Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 28

Bummer: A Nor'easter is headed our way. 

Restaurant Week in the Boogiedown (Savor the Bronx) and its featured restaurants are all well and good, says Gothamist, but there are many under-noticed culinary gems in the borough that deserve your attention.

The Occupy Bronx protesters, who have been meeting at (but not really occupying) Fordham Plaza on Saturday have a famous borough-based corporate target in their sights: The New York Yankees.

A new push to step up enforcement of the pooper-scooper law in the Bronx, formally titled "Don't Be a Pooper-trator" was announced yesterday at the Bedford Park Senior Center by Bronx Borugh President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and the city's Sanitation commissioner, John Doherty. (Includes video)

We linked to the Times story yesterday about the brand new Poe Park Visitors' Center being padlocked indefinitely for lack of staffing. The Norwood News, on its Breaking Bronx blog, reports that a Parks Department spokesman told the paper in June that the Center would be open within a month.

A gritty but glorious effort to showcase a sculptural dome made mostly of umbrella spokes -- created by two artists and volunteers based at Rocking the Boat in Hunts Point -- in the waters off of Inwood ran ashore last Wednesday on, of all places, Rikers Island. For different takes on the story see the Hunts Point Expess, and Jim Dwyer's NYT column.

The Riverdale Press reports that the city won't built a pedestrian footbridge to connect parts of Van Cortlandt Park separated by the Major Deegan Expressway. The footbridge was embedded in the City Council's approval to site the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, a project whose cost has tripled to $3 billion.

Montefiore is tweeting its job openings @MontefioreJobs. Here's one. 

Stable stats aside, crime is getting more violent in Marble Hill.

Bronx News Roundup, July 26

Weather: Sunny and in the mid-80s today.

Story of the Day: Are Bronx Subway Stations the Ickiest?
A new report out of the MTA found that the Bronx's many subway stations are the dirtiest  in the city, plagued by garbage, leaks and rodents. MTA board member Charles Moerdler, who lives in Riverdale, told his fellow board members that some local stations were in such bad shape they could be condemned, a sentiment echoed by Borough President Diaz who says the Bronx is tired of waiting for much-needed station renovations.

Which made us want to ask you, our dear readers: what do you think is grimiest subway station in the Boogie Down? Where would you most like to see a makeover? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Bronx Health: Free Prostate Cancer Exams

Montefiore Medical Center will be offering free prostate cancer tests for all men 40 and over at the following times and locations:
Wednesday, June 22, 4 to 7 p.m.
Moses Division, Gold Zone, Ambulatory Oncology
111 East 210th Street

Thursday, June 23 4 to 7 p.m.
Montefiore Medical Park
1695 Eastchester Road, 1st Floor

Friday, June 24, 1 to 5 p.m.
1521 Jarret Place, 1st Floor

According to the latest statistics available from the Center for Disease Control, nearly 30,000 men in the United States died from prostate cancer in 2007.

For more information, contact Montefiore's Office of Community Relations, (718) 920-7744.

Bronx News Roundup, March 18

Hopefully you are reading this on a laptop or iPad/Phone in Van Cortlandt or Crotona or Soundview or Pelham Bay or Roberto Clemente or Williamsbridge Oval or any one of the Bronx's many parks. And if you're not, hopefully you'll get to one later today as temperatures will soar into the 70s! Less warm over the weekend, but it will still remain jarringly comfortable.  

To the news!

Story of the Day: Spotlight on Ex-Cop Husband of Dead Bronx Mom
Yesterday morning, Eddy Coello, a former NYPD housing cop, walked unprompted into the 45th Precinct with his lawyer to talk with police one day after the dead body of his wife, Tina Adovasio, was discovered in a wooded area in Westchester County. Medical examiners said Adovasio died from asphyxiation. Coello, who has a history of domestic violence, refused to give police a DNA sample and walked out of the precinct 24 minutes later. At this point, police are saying he is the only "person of interest" in this case. A former girlfriend told the Daily News Coello was volatile and prone to violent outbursts. As police continued to gather evidence from Coello's car and the Throgs Neck home he shared with Adovasio and her four children, Adovasio's lawyer told the Post the case was "plodding toward an inevitable conclusion."

Quick Hits:
Here's our story on the decision to close the Oak Point post office. 

The state revoked the license of Ophadell Williams, the driver of the Chinatown tour bus that crashed on I-95 in the Bronx, killing 15 passengers and leaving six others in critical condition. Transportation officials and state police are also clamping down on other tour bus drivers.

On "Match Day," some 200 medical students at the Bronx's Albert Einstein College of Medicine found out where they will be going to be resident physicians. Many are surprisingly choosing the lower-paying family medicine route. Students will disperse throughout the country, but one, who will stay in the Bronx at Montefiore Medical Center and pursue family medicine, said, “This country needs more primary care doctors. It’s the best way to deliver care, in terms of prevention, in terms of long-term follow-up, patient satisfaction, and reducing cost."

A new exhibition at the Lehman College art gallery is highlighting the resurgence of so-called "fiber arts" -- knitting, weaving, embroidery, that type of thing. 

