Bronx News Roundup, July 6

Weather: Another hot one today, with temperatures in the high 80s and a chance of thunderstorms later. (If you or someone you know needs to get out of the heat, find one of the city's air conditioned cooling centers here).

Story of the Day: South Bronx, One End of the 'Wealth Gap'
An interesting and graphic-heavy feature from this week's New York magazine takes a comparative look at one of the nation's wealthiest Congressional districts--Manhattan's East Side--and the poorest, NY 16, or the South Bronx. Among the not-so-surprising but still-glaring differences are median income ($79,385 vs. $23,073, respectively), a typical family's weekly budget ($2,222.98 vs. $539.50), the number of Starbucks coffee shops (90 vs. 1), and the number of times Mayor Bloomberg visited each district in a year (42 vs. 10).

"Whatever is happening nationwide always manifests itself much more dramatically in the South Bronx. Always has," Congressman Jose Serrano, who has represented this district for decades, told the magazine. "When people are talking about 5 percent unemployment, we may be talking about 10 percent unemployment."

Bronx News Roundup, June 16

Weather: Warm and sunny today, in the high 70s/low 80s. Chance of rain late tonight and into tomorrow morning.

Story of the Day: Mount Hope Dad Gets a New Kidney
We'll start off today's roundup with a feel-good piece in honor of Father's Day this weekend. New York Daily News' Patrice O'Shaughnessy brings us the story of Bronx dad Jameak Lee, who after a decade of illness, dialysis and disappointment, successfully underwent a kidney transplant this winter. This will be the first Father's Day in his 12-year-old son Justin's life that Lee will feel well enough to celebrate.

Tomorrow: Bronx Rally for Marriage Equality

A number of LGBT advocacy groups and several local elected officials will be demonstrating tomorrow afternoon on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse in support of marriage equality.

The rally was organized by Bronx Rainbow Independent Democratic Association and Marriage Equality New York.

Expected to attend: State Senators Jose M. Serrano, Gustavo Rivera, Jeff Klein and Adriano Espaillat, Assemblymembers Carmen Arroyo, Jeffrey Dinowitz and Jose Rivera and NYC Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

According to a press release, the event is in part a response to State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr.'s controversial March 15 parade against the passage of a gay marriage bill for New York. 

The rally will start at 2 p.m. at the Bronx Courthouse, 851 Grand Concourse at 161st Street.

Bronx News Roundup, July 28

The Daily News reports this morning that Bronx Democratic Committee chairman Jeff Dinowitz won't move to oust Pedro Espada, Jr. from the Democratic party before this fall's primary (state Democrats sent a letter to Dinowitz earlier this month, asking him to boot Espada). Dinowitz told the paper he might revisit the issue later (he told us in a previous interview that even if he went ahead with the motion, Espada could file an appeal, a process that would likely last much longer than the Sept 14 primary).

If you can stand the heat, the Bronx Zoo is offering discounts on certain tickets to online buyers. Zoo officials say this month's sweltering temperatures have led to a drop in attendance.

Authorities seized more than $1.5 million in cash yesterday in a huge heroin bust around the Fordham neighborhood. 

The Bronx is getting the least out of a city-wide program that places water fountains in public places, en effort to encourage residents to drink more H20 instead of sugary drinks. There's one set up every Tuesday outside Bronx Borough Hall, though other boroughs have gotten more fountains placed.

An Irish man visiting Katonah Avenue from his home in upstate New York is in a coma after he was assaulted outside of a bar. 

Two separate murders around the same intersection, within three days of one another, have one Morrisania neighborhood on edge. Troynisha Harris, an 18-year-old high school student, was stabbed to death early Saturday, and 22-year-old Fred White was found shot to death on Tuesday.

Con Edison has agreed to pay $700,000 to compensate for a 2009 explosion in Yonkers that leaked oil into the Bronx River.

Two comedians with roots in the Bronx are still in the running on NBC's reality show "Last Comic Standing."

State Dems Pushing Bronx Committee to Oust Espada, 'Complicating' Things

A letter from the State Democratic Committee asking the Bronx County Democrats to oust Senate Majoriy Leader Pedro Espada, Jr. from the party, first reported by the NY Post yesterday, has "complicated" things for Bronx Democratic leaders, who have, up until now, stayed neutral in the 33rd District senate race.

It also puts Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, the chairman of Bronx Democratic Committee, on the hot seat. If the Committee decides to act on the formal request, written by Edgard Santana, the deputy to the state Democratic party's executive director, Charlie King, Dinowitz would preside over any quasi-trial proceedings and then make a final ruling on whether Espada should remain in the party. 

