Bronx News Roundup, Sept. 8

At a press conference announcing endorsements from Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. said Eric Stevenson -- the candidate expected to take over Michael Benjamin's 79th Assembly District seat -- was intimidated into withdrawing his endorsement of Espada. Stevenson said he had no idea what Espada was talking about.

Planned Parenthood is now officially backing the primary opponents of both Espada (Gustavo Rivera), and his top Senate ally, Ruben Diaz Sr. (Charlie Ramos).

In his latest campaign finance filing, Espada said he spent $17,000 on produce that he's given out during his campaign. But the manager of Hunts Point Market, where Espada says he sent a $17,000 check to, said the market doesn't sell produce, it just leases space for produce vendors.

As we mentioned in yesterday's roundup, the apartment building generally considered the "birthplace of hip hop" will be purchased and renovated by a city-backed housing group.More here. And here.

Prosecutors have the defendants in the Riverdale synagogue bomb plot trial on tape testing out hand-held missile launchers. And reportedly getting really excited about them.

The Post's Bronx girls high school soccer preview says the Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy squad has become one of the top teams in the borough after two seasons of playing at the varsity level.

Bronx News Roundup, March 11

Congressman Jose E. Serrano is calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan. He spoke on the House Floor yesterday as Congress began debates on war legislation. You can watch the video of his statements here.

The Perez Notes has an interview with Patrick Jenkins, a political consultant and Carl Heastie staffer.  

A city-run apartment for homeless families in Morris Heights is under fire after its ceiling collapsed on a family of five--just days after another apartment in the same building gave a two-year-old lead poisoning.

Sen. Jeff Klein has been named chairman of a Government Efficiency Task Force that's looking to cut wasteful spending in state agencies.

A Bronx woman was arrested for the February hit-and-run accident in Brooklyn that left mayoral aide Erinn Phelan brain dead. 

The Riverdale Press has coverage of last week's state of the borough address from Ruben Diaz, Jr.

Police arrested 27 people on drug charges at the Pelham Parkway Houses yesterday. The investigation of the complex had been going on for nearly a year, according to the Daily News.

More on the demolition of the old Yankee Stadium. The borough president was on the scene as well, and posted some photos of the deconstruction.

Made your St. Patrick's Day plans yet? AmNY features some of the best Bronx spots to celebrate.

A nonprofit arts group named 1520 Sedgwick Ave. the birthplace of hip-hop.

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 19

A Bronx building that was the site of a key moment in the birth of hip-hop is deteriorating in the hands of real estate investors. As the Bronx News Network noted, community members attempted to prevent the sale of the building to speculators, and its current disrepair could be a sign of things to come in the area.

A new report finds that poorly maintained roads and bridges are costing Bronx commuters thousands of dollars and wasting dozens of hours spent in traffic each year.

A Riverdale native is working on plans to open a brewery where he hopes to sell such brews as Bronx Riverd(ALE), Bronx Bomber Red Ale, and Mother Hefe'n Bronx. The Riverdale Press has more on the story.

A bright spot in the Haiti tragedy-- a Bronx brother and sister fly to Haiti to find their elderly father, and are joyously reunited.

City officials are eying Webster Avenue and Eeast Fordham Road for a possible zoning change, which they hope will revitalize the area.

Ex-state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez, who, as the Norwood News noted, pleaded guilty to fraud charges last May, now has a new lawyer and wants a do-over.

The Bronx Opera presentation of Mahler's “Die Drei Pintos" gets a mixed review from The New York Times.

The renovation of Harris Field is now expected to cost $5 million more than anticipated. The discovery of heavy metals contamination at the park has slowed progress and put the project over budget. (More on this from the Bronx News Network)

A team of robbers posing as utility workers reportedly scammed their way into six Bronx homes yesterday. No arrests have been made.

Daily News columnist Bob Kappstatter thinks Attorney General Andrew Cuomo might not have the goods to nail State Sen. Pedro Espada directly.

History Detectives Come to the Bronx

Tonight, after those of you with cable tune into to BronxTalk, move the digital dial over to 13.1 for History Detectives. The PBS show will, among other things, investigate the birth of hip hop at 1520 Sedgwick Ave.

For those of you not familiar with the show:

History Detectives is devoted to exploring the complexities of historical mysteries, searching out the facts, myths and conundrums that connect local folklore, family legends and interesting objects.

Traditional investigative techniques, modern technologies, and plenty of legwork are the tools the History Detectives team of experts uses to give new - and sometimes shocking - insights into our national history.

The Bronx African American History Project and Dr. Mark Naison of Fordham University will be featured in the segment. Here are the details:

BIRTHPLACE OF HIP HOP
AIRING: Season 6, Episode 11
THE DETECTIVE: Tukufu Zuberi
THE PLACE: New York City
THE CASE:

A hip hop enthusiast from New York City has always heard that 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx is the birthplace of hip hop.

The story goes that on August 11, 1973 DJ Kool Herc, a building resident, was entertaining at his sister’s back-to-school party, and tried something new on the turntable: he extended an instrumental beat (breaking or scratching) to let people dance longer (break dancing) and began MC’ing (rapping) during the extended
breakdancing.

This, the contributor believes, marked the birth of hip hop. The music led to an entire cultural movement that’s altered generational thinking – from politics and race to art and language.

History Detectives sets out to examine an inner city environment that helped lay the foundation for a cultural revolution.

More on 1520 Sedgwick here.

Also, check out Manny Fernandez's piece in the Sunday Times about illegally partitioned apartments in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. With the affordability crisis and the economic downturn/implosion following the burst of the housing/credit bubble, dividing up apartments and subletting rooms isn't about to go away anytime soon -- often with deadly consequences.

