New from the Norwood News

The latest edition of the Norwood News is out on streets and online now.

Every print copy also includes our "Bronx Wedding Guide," which will also run in the Mt. Hope Monitor and Tremont Tribune. The guide contains loads of planning tips to help you create the perfect Bronx wedding on any budget. You'll also find a bunch of coupons and discounts from our advertisers. Pick your copy up today at libraries, community centers, grocery stores and other Norwood News outlets in Norwood, Bedford Park, University Heights and Fordham Road.

Here's a quick preview of what else you'll find in this issue:

Bainbridge Avenue merchants are struggling to find a path forward after a Halloween fire left their businesses homeless.

City Council members strongly challenged the Related Companies' claims that they could not possibily guarantee living wage jobs at a revamped Kingsbridge Armory mall. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., community groups and the retailers union are pushing for living wage requirements to be included in a binding community benefits agreement.

Friends and family remember long-time Armory activist Phyllis Reed, who passed away earlier this fall. Reed created a garden on the outside grounds of the Armory as a way to bring the community together.

The unexpected suicide of a 13-year-old Tracey Towers resident left an entire community searchign for answers. [More on this story soon. There's going to be a wake for the young man this afternoon at Ortiz Funeral Home on Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse.]

The DeWitt Clinton football squad fell just two games short of a city championship.

Bronxites voted strongly against Mayor Bloomberg, now that he's back in his office, local residents want him to make changes.

Enjoy.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 20

Happy Friday everyone! And, don't forget, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, check out our Bronx Events listing, which you can find here at the beginning and end of every week.

The NY Times follows the mother of the 16-year-old boy accused of firing shots that severely wounded one young man and hit a 15-year-old girl in the head on Monday afternoon. (While the young man is improving, 15-year-old Vada Vasquez remains in a coma.) Prosecutors say the 16-year-old, one of five young men who were implicated in conjunction with the crime, admitted to his part in the shooting. But the kid's lawyer says his client wasn't responsible. The Times talks with some of the mother's relatives at their home in East Crotona Park.

The Streets Blog bemoans the DOT's extensive $266 million plan to widen the Major Deegan, while neglecting an serious work on possibly tearing down the little-used Sheridan Expressway.

Tenants at a University Avenue apartment building are suing their landlord for dangerous living conditions.

Four Bronx Teachers are being honored for their outstanding work in teaching math and science.

A man filed a lawsuit in Bronx Supreme Court after emergency service workers threw out a piece of his ear, which a dog had ripped off.

A Columbia Spectator writer visits the Parkchester neighborhood where his father grew up.

The love story of an Upper Eastside hand model and a porter from the Bronx is generating headlines around the city. The hand model is suing her building's superintendent for a torrent of mental and physical abuse (the suit alleges that the super's wife drunkenly hit the porter in the testicles with a hand bag, causing a contusion), which began after she fell in love with the Bronx boy.

Students at the Bronx Preparatory Charter School mail out college applications.

Bronx Events Through November 23

Bronx Pugilist Maureen Shea figts Dec. 3. (Photo by David Greene)

Bronx Borough President Rueben Diaz Jr. will hold a candlelight vigil on Monday, Nov. 23 outside the Bronx County building at 851 Grand Concourse to call an end to gun violence. The vigil will be in memory of victims of homicides, organized as part of the National Day of Outrage. Elected officials, community leaders, victims and their family members will join Diaz Jr. in an effort to draw attention to the impact of gun violence on the public safety in the Bronx and in the city. The vigil begins at 4:30pm. For more information visit http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/.

The Bronx Library Center, located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road, hosts Traditional Music and Dance from West Africa, Nov. 21 at 2:30pm. For more information call 718-579-4244 ext. 26.

