Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, July 21

Weather: Today's high of 96, which will really feel more like 104 with the humidity, will be roundly trumped by tomorrow's high of 101, which will really feel more like the seventh circle of Hades.  

Story of the Day: Bronx Charter School on Probation for Shady Lottery Practices
The Academic Leadership Charter School, which opened on East 141st Street in 2009, is in hot water and in danger being closed after city investigators discovered that the school may have manipulated its lottery selection process to weed out unwanted students. City officials accused the school's leadership of investigating students' past history and possibly even testing them before the selection played out, a huge charter school no-no. The lottery system, which is mandated by state law, "is at the heart of being a charter school," says James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center. If the school doesn't revamp its lottery process and implement other changes, the school could be closed.

Quick Hits:
Residents say the city should have shuttered a Morris Heights brownstone that had been chopped up into illegal subdivisions before a fire that engulfed the house resulted in the death of a 65-year-old man.

Bronx News Roundup, June 28

Apologies for the lateness of today's roundup--we're busy going to press with the latest Norwood News, which will be out tomorrow. Here are some other Bronx headlines to keep you up-to-date in the meantime.

Weather: Cloudy and around 80 degrees this afternoon, with thunderstorms expected later tonight.

Gay Bronxites and their straight allies are basking in Friday's historic decision by the state legislature to legalize same-sex marriage. Last week, Bronx Community Pride Center became the first local LGBT group to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Bronx News Roundup, March 9

Late start for the roundup today as we began distributing the latest edition of the Norwood News. We'll be rolling out all the latest stories over the next few days on this site. So, without further adieu, to the news!

Story of the Day: 
My obsession with Bronx-bred St. John's guard Dwight Hardy's rise to national prominence this year is well-documented on this site (see: here and here), so it tickled me deeply (thoroughly?) to see a profile of the John F. Kennedy High School product in the New York Times today. The story follows Hardy's winding path from Kennedy to a North Carolina prep school to an Iowa community college and then, finally, back to New York City and St. John's. After coming off the bench last year, Hardy was named All-Big East earlier this week and is the primary reason St. John's is on its way back to the NCAA Tournament. One problem with the story: the reporter writes that Hardy grew up in Melrose and then attended "nearby" JFK, which is in Marble Hill, nowhere near Melrose. The Bronx is a big place, New York Times!  

Quick Hits:
The State Senate's Latino/Puerto Rican caucus elected Adriano Espaillat, who represents part of Riverdale, as its chairman and northwest Bronx rep Gustavo Rivera as its vice chairman.

A Bronx transgender woman was denied a marriage license by the borough's city clerk's office, which then issued an apology for the error.

A fire at the St. Mary's Houses on Westchester Avenue smoked out a woman who was harboring some 60 cats, and a badly-outnumbered dog. Nary a litter box was found. Three cats died in the fire.

Many of the dogs rescued from a Grand Concourse apartment building fire are still in treatment.

Robberies in Crotona Park spiked last year compared to the year before.

A Hunts Point apartment building is overrun with insects and vermin.

A hot dog vendor who plies her trade near Montefiore Medical Center is the focus of a story about how food-cart permits are "skyrocketing."

Bronx News Roundup, March 3

Speed roundup this morning, as we prepare for production of the Mt. Hope Monitor, our bilingual paper that covers Community Board 5. 

Bronx weather today: Sunny. Cold.

Story of the Day:
In an update of a tragic story we were following yesterday, police say Vincent Cordero stabbed his wife, Kety Sanchez, three times in the chest before dousing their University Heights apartment with gasoline and setting the room on fire, killing Sanchez and the couple's baby girl in the process. Cordero died last night after being taken to Westchester Medical Center.

Quick Hits:
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a big heroin bust that disrupted an operation that stretched from "Valentine Avenue in the Bronx to Gill Alley in Buffalo."

David Johnson, the former aide to Governor David Paterson, pleaded guilty to harassing a Bronx woman. Last year, investigators looked into whether Paterson improperly contacted her following the harassment incidents, but the former governor was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Police are looking for two men they say have robbed seven Bronx bodegas over the past two months.

