“My focus is on reminding the residents of the borough that they're not alone. So even in my time of struggle, when I may feel weak, I know I have to be strong for my young people, because I know they're looking at me and they're looking up to me.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson on day two leading the borough.Vanessa Gibson is now etched in history as the first woman elected to serve as Bronx Borough President, and the first Black lawmaker to helm it. The borough presidency is largely ceremonial, long stripped of its statutory power decades ago when the U.S. Supreme Court found New York City’s government unconstitutional.
In addition to that, on the campaign trail, I talked extensively about jobs and economic development and getting residents back to work, realizing that one in every four Bronxites lost their income due to the pandemic. Many of our residents are working in the hotel and retail industry, which were decimated due to the pandemic and many of them have still not returned to work.
You definitely have a lot on the agenda. I recently spoke with your predecessor, Ruben Diaz Jr., about the limits to the borough presidency. He often used this phrase of making a dollar out of 15 cents. So how do you want to make the most out of a position that has a lot of limitations, at least within the City Charter?
I want to make sure that we have these public private partnerships with the Ford Foundation, with the Robin Hood Foundation. I know both of those leaders, very good friends of mine and really using the relationships I have. So I've also been able to — in my previous work as a council member — been able to cultivate a relationship with the hip hop community.
During your first month in office the Bronx experienced one of the most deadly fires in decades. Where were you, and what did you do when you first learned about it? And just looking at the building, it looked like a whole building was on fire because you could see fire damage on the exterior of the building all the way up to the 19th floor. But yet the fire started on [the third floor]. So it was like, wow. No one knew the magnitude of this fire, but we knew that there were a number of residents in the hospital.
A lot of organizations started to come to the site. And I said we need to have dinner, we need blankets. It's gonna start getting dark. We need Red Cross. So they set up the cafeteria for us. One section was Red Cross. One section was OEM. And then we just had people coming in. So our office, myself, my deputy, we have been on site everyday since Sunday. We opened Monroe College as an evacuation service center where all city agencies and state agencies are on site; residents were relocated to temporary hotels in the neighboring areas.
And then the third thing I want to emphasize is the status of a resident or a family member does not matter. If you are an immigrant, if you are undocumented, if you don't speak English as a native language — it doesn't matter. We are not kicking you out of the hotel. We're not forcing you into the building. We're not doing any of that. And we know there are some…where the residents are not the head of household. The head of household may not live there.
My message to all Bronx sites is we are resilient and we are strong. We have endured the worst of the worst. Over 30 years, the most horrific fires in the city of New York have occurred in the Bronx. And that is a very telling idea. It's a very painful reality that there is something wrong with the system. This is decades of government failure and landlord neglect for many reasons.
We cannot accept these conditions that residents live in as normal because if we do then it is a recipe for disaster for the next fire.I wanted to just turn back to big picture. We had spoken about the fact that you are interested in a Bronx Birthing Center. I was curious about where, if anywhere, the Kingsbridge Armory stands for you. We know that the project is essentially done. — it's not going to happen.
That's how you build people power in our city. So I respect the community advisory board. And now, as I learned from the lawsuit that came forth several weeks ago that pretty much demolished the whole plan, recognizing that we have to start from scratch. We have a commitment from Governor Hochul that the money that was designated from the state will remain in the Bronx and at Kingsbridge Armory.
I'm excited to work with the Bronx City Council delegation, a majority of women, five women and four men, and I think that they will be amazing. I know all of them and their personal stories and what they bring to the table. Althea Stevens is an educator and a youth organizer.
You are the first Black woman and also the first African-American to run the Bronx. What do you think about reaching that milestone?
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