Bronx News Roundup for Feb. 13

Juan Gonzalez singles out Bronx State Senators Pedro Espada and Jeff Klein for indicating that they won’t support the millionaire’s tax or to increase the threshold vacancy decontrol rent from $2,000 to $5,000. Espada’s opinion has an impact beyond his one vote because he secured the chairmanship of the Housing Committee after he threatened to withhold his support from making Malcolm Smith the first Democratic majority leader in 40 years.

Next time you’re walking down Jerome Avenue, think about the fact that it was built by Winston Churchill’s grandfather to lead to a racetrack that is now the Jerome Park Reservoir. That and more fascinating info in this Times article about how a municipal bond issued in the late 1800s to finance the street’s construction is just now coming due.

Councilman Joel Rivera wrote to former Public Advocate Mark Green, who is running for that office again, to chastise him for referring in this video “letter to New Yorker” to single parents in the Bronx. Take a look for yourself. Green’s opening remarks, with the new Yankee Stadium in the background, strike me as a typical formulation for a politician – “If you’re a single parent in the Bronx, or a retiree in Queens ….” Candidates and elected officials do this all the time in speeches, not necessarily meaning that everyone in that place is that one thing. And there are indeed a lot of single parents in the Bronx as in the rest of the city. But, again, check it out. Tell us what you think.