Vanessa Gibson’s first couple days in her post as Bronx borough president were celebratory. In addition to cementing her place as the first Black woman to become borough president of New York City’s northernmost borough, Gibson also celebrated the installment of her diverse administration, a crew she assembled and touted as the most creative and boldest minds in the Bronx.
But the honeymoon was quickly upstaged by numbing tragedy, as the following weekend the Twin Parks North West high-rise apartment in the Fordham Heights section lit ablaze killing 17 people on Jan. 9. Since then, the work to repair systemic and qualitative cracks in the Bronx has been an unrelenting challenge for the Gibson administration.