In his now-Thursday Bronx column, Kappy says Boro Prez Ruben Diaz, Jr. will fight the mayor's proposal to cut all of the borough presidents' operations budgets by 24%, which spokesman John DeSio will eliminate the staffers who provide constituent services. DeSio said some 2,000 people came into the office looking for help last year. Kappy also calls out the Bronx's "Snooki" -- Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera -- for not showing up to the BP's state of the boro speech.


Naomi Defensor, who grew up in Hunts Point, will be part of the new cast of MTV's hit reality show, "The Real World," which is set in Las Vegas and debuts next week.

The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective is still going strong after its founding as a hip hop-themed community center two years ago.

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 10

Cold, but sunny today in the Bronx. Warmer temps on the horizon. 

Story of the Day:
Not so sure about this little Valentine's fund-raising effort by the Bronx Zoo. For a $10 donation, the Zoo gives you the opportunity to name a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach after your sweetheart. "Nothing says forever like a cockroach," Zoo Director Jim Beheny told the Daily News. "They are resourceful, resilient and have been around for hundreds of millions of years." They are also offering a Courtship Quiz for those who are still look for that special someone. The result of the quiz determines which creature matches up with your "wooing" style. (We linked to a different story about this yesterday.)

Quick Hits:
Paradmedics saved a toddler from a Hunts Point fire that injured nine. 

Two Bronx-bred hoopsters, University of Connecticut's Kemba Walker and St. John's Dwight Hardy square off tonight at Madison Square Garden. (More sports updates in tomorrow's "Bronx Sports Column." In the meantime, here's a roundup of the first round of the Bronx Boro Championship tournament.)

The Bronx ranks number four out of the five boroughs in pedestrian deaths. (Speaking of pedestrian deaths, Gun Hill Road has long been considered one of the borough's most dangerous roads. Tonight, there will be a town hall-type input meeting to discuss congestion and safety problems on Gun Hill Road at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center.

Hunts Point residents came out to protest a new strip club planned for the area, which owners say will bring 20 new jobs for exotic dancers. Residents say that's not the type of economic development they're looking for.

And finally, our favorite Bronx political columnist Bob Kappstatter re-appears on a new day, Thursday, as the Daily News revamps its borough coverage (no more Bronx Boro News on Tuesdays, unfortunately). Kappy reminds Pedro Espada that he still needs to pay $62,580 in sanitation fines for illegally taping and stapling posters to public property. Espada, as we reported yesterday is holding a rally this morning publicly fight charges that say he looted his nonprofit network of health care clinics. Plus, Kappy alerts us to the New Yorker's report that the Dos Equis commercial's "Most Interesting Man in the World" is played by Jonathan Goldsmith, a Jewish actor from the Bronx.

Want to make sure the news continues? Just a reminder to our readers that the Bronx News Network is in the middle of our annual fundraising appeal. If you value quality local journalism, please consider donating so we can continue to bring you news and features, like our daily roundup or our borough events calendar. More details on how to contribute can be found here.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 12

For years now, the city has been giving tax breaks to several New York City strip clubs, including the now-closed Hunts Point Triangle.

The owner of a Bronx hardware store says there's something fishy about the city's Better Business Bureau and its grading system. 

The Bronx Ink profiles Grace Outreach, a Bronx-based nonprofit that helps women prepare for college and the workplace.

Police have arrested a man in connection with the murder of a gas station attendant during a botched robbery attempt in Laconia on Oct. 28.

A Bronx man who was hit by a stray bullet during a wild shootout in Harlem in August, is suing the city for $20 million. In the complaint, the man's lawyer writes: "This is a clear case of police officers improperly following police procedure with respect of discharging of firearms in a crowd." During the gunfight, one person was killed, and several others were injured, included two cops.

State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is sponsoring a bill which would prohibit state lawmakers from earning a second income. If passed, Diaz himself would be forced to give up his $15,000 annual stipend as a Pentecostal minister.

