Mess of the Moment Update: Con Ed Cleans Up

We'll call it the "power of the Mess." In response to our "Mess of the Moment" blog post two weeks ago, Councilman Fernando Cabrera's office called Con Edison to ask the energy provider to take care of the eyesore, which is in his 14th Council District. On July 6, a week after the post appeared here on the blog, Con Edison responded by sending a crew to clean up the pile of barricades and cement blocks, which blocked parking spots in front of an apartment building and neighboring houses.

Before (above); After (below)

Editor's Note: The "Mess of the Moment" is a periodic feature on the blog. If there is a mess that you want highlighted or paid attention to, send photos of a location (or at least a locationa and description) to bronxnewsnetwork@gmail.com or just tell us about it in the comments section of this post.

Today's Power Outage

Power was out from 3:21 to 8:55 a.m. this morning between University and Aqueduct from W. Fordham Road to 192nd St. According to Con Edison, 375 customers (units) lost power, 3,800 people total.

News Roundup for June 25

Gotham Gazette released an analysis of individually sponsored member items from this year’s city budget. The list shows Helen Foster sponsored only one item (compared with Oliver Koppell's 14 items and Joel Rivera's 33), but it was for $102,187. (Via Politicker)

Bronx pols sounded off on childhood obesity in a NY Post story about Bronx's fitness problem. According to Department of Education statistics obtained by The Post, 25 percent of Bronx elementary school students are considered obese and more than 42 percent are overweight.

Today’s News

The 10th Annual Bronx Week celebrations officially begin this Saturday, kicking off a week of historic tours, athletic competitions and other festivities highlighting the borough’s culture.

As part of its Bronx Week Coverage, NY1 has a feature on the old Bronx courthouse on Third Avenue. Construction on the courthouse, also known as the Gray Lady, has been halted many times since renovation efforts began in the 1990s. The article discusses community support for plans to convert the courthouse into a charter school.

Mamadou Soumare, who lost his wife and four children in the Bronx fire last March, filed notice of a claim reserving his right to sue in the future. The precursor to a $100 million negligence lawsuit against the city, the claim cites the FDNY, Department of Buildings, the Department of Housing and Moussa Magassa -owner of the Woodycrest Avenue home who also lost five children in the fire – as possible defendants.

The Daily News reports a decrease in Bronx crimes despite a smaller police force.

Eighteen after-school programs in the Bronx are on the chopping block due to dwindling federal funds. Five schools, including M.S. 206 in Morris Heights, are already shutting down programs that cannot continue in the absence of state-distributed funds previously dedicated to after-school programming.

The New York Public Library plans to close the Highbridge branch on W.168th St. betweenWoodycrest and Shakespeare Aves for renovations. Only the well-intentioned renovations willtake two years to complete and parents in the area are furious. In a stories published by the Daily News and the Highbridge Horizon, parents protest the closing plans which do not provide for an alternate library site, let alone include a bookmobile or library trailer.

As we mentioned on this blog last week, in the 1990s Norwood residents were successful in securing a temporary location when their branch underwent a rehab.

Con Edison unveiled plans for a new substation in Mott Haven. This is of particular concern to Bronx residents because of last summer’s blackout in Queens.

Con Ed teams up with DEP in rate hikes

So, Con Ed is following DEP's lead and also requesting a steep rate hike that would also cause total bills to increase about eleven and a half percent. The electricity increase, at 17% for residential customers and 10.7% for businesses, would go into effect next April. Here's the Times article on it.

And don't forget about who has the worst electricity network in the city (see right)...

The Times article also references Bloomberg's response to the water rate hikes:

Mayor Bloomberg, in his weekly radio call-in appearance on WABC-AM, defended the water rate increase yesterday.

“The Department of Environmental Protection is a pretty good agency, efficient, needs to keep making investments, and fixing and building,” Mr. Bloomberg said, “and we need those things, and somebody’s got to pay.”

Let's discuss this a little more in-depth, Mayor. DEP may be a pretty good agency overall, but they are certainly not efficient when it comes to billing issues, and hence collections. And why should rate payers be the only ones paying for capital improvements to the water that everyone uses (including commuters who use the city's water all day long)? And why does the city need the rental payment from DEP for use of the tunnels/infrastructure?