Who is Michael Brady?

“An Intro to the low profile, yet powerful unelected”

Image Credits: Concept by @rbgbooks1992//Illustrated by @gwuapgfx on IG

Who is Michael Brady? Well if it were up to him, he’d prefer you never find out. “I purposely try to keep a low profile in the neighborhood and in the Bronx as a whole,” Brady told Julian Nazar from the New York Business Journal. “Largely because if you keep a low profile, you tend to get more things done and accomplished.” And get things done he has indeed. Since he was appointed the executive director of the HUB / Third Avenue Business Improvement District back in 2017, Brady has been hard at work, dismantling the progress of community-driven initiatives in the so-called Bronx. 

 Brady’s first attempt at fracturing local groups was when he introduced the “1Bronx Festival” in 2018. According to the festival’s Facebook event page: “The 1 Bronx Festival promotes inclusion, community, and dialogue and works toward a future without discrimination where all people have equal rights under the law. We do this by producing Pride events that inspire, educate, and celebrate our diverse Bronx community.”  

Now let’s be clear, the Bronx pioneered the ideas of inclusion, community, and dialogue in modern New York City history long before there was ever a 1 Bronx festival. All you need to do is look back at this place’s history before and after European Natives came to settle these lands to learn about the true meaning of these ideals, but that’s a conversation for a different piece.  

Brady introduced the festival as the borough’s official LGBTQ Pride festival, despite the fact that since 2011 local community leader, Appolonia Cruz had been independently producing the Annual Bronx Pride Festival And Health Fair, centrally located in Crotona Park. The labor of love was created when Appolonia noticed that the Bronx did not have a dedicated Pride Festival. She was able to source donations from the borough’s very close-knit LGBTQ community, producing a safe space for its members as well as valuable resources that are not often accessible to the group. 

The 1 Bronx Facebook event page continues to state that, “The 1 BRONX FESTIVAL is produced by the Third Avenue Business Improvement District in collaboration with Out Bronx, the Office of the Bronx Borough President, the Bronx LGBTQ Caucus, Dancing in the Streets, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, and Clearview Festivals.”  Now Clearview Festivals, or Clearview Festival Productions, is a for-profit production company that specializes in producing street fairs. The company is owned by Todd Berman, a millionaire “producer” who in 2010 alone racked in a whopping $2.3 million according to westviewsnews.org. 

According to Applonia Cruz, Michael did not reach out to her to help collaborate on the 2018 production but did reach out to one of her sponsors, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, a very suspicious and seemingly well-calculated move; essentially taking away funding from the community. As someone who personally attended both the Annual Bronx Pride Festival And Health Fair at Crotona Park and 1Bronx back in 2018, I can attest there was a stark contrast in attendance between the corporate-backed fair and Applonia’s community-organized one.  

During the early Summer of 2020, which was already a tumultuous time for many Bronxites, Michael Brady betrayed yet another Bronx community. On June 4, 2020, after the brutal murder of an unarmed Black man, George Folyd, the Bronx was in an uproar. As many of you may already know, the so-called borough is home to a predominately impoverished black and brown immigrant community, one of the poorest districts in the entire nation, so the matter of police brutality and divestment has long been the reality for its residents.  Michael Brady, an Albany Born-European Native, issued this public statement via his Facebook page, “Third Ave Business District has been made aware of a credible threat to #thirdavenue and 149th street businesses by #takebackthebronx and #decolonizethisplace. Our organizational position has been clear- we are outraged at the murder of #GeorgeFolyd and are allies with peaceful protesters throughout the city.”   That very same day, members of the collective FTP4, who were peacefully protesting after being assured by their “ally”; Michael, were kettled, beaten, brutalized, and arrested. Court testimony later obtained revealed that the Chief of Police, Terrence Monahan; at the time testified “stating there were numerous phone calls from elected officials, the chamber of commerce, from the Hub saying that they had information that looting was going to take place”. For the record, Michael Brady also has served on the board of directors for the Bronx Chamber of Commerce for more than four years.

So why does Michael Brady keep exploiting The Bronx, and again who is Michael Brady? Michael is a sycophant to the rich, ruling elite;  He believes in Property over People. He is a strong supporter of Eric Adams and the NYPD, (a paradox considering his statement of solidarity with protesters from earlier). Michael Brady is currently the owner of Bar 47. Michael is no longer the executive director over at the HUB but recently spearheaded Canon Strategy Group whose vision “is to create and cultivate relationships, systems and policies that build community power and address gaps in representation and equity.”  They are a non-profit group that’s been working closely with Wall Street-funded Tomas Ramos (see previous blog for more) and his non-profit Oyate Group. Tomas Ramos has been recently linked to millionaire Michael Andrew Jenkins (see previous blog for more) from the mysterious Jane Street investment group; an investor of none other than Brookfield Properties and Brookfield Properties is the development giant gobbling up the neighborhood of Port Morris. 

With all of this information, it is clear that Michael Brady and his affiliates need to be stopped in order to save what’s left of The Bronx.  

As of 12/30/2024