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo has named 50 prominent New Yorkers to serve on his transition team. Among those: Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.

A Bronx woman whose husband stabbed and very nearly killed her three years ago, has been unable to return to work, and is now struggling to hold onto her home. The bank is after it (foreclosure has been looming) and so is her soon to be free husband.

Earlier this month, the Department of Education delayed the release of John F. Kennedy High School's progress report, after concerns were raised over discrepancies in the student discharge rate.  Today, the report was finally published; the school received a D grade, and could be phased out.

The neighborhoods of Hunts Point and Longwood are featured in The Times' "Living In" column.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 11

Happy Veterans Day to all the vets out there, in the Bronx and beyond. Here are today's headlines:

A court ruled yesterday that a terror law doesn't apply to Edgar Morales, who killed a 10-year-old girl during a shooting in the Bronx in 2007. Morales, a gang member, was convicted under a state anti-terrorism law and sentenced to 40 years to life, a sentence that will likely be shortened now that the law doesn't apply.

Israel Feliciano was sentenced yesterday to 23 years to life for the 1992 killing of George Orfanos, a beloved pizza maker from Bedford Park. Feliciano was on the lam for 16 years, living in South Carolina with his wife and three children, until cops linked him to the crime with a fingerprint in 2008.

Felix Soto, a Queens postal worker who lives in the Bronx, is facing prison time after he allegedly delivered several kilos of cocaine along with the mail. 

A drug bust in Hunts Point has 33 gang members facing charges of conspiracy to distribute crack, cocaine and heroin. Most of the group, all men, were raided yesterday in a building on Irvine Street; five other suspects remain at large and four were already in police custody.

Teachers, parents and students at six catholic schools across the borough are devastated after yesterday's announcement that they could lose funding from the Archdiocese of New York. "We all started crying," one teacher at Morrisania's St. Augustine School told the Daily News. 

The Bluestone Group, a real estate firm that's been buying up distressed properties across the borough, announced the purchase of three more properties on Bailey Avenue yesterday in a $17.4 million deal. 

Politicians and advocates are lobbying to pass a state bill that would protect laborers from wage theft. Luis Olivo testified at a City Council hearing yesterday that he worked in a Bronx Fine Fare supermarket for seven years, and was paid only in tips.

New York City cops fired less bullets in 2009 than in any year since 1971, according to a new report. The majority of incidents where the NYPD did fire at suspects occurred in the Bronx and northern Brooklyn; 98 percent of suspects involved in those shootings were black and Latino.  

FBI agents busted a loan shark who'd been featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted," in a building on Field Place yesterday.

The Times' George Vecsey says it's just too soon to induct late Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Throgs Neck EMS worker Margaret Vega is the first woman to receive the EMS' highest award, for rescuing a construction worker who fell of some scaffolding in 2009.

An eagle owl named Flaco is the newest member of the Bronx Zoo family.

Goblins and ghouls parade through Hunts Point

The New South Bronx Halloween Parade honored neighborhood heros, and brought ghosts and goblins together for fun. See the action in The Hunts Point Express, www.huntspointexpress.com

Bronx to Get $11.5 Million in Federal Transit Funding

The Bronx is about to receive an $11.5 million injection of federal money to fund two borough projects, according to a press release sent out earlier today by Congressman Jose Serrano.

The bulk of the money, $10 million, will go toward funding the reconstruction of the Fordham transit hub, which sits above the Metro-North line and across the street from Fordham University. The other $1.5 million will "fund the creation of a vision plan for the Sheridan Expressway and Hunts Point area."

Serrano wasn't shy about taking credit for obtaining these grants.

About the Fordham transit hub, he said: “The Fordham transit plaza is one of the key transportation hubs in the Bronx and one of the busiest in the city. With many rail lines, buses, and subways coming together, it serves a huge number of residents daily. Reconstruction will facilitate their use of this key hub in our community.”

About the Sheridan Expressway/Hunts Point plan, he said: "We are eager to remake this area into a livable, walkable and green section of our community, and this is the first step towards achieving that goal."