On November 21, the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 250 Bedford Pk. Blvd., presents
Street Beat featuring urban rhythm, hip hop and break dancing performed by musicians and dancers. The event begins at 8:00pm. Tickets are $10-25. For more information, call 718-960-8833

The Bronx Museum of the Arts at 1040 Grand Concourse @ 165^th Street will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Grand Concourse on Tuesday, November 24. The celebration starts at 10:30am and will be joined by 3rd and 5th grade students from P.S 73 singing “Happy Birthday” to the Grand Concourse. For more information visit http://www.blogger.com/www.bronxmuseum.org

The Lehman Center for the Performing Arts presents The Nutcracker performed by the Moscow Classical Ballet. The performance will be held on Sunday, November 29 at 6pm.Tickets range from $25-35, and $10 for children under twelve. To purchase tickets, visit http://www.blogger.com/www.lehmancenter.org or call the Lehman Center box office at 718-960-8833.

Female pugilist Maureen Shea, 28, of Throggs Neck, will be back in action during a Star Boxing show at the Manhattan Center on Dec. 3. Shea (13-2, 7 KO's) is expected to face Jenna "Cowgirl" Shriver (9-4-1, 2 KO's) from Tampa, FL. The two will be battling for the interim WBA Female Super Bantamweight Title. Shea, a Throggs Neck native, got the last minute call after fellow Bronxite and former Riverdale resident Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin pulled out of the show with a ruptured appendix. For more information on the card visit the Star Boxing website at: www.starboxing.com or call (718) 823-2000; tickets start at $52.

The New York Botanical Garden presents several events this fall: The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden offers Gardens ‘Round the World featuring Caribbean Garden, a pinwheel-shaped plot garden featuring Caribbean crops. The Holiday Train Show will take place from Nov. 21 through Jan. 10 and features a display of New York landmark replicas created out of plant materials, as well as model trains. For more information and a detailed schedule, call (718) 817-8700 or visit nybg.org.

Ukrainian Vigor and Color at Lehman Center

Sunday Nov 15th, The Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company preformed at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. The folk dancers danced with energy, grace, vivid color and gravity defying athletic leaps. The audience joined in with rhythmic clapping and shouts as the artists danced with vigor. I hope you like the photographs, I enjoyed making them.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 19

Police say a teenage boy has admitted to shooting Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old girl who was critically injured in Morrisania on Monday afternoon when struck by a bullet meant for someone else.

The Times profiles Jacob Selechnik, a Bronx-landlord who's looking to add to his already massive portfolio of apartment buildings. Selechnik claims to provide quality, affordable housing, but the number of violations in his buildings tell another story. In 2006 he made the Village Voice's list of the city's 10 worst landlords.

A popular diner in Kingsbridge will reopen next week, nine months after a fire destroyed much of its interior.

Daily News columnist Errol Louis says future Kingbridge Armory workers deserve a living wage, and that living wage requirements should apply to all projects that receive significant public benefits from the city.

The Jericho Project is building a 72-unit apartment building in Kingsbridge Heights. It'll house homeless and low-income veterans.

Mastermind Management has plans to build an 18-story mixed-use building at the intersection of East Tremont and Webster avenues. Talking of Mastermind, another development of theirs, a co-op building on Featherbed Lane in Morris Heights, is nearly complete. We'll have an update on this in the next Mount Hope Monitor.

A police officer from the 48th Precinct faces a year in jail after being convicted of perjury.

BronxTalk Focuses on Housing

On Monday, we plugged that evening's episode of BronxTalk, which focuses on foreclosure, vacancy decontrol and other housing issues. It features Bronx News Network contributor Gregory Lobo-Jost and Jonathan Levy of Bronx Legal Services. To watch, click here.

City Council Grills Armory Developer on Living Wage

KARA supporters gather outside of City Hall to protest the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory without a living wage.

Requiring developers of city property to guarantee a living wage for retail employees may have seemed far-fetched to some observers six months ago.

Not anymore.

At the City Council’s hearing on the Related Companies’ proposal to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a giant shopping mall, virtually the entire Zoning and Franchising Subcommittee, (which will be the only Council committee to hold a hearing on the project) grilled company representatives on the living wage issue.