Woodlawn Cemetery and the union representing its workers have reached a tentative agreement that would increase wages and lead to the cemetery cutting only 12 staffers, down from the original 23.

Bronx/Harlem State Senator Jose M. Serrano says he's much more excited about the new Puerto Rican and Latino caucus than he was last year, when it included Pedro Espada Jr. (ousted by voters, facing criminal charges) and Hiram Monserrate (ousted by the senate after being convicted of beating his girlfriend). The new caucus includes Bronx reps Serrano, Ruben Diaz Sr., Gustavo Rivera, Adriano Espaillat as well as Martin Milave Dilan (Brooklyn) and Jose Peralta (Queens).

Many Bronx tenants continue to benefit from oil donations given out by Citgo, the oil company controlled by Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government.

Check out all the planned work-related service changes on Bronx subway lines this weekend. Every line in the borough will be affected.

The Riverdale Press unmasks the "phantom painters" behind the giant shamrock painted every St. Patrick's Day on W. 238th Street and Review Place.

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 13

Two teenagers were shot, one fatally, inside a deli on Westchester and Wheeler Avenues in Bronx River early this morning. One victim, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene while another 19-year-old is in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center.

This spat of youth violence comes just days after another boy, 14-year-old Philip Johnson, was shot to death in Williamsbridge Monday night during a fight organized by two groups of feuding teenagers via text message.

More bad health news for the borough: the Bronx had the worst health stats almost across the board in 2009 compared to other parts of the city (with the exception of heart disease, which is most prevalent in Brooklyn).

So far, Sen. Jeff Klein and the three other Democrats who split from the party's conference last week have been denied spots on any Senate committees, though the Republicans can still dole out assignments to them and other Democrats (here's a list of committee assignments Democratic leader John Sampson released a few days ago).

Former NFL star and Giants player Lawrence Taylor is fighting charges that he paid a 16-year-old Bronx girl for sex. Taylor has rejected a plea deal, and could go to trial this month.

More controversy over plans to build a 911 call center on Pelham Parkway, which city Controller John Liu has called out for wasteful spending and the fact that the project is way over budget.

David Gonzalez takes a look at the work of Bronx-native photographer Martin Cohen, in a post for the Times' Lens Blog.

A Bronx man who was hired to shovel snow outside of a Department of Sanitation garage in Inwood fell through a metal sidewalk grate, suffering a head injury. Eric Pagan, 20, was in stable condition yesterday at Harlem Hospital.

Montefiore doctor Alexandra Bastien looks back on her trip to Haiti to help out after the earthquake. The one year anniversary of the disaster was yesterday.

Two people were injured during a fire that broke out yesterday in the basement of an apartment building in Claremont.

Computers that were stolen this summer during a burglary at PS 35 were replaced this month, after HPD and non-profit housing developer Blue Sea Development organized a computer drive for the school.

Bronx News Roundup, July 12

There were four shootings in the city on Sunday morning, two in the Bronx.

Seven months later, Glory of Christ Church in Parkchester has reopened after a satanic arsonist, who has yet to be apprehended, torched the place.

The NY Post reports that students at Monroe College are defaulting on their government-backed loans at an unusually high rate.

On BoogieDowner, a Norwood resident calls out people who have misused parking placards in Norwood and Bedord Park.

The family of Albert Hartzog, want the Bronx teenager suspected of murdering him, put to death.Apparently, the teen was upset that Hartzog, who lived the teen's mother, had canceled the cable TV.

Bob Shepphard, the Yankees' legendary public address announcer -- who Reggie Jackson called the "Voice of God" -- died on Sunday at the age of 99.

A doctor with the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine reflects on his program's success making sure HIV-infected mothers don't pass on the virus to their children.

[Note: thanks to intern Samantha Delgado-Perez for compiling these stories and links.]

Bronx News Roundup, June 30

Last roundup for June. It's been a long, crazy month. Or is that just me? In any case, the news:

18-year-old Erik Zeidler, a recent Bronx Science grad and Young Naturalist Award winner, is studying the turtles of the Bronx River this summer before heading off to college in Kansas. Had to include this quote from Zeidler about his affinity for turtles and other reptiles, courtesy of the NY Times:

“I don’t have many friends into this kind of stuff, and some of them think I’m strange, but I have a girlfriend and I used to wrestle in high school and I love hanging out and playing sports; it’s just that I enjoy being around reptiles.”

A couple of doctors from Montefiore Medical Center's Sleep-Wake Disorder Center answer questions about getting a good night's sleep.

Bronx 12-year-old Justus Williams, a budding chess master, is heading to Greece for an international chess tournament.

Here's some broadcast coverage of the groundbreaking ceremony at Heritage Field, which will sit on top of the old Yankee Stadium lot.

An interesting story about Benjy Melendez, the founder of the Ghetto Brothers Bronx street gang, who discovered Judaism.

Former St. Raymond's hoops star Omari Lawrence is transferring from St. John's to Kansas St.

The Daily News has the accusatory mailer assembly candidate Luis Sepulveda is sending out about his opponent and the incumbent, Peter Rivera, who Sepulveda says is misusing campaign funds.

