Anyone else out there feeling over-Sheen-ed today? You're a winner whose brain works on a higher level comprehended only by the accelerated minds of gods and porn stars. We get it. Now I need a shower. Let's move on to the weather: lots of sun today in the Bronx with temperatures creeping into the high 40s.
Story of the Day:
Saying they are tired of living without heat, hot water and working elevators, tenants at 1380 University Avenue are poised to begin a rent strike in order to force the 17-story building's landlord to make amends. Despite 625 outstanding housing code violations, the landlord, Martin Carlin, says the building is fine and it's only the tenants behind on rent who are complaining. Council member Helen Foster supports the tenants, saying she applauded them "for staying organized and together." Some good (gross) imagery from the DN's Dan Beekman, who described the building as a place where "rats scurry across urine-soaked floors."
Quick Hits:
Domenick Lombardozzi, who played knucklehead Baltimore cop Thomas "Herc" Hauk through all five seasons of HBO's "The Wire," is from the Bronx. Lombardozzi, who got his break in Robert De Niro's "A Bronx Tale," plays a U.S. Marshal in the upcoming A&E drama "Breakout Kings." Where's Herc's spot on the Bronx Walk of Fame? He's ready, Mr. Borough President.
Two gas stations on either side of the Hutchinson River Parkway are charging customers more than $4 a gallon, some 10 percent higher than the average New York station.
A stretch of 180th Street, between Devoe Avenue and Park Avenue, will be named after Dennis O'Connell, a longtime FDNY dispatcher in the Bronx who grew up in the borough and played the bagpipes. His wife, Patricia, could name every street and was "an encyclopedia" of knowledge.
An employee with the Archdiocese of New York was sentenced to 51 months for embezzling $250,000 meant for renovations of two Bronx Catholic schools.
Details are slim, but it appears two Bronx parents and their baby girl died in a fire this morning in Tremont, 2275 Morris Ave. More here.
Franklin Romero, a producer for Bronx super music group Aventura, pleaded not guilty to drug charges yesterday.
Big-box retailer Target, along with two developers, has purchased a 7.9-acre lot in Throgs Neck owned by the U.S. Postal Service but vacant since September. They plan to replace the current Postal building with a mall.
 | ||
| Daisy Staggers, widow of the late Rev. James B. Staggers, with the new street sign. (Photo by F.G. Pinto) |
 |
| Helen Foster in her district office on Jerome Avenue (File photo) |
Rose Donaghey, a 90-year-old veteran Bronx waitress known for her unstoppable work ethic, missed her first day on the job in over two years because of last week's blizzard. She works at the Wicked Wolf in Throgs Neck, and has served in restaurants all over the city for decades.
The Daily News' Bob Kappstatter breaks down the borough's crime stats for 2010. Like the rest of the city, the Bronx saw an overall decrease in crime but a jump in violent crimes--including a sharp rise in the number of stabbing fatalities. Here's a look at the stats for the 52 Precinct from last week's Norwood News.
Assemblyman Peter Rivera could be leaving his post for a gig in the new Gov. Cuomo's administration. If he does, a special election would determine who would fill his district seat, which covers West Farms and Parkchester.
Bronx spiritualist Chris Ochun, and other city psychics, are predicting who will win tonight's $330 Mega Millions lotto jackpot.
A quarter will soon get you five minutes less in parking time at meters in the outer boroughs, thanks to changes made at the start of the new year. The price increase won't actually go into effect in the Bronx until March.
City Councilwoman Helen Foster, who represents several neighborhoods in the South Bronx, had the worst attendance rate in the City Council last year, making it to 61.7 percent of her meetings, according to amNY. Foster told the paper that her absence was due to a number of ill family members. Bronx reps Joel Rivera and Larry Seabrook were also among the worst no-show members.
City Comptroller John Liu axed plans to build a new 911 call center in the Bronx, saying the budget for construction of the center, and another in Brooklyn, is now nearly double what it was estimated to cost when approved in 2005.
Bronx Congressman Eliot Engel has been cleared by the House ethics committee, which was investigating how he and other members of Congress spent travel stipends while visiting foreign countries.
