Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is leaving office on December 31st and is calling it the end of his 27 years in public life.
Diaz, who is term-limited, served as the top elected official to the city's most impoverished borough for 12 years. He won the post after a special election in 2009, and was later re-elected in 2013 and 2017. Diaz began his career in public life as a district leader at age 21. He was later elected to the Assembly, representing the 85th District in the Soundview and Castle Hill sections of the Bronx. Winning the seat at age 23 made Diaz the youngest member of the Assembly since Theodore Roosevelt.
Read More: What Does A Borough President Actually Do?
In an interview with Gothamist/WNYC, Diaz looked back on his time as the borough president, underscoring victories that included billions of dollars in investments for the borough while acknowledging the limits to the largely ceremonial post. Diaz also reflected on his reason to pull away from public life, his decision not to run for mayor, and whether he'll be lured back to elected office.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Cruz: Where do things stand with respect to the Bronx under your administration, within the last 12 years?
Diaz Jr.: Well, it's twofold if you ask me this. We live in a day and age of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. So pre-pandemic, we were at a point where we saw tens of billions of private dollars invested in our borough. We were able to look at empty lots and identify them with the city's economic development corporation and we saw an infusion of over 55,000 units of housing, everything from deep affordability to homeownership and everything in between; housing for veterans; housing for the homeless, housing for LGBTQ, senior citizens; housing for basically everyone who was able to apply and wanted a dignified place.
We cut unemployment from...14.3% to under 5%. We created over 117,000 new jobs up until the February before the pandemic hit. We were able to bring the first indoor mall to the Bronx. We were able to have the state of New York and the federal government fund huge infrastructure projects like the Bruckner-Sheridan interchange to the tune of $1.8 billion.
We were able to finance everything from the restoration and the re-imagining of Orchard Beach, which is going to start now; two huge museums that [are] desperately needed: the children's museum and the hip hop museum. We've seen it close to a billion dollars in public financing of our public parks and green spaces in every corner of the borough.
I'm proud of the work that we did in terms of crime. We saw eight straight years of under 100 homicides a year. If you want to compare it to years past when I was a teenager, in the 12 precincts in the Bronx, a number of them would have a hundred or more homicides every year. I give myself an "A" and I think that a lot of people recognize that, pre-pandemic.
Now to say that life is perfect, that's not what I'm getting at here. Obviously, there are so many different people in every corner of the borough, even pre-pandemic, who live a tough life and who are looking for employment, whose children aren't being educated to the best of our capabilities, who have pre-existing and healthcare conditions, who are addicted to opioids. And these are all the things that drove me. And these are the reasons why I've had the passion as the borough president to wake up every morning because I always knew that there was more than needed to be done.
Now post-pandemic, a lot of the projects were halted, a lot of the projects were put on the back burner. We saw a lot of the jobs that we created disappear because of the pandemic, we saw more and more homelessness because people didn't have their jobs because we weren't able to continue developing housing at the same clip as we were pre-pandemic. We saw crime increase because of a myriad different issues. We saw sickness rise not only because of COVID, but because of folks who weren't able to get the medical attention on a regular basis due to COVID, but who had other existing conditions.
COVID devastated us and with all the sickness, with all of the death, with all the job loss, part of what COVID did to us was, psychologically, beat us down because we ran into a solid wall on our progress.
How many years would you say the pandemic set back the Bronx in terms of the accomplishments that came during your tenure?
I have said in the past that all of that progress we've made in our first 11 years was decimated in 11 months.
In the first 11 months of the pandemic, man, it really, really — and it wasn't just the Bronx, right? It was the rest of the city, the rest of the world. But the Bronx was always sort of a step behind in economic development, job creation, and opportunity than other parts of the city, the state, and the country.
So I don't know how many years it regressed our efforts, but it did some damage and it still continues to do so.
What would you say should be some priorities for your successor, Vanessa Gibson?
Vanessa, I think, fully understands the weight that's coming in. Number one is the office alone. While the title is president, you have to make a dollar out of 15 cents, right?
You have to be able to bring together a coalition of activists, advocates, elected officials at every level of government: executives from the mayor of the city of New York, the governor of the state of New York, the congressional delegation. You have to maximize on those relationships, number one.
