
“I’m a pragmatic progressive,” he said. “And what
does that mean? I know when to negotiate so that I believe
something is better than nothing, and that’s lost
in government and politics. ”
The role of Bronx borough president — a ceremonial
role that relies on its unique bully-pulpit position
to affect sweeping policy rather than overt legislative
authority — involves a dedication to NYC’s most racially
diverse, yet often forgotten borough. Perhaps it’s
no surprise the son of Puerto Rican immigrants who
was raised in the ‘70s era of the Bronx – which was defi
ned and marginalized for violent street crime and
overpoliced, deprioritized neighborhoods — fi lled the
position with a signature Bronx-born gusto.
In his own words, the lifelong Yankees fan “bleeds”
the Bronx, which he wears as a badge of honor.
“I’m from the block and earlier in my career, some
of my staff and family wanted to hide that fact,” said
Diaz Jr., who fi nishes his third and fi nal term on Jan.
1. “The thing is that on the block if I don’t like you, we
don’t talk. … I learned that that wasn’t good governing
and I had to adjust and put my best foot forward
so that we can come together, plan out a strategy and
execute it so that we can better serve the people that
we represent.”
Diaz Jr. said he learned to be a more active listener
debating in the Assembly and spoke of getting dinner
with Republicans after debates on the fl oor.
But the camaraderie across party lines may not
have translated back home.
Bronx GOP Chairman Mike Rendino told the
Bronx Times he was disappointed the borough president
didn’t reach across the aisle and claimed there
were hardly any Republicans on community boards
during Diaz Jr.’s tenure.
“Every time I see him it’s like I’m introducing myself
Diaz Jr. and other representatives offi cially opened the NYC
Ferry service landing at Ferry Point Park in Throggs Neck on
Dec. 28. The landing will extend the Soundview ferry route,
which makes stops along Manhattan. Photo Andrew Dapolite
On the passing of a Bronx icon, Ruben Diaz Jr. hailed Colin
Powell, who died on Oct. 18, as someone who “never forgot”
the Bronx. Photo courtesy Ruben Diaz Jr./Twitter
for the fi rst time, to be honest with you,” Rendino
said. “It’s like I’m on the pay no mind list.”
But Diaz Jr. said he didn’t consider political affi liation
in his appointments and is proud of the diversity
on the boards.
The Diaz Jr. administration points to $23 billion in
total investments throughout the borough, 117,000 new
jobs, increases in housing stock — 55,295 residential
units with roughly half government subsidized — and
the gradual slashing of the borough’s unemployment
rate to roughly 5% in February 2020 – compared to 14%
when he fi rst took offi ce in 2009 – as major wins under
his tenure.
He invested over $30 million of capital funds to a
restoration of Orchard Beach, $3 million to create a
sensory playground and $4.2 million in the Hip-Hop
Museum as part of more than 1,000 projects he funded
across $356 million from 2010-2021.
Diaz Jr.’s partnerships with developers also helped
transform the Bronx. “When I got to Borough Hall,
there were so many different plots of land owned by
the city, in particular, that they would not develop,” he
said.
But his vision didn’t happen without growing pains.
What was interpreted as a signal of gentrifi cation,
The New York Times listed the South Bronx among international
destinations in 52 Places to go in 2017, suggesting
artisanal coffee and linking to an article titled
“South Bronx Gets High-End Coffee; Is Gentrifi cation
Next?”
Two years earlier, in November 2015, Diaz Jr. proclaimed
on “The Brian Lehrer Show” that there hasn’t
been any gentrifi cation in the Bronx. “No one can
prove to me that we forced one community out to bring
another one in,” he said.
A South Bronx caller argued that Bronxites “are being
pushed out daily,” to which Diaz called him misinformed,
Year in Review
and said out of 17,000 units of housing he was
part of over the last 6 years, the “overwhelming majority”
was for low-income residents.
A month earlier, a billboard by Chetrit Group and
Somerset Partners (headed by Keith Rubenstein, a
Diaz donor) advertised planned Port Morris waterfront
luxury apartments as part of The Piano District – an
unsuccessful advertising and development effort that
attempted to pay homage to the neighborhood’s history
of piano manufacturing – drew pushback from residents
fearing a rebranding of their neighborhood, and
ultimately, gentrifi cation.
During his Lehrer show appearance, Diaz Jr. – who
was against the Piano District neighborhood label, albeit
recognizing it was innocent – defended the proposed
market-rate waterfront apartments, saying they
would provide an opportunity for fi nancially successful
working-class Bronxites – who can’t afford to buy a
house – to move out of low-income housing while staying
in their own neighborhood.
While some argue there was too much development
under Diaz Jr., others felt he missed a huge
development opportunity at the city-owned Kingsbridge
Armory, a giant building that has sat empty
since 1996.
In 2009, Diaz Jr., along with local advocates, opposed
a proposal to turn the armory into a shopping
mall projected to bring 1,000 construction jobs and
1,200 permanent jobs. They wanted the developer to
commit to a $10 an hour wage for mall employees, instead
of the $7.25 minimum wage at the time. The City
Council ultimately killed the deal over the low wages,
then overrode former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s
veto, who warned the building would remain empty
for years.
In 2012, Diaz Jr. made lemonade out of that, going
on to advocate for the Fair Wages for New Yorkers
Act, requiring developers receiving $1 million from
the city to pay employees a living wage.
The same year, he championed the building’s future
as the proposed Kingsbridge National Ice Center,
which would have become the world’s largest
ice-skating facility. After fi nancial woes and confl ict
with the city, the project never came to fruition.
“I got my butt kicked,” Diaz Jr. said of criticism
over the building sitting empty.
But Diaz Jr. blamed the downfall on “ineptitude”
from the developer, saying he didn’t capitalize while
“all of the governmental and political stars aligned”
in an unprecedented show of unity.
Even though the building remains empty, Diaz
Jr. said his resistance to the mall was a watershed
moment showing developers he wasn’t interested in
short-changing Bronxites.
In the fi nal stages of his last term and despite his
efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic began to unravel the
economic progress scored under his administration.
A 2021 report from state Comptroller Thomas Di-
Napoli showed that the pandemic stalled upward
trends in population and economic growth in the
Bronx leading to the borough’s ballooning 24.6% unemployment
rate – the highest in NYC at that point
– in May 2020.
Diaz Jr. said his duties as a leader changed with
the pandemic. “COVID tested me, right,” he said. “If
you look back on my Instagram page, while everybody
was home, I was physically out in the streets.
I was always getting messages from folks saying,
‘could you send some food to my grandmother?’”
From the hilliest part of the west Bronx to the
fl attest part of the east Bronx, Diaz still wishes he
could’ve done more to help the 1.5 million New Yorkers
who call the Bronx home.
“I’m not going to say (I’m) the least proud of anything,
because I’m proud of it all, but, my biggest regret
is not being able to help everyone,” he said. “COVID
decimated us, and we’re still trying to get our
arm around it.”
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, DEC.BTR 31, 2021-JAN. 6, 2022 9