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Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Bronx and Affordable Housing

When it comes to local affordable housing trends, University Neighborhood Housing Program, a nonprofit based on the Grand Concourse, is usually the first to spot them. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the group identified the disturbing lending practices of Freddie Mac, the quasi-federal mortgage outfit that didn’t seem to care or notice that the landlords it financed were taking on a lot more debt then they could pay back. The result: a pattern of foreclosure and neglect that scarred our northwest Bronx neighborhoods.
UNHP also pointed out the problems of sub-prime mortgages and foreclosure rates long before the current national media obsession.
On Tuesday, at Fordham University, UNHP issued its latest report, “Shrinking Affordability: Housing Prices, Quality & Preservation in the City’s Last Expanse of Affordable Private Rental Housing,” which documents, among other trends, how rents are rising while the people moving in are getting poorer and the housing stock itself is increasingly in disrepair. The well attended Fordham forum featured feedback on the report from bankers, city officials and real estate industry representatives.
We’ll have more to say about the report in our print edition, but we hope to strike up a conversation right here on these important issues (just click the comment button below). Check out the report. We, and UNHP, look forward to the discussion.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Pedestrian Safety

Errol Louis of the Daily News flags this USA Today article about efforts to secure pedestrian safety all over the country. The article points to the growing movement to get City Hall to address the city's most dangerous intersections and institute harsher penalties for motorists who harm pedestrians and bikers.
In Norwood, on Gun Hill Road alone, 5 pedestrians have been killed since January of last year as detailed in this recent editorial.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Out Now! The first print edition of the Mount Hope Monitor has been published


The first print edition of the Mount Hope Monitor - a free bilingual community newspaper serving Mount Hope, Morris Heights, University Heights, and South Fordham - has been published.
Pick it up at local banks, stores, restaurants, community organizations, and libraries. If you're struggling to find it, let us know and we'll point you in direction of the nearest drop-off point. Or e-mail your address to mounthopenews-at-gmail.com, and we'll send you a copy for free, while supplies last. Please let us know what you think!
Until now, the Monitor, a project of the West Bronx News Network, has only been available on-line. It was created last summer to bring news to a part of the Bronx with no local newspaper.
We're hoping to bring out a second print edition in May or June.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Mourners Pay Respect to Fire Victims

Hundreds of mourners, the majority of them Malian New Yorkers, gathered in West Harlem Saturday evening to pay their respects to the victims of last Wednesday’s fire in Highbridge. More here on the West Bronx News Network.

Friday, March 9, 2007

A City Grieves after Deadly Highbridge Fire


The neighborhood of Highbridge, the local Islamic and Malian communities, and the city of New York as a whole have united in mourning the deaths of eight children and one adult in the city’s deadliest fire in almost twenty years.
On Thursday night, Highbridge residents (pictured) gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor the nine victims. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at the Islamic Cultural Center on East 166th Street. Donations are being collected at several sites, including the Cultural Center, a memorial near the site of the fire, and mosques throughout the city. More here on the West Bronx News Network, from Highbridge Horizon editor, Tony Richards.

Gonzalez Needs $$$ for Copies

According to this blog item from Errol Louis of the Daily News, a lawyer for State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez said his client is too broke to pay for copying 20 boxes of documents that prosecutors have amassed in building their case against the embattled lawmaker.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Many Dead in Bronx House Fire

Eight children and an adult have died in a house fire in Highbridge, in the city's deadliest blaze in years. More here on The New York Times.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Friday, March 2, 2007

Saw Mill Collapse

Here's the official word from the city's Office of Emergency Management on the collapse of a retaining wall this morning on the Saw Mill River Pkwy. It's been closed in both directions.

FRI 3/2/2007 7:28:47
STATUS: OPEN/ACTIVE
PROGNOSIS: ROUTINE OPERATION
STRUCTURAL - COLLAPSE
BX SAW MILL RIVER PKWY AND MAJOR DEEGAN EXPWY
NYPD ESU IS ON THE SCENE REPORTING A COLLAPSE OF A 60 X 20 FOOT SECTION OF RETAINING WALL ALONG SIDE THE SOUTHBOUND SAW MILL .....THIS IS CAUSING A MAJOR FLOODING CONDITION AND THE SAW MILL HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN IN BOTH DIRECTIONS

RESPONDING UNITS: OEM041
INCIDENT ID: 2007:03:02:07:21:03:8

Times: GOP Target of Bx Elex Probe

Well, from this Times article, it looks like it's the Republican workers of the Bronx Board of Elections that are under investigation. It can't always be the Democrats, even in the Bronx.

Carrion: Spitzer 'Wrong' on Health Care

According to this post in the Politicker, the New York Observer's political blog, Adolfo Carrion told a gathering at 1199, the city health care workers' union, that he supports Gov. Spitzer's reform agenda but that he is 'wrong' in cutting health care.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Bronx Elections Office Raided

The city Department of Investigation raided the Manhattan central office and the Bronx borough office of the Board of Elections earlier this week. The Post has the story.
The Bronx borough office, by the way, is in a building on the Grand Concourse with other government offices, including the office of State Sen. Efrain Gonzalez and the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, the nonprofit he is accused of stealing money from.