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| A plaque on display at the Arthur Avenue Market calls Liberatore "Little Italy's Mayor." (File photo by Fausto Giovanny Pinto) |
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| File photo by Adi Talwar |
A quick reminder that we will be Tweeting live from Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.'s State of the Borough speech today, starting at 11:30 a.m. Check back here for the Twitter feed on the right side of this page or you can follow us through my Twitter account: @norwoodnews.
This morning, in preparation for the speech, police were already setting up security at DeWitt Clinton High School on Mosholu Parkway and aggressively ticketing and towing cars parked on Goulden Avenue, presumably for violating alternate-side parking rules. News 12 was also setting up a mobile unit. A military officer wearing a beret and camouflage gear walked into the building. Wonder if he'll have a role today.
In any case, tune in today during the brunch hours to our Twitter coverage (on @norwoodnews) and tune in later today and tomorrow for photos as well as more details and analysis.
To the news! (Abbreviated version today. Like one of the borough's congressman at the State of the Union, I need to head out early and get a good aisle seat for maximum exposure during all the broadcast coverage of toady's speech. Maybe I'll even get an autograph or two.)
A preview of today's Diaz's speech, which is expected to draw some 1,500 people, with a focus on how Diaz will call for Bloomberg's support in delivering on a plan for the Kingsbridge Armory.
A report from the wake of 11-year-old Russell Smith, who was killed on the Grand Concourse when he was struck by a passing Honda CRV. Family member and local officials vowed to do something about the borough's most dangerous streets and not let his death be in vain.
The Times takes an in-depth look at how police caught two of the suspects they believe robbed an Arthur Avenue jewelry store last Friday.
The Daily News has a new Bronx Education column, featuring a story on a pair of PS 86 teachers and their ideas for how the union and city should deal with teacher layoffs.
More and more Bronxites (and other outer borough dwellers) are commuting to work outside of Manhattan and the city's transit system is struggling to keep up.
Kappy's back this week with juice on Assembly Speaker "Godfather" Shelly Silver's decision to move Bronx Dem boss Carl Heastie into a new post for political reasons and some other stuff.
The Bronx's New York Botanical Garden is teaching teachers how to teach school gardening.
Where are all the movies with great Bronx accents?
An elevator at an apartment building in Highbridge has been out for two months.
The Bronx DA dismissed rape charges against a Haitian immigrant. They realized his accent was too thick to say the threatening words the victim said she heard.
CNN profiled Discovery High School students and teacher Steve Ritz for their community gardening program (photos and videos at the link). The group has been growing hundred of pounds of vegetables in their classroom over the past few years, hosting luncheons and a farmers market on campus yesterday.
Plans for the first Bronx Children's Museum are finally underway, with a 2013 opening predicted for the new space in a building at Mill Pond Park, near the Bronx Terminal Market. The new director is holding a forum tomorrow to get input from parents and community members for what they'd like to see at the museum. It will be held at BronxWorks' Community Room, 1130 Grand Concourse, from 11 a.m to 1 p.m.
David Johnson, a former aide to Governor Paterson, appeared in a Bronx court yesterday. He faces assault charges for allegedly attacking his girlfriend in her apartment on Halloween in 2009.
Two talented runners at Bronx High School of Science helped the school's cross country team win the PSAL Bronx Championship this season.
Police are keeping an extra close eye on Jose Rodriguez, the 27-year-old Bronx man who escaped custody in New Jersey earlier this week by taking off in an unmarked NYPD car--while still in cuffs. He was finally caught early Thursday morning in Connecticut; he faces charges related to a Nov. 1 shooting in the Bronx.
A 19-year-old Bronx man was beaten on a New Jersey road Wednesday night during a road rage incident. Police are still looking for four occupants of the other car involved in the alleged assault.
The MTA is installing cameras along certain express bus routes in the city--including Fordham Road--to catch motorists who drive or stop in bus lines.
South Bronx documentary film "80 Blocks from Tiffany's" is being rereleased on DVD next week.
Estrellita Poblano III, on Arthur Avenue, has been named one of the city's top 10 mexican restaurants by the village voice.
Happy Cinco De Mayo! Now here's some BX news for you:
Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas was back in the courtroom yesterday after going AWOL for a couple of days. Villegas is facing a law suit filed by a former law school colleague that claims Villegas owes her $500,000, which he borrowed to pay back a gambling debt.