I assume that means somehow eliminating the expressway (or transforming it into some kind of Highline-ish park), which local activists have pushed for.

Bronx News Roundup, July 1

Happy July, all! Here's what's happening in the borough this first day of the month:

The BoogieDowner blog raised questions yesterday about senate candidate Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter's work history and wonders how she can continue to receive disability payments while campaigning full-time. The post includes a response from Pilgrim-Hunter's campaign. Pilgrim-Hunter is one of four candidates challenging incumbent Pedro Espada, Jr. in the race for 33rd Senate District seat. A robust and heated debate is developing in the comments section of their post.

The NYOFCo fertilizer plant in Hunts Point is finally leaving the neighborhood--much the delight of residents who've been plagued by the plant's foul-smelling odors for years.

A Bronx car theft ring was broken up by police and the Attorney General's office yesterday, with 17 people arrested on felony charges.

More troubles for the Arroyo clan: an aide to Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo has been accused of posing as a police officer and robbing a Bronx home in May (Arroyo's grandson, Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, was sentenced to a year in jail this week for embezzlement).

Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez donated $250,000 to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center to construct the hospital's new children's outpatient center.

Two of the four pianos placed at various Bronx sites as part of the "Play Me, I'm Yours," public art project were damaged this week. 

Co-op City workers ratified a new four-year contract yesterday with management company RiverBay Corp. (disputes between the two resulted in a week long, garbage-filled strike at the enormous housing complex last month, as sanitation crews there stopped collecting trash).

Police are looking for a 13-year-old runaway and her baby, who were last seen in Soundview yesterday  morning.

There's a damper on graduation festivities at John F. Kennedy High School, as the school's principal faces accusations that he misused school funds.

Bronx News Roundup, May 7

Happy Friday everyone! On to the news!

The city is looking for input on how to best revamp the 162-year-old High Bridge, which connects 170th Street in the Bronx to 173rd Street in Manhattan. It's slated to become a pedestrian promenade and could end up being something like the incredibly popular High Line in the West Village. There will be a public hearing on the bridge next Thursday at 6 p.m., at PS 11, 1257 Ogden Ave.

Bronx students are helping to create an urban farm in Hunts Point.

Bronx Zoo animal keeper Ralph Aversa is in charge of keeping track of the zoo's new lion cubs.

The city's proposed teacher cuts, announced yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg, will disproportionally effect the Bronx.

Some thoughts on last Saturday's Bronx Food Summit.

The NYPD is looking for 16-year-old Caroline Ferreras of 624 Prospect Ave. Click here for a photo and more info. 

In the wake of former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's conviction on fraud charges, the Times-Union has a round-up of all the recent "unlawful lawmakers." Three of them -- Guy Velella, Gloria Davis and Efrain Gonzalez -- are from the Bronx.

Boxing is back at the Paradise Theater next Friday night.

A study outlines potential greenway routes through the Bronx.

The unconventional DeWitt Clinton H.S. baseball team has bunted its way to a hot start this season.

A pastor who duped hundreds of people -- including many attached to evangelical churches in the Bronx -- into giving up personal documents by telling them they were getting jobs is back in New York.

State tries anew to cut NYOFCo's stench

Under a cloud of uncertainty about its future following the loss last month of its contract with the city, the embattled sewage-to-fertilizer company NYOFCo now faces a new challenge: around-the-clock scrutiny of its odor by an independent team of engineers.

But at a public meeting at the Point CDC on April 29, skeptical residents and advocates angrily questioned the engineers and state officials about the new strategy.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation imposed the new requirement on NYOFCo, making it pay for monitors who will measure the smells within a mile of the plant on Oak Point Avenue.

Opponents of NYOFCo said awful smells reach far beyond that area, and objected that no public outreach has been planned to alert the community to the new way to complain.

Get the story in The Hunts Point Express.

Bronx News Roundup, April 26

It's a cloudy day in the BX, perfect for catching up on some Bronx news!

While filming for Channel 2's "Eye of New York," embattled State Senator Pedro Espada exited the building mid-interview when confronted with allegations that he isn't a Bronx resident.

