Bronx News Roundup, Tuesday, Aug. 2

Weather: After today's sizzler -- high of 92 expected -- Bronx air will cool back down into the low 80s tomorrow and should stay comfortably below 90 for the rest of the week.

Story of the Day: Bronx Kids Writing Around Town
This summer, the Bronx Council on the Arts is transporting Bronx youngsters to destinations outside of the Northern Borough for rich cultural experiences they otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to enjoy. Before, during and after they go to galleries, museums or places like the Anne Frank Center in SoHo, the kids write about what they've seen and experienced. The goal of the Bronx Write Bus, says program director Maria Romano, is two fold: keeping kids stimulated and off the street and, at the same time, exposing them to cool cultural places and ideas. Good story from former BxNN intern turned Times scribe Andrew Boryga. The program ends next week.

Quick Hits: 
Sad, bizarre crime story in the NY Post today about two clerks at the AutoZone on East 149th Street who chased after and caught a shoplifter yesterday. One of the AutoZone employees managed to wrestle the thief down and call police before the perpetrator turned the tables, for a minute anyway. Eventually, as onlookers told the employees to just let the guy go (why, they wondered, would they risk injury for a business they didn't even own?), the thief gave up the goods and departed before the cops arrived. Later, the Post found the alleged thief, who was sporting a shiner and other injuries. He said he was homeless and that "they didn't have to do that to me."

MTA Chief Resigns; Bronx's Vacca, Transit Chair, Responds

Big state-wide news is rippling through New York. MTA Chief Jay Walder resigned today to head an even larger international transportation company. Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca quickly sent out a statement saying a worthy replacement needs to be installed quickly as the MTA faces enormous challenges.

Vacca:

“This resignation comes at a crucial time. A year after the worst service cuts in the MTA’s history and yet another fare and toll increase, the most serious challenges for straphangers may still lie ahead. While Chairman Walder deserves credit for taking on many structural issues that previous MTA leaders had delayed for a tomorrow that never came, the MTA continues to face a $250 million operating gap and a capital budget that runs out January 1. It’s getting harder and harder to do more with less, and the MTA needs someone at the helm not only who understands the role mass transit plays in the lives of everyday New Yorkers but who is prepared to get to work on day one.”

Fox News' Glenn Beck Knocks Co-Op City

The Bronx took another hit on Cable TV this week when right-wing political pundit Glenn Beck compared  Co-Op City, the borough's massive housing cooperative development, to a socialist country.

Last week, Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., blasted the TV show "American Idol," for its negative depictions of the borough, after one contestant took camera crews on a tour of his former home on the Grand Concourse.

Glenn Beck, of course, is no stranger to controversy and stirring up anger. His hour-long show consists of him standing before a TV monitor and giant chalkboard, usually ranting against liberal politics.

In Tuesday's episode--the entirety of which is embedded above--Beck rails against the idea of social equality and uses Co-Op City as an example of  "a place where everyone’s life is interchangeable." His comments start at the 34-minute mark.

"Sounds like these beautiful complexes—this is in New York City," a sarcastic Beck says to the camera, as a photo of Co-Op City appears on the screen behind him. "Don’t you want to live there? Oh, man. That is so beautiful. That’s the great society for you, right there. And those are the lush ones."

Bronx officials and Co-Op City residents immediately fired back.

"How dare he?" Councilman Jimmy Vacca told the Daily News. "I'd like to know the last time Glenn Beck stepped into Co-Op City."

What do you think of Beck's remarks? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 7

In the '70s, when parts of the South Bronx were literally burning, one landlord took care to maintain a handful of buildings on Kelly Street. His "pluck" inspired Harry De Rienzo to organize the block and its residents into the Banana Kelly Community Improvement Organization. Fast forward some thirty-something years and several of these properties are in disrepair. De Rienzo (now Banana Kelly's executive director) is back on the block as he looks to turn their fortunes around. 

Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca is being credited with convincing the mayor to scrap plans to hike parking meter rates in the outer boroughs.  In a statement released yesterday, Vacca said: “Outer-borough motorists can breathe a big sigh of relief today, knowing that after years of an out-of-control parking ticket blitz and ever-increasing tolls and registration fees, for once the budget will not be balanced on their backs.”

Forty-eight percent of Bronx pregnancies are aborted, the highest rate in the city and more than twice the national average. More here. 

The police have questioned at least three people in connection with the murder of 70-year-old Bronx woman on Wednesday. Ethal Parish, a Crotona Avenue resident, was found stabbed to death. 

Two Lehman High School students were arrested yesterday following the stabbing of a 16-year-old boy outside PS 12 on Tratman Avenue on Wednesday.

A Long Island broker who defrauded an order of nuns has agreed to pay them $350,000 in damages.  The nuns are with the Sisters of Charity New York, located in Riverdale. 

A Bronx man has admitted shooting and injuring two women in Times Square last Easter.

A teenager wanted for allegedly shooting and killing a fellow teen in Soundview last month has been arrested in Florida. 

A teen toll collector pocketed more than $16,000 from truck drivers going over the Throgs Neck Bridge, the authorities say.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 21

Friends of a gay Bronx soldier who fought for the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and died serving in Iraq, visited his grave site on Saturday, shortly after the Senate voted to repeal the controversial policy.

Beleaguered State Sen. Pedro Espada and his son, Pedro G. Espada, could be hit with more indictments in the coming months, according to the Daily News' Bob Kappstatter in his weekly column.

A Bronx teenager has been charged with a felony hate crime. Police say Justin Tavarez, who's a student at Skidmore College in upstate New York, took offense when he saw a white man dining with a black man and smashed a plate over the white man's head.

The man accused of using an ice-pick to threaten and rob several women in the Bronx and Manhattan, carried out the muggings so he could buy Christmas presents for his family, his cousin says. 

Councilman Jimmy Vacca, chair of the Transportation committee, says too many cyclists don't obey traffic laws.

Every year, Bronx resident Milagros Guzman decorates a Christmas tree she calls the "Tree of Angels," to remember victims of homicide, including her own daughter, Jessica, who was murdered in 1990. 

More on the arrest of Nathaniel Linden, the man police suspect of robbing at least two Bronx churches.

Plans are in the works to clean up a contaminated lot by the Major Deegan Expressway at 135th Street, and build a 80-90 room hotel. 

Tenants of 1204 Shakespeare Ave. are being allowed to return home in time for the holidays.  Many of the apartments were evacuated earlier this month after the Department of Buildings found that the building's emergency exits were blocked. 

The legendary Morris Park Boxing Club reopened yesterday, a year after it was almost completely destroyed by a fire. 

Last Thursday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. appeared on NY1's "Inside City Hall."  Topics for discussion included the Kingsbridge Armory and the Muller Army Reserve Center. Here's the clip.

Yesterday, NYPD Detective Robert Salerno gave out Christmas presents at Lincoln Hospital, the same hospital where he was treated earlier this year after being shot in the line of duty.

Billy Wharton, a writer and activist who edits the Socialist WebZine, was on jury duty recently at the Bronx County Hall of Justice. During his lunch break, he sat in on a few trials and then wrote about his experience for the Examiner website.

Veterinarians at Yonkers' Animal Specialty Center are hoping to reunite an injured Rottweiler with its owner.  The dog was found on a Bronx street two weeks ago, bleeding and limping.

Ed. note: Start a discussion about any of these stories, or anything else you want to talk about, in our forum. Highlight problems in your neighborhood with our SeeClickFix feature. And find out what's happening in our constantly-updated events calendar.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 5

In the Daily News' there's an article (in print but not online) about the New York City Marathon, which is being held this Sunday. In the piece, Alec Diacou of the non-profit Yes The Bronx is quoted as saying the Bronx is "the best place to watch" the action. The runners (and some walkers, too, no doubt) will head over the Willis Avenue Bridge into Mott Haven before re-entering Manhattan by way of the 138th Street Bridge. The section is known as "The Wall," the Daily News reports, because it begins at mile 19, when many marathoners are beginning to flag. 

