The latest edition of the Norwood News is on-line now, with articles about bidders on the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project, a new elementary school and the first in a series on the member items controversy.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Books in the Hood!
This isn't West Bronx news per se, but it's good news for all Bronxites whenever a bookstore opens up shop. The only other two are Paperbacks Plus in Riverdale and Barnes & Noble in Co-op City. Here's info about the opening of Books in the Hood:
Saturday, Feb. 3, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Books In The HoodCelebration
& Grand Opening of a very unique bookstore in the South Bronx.
Books
In The Hood,815 Westchester Ave - btwn Prospect & Union AvesThe
Bronx
* The store is to be "Blessed" around 11
* Storytelling from 12
to 2* Visits from authors all day long
* Activities for the whole familyFor
more info, please send an email to:
teachermom423@aol.com
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Man Charged With Murder of Young Mom
Murder suspect Benjamin Walters (center) is escorted from the 46th Precinct last week after being charged with the Jan. 14 slaying of Fordham resident Carolyn Vargas. More here on the Mount Hope Monitor. (Photo by David Greene.)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Woman Beaten and Robbed in Subway Station
A woman was attacked this morning in the subway station at 174th Street and the Grand Concourse.
CBS, who broke the story, initially said the woman was stabbed. More here. The incident happened around 10:45 a.m. No word yet on the woman's condition.
According to CBS, police had a male suspect cornered in a nearby building on Walton Avenue. By the time a reporter from the Mount Hope Monitor got there at 12:45 p.m., the street was quiet and there was no police activity.
A MTA employee working at the station told the Monitor reporter that the victim was "beaten and robbed" but not stabbed. She said the woman works at nearby Bronx Lebanon Hospital.
One police officer was slightly injured, CBS said. (Photo by James Fergusson)
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Senate Pork Sliced and Diced
The Albany Project site has this chart of state Senate member items district-by-district. They comment that the longer the red bar the closer that Republican senator's relationship with Sen. Majority Leader Joe Bruno. And those short blue bars? ... Well, you get the picture.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
All the Pork, All the Time
This terrific site run by a ragtag bunch of citizens interested in shining a spotlight on the ways of Albany and the state legislature has a lot of useful info links, including searchable member-item databases (see links at left of home page).
Monday, January 8, 2007
New Stories on the WBNN and the Monitor
The West Bronx News Network and the Mount Hope Monitor have been updated.
Stories include a look at a 24 foot high surveillance tower that is destined for East Fordham Road sometime in the new year. "Sky Watch" has been used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and along the Mexican border. Now, the NYPD are using it in several high crime neighborhood across the city.
Speaking of crime, the complete stats for 2006 are out. In the 46th Precinct - which patrols Mount Hope, Morris Heights and the rest of Community District 5 - there's good news: Crime is down 12 percent on 2005, compared to a five percent reduction citywide. But drugs and violence remain serious problems, and the precinct made more arrests last year than any other in the city. Click here for more. (In November the Mount Hope Monitor profiled the 46th Precinct and its commanding officer, Kevin Harrington, at length. Click here for the article.)
Stories include a look at a 24 foot high surveillance tower that is destined for East Fordham Road sometime in the new year. "Sky Watch" has been used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and along the Mexican border. Now, the NYPD are using it in several high crime neighborhood across the city.
Speaking of crime, the complete stats for 2006 are out. In the 46th Precinct - which patrols Mount Hope, Morris Heights and the rest of Community District 5 - there's good news: Crime is down 12 percent on 2005, compared to a five percent reduction citywide. But drugs and violence remain serious problems, and the precinct made more arrests last year than any other in the city. Click here for more. (In November the Mount Hope Monitor profiled the 46th Precinct and its commanding officer, Kevin Harrington, at length. Click here for the article.)
Friday, January 5, 2007
Kingsbridge Rd. Doc Update
The Journal News has more details on the slaying of Leandro Lozada, the Kingsbridge Road doctor who was slain in his Yonkers home.
Norwood News On-Line
The latest issue of the Norwood News is on-line (a little delayed due to the holidays) including a fun story about a new dream playground at PS 246 (b-ball court and track pictured here) on the Grand Concourse at Kingsbridge Road. (Photo by Alex Kratz)
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Kingsbridge Rd. Doc Slain
Norwood News just got a call from someone who alerted us to the murder of a Westchester doctor who owned a medical clinic on Kingsbridge Road.
Quote of the Day
“Some of the things are tough, but as I told my colleagues, it’s been pretty easy around here. Now you have to step up, and you’re going to have to buckle down a little bit, and do the work that the people voted you to be doing.”
-State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm A. Smith, a Queens Democrat, talking about his fellow state legislators after Gov. Spitzer's State of the State speech. From today's New York Times.
-State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm A. Smith, a Queens Democrat, talking about his fellow state legislators after Gov. Spitzer's State of the State speech. From today's New York Times.
Architecture of Criminal Justice
The NY Sun has an architecture review of the new Bronx Criminal Court Building, formally called the Hall of Justice. Here's an excerpt:
Like most of its modernist forebears, the new Bronx Hall
of Justice, designed by Raphael Viñoly, seeks to humanize our interaction with the forces of law. Something in the very materiality of the glass and steel that make up most of this building at 265 E. 161st St. seems to militate against the Gothic severity of masonry and brick. At the same time, though, the boxy massiveness of the structure and its apparently unapologetic embrace of bigness succeed in intimidating this viewer scarcely less than the Tower of London, the Palais de Justice in Brussels, or even Alcatraz
itself. Containing 1.1 million square feet, the Bronx Hall of Justice, when fully operational in early 2007, will house some 62 courts and a garage that can accommodate more than 300 cars.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Spitzer's To-Do List
Here's Governor Spitzer's ambitious agenda as put forth today in his State of the State speech.
East Bronx Building Boom
Lest you thought that all the new buildings were going up in the west Bronx, take a look at this article in City Limits about the construction boom in Community District 12 in the northeast Bronx.
Construction Worker Dies in Fall
A man died in a fall this morning while working on a construction site at 149th Street and River Avenue. According to these reports on the Newsday and NY1 Web sites, the man was operating a machine on a building roof at the time.
Tonight police identified him as Carlos Reinoso, 47. He lived at 50-39 103rd St., Queens. The investigation is ongoing.
Tonight police identified him as Carlos Reinoso, 47. He lived at 50-39 103rd St., Queens. The investigation is ongoing.
Gonzalez drops leadership post because of indictment
State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, who was arraigned just two and a half weeks ago on a host of corruption and embezzlement charges, has decided to step down as chairman of the minority conference, according to Joe Mahoney, the Daily News bureau chief in Albany.
Representatives from Gonzalez's office said the senator was stepping down because of the "impact the indictment would have on his time."
Gonzalez will not, however, give up his seat in the state senate.
Gonzalez and three co-defendants stand accused of stealing $423,000 in state money by funneling discretionary funds, or "member items," through non-profit organizations and then using the money to pay for personal expenses.
Lawyers for the embattled lawmaker and the other co-defendants are now wading through a dozen boxes of evidence to prepare for a March 23 pre-trial conference.
Representatives from Gonzalez's office said the senator was stepping down because of the "impact the indictment would have on his time."
Gonzalez will not, however, give up his seat in the state senate.
Gonzalez and three co-defendants stand accused of stealing $423,000 in state money by funneling discretionary funds, or "member items," through non-profit organizations and then using the money to pay for personal expenses.
Lawyers for the embattled lawmaker and the other co-defendants are now wading through a dozen boxes of evidence to prepare for a March 23 pre-trial conference.