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Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx in his first State of the Borough speech.
Taking on development, jobs, living wages, gun violence - and a snowstorm - Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx today in his first State of the Borough speech.
Key among his goals, says his office, will be a new plan to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, after he and others led the fight to kill a plan for a mall there.
A thousand invited guests at the Evander Childs High School campus are expected to hear Diaz announce a task force to develop new ideas for the cavernous, white-elephant armory’s future, such as manufacturing and recreation.
Diaz was pilloried by Mayor Bloomberg and construction unions for pushing the City Council to kill the plan for the heavily subsidized mall, over his insistence retailers there pay “a living wage” to workers - $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.
He is expected today to again raise the issue of living wages for projects receiving heavy city subsidies and tax breaks, and announce he has partnered with Bronx City Council members Anabel Palma and Oliver Koppell on legislation requiring that developers who receive taxpayer help make their project pay workers a living wage.
The borough president also is expected to announce a long-held dream of former borough presidents and business leaders - to bring a quality hotel to the Bronx, working with developers and the New York Hotel Trade Council to identify sites, and generate interest from hotel operators.
Former Borough President Fernando Ferrer had a master plan calling for a hotel as part of a Yankee Village near Yankee Stadium. The new Gateway Center Mall near there has been viewed as a possible site. Some have suggested a hotel near Fordham University, with the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Arthur Avenue as nearby draws.In line with building jobs for a borough that continues to have the nation’s highest urban poverty rate and highest unemployment numbers in the city, Diaz will continue his push to create a “green” local economy. He will focus on a “Greenprint” for manufacturing jobs in the emerging industry, with such products as solar panels, while encouraging incentives for local businesses to “retrofit.”
Diaz already has established a sustainable development policy, withholding funding unless a project meets a high level of environmental certification.
With gun violence plaguing the borough’s streets, Diaz also is expected to push for more gun-buyback programs like a recent one that saw nearly 1,200 weapons turned in for cash.
In addition, he will continue to identify initiatives and funding sources to combat gun violence.
A former state Assemblyman representing Soundview, the 36-year-old borough president was elected to his first full four-year term last November. He had won a special election prior to that after former Borough President Adolfo Carrión was appointed the White House director of urban affairs.
It is likely Diaz sees the borough president’s job - with a another four-year term possible in 2014 - as a political stepping stone to citywide office.
George Arzt, a respected political media consultant, views Diaz’s role in killing the Kingsbridge Armory development and pushing for living wages as extremely controversial - and “a bad idea from a public relations standpoint that could be costly to him if he has higher ambitions.”
But on the plus side, Arzt added, “He’s extremely likeable, very accessible, well spoken - and he knows the borough.
“He is essentially pro-manufacturing, pro-environment - and that’s a real positive for his political future.”
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