Special needs students from the New York League for Early Learning's Harry H. Gordon School got a taste of Little Italy yesterday as the pre-preschoolers ventured through restaurants on Arthur Avenue.
The Bronx district attorney's office has dropped all charges against the four Bronx boys who were accused of hitting an off-duty police officer with a snowball.
Eighth graders from the Learning Tree Cultural Preparatory School in the Bronx took a two-week trip to Kenya to trace President Obama's roots.
Just for a day, the chronically ill teenagers from the Children's Hospital at Montefiore were able to forget their pains and enjoy their first Prom Night.
During his battle with the state legislature over the state's financial crisis, Governor Paterson offered lawmakers the choice of either giving him authority to furlough more than 100,000 state employees or face a shut down of New York's government.
As part of "Affordable Housing Day," city officials announced in the Bronx on Monday that 100,000 affordable homes have been completed. They have a goal of completing 165,00o by 2014.
The city announced it will be building a new complex in the Melrose that will have green roofs, along with a series of gardens where residents can plant vegetables.
A judge has rejected Efrain Gonzalez's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea, calling the effort "preposterous," according to the Associated Press. The former state Senator pleaded guilty to fraud charges last May, then tried to withdraw his plea on claims that his former lawyer gave him bad legal advice.
A drug bust yesterday in Parkchester yielded $1 million worth of heroin., according to the Post. Four people were arrested on charges of drug possession.
Two blocks in Wakefield have turned into an illegal dumping ground for neighborhood trash.
Beloved poet and Belmont parking lot valet Joe Binder celebrates his 100th birthday today, with neighborhood celebrations taking place this weekend on Arthur Avenue.
Jury selection begins in a Connecticut court this week in the case of Bronx man accused of stalking Oprah's best friend, Gayle King.
A 36-year-old man was shot to death this morning on East 225th Street and Barnes Avenue.
Tax preparers in Manhattan and the Bronx have been busted for fraud, some for filing returns for dead people or claiming total strangers as dependents on their forms. So far, 16 of the 26 people being accused were arrested.
Joseph Yancey Track and Field opens today near Yankee Stadium, one of the projects completed under the Yankee Park Replacement Program to make up for parkland destroyed during the construction of the new stadium.
The newest Tremont Tribune hit streets yesterday and is online now. Inside:
A series of shootings in Crotona on November 16 left a 19-year-old dead and two others wounded, and launched a community effort to find ways to combat the violence (an effort which will head downtown later today, when the students at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, who witnessed some of the shootings, will stage a skit on the steps of City Hall to ask Mayor Bloomberg to come visit their neighborhood).
The mother of the slain 19-year-old remembers her son.
A local mosque is stepping up and reaching out to the community, jarred into action by recent violence in their neighborhood.
Gil Teitel, 71, speaks about his legendary store, Teitel Brothers, the Arthur Avenue institution entering its 95th year.
Aida Haddock, president of the 48th Precinct Community Council, offers her take on crime and community.
Plus: A police officer convicted of perjury, photos from Thanksgiving and Albanian Independence Day in Belmont, and, as always, our listing of community announcements and events.
Take a look.
The September edition of the Tremont Tribune just hit the streets and is online now. A quick peek at what's inside:
Tenants in Belmont's Fordham Towers endured rats, broken elevators, and on-and-off heat and hot water after their building was bought by private investors in 2007. Now the building is in foreclosure - and housing advocates predict a wave of foreclosures among Bronx buildings bought in recent years by private equity funds who paid sky-high prices.
Arthur Avenue flaunted its food at the annual Ferragosto festival, and even Mayor Bloomberg stopped by for a taste.
The Bronx River Art Center recently filled the hole in the heart of West Farms Square - with an abstract sculpture conceived as a defense of New York City.
State Sen. Ruben Diaz is up in arms...over algae in Indian Lake.
Questions for Ivine Galarza, Community Board 6's longtime District Manager.
St. Barnabas Hospital renames an emergency room after an EMT who died on 9/11.
PLUS our monthly listing of community announcements and events, news briefs, political coverage, and more.
Symphony Space and the Bronx Museum of the Arts recently commissioned a musical piece by jazz musician Arturo O'Farrill in honor of native Bronxite Sonia Sotomayor, who has been nominated to the Supreme Court by President Obama. The composition will be performed by O'Farrill and his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra on November 5 and 6 at Symphony Space.
