Listen to the Full Interview with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr:

For Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., the "transformative development" for the borough's Latino population has ranged from jobs to housing and employment, all while debunking claims of gentrification.

"When you look at The Bronx and when I say its been 'transformative' over the last five years alone, a lot of the things we've been able to do have put us in a better place where, as I call it that day, 'The Bronx is stronger than it has been in decades,'" said Diaz during a recent interview with Latin Post. "If you look at the job creation, we've had over 15,000-net jobs. That's important to Latinos. We've had over 16,000 municipal affordable housing all built in a sustainable way. That's important to Latinos. We've had the two consecutive years of crime reduction where The Bronx is the safest that its been since the early 1960s. That's important to Latinos. Being the only one of 62 counties where the majority of the population is Latino, all of the good things that are happening here are good for the Latino community."

The Bronx, home to 1.4 million residents including 54.6 percent of Latinos, has gone through developments including new housing across the southern areas of the borough. Construction plans are set to occur for a 968-unit housing project with a 25,000-square foot-wide YMCA as part of the 'La Central' campaign in the Melrose neighborhood.

"The whole area of Melrose ... this is the footprint where in the 1970s the world saw The Bronx burning down," said Diaz. "When the Goodyear blimp was doing the panoramic view, that's the area. It's totally been transformed."

The Bronx also saw the developments of the Hutchinson Metro Center, The Mall at Bay Plaza, plans for the borough's first Marriott hotel and additional railroad stations for the Metropolitan Transit Authority's (MTA) Metro-North system.

With such development since he became the borough president in 2009, the term gentrification has been tossed around.

"I don't know if people are not into the business of whether or not people were using the term right or wrong. What we say in The Bronx is that we do not subscribe to the notion that gentrification is solely about pushing one community out to bring another one in," said the borough president.

Diaz acknowledged The Bronx has been changing, but "that's what transformation is all about." He continued, "That's why we say 'transformative,' that's why we wear that as a badge of honor."

Diaz recognized the need to protect residents in neighborhoods where such changes occur, including collaboration with the Legislature to ensure rents are stabilized and have regulations. He referenced the discussions when the new Yankee Stadium was constructed, which had people allege possible forced evictions or being priced out of their homes.

"That never happened. Same people who used to live there before the new stadium still live there now," said Diaz, adding other methods to avoid gentrification claims are by trying to get people improved living wages and learning how other boroughs have confronted the topic.

"When we rezone, when we're making sure we're building up, we are rezoning in areas where nothing exists, where there's no eminent domain, nobody's living there," Diaz said about gentrification. " We also don't have the same problems, say like the brownstones in Brooklyn, where people then buy the houses for higher rates, they mortgage it even higher and so they charge more rents to the second or third families that live there in order to pay those high mortgage, we don't have those issues here."

The borough president recognized The Bronx has lost its Bronx-native professionals and has been trying to retain them. He explained many professionals are people who have one or two salaries within the household but earn too much money for a lower-to-medium-income housing yet do not earn enough to buy a house. Diaz said the mindset among many professional have been, "I'm going to get my degree, I'm going to get my career, I'm going to get a good salary and I'm going to cut and run and leave The Bronx."

"The question becomes 'Why are people leaving? And how do we retain them?' And that's what we've been trying to address every single day that I've been here in Borough Hall," said Diaz.

Diaz identified the college degree rate of the borough's resident is not as high compared to the other boroughs, particularly among black and Latino men. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.1 percent of Bronxites have a Bachelor's degree or higher, a figure Diaz said is "abysmal" and "unacceptable."

"We have to do something about that, so we continue to put our money where our mouth is and finance and dedicate money to our [City University of New York (CUNY)] institutions so they can better themselves."

In an effort to improve higher education in the borough, Diaz has voiced his support of President Barack Obama's "America's College Promise" plan, which is the free community college plan. The borough president said, "That's probably the most leftist of any issue that I'm in. I am a firm believer that higher education should be absolutely free in this whole country, whether it's the CUNY system, the [State University of New York (SUNY)] system [or] the private institution."

On immigration, the borough's overall population includes 31.9 percent who are foreign born, with large representations from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico and Ecuador. Obama's immigration executive actions have received the support of Diaz, including the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs, which could result in 4.9 million undocumented immigrants, nationwide, to temporarily avoid deportation.

Diaz said, "I support them, but I think that, when you look at the court systems also challenging Obama's actions, I think that it's unfortunate that we live in a country where there are men and women in Congress who have totally polarized this issue, where nothing is being done, where you have a president who's forced to do executive orders that are then being challenged in court and unfortunately we get court decisions that goes against what the president is trying to do."

In regards to New York City politics, some Latinos Diaz highlight as shaping the political landscape include City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Councilmembers Julissa Ferreras, Carlos Menchaca, Gustavo Rivera, Marcos Crespo and Ritchie Torres.

"We have real people in real influential places now. We're not just getting elected to positions then being happy with those positions, there's an ascension to levels of government where we're really starting to be respected," said Diaz.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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