[Updated, Jan. 29, 10:10 a.m.]
City Council members were appointed to their respective committees and chairmanships last week and we thought we would give you an idea of what issues the Bronx delegation will be focusing on and in which areas they will hold some sway.
Click "Read more" at the bottom of this post for a listing of all your Bronx Council Members and their assigned committees and chairmanships.
A few quick notables:
Oliver Koppell of District 11 kept his position as chair of the Mental Health Committee, continuing a streak that dates back to 2006. Also, newly-appointed District 14 council member Fernando Cabrera has become chair of the Drug Abuse Sub-committee. (Drug Abuse is a sub-committee of the Mental Health Committee; it's one-person subcommittee formerly chaired by Annabel Palma.). Meanwhile, Larry Seabrook (District 12) has maintained his place as chair of the Civil Rights Committee.
Each Council Member receives an additional stipend for those expenses related to the committees which they chair, and yet another if they hold office (although, in the Bronx's case, the only applicable member is Joel Rivera of District 15, who is also Majority Leader).
-PHOTO SLIDESHOW BY ADI TALWAR
Yesterday, a group of South Bronx activists braved the oppressive afternoon heat to re-energize a campaign to hold the Yankees baseball club accountable for promises they made to community for the right to build a new $1.5 billion stadium on public parkland.
In exchange for taking its parkland, soaking up taxpayer dollars (in the form of subsidies and tax breaks) and bringing more traffic congestion and parking woes to the area, the Yankees (and the city which backed the project) promised to provide local jobs, quickly restore parkland and give back money to community groups and programs on annual basis.
But the local jobs didn't materialize. Replacement parks haven't been built, mostly because the old stadium (where the new parks are to be built) is still standing and collecting moss. And the money, which is being dispersed through a specifically-created nonprofit fund, has been slow in getting back into the community, not to mention racked by controversey and possible corruption.
"All we're asking is that they be good neighbors," said Ramon Jimenez, one of the organizers of the protest who has helped create a short-hand friendly group called 4DSBxCoalition (For the South Bronx Coalition). "They promised everything. They have given us nothing."
Jimenez is a Harvard-educated lawyer with offices in South Bronx. Last year, Times reporter David Gonzalez wrote about how Jimenez, a longtime Bronx activist, was critical of Assemblyman and then-Democratic County Chair Jose Rivera who was facing challenges to his leadership of the party. Rivera's since been ousted as party chair and Jimenez is now back taking on the powers that be.
"We want to revitalize this whole [Yankee Stadium and the lack of community benefits] issue," Jimenez said, sweating in his suit underneath the 4-Train line on 161st Street and River Avenue, along with about 30 equally sweat-soaked supporters.
Specifically, the Jimenez and the Coalition, which held a similar protest at the new stadium in early June, want: the old stadium torn down by the end of the year; one represtentative of their organization on the advisory board that distributes the $800,000 in community funds; the replacement parks to be built safe and green (no artifical turf, they say); and for the community to share in the profits of memorabilia sold from the old stadium.
(The city sold the Yankees the rights to all the memorabilia for $11 million earlier this year. Some say this was a good deal for the city, but it's unclear if that money will go back into the community in any way. )
Hector Soto, another lawyer who helped organize the protest, said, "We're trying to re-energize a campaign that was started by the community before the stadium was even built. The issues were never addressed . . . the community has not been compensated at all."
"It's about respect," Soto said later.
The Coalition created a Web site to highlight all the Yankees' broken promises.
Others in attendance included a host of other recognizable faces, including Rafael Alequin-Martez, a blogger/activist/journalist who got into a dust up with Pedro Espada's son during the state senator's campaign last year. (Alequin-Martez refused a judge's plea offer of restitution for his busted camera and is holding out for harassment and assault charges, he says.)
Also marching with the Coalition was the dapper young City Council candidate, Carlos Sierra, who is challenging Helen Foster in the 16th District, which includes both stadiums, and Public Advocate candidate Norman Siegel. Joyce Hogi, a longtime critic of the new stadium and its gobbling of parkland, was also there. A Green Party member, Tom Syracuse, railed against the new Yankee Stadium, not to mention all the mainstream politicians who allowed it to be built.