With all the applicants race organizers turn away, some are wondering if one annual New York City Marathon is enough.  Last year, the city considered - and then squashed - a proposal to bring a marathon to the Bronx.

The city Department of Education is withholding John F. Kennedy High School’s Progress Report, after questions were raised over its student discharge rate.  Other high schools' reports were released earlier this week. 

Since the new school year began, there have been 336 confirmed bedbug cases in public school buildings, compared to 135 in the same period last year.  Of the 336 cases, 39 were in the Bronx.   Brooklyn and Queens had the most. 

The driver of a tractor-trailer was knocked down and killed on the Cross Bronx Expressway yesterday afternoon.  According to police, the man exited his vehicle after it broke down and was struck by an SUV.

Two women were mowed down by hit-and-runs drivers in separate incidents yesterday evening, one in Throgs Neck, the other in Morrisania.  Both women were seriously injured.

A Bronx man has been sentenced to 15-years in prison for the attempted rapes of two women near Times Square. 

The Bronx woman married four men between 1985-94 as part of a cash-for-citizenship scam, the authorities say.  Sonia Estrada applied for another marriage license this past summer, but was denied after city officials became suspicious.

Michael Benjamin, the soon-to-be ex-assemblyman, is preparing for a congressional run in 2012, when he'll challenge Jose Serrano or Eliot Engel.   Benjamin, who's stepping down at the end of this year (Eric Steveson is replacing him), considered running against Serrano this fall, but eventually discarded the idea.  As we reported yesterday, Benjamin's also started blogging. 

State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is continuing to live up to his critics' charge that he's a Democrat in name-only.  If there's a 31-31 tie in the Senate, Diaz told the Observer yesterday that he would consider voting for a Republican as majority leader.  The State of Politics blog has more.  At least one person - Haile Rivera, a staffer of the soon-to-be former State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. - believes Diaz himself should get the job.  Diaz insists he's not interested. 

Councilman Jimmy Vacca is sponsoring a bill that would require property owners to pay outstanding fines owed to the city, before they could be awarded building permits.

Bronx News Roundup, Oct, 27

Yesterday, charges were dropped for three of the 11 suspects arrested in connection with the anti-gay attacks in Morris Heights. The Bronx District Attorney’s office told the judge there was not enough evidence to move forward in the case. In response to Tuesday's court proceedings, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released a statement criticizing the decision, saying: "To prematurely release individuals accused of such horrific crimes does not demonstrate a willingness to use every available tool to make sure justice is served. I urge DA Johnson to aggressively prosecute the remaining suspects, and to add the additional charge of hate crime to all suspects, including the one that was charged today."

The Bronx Museum of the Arts is going worldwide. The State Department announced yesterday it has selected the Bronx Museum to oversee amART power, a new exchange program for visual artists. The $1 million program will ship artists across America to 15 countries, including China, Ecuador, Kenya and Nepal.

The head of the City Council’s Transportation Committee wants to help ease E-ZPass bills for New Yorkers. East Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca said drivers should be allowed to pay their E-ZPass bills weekly instead of monthly and at local check-cashing shops. He also wants residents who don’t have a credit card or checking account - to typical manner through which E-ZPass bills are paid – to be permitted to pay their bill at a check cashing shop.Councilman Vacca plans to pitch his proposal at today’s MTA meeting.

For more information on the firing of Board of Elections chief George Gonzalez, here is a video from NY1.

The MTA Board approved the increase of toll fares. On the major crossings, the board is expected to raise tolls for E-ZPass users to $4.80. The one-way toll on the Verrazano Narrows will cost $9.60. On the minor crossings, like the Marine Parkway and Cross Bay Bridges, E-ZPass users will pay $1.80. The toll on the Henry Hudson Bridge will rise to $2.20. Those who pay cash will be hit even harder. Cash tolls on all major crossings will go up to $6.50, except for the Verrazano, where the price will rise to $13. Drivers on the smaller bridges will pay $3.25. The Henry Hudson will cost $4 for those paying cash. The toll and fare hikes are slated to take effect on Dec. 30.

Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 31

With the Bronx continuing to head many "worst of" lists, Crain's wonders who will save it.

A NY Post reporter kayaks the Bronx River, and likes what she sees.

The Bronx is home to a growing number of DVD and video stores specilizing in Nigerian-made movies. The film industry there is called "Nollywood."

Councilman Jimmy Vacca is supporting a bill which would force the city to address the rising raccoon population in the outer boroughs.

In his weekly column, the Daily News' columnist Bob Kappstatter calls out Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera for skipping a televised debate. We wonder what annoys Rivera more - the criticism of her record or being called "Snooki." Kappstatter also suggests Assemblyman Carl Heastie, the Bronx Democratic party boss, is loath to endorse Gustavo Rivera in his race against State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., in case Espada retaliates by supporting Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who faces a primary opponent in Heastie-backed Hector Ramirez.

Fight Back New York, a pro-gay marriage group, has been digging up dirt on State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. 

Dan Doctoroff, the former deputy mayor and development czar, played a key role in getting several massive construction projects off the ground, including the new Yankee Stadium and Bronx Terminal Market. City Limits looks back at his legacy.

Local residents and shoppers will be able to purchase special "parking memberships" when the Botanical Garden's new 825-spot parking garage opens in 2012.

One of the men on trial for allegedly trying to blow up two Riverdale synagogues last year, ranted about his hatred for Jews in secretly-recording conversations played in court yesterday.

Fordham Prep's talented soccer team has high hopes for a strong season.

Bronx Congressmen Jose Serrano and Eliot Engel, and several of their colleagues, are currently receiving hefty taxpayer-funded pensions on top of their six-figure salaries.

From last week's Village Voice: a police officer from the 41st Precinct in the Hunts Point secretly recorded his superiors demanding that he meet a quota of arrests and summonses, something the NYPD has always denies it does. These same superiors also ordered officers to downgrade crime complaints, he claims. The revelations come on the back of a four-part series in the Voice concerning a precinct in Brooklyn and another disillusioned cop with a hidden tape recorder.

Bronx News Roundup, May 4

Adolfo Carrion, the former Bronx BP who moved to Washington last year to take a job as Obama's urban czar, is returning to New York to work as a regional director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  The move, which is considered a step down, has some observers scratching their heads.

Last year, jurors on felony cases in the Bronx found defendants guilty 43 percent of the time. In the rest of the city, this figure is above 70 percent.  There are a number of theories as to why this might be. 

Police have released photos of a suspect wanted in connection with the shooting of a man in Mott Haven.

A Bronx woman won the Long Island Marathon on Sunday. Lilia Britez, a 28-year-old who grew up in Paraguay, has only been running seriously for two years.

NY1 recently toured the water filtration plant that's being built in Van Cortlandt Park.  Alex Kratz of the Norwood News went on a similar tour last month. 

A Q & A with State Senator Eric Schneiderman, who's hoping to become New York's next attorney general.

Councilman Jimmy Vacca sat down with Streetsblog recently for a conversation about public transport and safer streets. (Vacca is the new chair of the council's transportation committee.)

Westchester Square merchants says traffic agents are taking up precious parking spots in the neighborhood.

A Bronx firehouse celebrated its 100th anniversary on Monday. 

Convicted thief Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, the grandson and chief-of-staff of Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, has been mocking an adversary on Facebook for being disabled.  Arroyo (the grandson, not the assemblywomen) recently pled guilty to stealing $200,000 from a non-profit.  His sentencing is scheduled for June. 

Vacca, New Transportation Chair, Rails Against MTA Cuts

When City Council committee assignment were doled out this week, east Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca (right) was named chairman of the Transportation Committee. In a statement released today, Vacca says addressing the MTA's mountain of proposed cuts and changes will be "in his immediate line of fire."

