Bronx Boro Prez Diaz Tries To Back Track His Defense of Gentrification Party; Claims To Curb Gentrification

Our Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr must think that the public isn’t watching, paying attention to what he does and say as an updated quote appeared in The New York Times article in which he DEFENDED the gentrification party Macabre Suite held last Thursday which contradicts his original quote but don’t worry, we have your back and will show you the differences.

In the original piece Diaz had ONLY issued the following statement:

“Mr. Diaz offered a brief comment through a spokesman about his attendance at the show. “The borough president was invited to attend an event whose purpose ostensibly was to showcase and highlight the Bronx,” the spokesman, John DeSio, said. “While certainly Lucien Smith’s art exhibit was provocative, the overall purpose of the event was well intended.”

In the updated article The New York Times now adds:

“Mr. Diaz said on Friday that he did not particularly like the provocative artwork, some of which resurrected negative stereotypes of the Bronx. But he viewed the overall show as a celebration of how far the borough had come from its past struggles.

“The art was superfluous,” he said. “It was one night, but I think the party served the larger purpose of bringing people to the Bronx.”

Mr. Diaz, who supports the planned waterfront complex, noted that it would create housing for professionals as well as a public esplanade. He added that he had worked to curb gentrification in the Bronx by supporting zoning changes and a number of housing projects for low- and middle-income families.”

Can you spot the difference?

This just goes to show you the clear lack of respect Ruben Diaz Jr has for his constituents and people in general. How exactly has Ruben Diaz Jr worked towards curbing gentrification?

Just this week The Real Deal reported in its heavily pro gentrification piece, ‘The Bronx Feeding Frenzy‘:

“The sun was shining and the air was crisp when 30 real estate pros from CIM Group, Kushner Real Estate Group, Criterion Group and Mitsui Fudosan boarded a bus idling on Park Avenue bound for the Bronx. The field trip, organized by white-shoe law firm Herrick Feinstein, promised a tour of the borough’s rapidly changing neighborhoods — including the much-buzzed-about South Bronx — which is how the group of developers found themselves hurtling over the Third Avenue bridge one afternoon in the middle of last month. Clutching swag bags with granola bars, mints and maps, the group filed onto a red trolley at the Bronx Courthouse and for the next 90 minutes, traversed the borough, craning their necks to catch glimpses of a burgeoning development landscape.

“We make shidduchs, that’s what we do,” said Herrick partner Jonathan Adelsberg, chair of the commercial leasing department, invoking the Hebrew term for matchmaking.

“You can’t be a great real estate lawyer until you understand the market. We do what we can to expose opportunities to our clients,” he noted over pasta and eggplant Parmesan at Pasquale Rigoletto, the Arthur Avenue eatery where the tour concluded.”

The aforementioned shouldn’t come to anyone as a shocker as roughly 38%—over $150,000—of Diaz’s campaign funds for 2017 come from real estate interests.