A recent medical study following pregnant women from the South Bronx and upper Manhattan found that the mothers who breathed in smog while pregnant gave birth to children with lower IQs than children who were not prenatally exposed to smog.
A Bronx Supreme Court Judge is debating whether to throw out his conviction of a Bronx landlord after a 2005 fire causing two firefighter deaths because a member of the jury sent complimentary messages to a firefighter who testified at the case through Facebook.
The New York City Police Department is drastically cutting its budget, but the crime rate is still dropping. At a recent police meeting, the Bronx borough commander argued to keep specialized officers on the streets of the 52nd Precinct, but higher-up police officers wanted to move the officers to a different precinct with more crime. At the end of the meeting, the 52nd Precinct kept the special officers, but it remains unclear how long these officers will remain in the area, especially since the Department will have to decrease their number of officers.
Today, Senator Charles Schumer and Bronx housing advocates will insist that Fannie Mae find a buyer for their mortgages of 19 Bronx buildings in disrepair instead of selling the mortgages through an online auction. Tenants of these buildings (most of them located in Crotona) feel that if another speculator buys the mortgages for the buildings, conditions will not be improved. Senator Schumer would like a preservation agreement to ensure that the buildings will be cared for by the future buyer.
Yesterday, the New York Daily News published a report declaring that heroin is gaining popularity in New York City. Their evidence includes the monumental heroin drug bust in Riverdale over July 4th weekend.
The New York Times published a profile of Arthur Avenue over the weekend. It is still one of the best locales for quality Italian food and grocery shopping.
We'll start with the economy.
Though Wall Street was on upswing, the latest labor numbers show that New York City continues to lose jobs at a startling rate. The state labor department said the ranks of the city's unemployed has swelled to 355,000 people, with the Bronx being hit the hardest. The unemployment rate in the Bronx last month was 10.8 percent, compared to 8.8 percent in Brooklyn and 7.7 percent in Manhattan. Overall, the city's unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.
[It's important to note that those percentages only include those who are actively seeking employment, which leaves a whole population (which the government doesn't track) of the borough's jobless.]
The owner of an Arthur Ave. bakery, Walter Galliano, was charged with cheating his workers out of $350,000 in pay. In the same Times story, it says Alex Moreno, the owner of a Getty gas station on Jerome Ave. was also charged with shortchanging his workers, sometimes paying them as little as $4 an hour for 12 hour shifts.
Yesterday, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer proposed some ways to keep mayoral control with the city school district, but offer parents more of a say.
This is interesting because Bronx Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., who is expected to win the special election for borough president on April 21, expressed his support for Stringer's plans, which would put control of local education councils into the hands of the borough presidents' offices, in an interview yesterday. (More on this interview next week.) Bronx Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz is expected to introduce the legislation on the state level.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says city education jobs may have to be cut if the state doesn't pony up more money, or a fairer share, of the federal stimulus money that is being filtered through Albany.
A Bronx mom is suing the city over contamination found at PS 178.
Two weeks after receiving a heart transplant, five-month old Adrien Flores was release from Montefiore hospital yesterday. (More on this later.)
Modern technology - and a MetroCard - has freed a murder suspect who was charged with killing a man in Highbridge back in May.
Business is booming in Port Morris, one of the city's few remaining industrial enclaves.
The Fordham Rams take on the Lady Jaspers (Manhattan College) tonight in women's basketball. You can listen to it live on WFUV-FM 90.7. The Rams will be trying to avoid their 36th consecutive defeat.
Assemblymen Jose Rivera and Carl Heastie may be bitter rivals (both claim to lead the Bronx Democratic Party), but their relationship remains cordial.
A travel blog has discovered Arthur Avenue.
Pedro Espada, not yet a state senator, is bidding to be the next Senate Majority Leader, according to El Diario/La Prensa. (You can't fault him for ambition.)
Still on Espada, the Daily News reports that he raked in thousands of dollars from top Republicans - funds that helped him defeat long-time incumbent Efrain Gonzalez in September's Democratic primary.
At a ceremony today, the Triborough Bridge will be officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.
Bronx-born Eric H. Holder, currently a senior legal adviser to Barack Obama, is being tapped as the next US attorney general. He would the first African-American to hold the position.