For the past several weeks, perhaps anticipating his ascension to transportation chairman, Vacca has railed against the cuts of subway and bus lines as well as the Gov. Paterson's underwhelming support for student Metrocards.

“There is no doubt that we face storm clouds ahead. The specter of the MTA eliminating numerous bus and subway lines as well as student MetroCards means I won’t have much time in the bullpen. But I relish the challenge and have already begun my fight. Last month, Speaker Quinn and I laid out a specific, fully-funded plan to ward off this year’s cuts, a plan that many MTA board members supported in whole or in part at their last meeting. I am today renewing my call for the MTA to consider every option before resorting to cuts that could not come at a worse time for cash-strapped New Yorkers.”

Last week, there were reports that the BX34, which connects Fordham to Woodlawn, and overnight service for the BX10, which connects the rest of the Bronx to Riverdale, would be saved.

But the MTA would not confirm anything and the final proposal is still being worked out. Whenever that happens, the MTA will hold hearings in all the boroughs.

We'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 5

The NY Post has more on State Sen. Pedro Espada's suspect parking habits, which BoogieDowner revealed yesterday. 

Councilman Jimmy Vacca could be in line for a powerful committee spot.

Montefiore Medical Center and Aetna, a health insurer, have reached an 11th hour contract deal, averting a crisis that would have affected thousands of patients.

Several Bronx buses, including the Bx4 and the Bx34, could be eliminated, as the MTA looks for ways to close its budget gap.

Well-known Bronxites share their New Year's resolutions.

With Negotiations Moving, Bronx Delegation Looks to Postpone Armory Vote; Onus Now on Related

Reporting here from Kingsbridge Armory Central.

As Jordan mentioned in our previous post, negotiations for an unprecedented community benefits agreement (with a guarantee of living wage jobs, $10 an hour plus benefits) as part of the Kingsbridge Armory shopping mall project are about as fluid as the Bronx River at this point.

But this is what we know as of 6:08 p.m. on Tuesday, with a vote on the project scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

The Bronx Council delegation met with Related representatives (the Armory's designated developer) and Deputy Mayor (for economic development) Robert Lieber on Friday. Related/Lieber laid out a proposal they were comfortable with. But the proposal didn't "mandate or guarantee living wage. Not something the delegation was interested in," said Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera in a text message over the weekend.

Yesterday, at a meeting with Related/Lieber at 12:30 p.m., the delegation responded with a deal that would effectively subsidize living wage jobs at the Armory shopping mall without forcing retail tenants to pay the full wage themselves. These were the main points outlined in the deal:

• language in leases mandating participation in providing living wage to all employees (for all retail tenants).
• The City will subsidize the living wage via a funding pot; the full purchase price of the Armory ($5 million) will be the initial funding for the pot.
• And increase of community space from 27,000 sq. feet to 45,000 sq. feet, which would help fund the living wage pot over time.
• 5% of Related's rent profits fromt eh Armory mall to be contributed to living wage funding pot.
  

Now, according to one council staffer at the meeting, Lieber said any mandate that tenants would have to pay a living wage would be a non-starter, which has been the consistent position of Related and the Bloomberg administration since the beginning.

However, the staffer said Rivera told Lieber that the delegation's proposal was not simply a mandate. It would, in essence, be a nonprofit fund created to subsidize wages at the Armory. This would eat into Related's profit, but not the bottom line of retail tenants.

This is where it gets interesting. Related lawyer and lead negotiator Jesse Masyr has made it clear that Related's stance against a living wage mandate wasn't about Related's profit margin, it was about not being able to attract tenants to fill the building.

Masyr has said all along that he couldn't put requirements and/or restrictions on tenants when they could easily set up shop somewhere else (across the street, Westchester County, etc.) in a situation where they wouldn't have to deal with those requirements. And if Related couldn't attract tenants, Mayr reasoned, they couldn't secure a loan for the $300-plus million they would need to build out the shopping mall.

