Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 21

The Bronx Open - an annual tennis tournament in Crotona Park - starts on Monday. More than 30 of the world's top 100 women will take part. This year, there's no men's side of the draw. The event is free, except finals day on Aug. 31 which costs $10. The New York Junior Tennis League will provide free tennis throughout the week. Here's Adi Talwar's photos from last year.

The parents of a young boy killed by a van last summer as rode his bike to school are suing the city for $10 million.

Could the Stella D'Oro cookie factory in Kingsbridge stay open after all? The current owner, who has been threatening to close it after losing a labor dispute, may have found a local buyer.

Today's New York Times carries an article adapted from Constance Rosenblum's new book, Boulevard of Dreams, a history of the Grand Concourse.

As we mentioned in yesterday's roundup, City Council candidate Yudelka Tapia's campaign manger, Onix Sosa, has been hired by Pedro Espada, the ethically challenged state senator and majority leader. When asked about this yesterday morning, Tapia hadn't heard the news. Later, her communications director sent out press release saying she's parted ways with Sosa because she "felt that the job Sosa took was not consistent with the message she is trying to communicate to the voters of the 14th District." Tapia campaign is staffed by volunteers. In fact, Sosa was the only one on the payroll, Tapia said. She's hired a new campaign manager, a former volunteer.

Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 18

The Wall Street Journal reviews a new book about the history of the Grand Concourse, which is 100-year-old this year. Boulevard of Dreams, by Constance Rosenblum, a Times editor, will be published later this month.

Another Bronx-based book, Random Family, was recently chosen by Newsweek as one of their "Fifty Books for Our Times." It tells the true-story of a flawed (but hugely likable) extended family living in the Mount Hope area in the 1980s and 90s, and their struggles to get by in what was a pretty bleak neighborhood at that time. You can read it online here.

In Mott Haven, the city has begun draining a mile-long "swamp." We had a post about this yesterday.

Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, is supporting Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio for public advocate.

Bob Kappstatter on Pedro Espada: "He may be evil, he may be perverse (then again, he IS a politician), but the man is a genius." Kappstatter admires (if that's the right word) Espada's ability to wriggle free from scandal and better his own situation, with scant regard to whom he steps on in the process.

The Bronx's fourth annual gay pride event will be held in Hunts Points this Saturday.

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and entire Bronx delegation are against plans to bring a big-box supermarket to the Kingsbridge Armory. They fear it will force other local supermarkets to close. Council member Maria Baez held a press conference/campaign rally on this issue last week.

A Bronx man is suing the city for $2 million, after cops shot dead his pit-bull puppy during a drugs raid in 2007.

Service on the 1 Train won't return to normal for several days following Sunday's ceiling collapse at the 181st Street stop in Washington Heights.

Marking the Grand Concourse's 100th Year

To celebrate the Grand Concourse's centennial year, and to plan for its future, the Bronx Museum is encouraging Bronx residents - and indeed anyone with an interest in the borough's most famous strip - to take part in a new competition.

Applicants are required to answer the following questions:

What does the Bronx of the future need its grandest boulevard to be?
How can the Grand Concourse help inspire harmony and community through design?
Is the Grand Concourse of today obsolete?
Can the Grand Concourse of tomorrow be a force that catalyzes the Bronx’s positive evolution?

You can apply online starting this Monday. There's a $30 application fee. If you want to share you ideas now you can post comments here. (Thanks to the BoogieDowners for drawing our attention to this.)

Also timed to coincide with the Grand Concourse's 100th year: an outdoor art show, the Tree Museum, which is scheduled to open in June, and a book, Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, which will be published in August.