You got to continue to create housing. You have to continue to grow the economy. You have to do it in a way...even though people look at us and lick their chops at wanting to make money in our borough and do business in the Bronx.
One of the things that I've changed was the mindset that you're not only going to do business in the Bronx, you're going to do business with the Bronx. So it's not that you just have development — it's who do they subcontract to? Where do they buy their equipment? Where do they buy their supplies?
You have to be able to make those marriages like we were able to do with the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, to developers and Bronx businesses. You have to be able to match people with their skillset. So one of the things that we've always did — we had job fairs and in those job fairs we created a database so whenever folks wanted to do business in the Bronx, what we would do is that we send them Bronxites that were skilled according to that job opening. And we would send them multiple people and whoever they [picked] it really didn't matter. We knew it would be a Bronxite.
You have to work with the city of New York — David Banks, who's going to be the [schools] chancellor. And how [is] it that we have real equity coming out of the Department of Education for our school system? Because so many of our kids are not only being left behind academically, but we know that the pandemic has shown us that technology left a big gap in how our kids were able to learn remotely, or even if [they're] learning in school, we just were not equipped. Technologically speaking, for years I've talked about having a WiFi bubble over the borough, and that has never materialized.
You have to work with the police department, hold them accountable, but understand that we need police officers so that we can rid ourselves from the criminals. We hope and we want people to have a second chance.
We want to address mental health issues. We want to, and need to address poverty and other social, economic contributors to why people make mistakes. But when we have hardcore criminals, we should not romanticize that. We need to be able to be bold enough to say, 'you need to put that individual behind bars because they deserve to be there,' so that this way people feel safe to come back out. People feel safe to go to restaurants. People feel safe to enjoy our nightlife. People feel safe to enjoy our green spaces and public parks. And that's how you start to get a vibrant Bronx all over again.
Now, with that said, I'm optimistic. Why? Because in the 1970s we had people burned down the Bronx. In the 1980s, it was the crack epidemic. In the 1990s... people think that we have an influx of crime. The 1990s was something else. And through it all we were always able to exhibit that Bronx DNA and resiliency, and we were able to get through that... and we'll do the same thing with COVID because we're Bronxites.
The borough presidency has limits because of the City Charter. How frustrated were you knowing there were limits to this job? Were there times where you were really frustrated by the fact that this job in essence is sort of like a bit of a figurehead role when compared to what it was before?
Every single day of my life as the borough president, and even as an assembly member. A lot of people criticize, a lot of people will hear this interview and say, 'Well, Ruben, didn't do this. The borough president didn't do that.' Unbeknownst to them is that a lot of it is out of the borough president's control, so in an interview like this the proverbial question is, 'are there any regrets?' My regret is that I couldn't do something for everybody who needed help. And the reason why you can't do it is because I don't control the city agencies, I don't control the state agencies, I don't control the city coffers. The capital budget that we get is formula-based and it fluctuates every single year. So it's not like it increases. And it's not like you can be dependent on a set amount. It goes up and [down], and yet one thing that doesn't go down is the amount of requests.
But what you have to do as a board president is that you have to be able to harness and manage relationships. You have to maximize relationships. I've been able to do that at every level of government. And so that's how we've been able to make a dollar out of 15 cents. Yes, a lot of it comes from the title, but a lot of it also came from years, if not decades of me nurturing relationships, of making people understand and feel that I bleed the Bronx and that I live and breathe the Bronx. And if you want to be my friend, even though you're not from the Bronx, but if you are in a position of influence, then you have to do something for my borough.
You did check off some pretty good milestones in terms of development projects, but of course, I always go back to the Kingsbridge National Ice Center. If I'm to understand, the project officially collapsed. It was a project that you really had touted and it didn't happen. Is this sort of demonstrative of the limits of the borough president and do you wish you could've done something else to move this along?
What was demonstrative of the office of the borough presidency was how we were able to get such a huge project. First, we killed the ULURP [ Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] vote that then-Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg wanted to create a mall there. That comes out of the leadership of this office. Then we were not only able to bring together one or two elected officials, but 27 different organizations that comprised what was known as KARA. And, you know better than most, David, how it's hard to herd all those cats, so to speak — all of those vocal voices — and to have each and every single one of those organizations who have a legacy in their own right come together in unison with one voice saying that we wanted this project that was unprecedented and unheard of. That leadership comes out of this office.