"Ultimately, it's Dinowitz's decision," said Assemblyman Carl Heastie, the chairman of the Bronx committee's executive board (which makes him the borough's party boss).

Dinowitz is not taking the decision lightly. First and foremost, he says he will have to figure out whether Santana has the standing to make such a formal request. He may have to live in the district, Dinowitz said, but he's not sure. He's going to check all the party rules and by-laws before making a determination on whether to proceed or not.

"The answer is, I don't know the answer [at this point]," said Dinowitz, adding that he only received the letter this morning after first reading about it yesterday in the Post.

Espada spokesman Steve Mangione, responding to an e-mail, did not comment on the letter, but said he would get back to us with a comment as soon as possible.

Now, even if Espada is "convicted" and ousted from the party, Dinowitz said it will take time and Espada will be able to appeal any decision that is made in Bronx Supreme Court. (The Post also reported this weekend
that Espada could be facing new criminal charges for lying on a grant application for his health care clinics.)

If you've been following Bronx politics (or Espada) for the past decade, this may feel like watching re-run. 

Pro-tenant Housing Bills Continue to Languish

It’s an annual tradition in Albany as old as the budget being late. First, the Assembly passes a raft of housing bills aimed at strengthening New York’s rent laws and protecting tenant rights. Then the Senate ignores them and the bills die before ever getting out of the chamber’s housing committee.

In years past, the overwhelmingly Democratic Assembly could blame Republicans who made secret about their distaste for these laws. But last year, for the first time in more than 40 years, Democrats took control of the state senate and its committees. Assembly members and housing advocates thought there would finally be some action on these housing bills, which they believed would go a long way toward keeping the city’s housing affordable.

But with Bronx Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. in charge of the housing committee and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from pro-landlord lobbyists, it hasn’t worked out exactly how they planned.

Last year Espada flip-flopped numerous times on his support for several housing bills passed by the Assembly and championed by affordable housing and tenant advocates. In the end, he didn’t address any of them.

This year, Espada has pushed an alternative bill he says will preserve hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units, but that advocates say is completely unrealistic and basically a gift to the city’s wealthiest landlords. Vito Lopez, the head of the Assembly’s housing committee, told the Village Voice that the bill was “not something I find acceptable.”

Bronx News Roundup, March 30

A  New York's Court of Appeals ruled today that Mazin Assi, who attempted to bomb a Bronx synagogue in 2000, is guilty of a hate crime. The court said that the stricter penalties of a hate crime applied to Assi, even if his crime was directed towards a building and not a person.

All this heavy rain caused a mudslide near the Riverdale Metro-North station early this morning, disrupting service on the Hudson line. Train times were back to normal a little after 11 a.m.

Some seasonal exhibits at the Bronx Zoo will officially reopen this Saturday.

The Daily News reports on a the popularity of hydroponic gardening--growing plants in liquid instead of soil--and how it's perfect for Bronxites who don't have the space for a traditional garden.

New low-income housing near Union Grove Baptist Church, on Hoe Avenue, broke ground on Friday. The buildings will be named after long time pastor Rev. Dr. Fletcher Crawford, who conceptualized the development.

Some Bronx politicians, like Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, are supporting--and even calling for expansions of--the proposed tax on sugary sodas, according to the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter.

Sen. Eric Schneiderman and other City officials are fighting to have prison inmates who are originally from New York City counted as city residents in the census. Current practices count inmates as residents of the regions where they're incarcerated, often upping census numbers for smaller towns upstate that house large prisons.

Starting April 10, the Parkchester 6 train station will be partially closed for repairs and renovations, which will take about three months to complete.

More on "Whatever it Takes," a documentary that chronicles Edward Tom, principal at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, in his goal to have all of his students graduate and go to college. More details on the film, which premieres tonight at 10 p.m., here.

Bronx MTA Hearing Met with Protests

Students rallied outside an MTA public hearing to protest the elimination of student MetroCards.

A flood of outraged residents and elected officials lined up to voice their concerns to MTA board members last night at a public hearing at the Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. The transit agency has proposed drastic service cuts and fare changes to cover it’s nearly $400 million budget shortfall.

Speakers at the hearing conveyed their anger as well as a sense of déjà vu, having made the same pleas  to stop service cuts last year, when the MTA faced a similar deficit.

Some of the most troubling changes stemmed from the proposed elimination of student MetroCards—which provide three free rides on school days—as well as reduced Access-a-Ride service for the disabled and elderly and the discontinuation of the Bx18 bus, which runs between Undercliff Avenue and the Grand Concourse.

