Celebrating 15 years of Welcome2TheBronx

It’s hard to believe that 15 years ago, Welcome2TheBronx was born as a hobby based on a deep love for all things Bronx.

When I first put pen to paper, or rather fingers to the keyboard, I began with Welcome2Melrose to help combat the negative stereotypes of my neighborhood of Melrose in the South Bronx that was being perpetuated in the media for several decades too long.

I remember clearly how it started: I was searching Google for some local images but the only thing that would come up was images of a Bronx that no longer existed in 2009.

Everything that kept coming up was of the burning Bronx of the 70s and 80s but nothing was coming up about all the recent strides the borough had made in the subsequent decades since those years.

Everything that was reported about The Bronx in local and national (and even international) media was always negative so I took it upon myself to begin documenting the good things that were happening on the northernmost borough of New York City.

Within a month, the blog had caught the attention of local media and they began highlighting our efforts as well as amplifying some of the stories were were writing about.

And by the next year, Welcome2Melrose had evolved into Welcome2TheBronx as we decided to make sure that the entire borough was celebrated.

Throughout the years, many of our original stories made headlines across the city, nation, and the world and along with all of our supporters and like-minded content creators, we were able to tell a different story of The Bronx and teach the world what our borough was really all about.

This isn’t to say that we don’t talk about the issues we need to tackle like income inequality, education, true affordable housing, crime. We just want others to know that there’s more to us than just that.

It’s been a wonderful ride getting to know our borough even better through all those years and meeting the heartbeat of The Bronx that is its people who I firmly believe is the most important resource of our borough.

Anyway, I say all of this to say THANK YOU to everyone who has stuck with us since the beginning and all the newcomers that join us every day across our social media accounts.

Without you we wouldn’t be able to celebrate 15 years of Welcome2TheBronx and all things about this amazing borough we call home.