Firstly, I thank you Erin and Lou for founding the “Boogie downer” and bestowing me with the honor to carry on the tradition. All their hard work maintaining it these last few years is appreciated. I hope to continue and expand on the foundation they built. I also must make clear that this is a new beginning. May God bless this new venture. May it be positive, informative, honest and entertaining. May it make The Bronx stronger.
There are many reasons for my excitement in my new role as Custodian / Editor in Chief / Owner of the “Boogiedowner”. My primary goals for the site to become an enjoyable empowerment tool for myself and the community as well as it being a creative outlet for myself and others. With the invention of new social networking technology, the communication of news and ideas is a self help tool for the “people”, if we choose to take advantage of it. I hope over time the readership sees it’s self as a community and uses its cumulative power to promote positive change for the Bronx, our neighborhoods, our families and ourselves.
With so much of today’s media owned by a few major corporations I want to clear or help explain who I am. To do so I choose a few family photos that you might also find entertaining. They should help me explain who I am, and what credentials I have that make me believe I am fit to write and disseminating information about, and to the Bronx public. Please understand I am putting not only myself, but also my beloved family out there in order to provide confidence that someone stands behind this blog site and the words written on it. This blog site is run by a real person with a real name; not a ghost writer.
Who is Gregory Tsougranis? As Lou and Erin also mentioned above I am a NYS Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker specializing in Bronx Real Estate. Before that I was an accountant in both the public and private field, a NYC special education teacher and I had my own retail furniture store specializing in the furniture I imported predominantly from the Eastern Europe. I am sure these experiences will present themselves in my blog. Enough chatter; here are the photos!!! (If there is any delay in posting the photos it's only because I am new to the system)
The first photo shows me back in my second grade class in 1975 along with my first love, Ms. Markowitz. I went to PS 97 in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx, where I live presently. I must have done every homework assignment that year. Kudos to anyone that thinks they can identify me. Kudos to all the teachers out there moldings tomorrows minds.
Photo #2 goes back a little bit further. It shows me riding my donkey cart in my first home on Sherman Ave off the Grand Concourse in the early 70’s. To date I have been involved in over 60 real estate transactions many of which were large oversized co-ops along the Grand Concourse much like my first home shown above. No, I do not still ride my donkey cart but every know and then I rent a trolley from the BOEDC and have real estate tours in the Bronx.
The third is were it all started with the first Gregory Tsougranis to set foot on the American soil. He was my grand-father who imigrated from Greece to America via Ellis Island in the early 1900's. Within a few years he opened Olympia Flower Shop in the Bronx. It is presently called Olympia Hearns Flower Shop. It's located at 249 E 149th St. and about to celebrate it's 104th contineous year in business in the Boogiedown. You can reach my god-father Nicholas Chugranis @ (718) 585-3060 for top quality flower arrangements and exceptional service. It might be the oldest continious family owned businesses in the Bronx. If anyone knows of other centenarian family owned small businesses please do let me know. I would love to write about and on the boogiedowner.
Sincerly,
Gregory Tsougranis