Borough President Rueben Diaz, Jr. was the first to take the podium, telling MTA chairman Jay Walder and other board members that they were underestimating the role mass transit plays in the lives of Bronx residents, the majority of whom don’t have access to a car.

“I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Chairman, but maybe one day you and I could take a walk around the Bronx,” Diaz said. “People need these buses.”

His testimony was followed by similar speeches from Council Members James Vacca and Oliver Koppell, Assembly members Jeffrey Dinowitz and Vanesssa Gibson, and representatives from the offices of several other Bronx officials.

“You’re picking on the elderly, the disabled and the students,” said Dinowitz, adding that the MTA should look inward first as it looks to make cuts. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of people in the MTA who make more than the governor.”

A seemingly endless line of residents approached the microphone with stories of transit woes: the high school student who gets up at 5 a.m. to take two buses to get to school on time; the disabled woman who relies on Access-a-Ride to get to her doctor appointments in Brooklyn.

Dinowitz Blames Filtration Plant Problems on Bloomberg

[Updated, Nov. 3, 12:56 p.m.]
Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, one of the most outspoken critics of the city's plan to build a an enormous water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, says the construction delays, cost overruns and other problems associated with the Department of Enviornmental Protection's project should fall on the shoulders of Mayor Bloomberg.

Bloomberg is up for re-election tomorrow.

The DEP met with members of the filtration plant's monitoring committee and local residents last Thursday at the Amalgamated Houses. Deputy Comptroller John Brown was also on hand to discuss his office's audit of the project, released in early September, that highlighted the problems with the project.

Most notably, the report said the original estimates for the project were so completely innaccurate that it calls into question whether the project should have been sited on public parkland in the first place.

By all accounts, residents at the meeting expressed a great deal of outrage and dismay at the Comptroller's findings.

Here's Dinowitz's complete release:

The meeting that the five community members of the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee (CFMC) held in the Amalgamated House’s Vladeck Hall on Thursday, October 29 illustrated conclusively that the water filtration plant boondoggle that is costing taxpayers unnecessary billions and is being grossly mismanaged by a secretive NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s worst failures.

At the meeting, Deputy Comptroller John Graham explained that the recently released audits by Comptroller Bill Thompson found that the DEP could not account for the astronomical rise in costs as compared with their original budgeting for the project. Many who attended spoke emphatically that the comptroller’s findings definitively support their long-held claim that the DEP cooked the books in order to see to it that the plant was built in Van Cortlandt Park and to create a lucrative bonanza for contractors and engineers while sticking everyday New Yorkers with an outrageous bill.

Specifically, the comptroller reported that the DEP failed to account for a cost escalation rate above those substantiated by industry indexes such as the Engineering News-Record Construction index of 5.04%, or the Handy-Whitman Index of Public Utility Construction of 5.73%, or the Prevailing Wage Rates of 4.7%.

I agree with the Comptroller: “(The DEP’s) Underlying estimate was unreliable and lacked sufficient documentation to substantiate its accuracy and completeness.” The still unanswered question of why they did it and who benefited from it was also raised at the meeting, but not surprisingly, though DEP and contractor representatives were present, they did not participate in the discussion. What is clear is that we all need to continue our due diligence until the truth is definitively known.

Though not an official CFMC meeting, the gathering was a clear statement to Mayor Bloomberg’s DEP that a majority of the seven-member committee is fed up over the unexplained costs, debilitating and expensive construction delays, and ongoing DEP stonewalling and lack of transparency as indicated in the comptroller’s audit. It was made clear that at the next CFMC meeting, scheduled for Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the DEP office at 3660 Jerome Avenue, the comptroller’s report is going to be on the agenda and Mayor Bloomberg’s DEP is going to have to attempt to justify their actions and also change the opaque processes which contribute to the scandal on a daily basis.

Since its establishment by the City Council in 2004, the committee charged with monitoring this project was manipulated by the DEP, thereby hampering its work. However, in 2007 after my office reported that the DEP’s explanation rate for the cost escalation was not correct and that DEP’s stated justifications were invalid smoke screens, the committee finally stood up to then-Commissioner Emily Lloyd, and voted to ask for the audit. In a pathetic and obvious attempt to avoid inquiry, though the report was issued almost two months ago, the DEP has balked at scheduling meetings of the CFMC until after the mayoral election.