Bronx News Roundup, June 23

The Obama image on a toolbox that landed a Tremont firehouse in hot water earlier this week has been removed, FDNY officials have said.

A farm in upstate Schoharie County is a new source of fresh produce for the South Bronx.

Two Bronx sites were granted landmark status yesterday. The Haffen Building, on Third Avenue in Melrose, and the Noonan Plaza, on West 168th Street in Highbridge, are now both preserved as city landmarks--meaning they can't be altered without the approval of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Speaking of landmarks: the city is considering making the Grand Concourse, between 153rd Street to 167th Streets, into a historic district. 

Mayor Bloomberg's tactic of breaking up large, failing schools into smaller ones seems to be working, according to one study. This AP article sites John F. Kennedy High School, which was broken into six smaller schools, as one success story.

A number of medical sites, including Montefiore, are giving free prostate cancer screening tests this week as part of an annual campaign sponsored by the Daily News. A full list of sites offering the tests can be found here.

Former Yankee player Johnny Damon says he misses the team's old stadium. 

State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., who represents many neighborhoods in the South Bronx, says fellow Senator Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn, threatened him on the Senate floor yesterday after Diaz voted against a bill.

Police are searching for a teenage mother and her infant son, who were last seen Monday on Boston Road.

Defense lawyer Murray Richman compared his client--City Councilman Larry Seabrook--to the Kennedy brothers in court yesterday, according to the New York Post. Seabrook is accused of funneling city money to groups that employed his relatives, which Richman compared to the nepotism of the Kennedys, who all worked in government.

On Tuesday afternoon, a 38-year-old man was killed in a propane explosion while he attempted to retrieve a broken barbeque grill from a shed in the Bronx on 2401 White Plains Road.

David Johnson, the former aide to Governor Paterson accused of assaulting a former girlfriend at her Bronx apartment, is refusing to answer questions from investigators by invoking his fifth amendment right.

Bronx News Roundup, March 24

Here's what's going down in the Boogie Down!

An autopsy reveals that Santiago Urena, the Bronx man who shot officer Robert Salerno on Monday, was killed by a police officer. Initially suicide was suspected as the cause of death.

Local residents are ready to have the Jerome Park Reservoir's fences removed but the city's not too sure about it.

Joshua Delarosa, the four-year-old who was left in critical condition after having a traffic pole fall on his head, is currently in stable condition at the New York Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Reconstruction on the 74-year-old Henry Hudson Bridge will come to an end this summer, reopening the walkway between Inwood and the Bronx.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has been awarded $1.22 million from the National Institutes of Health to help fight childhood obesity in the Bronx.

The NYPD has been towing its own unmarked cars.

The city's former chief cranes inspector, James Delayo, from the Bronx, took a two to six year prison sentence after admitting he sold answers to the crane operator license exam and also sold actual licenses. Some of the companies he helped with illegal licensing were involved with cranes that have killed people in the past.

Return your census forms!! Only two percent of Bronx residents have returned their census forms giving us the lowest percentage in the state.

News Roundup for August 6

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.

News Roundup for July 9

In the News...

Friday's NY Times checks in with the city's "noise police"--environmental agents and police officers enforcing the new noise code--and the Mr. Softee drivers they're confronting. We'llhave a story in this week's Norwood News about all this.

In a somewhat related story, Dalton Walker looks at an innovative program at Montefiore Medical Center, where they created a quiet floor to reduce patient stress.

Coverage of ESPN's "The Bronx is Burning" miniseries dominates the entertainment sections. The series is based on Jonathan Mahler's book that intertwines the stories of the Yankees, the Son of Sam murders, the hotly contested mayoral race and the massive blackout in the 1977. Here's Newsday's review. Appropriate that this comes out on a day that the Bronx is apparently suffering its second blackout of the summer. We just heard about this from the borough president's office, but we'll get more details on the blog soon.

City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson and education activists said the city's proposal to reduce class sizes by hiring an additional 1,300 teachers is insufficient, according to Metro New York.

And Liz Benjamin examines the heated debate over congestion pricing in the Daily Politics. The post includes a video sent by anti-congestion pricing lobbyists to all 212 state legislators about our overcrowded subways. The editorial in the current issue of the Norwood News makes a similar point.

Child Struck by Bus Near Mosholu Parkway

A 10-year-old on his way to school was struck by a bus at Jerome Avenue and East Mosholu Parkway South yesterday morning and remains in critical condition at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Eliseo Oller, 10, reportedly walked into the side of the articulated bus. Officials believe he may have been sleepwalking, according to local news reports.

Oller was headed to nearby P.S. 95, where he attends the fourth grade. Witness Jamilah Hakeen, 30, a security guard, recalled, "He wasn't moving or anything. He was just lying there, there was blood all over and the EMT's were performing C.P.R."

Moments after the accident, good samaritan James Adeola, 38, who works at the nutrition department of Montefiore Medical Center, sprang into action and removed his shirt to cover the young child in an attempt to stop the bleeding from a serious head wound. Oller reportedly has a fractured skull, a broken shoulder and broken ribs but is expected to recover.

(Photo by David Greene)