Council Member Larry Seabrook, who sits on the committee and represents the northeast Bronx, said that overall unemployment figures don’t reflect the vast numbers of jobless in the borough’s African American and Latino communities – a figure he cited as 55 percent. He said he believed the project would not be harmed by a living wage requirement. “I don’t think providing living wages will destroy the project,” he said.

Another member of the committee, Eric Gioia of Queens, said the only way that workers will survive on a minimum wage is if “the government subsidizes workers through food stamps.” He added that without a community benefits agreement (CBA), Related will “keep the neighborhood poor.”

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg administration, which presented a united front with Related, held to their position that the proposed deal with Related (which includes millions in tax breaks and bargain-basement price tag of $5 million for the facility) is the best that can be achieved.

“We have the best project we can possibly get,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber. “We want to make sure we don’t miss this opportunity to begin construction.”

And Related spokesman Jesse Masyr told the committee that requiring living wage jobs ($10 an hour with benefits) was not realistic. The retailers “can go anywhere else in the Bronx,” he said, adding later, “We wouldn’t be doing any justice promising something we can’t guarantee.

Other members pressing Related on the living wage were Robert Jackson, Albert Vann, Helen Sears and Joel Rivera, who has taken a leadership role among the Council delegation in opposing the project without a negotiated CBA.

“In my book, this is an economic exploitation project,” Rivera said. Later he said, “We need to change the conversation with the administration.”

Even Council Member Oliver Koppell, who has been the least enthusiastic about a living wage requirement among the Bronx Council delegation, put the heat on Related. Citing a New York Times story from this week about other cities that have had living wage agreements, Koppell, who doesn’t sit on Zoning and Franchises, told the company, “I would like to see a presentation that shows me why [living wages] cannot be financed.” He also suggested that the Council might want to pass a living wage law.

The hearing room was packed with members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), which includes union members as well as local residents and activists. Members of construction unions, however, spoke in favor of supporting Related’s plans even without a CBA.

Because the committee felt it needed more time to question city officials, they have scheduled a public meeting on Nov. 23, but the public will not be able to testify.

The nine members of Zoning and Franchises, which is chaired by KARA supporter Tony Avella of Queens, as well as the full Land Use Committee, must vote on the project by Dec. 9.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, who has taken a firm stance on the living wage requirement, summed up his argument, which seems to be gaining traction just as Mayor Bloomberg, whose mayoralty has been defined by its partnership with developers, suits up for a third term.

“I do want to see new jobs created in my borough,” Diaz testified. “But these jobs must be created in the right way. The old model, that any job is better than no job, is no longer acceptable.”

This piece was written by Jordan Moss and reported by Molly Ryan and Jordan Moss.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 18

Police have arrested five suspects in connection with Monday's two shootings in the Bronx. All five suspects are residents of the Bronx. A 15-year old girl hit by a stray bullet in one of the shootings is still in critical condition at Lincoln Hospital.

Multiple tenants of 1380 University Avenue are suing their landlord over the building's unsafe conditions.

Political experts suggest that Mayor Bloomberg should set aside more time to visit boroughs other than Manhattan-- especially the Bronx-- in order to improve his approval ratings throughout the city.

The family of a dead 16 year-old Bronx girl is suing the New York City Police Department. Police said they were unable to find the body of the girl, Tiana Rice, for one month. During this month, police did not know the body was actually in a morgue in Brooklyn under a different name.

Yesterday, at the last public hearing on the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment, City Council members began to question the developer, Related Companies, about the feasibility of providing living wages to workers. Hundreds of protesters came to the hearing to speak out against the development unless a living wage is provided. Look for a Bronx News Network post on this soon.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 17

Five people were shot yesterday, one fatally, in two separate shooting incidents. One of the injured is a 14-year-old girl, who was hit by a stray bullet in Morrisania as she walked home from school. She's in a critical condition in Lincoln Hospital.

Three subway stations on the No. 6 Line are to be fitted with countdown clocks, letting commuters know when the next train is likely to arrive.

Today's a big day for those with a stake in the future of the Kingsbridge Armory.

