"River of Hope in the Bronx," how the original idea to clean up the River came
from the Commander of the Bronx precinct, Tony Bouza: "The rivers southern end
had to wait until the 1970s, when the Bronx was burning, before anybody started
talking seriously about ecological restoration and green space. A local police
commander, Anthony Bouza, joined forces with a secretary at Fordham University,
Ruth Anderberg, to make restoration a cause. The commander lived in Westchester
and was struck while commuting each day by how the river was a bucolic, sylvan,
beautiful place up north, he once recalled, but in the South Bronx it was a
yellow sewer and a symptom of Americas attitudes toward the underclass, a
powerful, physical metaphor. Anderberg agreed, quit her job and started the
Bronx River Restoration Project."
Southside Pride is publishing this fall a collection of Tony Bouza's essays
originally published in Southside Pride, "Lessons Learned."
Ed Felien
Powderhorn