I was curious about the following phrase throughout my early years as a young journalist, first in Miami, then in NY, DC, and LA.
‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going” idiom emphasizes that when conditions become difficult, strong people take action. Strong-willed, adamant, aggressive go-getting, grittily, gutsy, pertinacious, pigheadedly, and purposefully.
As a newsman and researcher, I had learned that one of the most challenging places in America was The Bronx, so naturally, when I received an offer to work there, I was afraid, excited, and apprehensive. The challenge was plentiful. It included building, recruiting, training staff, and launching News 12 The Bronx, now known as News 12 New York.
As I watched films like Fort Apache and Fort Apache, The Bronx, a 1981 American crime drama directed by Daniel Petrie. The film is about a hard-drinking, lonely veteran cop, Murphy (Paul Newman), and his young partner Corelli (Ken Wahl), who work in a crime-ridden precinct in The Bronx. Although Murphy's life takes a good turn when he falls in love with Isabella (Rachel Ticotin), a young nurse, the arrival of a new, law-and-order-minded police captain commanding the precinct, Connoly (Ed Asner) threatens to tip the neighborhood's delicate balance into anarchy. Danny Aiello, Kathleen Beller, and Pam Grier play supporting roles. It was written by Heywood Gould and produced by Martin Richards and Thomas Fiorello, with David Susskind as executive producer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9D5M-c0S_Y
Bonfire of the Vanities. I will not bore you with the rest of the film, but in my humble opinion, the beginning is a fantastic attraction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luui7KGzciY
And then... A Bronx Tale. In Robert De Niro's stunning directorial debut, a devoted father battles a local crime boss for the life of his son. Growing up on the racially-divided mean streets of 1960s New York, 11-year-old Italian-American Calogero, or "C," idolizes sophisticated local mob boss Sonny (Chazz Palminteri), despite stern warnings from his working-class father (Robert De Niro). But when C gets older and defies his dad to join Sonny's dangerous gang, he finds that life is never black and white. Funny, touching, and explosively honest, it's a provocative coming-of-age story you won't soon forget. This is how I first hear about City Island, A Slice of NYC Paradise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_1oKRjBmOY
I moved to The Bronx two decades ago and became the founding father of News 12, AP Television, and IMAGINUS.
Now I find that some lightweights have reportedly begun to exit this multicultural borough known as The Boogiedown Bronx,
Bye, bye: U.S. Census shows The Bronx suffered fifth-highest population decline https://www.bxtimes.com/bronx-fifth-highest-population-decline/
Meanwhile, published reports point out that a share of the U.S. Latino population doesn't identify with any of the current racial categories in the census, according to new 2020 Census Bureau data that shows "major shifts" in how Americans who identify as Hispanic report their race. And so it goes…