Norwood News

It would have been hard to miss the excitement at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts last week, when the Bronx’s newest borough president took the oath of office.

The place was packed, possibly rivaling the venue’s gate for music legends B.B. King and Ray Charles. It was the middle of the day, too, and busy Bronx leaders from across the professional spectrum took time out of their schedules to be there. Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson even slipped away from their intertwined budget crises to attend.

Why the buzz?

Diaz, Jr. is only 36, and he was elected to the Assembly on his own steam (his father, a state senator was elected after his son) when he was 23. People seem to like him. And, unlike his predecessor Adolfo Carrion, he seems to have a genuine affinity for the grassroots organizations that have powered the borough’s remarkable turnaround.

Diaz also succeeded in becoming borough president by participating in a rare and risky takeover of the Bronx Democratic  Party. Diaz and his allies – a diverse group of elected officials from around the borough — won because they out-organized the entrenched incumbent leadership.

So, the 13th borough president would appear to have the wind at his back.

But he would do well to watch where he steps, too. The Bronx political landscape is littered with betrayals of the public trust.

State Senator Efrain Gonzalez will almost certainly go to jail when he is sentenced in August, after admitting to siphoning off cash meant for nonprofits to pay his own credit card bills. More Bronx politicians are suspected of misappropriating member item money than we have room here to list and explain. State Senator Pedro Espada has skirted state campaign finance rules again and again, and appears to live in Mamaroneck, despite purchasing a Bedford Park co-op during his campaign.

The borough president himself, and his father, have been under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office for their own relationship with a nonprofit. It’s unclear whether that investigation is continuing, but the state attorney general is also reportedly looking into the matter.  Diaz says the charge is politically motivated and that he hasn’t had any relationship with the organization in years. We hope he’s right.

Diaz has great ability and an incredible opportunity to fulfill his dream of building “a greater Bronx, a greater city, and a greater nation.” But as the Bronx’s biggest role model, he must speak out against political behavior that robs Bronxites of government funding and responsible leadership at a time when both are most needed. 

It’s the right thing to do and it’s the only way he will achieve the grandiose (his favorite word) plans he has for the Bronx. Making excuses for, and politically enabling, elected officials who betray the public trust is itself a betrayal of that trust. An elected official’s greatest allegiance must be to the people they serve, rather than to those they serve with.

There will be tremendous pressure to do things the old way, but we believe Borough President Diaz will always do his best to keep in mind why people wanted new political leadership for the Bronx. 
We will root for him to succeed.