Top Democratic donor Bill Samuels announced that he will direct up to $250,000 toward defeating Senator Espada in this year’s election. Samuels heads the New Roosevelt Initiative.

No more free rides for a Bronx man who held an illegal copy of an all-access- subway key. He was caught by the police peddling $2 rides for people waiting in line for a MetroCard.

An apartment complex on Grand Avenue in Morris Heights might be in for an new look thanks to Bronx-born Francine Kellman of Pacific Housing Advisors. She plans on renovating the building without replacing tenants or raising rent.

After two decades of calling Bronx Community College's campus home, University Heights High School is to be relocated to the South Bronx, against the wishes of parents, students and teachers. More coverage here in the Mount Hope Monitor.

The Bronx motorcycle club "Legion of Doom" lost its vice president early Saturday when he hit a pothole on Magenta Street in Bronxwood.

Environmentalist Majora Carter plans on infusing a Hunts Point apartment building with a fragrance that will make it smell like green grass rather than the local sewage plant.

A Bronx fisherman was rescued just in time after spending 40 minutes in the chilly waters of Eastchester Bay.

School Chancellor Joel I. Klein is in a high-stakes battle with the teachers' union over seniority rules. If the rules remain, the newest teachers will be the first to lose their jobs if the expected layoffs go through.  Klein wants to change this, the union wants to keep things the way they are.

ATM scam artists are targeting Bronx residents. Read more here.

Andrew Cuomo would prefer Bill Thompson over Adolfo Carrion as his lieutenant governor, Crain's reports.

Bronx News Roundup, April 8

Little late on this, but here's a few things to keep you up to date on your Bronx news.

The Boogie Downer's got some updates on the huge sinkhole that is currently blocking traffic on Webster Avenue, between 197th Street and Bedford Park Boulevard.BxNN blogger Greg Jost posted some pictures a little earlier.

Yesterday morning, some 1,500 students were evacuated from a Hunts Point educational campus that houses a handful of small schools when high levels of  carbon monoxide were detected.

Daily News columnist Michael Daly writes about Times Square shooting suspect and Bronx resident (Tremont) Rayvon Guice who he says has a history of gun play.

Gothamist sums up the whole Vanessa Gibson parking in the bike lane fiasco and the fallout.

Emmanuel Reyes, a Bronxite, pleaded "not guilty" yesterday of stealing money from the Tribute World Trade Center Visitor's Center.

The Riverdale Press has a story on how state budget cuts may affect some of the Bronx's major attractions, such as the Bronx Zoo and Wave Hill.

City cuts ties with NYOFCo

NYOFCo, the sewage processing plant with the candy-striped smoke stack that has afflicted Hunts Point residents with sickening smells for the last 18 years, has lost its contract with New York City.

The plant’s closing may not be far off.

But in a defiant statement, the company said it would keep operating, and warned that without the money it earns from the city, it would not be able to make changes that would curb the odor from the plant.

Read the whole story in The Hunts Point Express.

New issue of the Hunts Point Express

From an apartment building's wall, sculptures watch over and inspire their Longwood neighbors.
A clinic battles the health issues that plague the South Bronx one baby at a time.
The sun powers new trash cans made in Hunts Point.
And photographer Ricky Flores recalls the past--good and bad--in a stunning collection.
All this and more in the new issue of The Hunts Point Express, out today at libraries, community centers, schools and clinics in the neighborhood and on-line at http://www.huntspointexpress.com.

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 3

Ever bend over a water fountain and thought: Where's this stuff coming from? Chances are, your water is fine, but that wasn't the case for the workers at a Hunts Point sewage plant. A missing "backflow preventer" is to blame for the water that backed up into the pipes from the plant's massive boilers, leaving its workers to drink (and bathe in!) contaminated water.

A team of four clinicians from Montefiore Medical Center have returned from Haiti with quite a story to tell. ABC Channel 7 News did a story on it Monday night, and you can view the video here.