Meanwhile, dozens of tourists, looking for a glimpse inside one of the world's most expensive sports complexes, continued to side-step the protest and enter the stadium.
Joel Rivera is in, Helen Foster is out in the race for Bronx BP, as Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., continues to pick up endorsements.
Helen Foster and Bronx Democratic Chair Carl Heastie, along with other Bronx and Brooklyn politicians are up in arms over the elevation of a white, Queens-based nominee to the position of city clerk.
A Bronx mailman has been arrested for his role in a $40 million scam based on fraudulent tax rebates.
Doctors at the Jacobi Medical Center performed surgery on an Afghan girl whose journey to the Bronx began when an American contractor met her in an orphanage in Afghanistan.
Police have arrested a second Bronx man accused of the hate-crime killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant.
Pay-as-you-go restrooms, that clean themselves after use, are coming to a street near you (if you live in Riverdale or Morris Park).
Helen Foster is staying out of the borough president's race, says Daily News columnist Bob Kappstatter. Instead, with the support of the party, she'll run for a third City Council term (District 16). More here on her likely opponents.
If the BP's race sees Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. square off against Councilman Joel Rivera, Kappstatter expects them to run "a rather gloves-on contest." (The two are, or were, good friends.) Fordham University's Prof. Bruce Berg, on the other hand, predicts a hard fought and potentially ugly campaign.
A teenager was shot and killed yesterday on Gerard Avenue near East 168th Street.
State Senator Jeff Klein and the Working Families Party have fallen out over the so-called millionaire's tax.
The Botanical Garden's annual orchid show opens this Saturday.
The Ghetto Film School in Mott Haven was featured on NPR this week. You can listen here.
Happy Term Limits Vote Day! We'll continue to follow all the action today as it unfolds down at City Hall, but here's a couple of quick updates.
This morning the City Council's Government Operation Committee voted 6-0 to approve Mayor Bloomberg's plan to extend term limits to include a third four-year term. Interestingly, the one Bronx member of the committee, Larry Seabrook, who had indicated earlier that he supported the term limits extension, abstained from voting.
According to the latest tally on NY1, Seabrook is still one of 19 "yes" votes on the proposal. Meanwhile, 22 Council members are against the legislation.
The opponents apparently lost an ally sometime between yesterday and today as east Bronx Council member James Vacca, who came out early against the plan, has flip-flopped and is now sitting on the fence. Annabel Palma is the only Bronx delegate who is now openly opposed to the plan, while term-limited Council members, Joel Rivera, Maria Baez and Oliver Koppell support the extension.
Meanwhile, constituents of Bronx member Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who says she's undecided after initially expressing her support for Bloomberg's plan, want her to make a decision. Helen Foster joins Arroyo and Vacca on the fence.
The full council vote is scheduled for around 2 p.m. today. The legislation needs 26 votes to pass. Stay tuned to see how this plays out and how the Bronx votes.
The Working Families Party (WFP), which is supported by labor unions and grassroots groups and gives its ballot line to candidates it supports in New York State, opposes Mayor Bloomberg's gambit to extend term limits to three terms.
In the Bronx, Council Members Helen Foster and Maria del Carmen Arroyo, are feeling the heat from the WFP as both have not yet come to a decision on whether they are going to extend the term limits law. On our way down to the Tour de Bronx starting line at the Courthouse on Sunday, we came across this placard at a subway station along the No. 4 line on Jerome Avenue. (It says, "We voted twice for term limits. Call Helen Foster at 718-588-7500 and tell her that should count for something.")
Will candidates who don't vote their way on term limits get the WFP endorsement again?
Council member Helen Foster is known for voicing her opinion - even when it makes her unpopular with her Bronx colleagues. But she's been oddly silent on the term-limits issue. Today, NY1 spoke to several of her constituents. One said: "She has to make up her mind."
Under current laws, Foster will be forced to step aside at the end of next year. Previously, she's expressed an interest in running for borough president.
