Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 17

A spirited group of Puerto Rican regulars meets up for fun and friendship at this corner in Melrose (photo above by F.G. Pinto). The Mott Haven Herald has the story.

City Hall has a must-read today, questioning why there are no likely Latino candidates waiting in the wings for the 2013 mayoral race, just like in 2009, despite there being 860,000 registered Latinos in the city. “There is a crisis of leadership in the Latino community,” Jaime Estades, the president of the Latino Leadership Academy, told the paper. “The Latino politicians, they just go through the motions.” Some observers like Estades said too many young pols wait in vain for signals from Democratic Party bosses. Fernando Ferrer, the last Democratic candidate for mayor, disagrees and points to several up-and-comers like Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and State Senator Jose M. Serrano. 

A stalled bridge project that is key to connecting parts of the Bronx River Greenway, may finally make some headway now that the federal Interior Department has stepped in to try to broker a deal between the state Department of Transportation and Amtrak.

30 Rock star Tina Fey took a stroll in the New York Botanical Garden on Monday with her newborn and 6-year-old. 

Here's a video report from NY1 on that tense meeting PS 51 parents had with Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott last week.

A veteran Department of Education red-tape cutter, who spends his day visiting principals all over the Bronx, proves that "bureaucrat" is not a dirty word.

Bronx Ink has an audio slideshow reporting on the reopening of Poe Cottage on Oct. 15 after a renovation.

Jasmeet Sidhu of Bronx Ink, which is an on-line paper published by Columbia journalism students, records a lively debate between two Norwood storeowners -- Allan Freilich of Freilich Jewelers and Eamonn McDwyer of McDwyer's Pub -- over who has the oldest store.

A Bronx stop on the farm-to-table food chain gets some coverage in the Capital.