Bronx News Network Now Bronx Bureau! Check it Out!

City Limits has relaunched the Bronx News Network as the Bronx Bureau at www.bronxbureau.org. Check it out!

City Limits Acquires Bronx News Network

In September, City Limits acquired Bronx News Network (BxNN).

For more information on our plans to re-launch BxNN, visit www.bxnn.org. Thanks!

For Updated Bronx News and Updates, Visit Breaking Bronx at NorwoodNews.org

The Bronx News Network is in a transitional phase and has suspended posting for the time being. We'll be providing updates in the near future.

In the meantime, for the latest Bronx news updates and stories, visit Breaking Bronx, the new borough-wide blog published by the Norwood News. Aside from our daily news updates and stories, Breaking Bronx provides special feature posts, including the interactive Be Healthy! column on Wednesdays, the Bronx Sports Report on Thursdays and the Bronx Breakdown column every Friday afternoon.

De Blasio Announces Support of Living Wage Legislation

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has come out in support of the Living Wage legislation, sending a letter yesterday to Christine Quinn, the Council speaker. Quinn has not yet signaled whether she's going to allow a vote on the bill.

NYT: Ruben Diaz, Jr. Considering Mayoral Bid

A piece in today's New York Times about the current state of the mayoral field reports that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. is mulling a run.

Bronx News Roudup, Dec. 6

The Supreme Court decided not to review a lower court decision that upholds the city's right to refuse to provide space in city schools for religious groups. The case emanated from the Bronx Household of Faith's use of PS 15 on Andrews Avenue in University Heights. Councilman Fernando Cabrera, a pastor himself, is proposing a change to state law to allow for the use of public schools for religious services.

Norwood News has a lovely farewell to Sal of Sals's Pizza on Bainbridge Avenue, who is passing his business on to a 32-year-old local resident. 

A 30-year-old boxing gym in the south Bronx is closing.

Five Occupy protesters who joined with local community gardeners at a city-owned lot in Mott Haven to protest plans to develop the site were arrested over the weekend, the Mott Haven Herald reports.

The jurors in the Seabrook trial are divided, raising the possibility of a hung jury.

The Times takes a look at the glut of properties for sale in Riverdale.

Advil sponsors a library in a south Bronx school, raising questions about whether children should be a target of medical advertising. Bronx Ink has the story.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 28

Jenny (J-Lo that is) was, uh, not on the block in a Fiat ad in which she appears to be in the Boogiedown navigating the streets but isn't.

A Bronx teen creates a 3-D printer.

The public corruption trial of Councilman Larry Seabrook is expected to wrap up this week. 

A teen is recovering after being shot outside his Norwood apartment last week.

A growing population of Mexican immigrants in the Bronx and NYC are falling way behind in high school graduation rates. This story in the Times is the latest in a series of articles in the Times on the Mexican immigrant experience.

Michael Kimmelman, the Times' chief architecture critic, who has exhibited a consistent interest in the borough, explored last week an innovative and attractive S.R.O. (single room occupancy) building on Bronx Park East and many other new ways of thinking of housing in a city where only 17 percent of apartments consist of two-parent households.

The dispute over whether to pave the popular Putnam Rail trail in Van Cortlandt Park continues. 

Two firefighters who came to the rescue of a Bronx teen who was being mugged and assaulted on Saturday will be honored by Councilman James Vacca.

A relatively new city program to address the most neglected residential buildings has not achieved its goals, the Daily News reports.

A power outage at an east Bronx nursing home has left a 49-year-old woman dead.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 23

Today, we're devoting the roundup to the living wage legislation, which was debated in a City Council Committee hearing yesterday.

Norwood News tweeted live from the hearing.

One of the focuses of a New York Times article is Council Speaker Christine Quinn's questioning of both sides, including her asking opponents of the bill if they'd support it if it were scaled back to only include gigantic developments like stadiums and airports. Maybe, they said.

As Azi Paybarah of Capital points out, today's Daily News covers all sides of the argument: Citing concerns of small businesses in her community, Councilwoman Inez Dickens of Harlem withdrew her support for the living wage bill in a column in the Daily News today. Juan Gonzalez supports the legislation, and puts the spotlights on Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. whose leadership in the battle that defeated a mall at the Kingsbridge Armory gave birth to the legislation. Meanwhile, the paper's editorial page states yet again its opposition to the bill.

Here's Diaz's testimony.

Gotham Gazette has a good rundown of the politics surrounding the legislation.

A Sojourners magazine contributor writes in favor of the bill on Huffington Post. 

In case you missed it, despite heavy union support for the bill, three trade unions came out against it.

Bronx Alehouse and POTS Partner to Help Hungry

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 16

The latest episode in the Seabrook trial features Stanley Schlein, a long-time attorney/counselor/fixer/ballot-challenger for Bronx Democratic political powers, and sheds a little light on the connection between business and politics in the borough.

St. Augustine Church, a 162-year-old parish in the south Bronx, is being closed and merged with Our Lady of Victory Church.

With Thanksgiving a week away, POTS (Part of the Solution) co-executive director Jack Marth writes about the programs provided and challenges faced by hismulti-service agency, which has expanded into a new facility on Webster Avenue in Bedford Park.

Workers who have raised alleged unfair labor practices at Woodlawn Cemetery for the last several months were joined by a contingent of Occupy Wall Street protesters over the weekend.

A Times "Neediest Case": A Tanzanian family struggles to stay afloat in the Bronx.

A group that believes one answer to struggling schools is to address problems of students with the most problems inside and outside the classroom is active in three Bronx schools.

A Kennedy High School football star, now at Penn State, says he'd never have gotten to where he is without Joe Paterno.

Class sizes are growing, Schoolbook reports. (Link to PDF of preliminary class size report included in article, though no borough breakdowns.)

Neighbors held a prayer vigil for murder victim Bimal Chanda last night in front of his North Fordham apartment building.

Bronx images from the NYC Marathon here.

Beyond the Bronx: Congress declares pizza a vegetable in school lunches. Not the same as the Reagan administration proposing ketchup as a vegetable, but alarming nonetheless.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 15

On Twitter this morning @CityHallNews reports the following: "Mayoral spox [spokesman] jokes that #ows [Occupy Wall Street] protesters can now occupy Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx." [no link]

An electric truck factory will open in the Bronx.

In a big reorganization Catholic church pastors will no longer be responsible for the schools in their parishes.

Good news and bad news for Williamsbridge Oval Park, where Parks Commissioner Adrain Benepe is scheduled to formally cut the ribbon on a new playground and other improvements this morning.

Bronx Community Pride Center has its own Project Runway.

A third of the BankNote building in Hunts Point will be rented by the city to be a hub for the borough's public assistance programs. Some community leaders are not happy at all.

Living Wage Battle Heats Up

In preparation for a long-awaited Nov. 22 City Council hearing on Living Wage legislation, which has its roots in the battle over the fate of the Kingsbridge Armory, supporters, including several Council members, are stepping up their p.r. campaign.