Bronx News Roundup Sept. 29

As mentioned in the previous posts, it was a busy weekend for politics in the Bronx.

It was also a rather violent one. Early Sunday, a twenty-something man was shot dead at 315 East 143rd St. On that same day, three men were shot in front of 1150 Elder Avenue. One died at the hospital and the other two are in stable condition.

Police efforts to disrupt a narcotics operation in Fordham early this morning resulted in gunfire, as well as an arrest.

Deliveryman Fengwang Chen, 31, was shot on E. 229th St. on Saturday at around 7:20 p.m. while attempting to deliver an order. He remains in critical condition but is expected to survive. While his attackers took the $22 worth of pork fried rice, wings, and fries, they didn’t bother to take the $280 in Chen’s pocket. The Chinese Restaurant alliance is offering a $3,000 reward for information on the suspects.

In another unfortunate event on E. 229^th, two brothers , 11 and 14, went missing after leaving their apartment around 7:45 a.m. Friday. For more information on how to help, click here.

Less violently, three stores in Bedford are waging war over the size of their awnings. As the Norwood News previously reported, Bedford Park Gourmet Deli and Rose Flower Chinese restaurants complained that the Kennedy Fried Chicken and Biscuit’s awning blocked their own signs. The Deli owner subsequently bought Rose Flower its own awning, which now covers Kennedy’s sign on one side.

A Bronx apartment building on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, dubbed as “the birthplace of hip-hop” will be sold this week. Residents and housing advocates filed a law suit in the State Supreme Court to prevent the sale. However, the court ruled in favor of the landlord last Friday. Advocates worry that, with the sale and the building's removal from the Mitchell Lama housing program, rents will spiral through the roof.

Another former Bronx resident making news, Leonard Kleinrock, was one of eight awarded a Medal of Science this morning at a gala at the White House. He attended Bronx High School of Science and received a Bachelors from City college of New York and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. Kleinrock.

Battle in the Bronx to Save Hip-Hop's Home

Here's some shots from this morning's press conference at 1520 Sedgwick Ave., aka the "home the hip-hop," a 100-unit apartment complex in Morris Heights.

It's a building, say housing advocates, that's in danger of losing its affordability, following the landlord's decision, last February, to remove it from Mitchell-Lama housing program, a state program whereby landlords keep rents low in return for tax credits.

At today's event, tenants announced their intention to buy the building themselves (with a little help from HPD) and to convert the apartments into affordable cooperatives. The amount they've raised, however, is a couple of million short of what real estate developer, Mark Karasick, is after. A fundraising Web site has been launched to generate publicity and pull in the rest.


The west Bronx has become a graveyard of sorts for Mitchell-Lama buildings. In 2006, for example, both 1655 Undercliff Ave. and 1889 Sedgwick Ave. were yanked from the program. But it's 1520 Sedgwick Ave. that's getting the attention, chiefly because of its official status as the birthplace of a multi-billion dollar industry.

Originally, tenants and advocates hoped that the building's musical legacy, and the fact that it's now eligible to be listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, would block the Mitchell-Lama buyout. This now seems unlikely, hence the tenants' decision to try and purchase it.

Pictured above is hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc, who lived in the building in the 1970s. (Herc said he'll be calling P Diddy, 50 Cent, and other stars with deep pockets to ask for a contribution.) Below is New York Senator Chuck Schumer with tenants. Above right, a view of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. from the street. (Photos by J. Fergusson)

More here in The Times. And here's what The Times' David Gonzalez wrote about 1520 Sedgwick Ave. back in May.

News Roundup for July 24

The NY Times City Room blog looks at the city's continued practice of hiring emergency housing providers without contracts. The substandard conditions many Bronx families have been placed in were documented in a June Highbridge Horizon story.

The Daily News reports that Dominicans are the fastest growing group in the Bronx, increasing their numbers from 133,000 in the 2000 census to 200,000 in 2005.

Another Daily News story announces that Community Board 8 (Riverdale and Kingsbridge) has hired a local activist and former mayoral staff person as its district manager. CB7 has just begun its search for a new manager.

NY1 reports on the Straphangers Campaign's Annual State of the Subways report, which named the 1 train the best in the city. The MTA plans to buy 620 more trains to replace the ones that break down a lot.

And there's lots of coverage of the event yesterday at 1520 Sedgwick demanding it be granted landmark status as the birthplace of hip hop. Here's the Newsday story.

Officially, The Birth Place of Hip Hop

Despite a steady downpour this morning, Congressman Jose Serrano, Senator Chuck Schumer, local residents and a handful of Bronx hip-hop legends showed up in the West Bronx to celebrate New York State's formal recognition of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. as the official birth place of hip hop.

The celebration was also an opportunity for the lawmakers to urge that 1520 Sedgwick remain affordable housing and to push for more affordable housing citywide. In February, the owners of the Birth Place of Hip Hop announced their intention to convert the property into market-rate housing. The 100-unit building is currently part of the city's Mitchell-Lama program, which keeps rents affordable, but is being phased out by owners throughout the five boroughs. Here's the Times' David Gonzalez's piece for some more background and depth.

Housing advocates say some 39,000 units may lose their Mitchell-Lama designation soon, forcing out many long-time tenants, unless Mayor Bloomberg puts a moratorium on buy-outs of all city-funded Mitchell-Lama buildings until a suitable preservation strategy can be created and implemented.

In the basement of 1520 Sedgwick, the hip hop music genre was born under the guidance and creaivity of DJ Kool Herc (aka Clive Campbell) in the 1970s. Herc and his sister, Cindy, threw parties in that basement featuring the first forms of hip hop music and dance. Since then, the Bronx has spawned hip hop icons such as Afrikaa Bambataa, Grandmaster Flash and KRS-One, to name just a few, and the genre has exploded across the globe.