Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 15

We'll get to a few news links in a minute, but first I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about why you should click on this link right here and pledge your support to the nonprofit Bronx News Network today. You may have noticed we didn't post a roundup yesterday. It broke my heart, but it had to be done and it was not just because I spent a large chunk of my day out on the streets delivering the Norwood News, a BxNN affiliate, in my car.

We're taking this last week of our annual fund-raising appeal to remind you why we're here and to ask for your support in keeping this valuable Bronx resource going and growing. Just like how NPR puts on an annual pledge drive to ask people to financially back "listener-supported" radio, we're doing our pledge drive to enlist your help in backing reader-supported news!

Without your support, we won't be able to continue to sift through, gather, read and put all the Bronx news into an easily digestible roundup every day. Let alone produce the original reporting that tells you not just that some old Bronx lady died in a fire last week, but that the woman who died was Mary Mullen, a former teacher at PS 5 in Port Morris who lived near Poe Park for the past 30 years, ate at Louie's Dale Diner on 231st Street, worshiped at St. Philip Neri on the Concourse and dressed to the nines even after a stroke late in her life.

We can't do this for all the fire, gunshot or car accident victims, at least not yet. But, and this is our pledge to you, we will do our best.

Here's another pledge from us, just so you know you're getting something for your hard-earned money: We will follow the stories you want us to follow. All you have to do is ask -- leave a comment or send us an e-mail at bronxnewsnetwork@gmail.com -- and we'll do our best to find out what's going on. This website and our programs isn't just fueled by your dollars, but also by your suggestions, tips and desires.

Bottom line: We need your help and can not do this without you.

If you're reading this right now, for whatever reason, then please, take a minute to click on this link and donate to Bronx News Network. This is the last week we'll use this space to appeal to you, our readers, for help financially. Anything you can spare -- $5, $10, $20 -- will put us in a better position to continue our programs and grow as a nonprofit organization. Help us reach our goal and help us provide the type of news and information that makes the Bronx a better place. 

OK, now a few Bronx news links (next week we'll return to our regular roundup format, we promise):

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 19

NY1 reporter Dean Meminger was honored yesterday by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. at the Bronx Museum of Arts for his contributions to the African American community.

The Times city room blog writes a story about the new skating rink on 161st St. where the old Concourse Plaza Hotel used to be. The Concourse Plaza rink is the Bronx's first skating circle since the Mullaly Park rink fell into disrepair in the '80s.

The DeWitt Clinton Girls Track and Field team edged by the Bronx Science team to win the indoor track and field championships at the Armory in Manhattan. Columbus came in third.

Mayor Bloomberg was in the Bronx yesterday to kick off a national campaign against mortgage fraud.

This years St. Paddy's Day Parade will honor twenty late Irish Americans as honorary grand marshals. The Post has the story here.

Ever wonder what those guys with the red berets and combat boots are all about? Here's an interesting profile of Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Bronx vigilante group The Guardian Angels. Sliwa talks about his beginnings at a Fordham Rd. McDonalds and a run in with the Mafia.

More about the Pelham bay fire, here.

Bronx News Roundup, April 20

The South Bronx organization Nos Quedamos is joining several parents in their fight with the Department of Education to remove toxic caulk from schools in the east Bronx.

Mayor Bloomberg was practicing his Spanish at his Bronxwood campaign office and calling voters in the Bronx on Saturday.

A woman in the Bronx, whose longtime boyfriend died suddenly on Thursday, is trying to harvest his sperm to have a baby in the future.

South Bronx residents are ticked off at guardian angel Curtis Sliwa and his new “underbelly tours.”

Archbishop Timothy Dolan visited the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in the west Bronx on Friday.

The New York Times covers Anthony Ribustello’s bid for Bronx BP.

The Roberto Clemente State Park swimming pool, which hosts thousands of children each year in Morris Heights, will be repaired and won't open this summer.

The Plummer Pavilion, a luxury senior assisted living center that was supposed to be built near Pelham Bay, may be another victim of the recession.

Bronx News Roundup April 14

The Gotham Gazette takes a look at the borough president's race, and concludes front-runner Ruben Diaz Jr. "practically has a set of keys to borough hall already." The real race, says reporter Courtney Gross, occured months back when the so-called Rainbow Rebels ousted then-Party Chairman Jose Rivera. The 2000-word story also touches on what could be two fascinating City Council races this fall involving incumbents Maria Baez (14th District) and Joel Rivera (District 15).

A five-year-old boy was reunited with his worried mother after hopping on the No. 1 train at the 225th Street and ending up in South Ferry. This story was also picked up in the UK.

Phil Spector, the Bronx-born music producer and songwriter, was found guilty of murder yesterday.

A Bronx nun has been chosen to do a scripture reading at tomorrow's installation mass for incoming Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Still on nuns, the movie "Doubt," which is set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in the 1960s, came out on DVD last week. Watching it bought back memories (mostly good ones) for Daily News columnist Patrice O'Shaughnessy who went to St. Raymonds.

Affordable housing advocates are having a hard time wooing State Senator Pedro Espada, the Senate's housing committee chairman, as they push for a vote to repeal vacancy decontrol.

Curtis Silwa of Guardian Angels fame has started giving free tours of the Bronx.

Toxic waste in Bronx schools has parents up in arms - and suing the city.

Bob Kappstatter looks at who might replace Assemblymembers Ruben Diaz Jr. and Aurelia Greene should they become borough president and deputy borough president respectively.

The BBC interviews a family who became homeless last summer and now live in a Bronx homeless shelter.