More on Anibal Lugo, the guy who police say stole an idling police SUV and was caught minutes later. Lugo's being observed at Jacobi Medical Center and Nelson Robles, the NYPD vet who the van belonged to, has been suspended without pay.

Visions for the Bronx's first public skating rink are finally coming to fruition. An agreement has been reached, moving plans from a grassy spot in Joyce Kilmer Park (which would have cost an extra $4,000) to 900 Grand Concourse, formerly the Concourse Plaza Hotel, now a senior citizens' apartment complex. 

Sean Denashvar, owner of the Med Alliance medical clinic near Fordham University, is expanding the clinic's facilities to three stories total. However, the community has been upset by additional plans for plopping 10 more stories of moderate-income rental units right on top. The area's residents will finally be able to voice their opinions about the 13-story behemoth. The hearing will take place today at 6:30 p.m. at the Candy Lounge, 608 E. Fordham Road. However, the BoogieDowner expresses some extremely legitimate concerns about the location of the hearing.

The Army Corps of Engineers will be working with the city Parks Department on the Bronx River. The $6.3 million project will rebuild a wetlands habitat near the mouth of the river in Soundview Park. The project will begin in the Fall, starting with a much-needed cleanup. Soundview Project Manager Ronald Pinzon notes, "There was a lot of stuff dumped there. Rocks, pieces of concrete, even a few refrigerators."

City Limits spotlights Intervale Green, the new eco-friendly affordable housing unit opening its doors at the end of the month on Intervale Avenue near Freeman Street in the Bronx. Many of the benefits of more "luxe" rental options will be included, such as a sculpture garden, decorative lighting, and a free computer with wireless internet with each apartment.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 3

According to authorities, the off-duty police officer that struck and killed a Bronx woman with his car was legally intoxicated.

A 17-year-old student was shot in the shoulder outside of the Bronx Regional High School yesterday afternoon. Investigators are still looking into the incident, but the boy is expected to recover, according to this NY1 article.

The Middletown neighborhood has a lot to offer shoppers.

A hat merchant in the Bronx is making a killing on his custom-made Yankees caps.

A former dumping ground in Hunts Point has been transformed into an aesthetically-pleasing park.

A 14-foot-tall, graffiti-free sculpture in front of the Bronx River Art Center that has been up since July may be a sign that neighborhood is changing for the better.

Residents of 14 apartment buildings in Crotona Park are living amongst thousands of appalling building code violations after their landlord defaulted on the mortgage earlier this year.

Disappointed Yankee fans after last night's loss to the Phillies, will have to tune in Wednesday as the World Series continues.

In more Yankee news, some die-hard fans are waging a battle to save Gate 2 from the old Yankee Stadium.

New issue of the Hunts Point Express

The August issue of The Hunts Point Express has just hit the streets, with stories about opposition to efforts to open a strip club, an explosion that has closed the controversial plant that converts sewage to fertilizer, a unique health program that trains “barefoot doctors,” the running battle over a proposal to tear down a highway, the new playground that kids designed, Majora Carter’s latest venture, and the Secretary of the Treasury’s visit. Get your free copy at libraries, community centers and other gathering places in Hunts Point and Longwood or visit www.huntspointexpress.com.

Bronx News Roundup, July 1

Welcome to July, everyone.

This month begins with more of the same up in Albany: complete and total paralysis as Republicans (plus Bronx Senator Pedro Espada, Jr.) remain at an impasse over leadership.

The Times writes that Republicans are desperate to hold on to relevance in the Senate as voting trends are tilting toward Democrats.

The Voice's Tom Robbins says powerful state lobbyists are to blame for the mess in Albany as many reform bills have died as a result of the leadership stalemate.

Federal authorities arrested nine Bronxites for stealing the identities of Puerto Rican residents.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went to The Point, a community center in Hunts Point, on Monday to discuss $90 million in stimulus funds that are being made available to help residents and businesses in low-income urban areas.

On Monday at about 10 pm, a 30-year-old man was shot in the head on Bronxwood Avenue.

A Bronx-bred goalkeeper is trying to catch on with the NY Red Bulls.