But Thursday’s history-making meeting proves that no matter how much the Mayor controls the Manhattan media, the people of the Bronx must continue to stand strong in the pursuit of truthful information from City Hall and diligence over the administration’s ongoing attempt to hide from scrutiny.

I applaud the work of the community members of the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee, and look forward to its next meeting on Thursday, November 5 so we can hear what the DEP has to say.

[Editor's note: It should be noted that the DEP says it cancelled the last two CFMC meetings at the request of CFMC members. The September meeting was cancelled after members found out that a presentation and discussion of the Comptroller's audit was not on the agenda, according to two committee members and the DEP. The October meeting was cancelled because at least one of the members could not attend the meeting, according to CFMC Chairman Greg Faulkner and the DEP. This note was changed and clarified from the original.]

Riverdale Pols Say Cookie Company Owes City

Local lawmakers are not letting the Bronx-based cookie factory, Stella D’oro go without a fight.

Congressman Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Oliver Koppell recently drafted a letter to the New York City Department of Finance, asking them stop the company’s move to Ohio until taxpayers money that was granted to them in the form of a tax abatement is returned.

The three politicians are also requesting the cookie business not be allowed to take plant machinery with them that they say was purchased and upgraded using taxpayer dollars.

“We feel very strongly that the New York City tax payers should not be outsourced to Ohio,” the three said in the letter.

Stella D'Oro was awarded tax abatements under the Industrial Commerical Abatement Program(ICAP).

Brynwood Partners, the Connecticut-based private equity firm that purchased Stella D’Oro from Kraft in 2006, announced earlier this month the sale of the pastry label to Lance Inc., prompting the relocation of production, including the machinery at the Bronx plant, to Ashland, Ohio. The move is set to take place in October.

The letter also references the end of 10 month-long employee strike that came to a close in July after the company was charged with unfair labor practices. Engel, Dinowitz, and Koppell believe the closing of the bakery may have been in retaliation, saying the workers' "sense of justice was short lived."

"We should not be sending our jobs and tax money to Ohio," said Engel. "Brynwood Partners made a coldy calculated that they wanted to break the Union," he added, "and when they lost a National Labor Relations Board decision, they decided to sell out. "

The lawmakers are demanding a temporary restraining order against the sale until the Department of Finance enacts "'claw back' procedures to recoup the tax abatements," that they say "have not been expended in a way beneficial to New York City."

They additionally requested that Lance Inc. be informed of their intentions.

Councilman Koppell hopes the city gets involved.

“It’s a longshot but we’re trying it," he said.

Bronx News Roundup, March 25

The Yankees are expanding their food options at their new stadium.

With the MTA expected today to approved huge fare hikes and massive service cuts to close their billion dollar budget gap, the Times says leaders in the State Senate have failed the region's 8 million transit riders. [More on the local angle on this story later, but Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. have expressed little desire to bend to the MTA's proposals of taxing bridges on the East and Harlem rivers even if it means fares could rise 23 percent and local services cut be drastically cut.]

More on the NYPD detective who was indicted yesterday on charges she lied to a grand jury about a Bronx drug bust in 2007. Surveillance video contradicted her statements, prosecutors said. More here.

St. Barnabas Hospital is fighting the efforts of its interns and residents to unionize.

The SUNY Charter School Committee put a high-performing Bronx charter school on probation for not meeting teacher certification standards. Trustees for the school are reluctant to take action becaus the school has been so successful. The fifth- through eighth-grade school outperformed other schools in its district in reading and math by 22 points and posted a much higher graduation rate.

Bronx News Roundup, March 18

Happy post-St. Patrick's Day everyone. Hope everyone made it home safely last night. Here's some links to get you back into the swing of things.

First, let's talk MTA, which is threatening huge fare hikes and massive service cuts as a way to bridge its yawning budget gap. 

The new Democratic Senate majority's short-term MTA bailout plan, which included a 4 percent fare increase for subways and commuter trains and a small payroll tax (25 cents for every $100) but not any tolls for the East and Harlem rivers (as the governor and Richard Ravitch have pushed for), was rejected by both the Gov. David Paterson and the head of the Senate Finance Committee. 

Paterson said the plan was short-sighted and more of a stop-gap measure than a solution. Local politicians, including Senator Pedro Espada and Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitiz say they're adamantly against the bridge tolls and want the MTA to open up its books before they implemet any drastic measures (like bridge tolls). Dinowitz called the tolls regressive (meaning they would hit the less wealthy harder) and said he felt like the MTA was trying to hold lawmakers hostage by threatening them with service cuts and fare hikes. 