Then you look at minimum wage, or the living wage in the city and the state of New York: $15 an hour. What was the catalyst to that becoming law? It was the leadership out of this office, post the Kingsbridge Armory, the first project when they told us that they didn't want to pay us a living wage... because it wasn't codified into law. We are the ones who led that, you know, that leadership in the City Council and then in the state of New York. And now you have a minimum wage. It was a living wage at initially $15 an hour. What's the minimum wage now in the state of New York?
If you go back and do the research... that's demonstrative of what relationships and leadership out of the borough president. The fact that the project is not moving forward, that is no fault of my own, no fault of the community boards that are touch[ed], no fault of the over 27 organizations. That was basically after all of the legwork that we did, the developer just couldn't land that plane.
So the city was all for it. The state of New York even gave them a $138 million loan at very small points. So everything was done. I've never seen [a] developer show so much ineptitude when so many of the governmental and political stars were aligned in such a huge project, not being able to land this plane.
I know that you really touted this project. Did you make calls? Did you ever inquire on what was happening?
Again the developer was not able to live up to his agreements and his end of the negotiations, wasn't able to do what he said he was gonna do in terms of raising equity and showing that. Obviously, he may have his own side of the story, but every single step of the way, every level of government from community boards, to the governor's office and everything in between, every single elected official that touched that west side of the Bronx. Every community group that's quick to throw away any idea for major development... everybody was down with this. So it was a squandered moment in opportunity by a developer when any other developer in the city of New York would only dream to have the level of coordination, the level of support and the level of passion by as many elected officials, as many levels of government and as many community organizations as the Kingsbridge National Ice Center had.
A big development for the Bronx was the Jerome Avenue rezoning. We had done a story a couple of months ago where we found the area has some of the highest eviction rates in the city of New York. Could the plan have been refined a little more to retain the folks who are living there? Did you expect something like this to happen?
Well obviously it's ongoing, right? And if you look at the ULURP and the recommendations and the agreements by myself, Councilwoman and Borough President-elect Vanessa Gibson, [Councilmember Fernando] Cabrera, many of the different organizations, part of the agreement was how was it that we have legal services free of charge for those who don't have that legal representation in housing court? We worked with the mayor of the city of New York to be able to protect surrounding residents outside of the Jerome zoning, because we knew that even though we can protect high rents, right? So the AMI (Area Median Income) that we've picked for the actual zoning would protect residents. While I support, for instance, high AMI's and other parts of the Bronx, or even homeownership in other parts of the Bronx, I've always said, I didn't want to go past a certain AMI inside the zoning, but understanding fully well that, again, some landlords and property owners are looking at the chops outside of of the borders of the zoning and seeing that it would increase their property value and that they will start to raise the rent. So we were working with CASA and other organizations where [they're] literally knocking on doors and seeing where people are and whether they need that legal assistance and whether they need that protection.
And we even have [what is] sort of like a letter grade for the property owners outside of the zoning, if they harass. So it's all in there right. Now, the issue with the Jerome Avenue corridor rezoning is that it's a living ongoing process, right? It's not like one site where you rezoned it, it goes up and then that's it.
So there are so many things that are not even being considered yet. That will come. What I mean by that? Like projects, transfer of land, small businesses that exist today that may not be there or need to be protected five years from now when someone actually starts to pay attention to where they are and perhaps wants to develop it.
So the good news is that one of the people who was intimately involved in crafting the agreements and took the lead on this is Vanessa Gibson and she's going to be the borough president. So there's that continuing, not only leadership, but someone who has... at least in this particular case, the institutional memory to be able to hold the next mayor or administration accountable for what this administration agreed to.
Why did you decide to leave politics?
Because it was time. First of all, the only thing for me left to do in my mind was to run for mayor of the city of New York. That's already old news. Two years ago, I said I wasn't running. I made that decision with my family. Everyone knows my family's more important to me than anything else.
And folks had whatever they wanted to say about why is it that I did or didn't run. Many people... probably thought something nefarious was happening. But two years later, those people are eating their words and now they're wondering why I'm not staying.