Council member Helen Foster is hosting a housing conference tonight at South Bronx Jobs Corp., at 1771 Andrews Ave., from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The theme is "Tenant Education: Gentrification and Affordability." All are welcome. Registration and dinner will be followed by two panels.
Panel 1: Gentrification
*Private Equity - Diego Gerana Quinones, CASA
*Vacancy Decontrol - Joya Colon, Housing Here & Now
*Mitchell-Lama Issues - Lenora Nelson, Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition
*Sub-Prime & Foreclosures - Oscar Morillo, Neighborhood Housing Services
Panel 2: Affordabailty
*Housing Court - Jessica Hurd, Bronx Task Force on Housing Court
*Homelessness - Robert Robinson, Picture the Homeless
*Section 8 - Kate Johnston, Tenants & Neighbors
*Public Housing - Joanne Smitherman, South Bronx Council of Association Presidents
For more information, call Foster's district office at (718) 588-7500.
In today's Post, Bronx Council member Maria Baez is named as one of six council members whose funding recommendations are being investigated by the Department of Investigations.
Presumably, Baez's reported attempt to give $7,500 to a tenant group that doesn't even exist will be one of the recommendations the agency will be looking at.
More on the Council scandal here.
It's been a tough few months for the west Bronx legislator. Last November, she and Council member (and BP hopeful) Joel Rivera sponsored a housing bill which, tenants rights groups argued, would have favored landlords over tenants. (Baez and Rivera were roundly vilified in the press, and quickly threw their support behind a more tenant friendly bill which was eventually passed into law.)
Then, a few weeks ago, it was revealed that Baez has the worst attendance record of any council member when it comes to showing up for meetings and hearings.
Baez, of course, isn't the only west Bronx politician with political problems. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, whose district office is just a few short blocks from Baez's, will go on trial later this year for allegedly helping himself to more than $400,000 in taxpayer money.
Without drawing too many similarities between Baez and Gonzalez (Baez, after all, hasn't been charged with anything), both have brought race into the equation when defending themselves against allegations that they misused public funds. "I will not allow anyone to assassinate my character as a Latina woman," Baez told the Post. Last year, Gonzalez said of his constituents: "They stand with me, they know it’s [the charges] total baloney. Who’s doing the demonizing? It’s not the people of color; it’s not the people from the district."
Now, onto some updates. In our congestion pricing story, we noted that Helen Foster was the only Bronx council member not to vote for the plan because she was absent. Well, it turns out she was in Vegas attending a mysterious "family" event. She meant to get back, she said, but her plane was delayed. It also turns out that she was vehemently against congestion pricing and would have been the only Bronx CM to vote against the plan.
Here's a few snippets from Foster's press release: "It is clear that asthma, traffic pollution, congestion, and transportation infrastructure are problems that need to be addressed...While congestion pricing may help with downtown Manhattan congestion, it may well transfer congestion and higher asthma rates to the South Bronx...I am disappointed that the Council passed congestion pricing, but I am still hoping that the Legislature and the Governor will reject the measure."
Furthermore, Foster says: "Experience shows that asthma and truck traffic did not seem to concern the Mayor and other elected officials when they approved the construction of the new Yankee Stadium."
Speaking of Yankee Stadium, State Senator Jose M. Serrano, who shares constituents with Foster, sent out a letter last night to the Mayor and media saying he supported congestion pricing, but worried that a loophole concerning the new Yankee Stadium parking garages might defeat the whole purpose of congestion pricing -- reducing congestion and pollution from cars commuting into the city.
For now, the stadium's parking garages are only open on game days, 81 days a year. But apparently the Yankees may be able to open up the garages year round, possibly turning it into what Serrano called a "park and ride" for commuters and a parking destination for people working in the South Bronx who normally use mass transit.
"Expanding commuter parking defeats the purpose and spirit of congestion pricing, the whole point of which is to encourage commuters to leave their cars at home and to enhance mass transit. "
Serrano said a decision on the new parking lots will be made by the city in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the state legislature is wrangling with the congestion pricing beast as we speak. It will be interesting to see if Serrano makes a stand against congestion pricing if the Yankee Stadium loophole remains open.