An ex-cop with a bad leg is singing the praises of State Senator Jeff Klein, who helped him get a tax-free disability pension.

Four Bronx teachers have been recognized for excellence in math and science teaching.

Oil has been observed in the Bronx River, following an explosion at a Con Edison substation in Westchester on Nov. 4.

A mosque on Virginia Avenue has decided to drop its bid for a sound permit. If granted, the permit would have allowed the mosque to use loud speakers when announcing "adhan," the call to prayer. Some non-Muslim neighbors had opposed the plan, saying it would cause unnecessary noise.

The city's Department of Education has released its annual list of high school grades. Citywide, more schools received A's this year, but there were more C's and D's, too.

Kingsbridge Armory Showdown

[Updated, 10:32 a.m.] Real quickly, wanted to pass on all the latest Armory news and links this morning.

The Council's zoning and franchise subcommittee will begin a hearing on the Armory mall project at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall.

This is shaping up to be a showdown between the developer, The Related Companies (and other powerful developers with similar interests) who will be backed by the Bloomberg administration and a coalition of Bronx elected officials and community groups. Classic New York City match-up: Manhattan power players versus outerborough upstarts.

The Bronx, represented by Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. (and at least a handful of Bronx Council members), with backing from the retailers union and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), wants Related to require their Armory mall tenants to pay a living wage ($10 an hour, plus benefits).

Related says that imposition would kill the project. The city agrees and sees the living wage provision as a precedent they want to avoid.

Diaz met with Related on Saturday and offered a compromise on the living wage issue, but Related wouldn't budge. As a result, this morning, Diaz will tell the Council he will not support the project until Related agrees to the living wage provision.

On the other side, the Daily News reports that Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber will step up and tell the Council that a living wage requirement could "hurt retail development citywide." The headline: "Mayuh Mike on Living Wage: Drop Dead."

Also today, Crain's New York editorializes that the Bronx is shooting itself in the foot by demanding living wage. (It requires a subscription, so no link, but you get the idea: an impositions on the private sector is bad for business.)

Here's the NY Times' story.

Here's the Daily News' story.

And here's a mammoth in-depth overview by Jarrett Murphy of City Limits.

We'll have more from the hearing later today and in the Norwood News on Thursday.

Housing Expert and BxNN Blogger Greg Jost on BronxTalk Tonight

Gregory Lobo-Jost, a frequent contributor to this site who is deputy director of University Neighborhood Housing Program, will be interviewed tonight at 9. a.m. on BronxTalk (Cablevision channel 67) with Gary Axelbank.
They're sure to discuss critical Bronx housing issues such as foreclosures and the looming crisis with over-leveraged buildings purchased at unsustainable inflated prices with private equity.
I should also note that Greg and the folks at UNHP deserve a lot more credit and attention for the important work they're doing and have done since the 80s. Jim Buckley, the groups's executive director, was an organizer with the NWBCCC in the 1970s, and has been working for better housing in the Bronx ever since.
No other organization keeps such a close eye on the health of the borough's housing stock, and raises alarm bells when necessary.
These folks do the tough research and know what they're talking about. More of us should listen and make certain elected officials, bankers and other decision makers do the same. And citywide reporters should check in with them more often, rather than just the usual Manhattan suspects.
Watch Greg tonight if you can. The show will re-air at the same time all week long. We'll post the show on the blog when it's up on-line.
Oh, here's a recent op-ed by Greg in Norwood News on vacancy decontrol.

Shining Some Light on Ocelot

The Bronx Ink, an online publication written by students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, recently published an extensive piece investigating Ocelot, a real estate investment company that owns multiple apartment buildings throughout the Bronx.

All of Ocelot's buildings in the Bronx are littered with trash, graffiti, rats, and hazardous structures, and neither Ocelot nor their investors are willing to clean up the mess that they created, according to the article. Ocelot is looking for a buyer to get them out of their chaotic financial mess, but in the meantime, families living in their buildings are still living in dangerous conditions.