Bronx News Roundup August 5-6

STATE SEN. Jose M. Serrano has joined Bronx residents in fighting for affordable housing. At a press conference today in Morris Heights, he will urge realtors and banks not to fund development at a Sedgwick Avenue building that is considered the birthplace of hip-hop.

The building’s owners have decided to take it off the Mitchell Lama program, the New York Times reports. Across the city, Mitchell Lama buildings have been converted into market-rate condos, and residents here are fearful they could be kicked out if rents skyrocket.

Though the city previously blocked the sale of the building at 1520 Sedgwick Ave., tenants were unable to buy it or get it landmarked, the Mount Hope Monitor reported earlier in the year.

Serrano’s press conference will be at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. at 1:15 p.m.

STUDENTS at Truman High School in Baychester are angry that there is not enough funding to reopen the school’s two swimming pools, the Daily News reports. The costs would run in the tens of millions of dollars, the principal said.

STREETS around 25 Bronx schools will be safer this coming school year after the city Department of Transportation is installing speed bumps, new traffic signs and crosswalks, the Daily News reports.

THE Daily News has features on residents in three Mott Haven historic districts receiving grants for restoring the buildings’ facades, the new executive director of Sustainable South Bronx and on remote control car racing on a Williamsbridge race track.

Daily News columnist Bob Kappstatter has returned from Wonderland to report on a mix of issues: State Assemblyman Jose Rivera raised more than $100,000 at a dinner for his reelection race, Republican Mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis may push for a World’s Fair in the Bronx, Loeser's Kosher Deli in Kingsbridge may be the Bronx’s only Jewish deli outside of Riverdale and a listing of “precinct musical chairs.”