In Wednesday's Times, Bronx pol Helen Foster is heavily criticized for failing to attend "perhaps the most important vote of the year for the City Council" - Monday's congestion pricing vote. The other 50 council members showed up.
Foster, who's considering running for borough president, claims she was unable to attend because her flight back from Las Vegas was delayed. Still, it doesn't look good. As reporter Ray Rivera points out, she has one of the worst attendance records in the Council.
Foster tells The Times that, if there, she would have voted against the plan. Her Bronx counterparts, on the other hand, voted unanimously to adopt it, despite the opposition of most Bronx residents. The final vote was 30-20 in favor. See here for a list of who was for and who was against.
Borough President Adolfo Carrion makes his third trip to Israel.
Larry Davis, one of the Bronx's most famous and controversial outlaws, died at the hands of fellow inmates in the yard of an upstate prison where he's been incarcerated since the late 1980s. If you weren't around back then, this Times story paints a picture of a very different time in the Big Apple.
Councilwoman Helen Foster, who may be running for borough president, says the last two borough presidents (Carrion and Ferrer) "were not and are not sympathetic to the black community."
In the Bronx, Internet cafes are as rare as Starbucks. It's good to hear, then, that one (an Internet cafe, not a Starbucks) is about to be built in Soundview. (More here on the borough's digital divide and what's being done to correct it.)
In the Post today, there's a look at a "murderous gang turf war" that's engulfed several Manhattan high schools. The violence has been fueled by the rivalry of two Dominican gangs, Dominicans Don't Play (aka DDP) and the Trinitarios, says the paper. Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan, has been hit the hardest, but both gangs are active in the west Bronx, too. DDP gang members, for example, have been linked to an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was shot in the back and seriously injured following a house party on Marion Avenue in Fordham, last spring.
Yet another kick in the teeth for opponents of the new Yankee Stadium.
Rates of infant mortality, bucking a city-wide trend, increased in the Bronx from six deaths per 1,000 births in 2005, to seven per 1,000 in 2006, according to a new study. In 2006, the Bronx also recorded the highest percentage of babies born to teenage mothers, at 12 percent of all births. Brooklyn, with 7 percent, was second. More here, in what, above statistics aside, is a mostly positive take on the city's health.
Bronx pol Helen Foster is one of only four Democratic Council members supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The other 48 are in Hillary Clinton's camp.
As the Times reported in July, City Council Majority Leader, Joel Rivera, 28, is planning to run for borough president in 2009, a decision that’s likely to put him on a collision course with close friend Assemblyman Ruben Diaz.
When asked for an update, Rivera, who attended a press conference this afternoon to mark the beginnings of a new health center on Burnside Avenue, said he’s getting close to formally announcing his campaign, adding that he’s already raised $200,000.
“At the moment I have 140,000 bosses,” he quipped, in reference the population of the District 15. “In 2010 I hope to have 1.4 million.”
Rivera (pictured) will be trying to do what his father, Bronx Democratic boss Jose Rivera, never managed. (Rivera Sr. stepped aside for Adolfo Carrion in 2001.)
So far, no one’s officially said they’re running, and with the election two years away anything can happen, but other possibles include State Senator Jose Marco Serrano and Council Member Helen Foster. (Photo by James Fergusson)
A Kingsbridge tenant survived a two-alarm fire yesterday at 2840 Bailey Ave., the Post reports.
The Post also profiles Montefiore surgeon Samuel Weinstein, who donated his own blood to an 8-year-old child he was operating on in El Salvador.
Gotham Gazette looks at the congestion pricing debate in the City Council, with a detailed list of council members and where they stand. Joel Rivera and Helen Foster are undecided, and Maria Baez and Oliver Koppell are leaning in favor of it. Rivera and other undecided pols say their support depends on mass transit improvements.
Mommy Poppins, a New York parents' blog, recommends the Bronx Trolley for families looking to explore new neighborhoods. Click here for details on the weekend trolley.
And NY1 reports on Senator Schumer's warning that New York's bridges and tunnels are underfunded.