The delegation's plan appears to have rendered Related's argument moot. The burden would be on the city (to give up the $5 million for the sale of the Armory) and Related (to give up additional space and a percentage of rent profits), not retail tenants.

Based on the progress made yesterday, delegation members were looking to postpone the scheduled vote on the Armory to allow for more negotiations. Perhaps until Monday, the deadline for a decision on the Armory project by the Council. Another option, that Rivera has posited recently, would be to modify the proposal and send it back to City Planning, which would push the vote back even further, to Dec. 21.

Today, Related came back with a counter-proposal, though delegation members are keeping quiet about what that contained. Delegation staffers would only say that negotiations were "ongoing."

There's no word as of yet on whether the vote's being pushed back or if a deal has been struck. As Bret Collazzi, a spokesman for Bronx Council member Jimmy Vacca, put it to me in an e-mail, "this may go to the wire."

One other note: The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) is treating tomorrow as if the vote will happen and is continuing to urge the Council to vote down the proposal if it doesn't contain a strong CBA that includes living wage job guarantees, among other benefits.

To fortify this effort, they've also undertaken a massive letter writing campaign (incorporating the supportive letters of clergy from throughout the city) outlining their stance on living wage.

They'll also be at City Hall tomorrow, with a press conference featuring Stuart Appelbaum of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU, KARA's biggest ally) scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

A Reporter's Smorgasbord ... BronxTalk Celebrates 15 Years

Gary Axelbank and producer Jane Folloro celebrated 15 years of BronxTalk last night.
(Photo courtesy BronxTalk)

The 15th anniversary celebration of BronxTalk, Gary Axelbank's talk show on BRONXNET, last night was reporter heaven -- one-stop shopping for political interviews. Everyone was there.

Here are just a few items gleaned from the evening ...

Asked about the prospects for health reform, Congressman Eliot Engel said a law would pass Congress. "If we don't pass it, we're going to lose our majority," he told me. And what about the public option? There would be an "emaciated public option," he predicted.

I snagged the Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz, Jr., for a moment and he said he thinks he'll have more votes on the City Planning Commission to back him on his "no" vote on the armory project than just that of his own representative, Kenneth Knuckles. "I don't think I'm going to be the only 'no' vote," he said. Diaz recommended a "no" vote to City Planning because the Related Companies has yet to sit down to hammer out a community benefits agreement. The Commission votes on Oct. 19 and then the City Council, which really has the most say in the matter, has 20 days to decide on the project.

Councilman Jimmy Vacca, who we don't get to see very often because he hails from way over in the east Bronx (I know, we need to get over there more), told us that, despite his well-chronicled bird-dogging of the Buildings Department, he was genuinely shocked by recent revelations of alleged mob infiltration of the agency. He also told us that the Bronx News Network is part of his daily media diet. Nice.

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and Councilman Jimmy Vacca
shared in the festivities in the BronxTalk studio at Lehman College. (Photo by Jordan Moss)

Fernando Cabrera was in attendance, occupying that post-primary-win, pre-general-election netherworld that Bronx Democrats, while certain of ultimate victory, are consigned to for the next five weeks nonetheless.

Cabrera asked Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan if he could recommend a good book on borough history and Ultan laughed and said that his new book, "The Northern Borough: A History of the Bronx" is just the ticket. I'd also recommend South Bronx Rising, by Jill Jonnes, an updated version of her wonderful book, "We're Still Here," chronicling the borough's rise, fall and rise.

In between interviews with those who have appeared on the show, BronxTalk aired choice clips from the last 15 years. By far the best bite was from Pedro Espada in a debate with Adolfo Carrion when they were both running for Bronx borough president ih 2000. Carrion had just been released from prison for protesting the Navy's ongoing practice bombing of the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. "Do the job that you were elected to do," Espada chastised Carrion. "And advocate if you must and protest if you must. But do it within the confines of the law."

Congratulations to Gary Axelbank and his producer, Jane Folloro, are in order of course and I'll post a Norwood News editorial and photos paying tribute in a couple of days.