I've been elected now in one way, shape or form since I was 21. I was district lead at 21. I ran for the Assembly at 22 and lost, ran at 23, served for seven terms up in Albany. At 35, I became the borough president. I've been here for three terms, 12 and a half years.
So if I stay another four years or 10 years, then you will wind up criticizing me for being a career politician, too. So... it's just time for me to go on and I'm totally happy. And I'm at peace, and I'm confident that there is a new school of Bronx leadership that will take it to the next level and that's good.
So where you going?
I'm not prepared to tell you today.
It sounds like there's something in the works.
Absolutely. Come on man. You know me, of course there is. What am I going to do? Be jobless with a week left to go into my tenure.
What's life after politics looking like for you?
Life after politics is going to be a little more private. I'm going to be able to pursue some of my own personal enjoyment.
Like what?
I like to roller skate. I like to go to the gym. I like to golf. I like to read, I like to spend time with my sons who are grown men. I like to smoke a cigar. I liked to travel. I like to listen to music. I like to go out on dates with my wife. I like to help with my brother now that my brother has a grandson. I like to call myself "Big Tio."
I look forward to, with my brother, helping raise Grayson and fly kites with him. And with all that said, it's baked in my DNA and my entire family to still help people. So whatever I do next, I'm going to help make people's lives better in one way, shape, or form. That's who I am. That's how I was raised. That's who my family is. And I'm just going to do it in a way where it won't be through government and it certainly won't be in as an elected official.
What's your advice to the new wave of elected leaders that representing the Bronx?
Stick together. Stay united. Keep your spats at home. Get to know each other because when you know each other, you develop a trust. A lot of times people don't trust each other because they didn't get a chance to know each other.
And trust is not about agreeing with each other. Trust is when you and I disagree with each other. This way I know where you're coming from and I trust that it's pure. That your disagreement with me is because to your core you feel like we should go a different direction or maybe we should compromise something. And it's not about some interior motive that is going to benefit you politically, or you want a grandstand. So once people get to know each other, you get to trust each other, you build that collegiality, you build that unity, then you go to every other level of government, whether it's the City Council or up in Albany or even in Congress and you're able to fight in unison, in one voice for the people of the Bronx.
I think ultimately that's all we have. Look... Manhattan is Manhattan. They have the financial world, that's where the money's at. Brooklyn is the biggest borough with the largest population so people cater to them because of the amount of votes. Queens is the home of homeowners. Staten Island, for the most part, they vote in like a bloc, right? Whether they're Republican or Democrat, they're blue collar, they're center or right-to-center and they vote as a bloc.
So the Bronx has to show that level of unity and camaraderie, which is something that we've been able to exhibit over, since I've been the borough president under the leadership of Carl Heastie, myself, Marcos Crespo all the elected leaders. That's how the governor, whoever they were, the mayor, whoever it was, people knew that to mess with one of us was to mess with all of us.
Any final parting thoughts?
Look, I have had the ride of my life. For a boy who played with his brother in rubble. To be able to ascend to the highest levels of Bronx and city politics, to be able to sit with mayors, with governors, with presidents and negotiate for the betterment of my borough, to see that empty lots that I played in, like those behind the stores on Third Avenue and create real development like La Central and Via Verde, to create things like YMCAs and bring in ferry service and bring in infrastructure and malls when we didn't have any, when we had to go to other counties... and 55,000-plus units of housing and create over a hundred thousand jobs and be able to allocate funding to our green spaces like Orchard Beach and our waterfront and make them accessible, to have something come now, like the hip hop museum, a genre of music that has taken over the world, that was born right here in the Bronx is our natural resource that raised me. It's been quite the ride. It's been the ultimate and most humbling honor.
And I want to thank each and every single person, whether they're here to hear this interview or still living in the Bronx, or moved out of the Bronx or if they've transitioned, to the unknown, whether I stand on their shoulders or they believed in and helped me to execute these visions to make the Bronx better, to lay down a solid foundation that I know will now be built upon is a blessing of a lifetime. And I say thank you to everyone.
And will you leave the door open to coming back to public life?
Never say never, right?