The Post reports that a consultant for Paterson may be in line to take over the MTA when it gets organized in the near future, a fact that could be shaping some of his decisions.

Times columnist Jim Dwyer says State leaders are blowing it and don't have enough power to get things done. 

Police continue to investigate an incident in Riverdale where a woman was shot with an arrow. More here about how police are finding the case difficult to solve.

CBS News writes about an Irish dancing troupe in the Bronx. 

GOP leaders are upset that the Senate Dems, including Bronx Senator Jeff Klein, are giving staffers big salary hikes. More on this from NY1, which first reported raises.

Bronx News Roundup: Nov. 3

First of all, we hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween weekend. Secondly, we hope everyone of age is voting tomorrow. Now, on to the news.

On Halloween, violence hit the Boogie Down particularly hard. Two young men were killed in the Bronx that day. One of them, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast named Terrence Taylor, who his family called Abdul Toure (his African name) was shot in the head at a party in Highbridge.

Another, Alesio Vega, 22, was fatally shot inside a Morris Avenue home.

Last Thursday, Steven Armento, a friend of actor Lillo Brancato, a native Bronxite who starred in "A Bronx Tale" and played a bit role in the "Sopranos," was found guilty in the murder of off duty cop Daniel Enchautegui. Armento, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder after expressing little remorse for the killing, even bragging that it would make him "a king in jail," according to prosecutors.

Armento is actor Brancato's ex-girlfriend's father. The two broke into a Pelham Bay home to look for drugs after spending all night at a Yonkers strip club, when Enchautengui confronted them. A shootout ensued and Enchautegui got the worst of the exchange, taking a bullet to the heart. Click here to read more about the trial. Brancato is expected to face trial later this month.

Validus Preparatory Academy, a new high school in the south Bronx, has gotten political during this long presidential campaign, writing journals, staging debates and a mock election (Democratic candidate Barrack Obama won 88 percent of the votes).

Speaking of elections, Jeffrey Klapper is hanging on as a Conservative candidate in the 81st Assembly district where he faces powerful incumbent Jeffrey Dinowitz. According to the Gotham Gazette, Dinowitz is sitting on $171,067 in campaign contributions, while Klapper hasn't raised a dime.

Bayside High School beat Kennedy in the Bronx school's own girls volleyball tournament last weekend.

Dinowitz Praises Death of Congestion Pricing

Well, it appears the mayor's Congestion Pricing plan ran into a brick wall known as the New York State Assembly, despite all the love from Bronx council members. Here's more on Assembly Majority Leader Sheldon Silver's announcement that “The congestion pricing bill did not have anywhere near a majority of the Democratic conference, and will not be on the floor of the Assembly.”

Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the northwest Bronx, was quick to issue a release praising the Assembly's rejection of the plan as a “huge victory for the people of the Bronx and all of New York.”

Dinowitz listed an army of reasons why he didn't support the project, saying, “Aside from disagreeing with the basic concept of congestion pricing, there were many specific aspects of the plan that were unacceptable. It was unfair and outrageous to charge people from the city the $8 but let residents of New Jersey off the hook."

Bronx Leaders Discuss Filter Plant Problems Tonight

Tune in to Gary Axelbank's show BronxTalk PrimeTime (Bronxnet, Channel 67) at 9 p.m. tonight as Father Richard Gorman and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz discuss the latest incriminating revelations from the city's Croton Water Filtration Plant project in Van Cortlandt Park.

Last Thursday night, the city's Department of Investigation said it was still looking into whether organized crime figures influenced the siting of the project after an executive from one of the project's contractors was indicted along with more than 60 members of the Gambino crime family.

The show will then be re-broadcast throughout the week.

In the Norwood News

The latest issue of the Norwood News is on the streets now. Here's a rundown of the stories that you can find online.

After promising to build two new schools at the Kingsbridge Armory, the DOE is now saying there is no plan to build schools there because there is no need. Activists and elected officials disagree. Read more.

Since a shooting in early May injured four young men outside of Tracey Towers, community stakeholders (elected officials, community groups, tenant associations and residents) from two rival neighborhoods have been working to alleviate some of the underlying tensions. Read more.

Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz met with DEP chief Emily Lloyd hoping to get some answers pertaining to the massive cost overruns in the building of the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park. Read more.

To read more about the controversial filtration plant, click here.

Restaurant workers press Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera. Read more.

Pinnacle, a controversial and fast-growing ownership and management group, is being sued in federal court by a group of tenants. Read more.

Our next issue comes out August 23, but check here for more news posted daily.