New in the Mount Hope Monitor

The January edition of the Mount Hope Monitor is now online.

Stories include:

Tenants living in 1892 Morris Ave. have taken taken their nonprofit landlord, Mount Hope Housing Company, to court for neglecting the building and ignoring their maintenance requests.

In better news for Mount Hope, we heard today that the organization's beautiful but much delayed community center has moved a step closer to opening. According to staff, the Temporary Certificate of Occupancy has just come through, meaning it can be "legally occupied." Soon is the operative word.

A look at who's eyeing Council Member Helen Diane Foster's District 16 seat. (We tried - and failed - to get Foster on the phone to clarify whether or not she'll seek another four years in office. Her chief-of-staff, Jim Fairbanks, said "she hasn't told me" when asked about his boss' future plans.)

More on Middle School 399 and the DOE's decision to gradually shut it down. The 700-plus student school is housed in a majestic building on 184th Street, just three blocks from PS 79, another school that's being phased out. MS 399 will be replaced by two smaller middle schools that will occupy the same building.

February's Mount Hope Monitor is out

The February edition of the bilingual Mount Hope Monitor hit the streets today.

Stories include:

School's Closure Draws Protest
The DOE has decided to close PS 79, citing poor performance. On Feb. 1, parents and teachers came together to protest the decision in an early morning rally outside the school's gates.
"We're protesting the fact that we're being called a failing school," said teacher Leslie Collier. "The parents had no say in this. [Schools] Chancellor [Joel] Klein has shoved it down their throats."
The school, on 181st Street at Creston Avenue, recently received an "F" in the DOE's new scoring system. Collier said the grade was hugely unfair as "there are a lot of schools in the city of New York truly doing worse that us."

Bronx Pastor, Jessie Woodhouse, dead at 99
A look back at the life of Jessie Woodhouse, a popular Bronx pastor who died in January at the age of 99. Woodhouse founded the First Bible Church of the Lord's Mission, a non-dominational church on Bush Street near Burnside Avenue.

Drug Bust at Sedgwick Houses
On Jan. 9, six people were arrested following a lengthy investigation into drug dealing at Sedgwick Houses, a housing project just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway, near the Harlem River.
The investigation was a joint effort by the DEA and the NYPD. According to the indictment, uncover officers started buying crack cocaine at the project in April last year. At first, the buys were small, a bag here, a bag there, presumably to gain the dealers trust. Over time, they grow larger. In November, an officer bought 59 grams in a single sale. Because the accused are being charged federally, and because one of the buys involved more than 50 grams, they're looking (if convicted) at a minimum of 10 years each in a federal prison, without the possibility of parole.
Local residents say they're thrilled the building at the center of the investigation (140 W. 174th Street) has been cleaned up. But they worry someone will try and take the dealers' place. After all, the supply's been cut off, not the demand. Said one officer at the 46th Precinct: "This is prime drug dealing real estate."

Morris Avenue Resident Trades the Bronx for Baghdad
Pfc. William Perez, 29, of Morris Avenue, is four months into a 15-month deployment of Iraq. In January he was back in the Bronx on a two-week leave. First things first, he proposed to his girlfriend. Then he sat down with the Monitor to talk about his experiences in the Iraqi capital.

- Pick up the paper at local banks, schools, churches, and businesses. Or e-mail mounthopenews[at]gmail.com, and we'll send you a copy for free while supplies last. The new paper's not online as we're in the (very) early stages of building a new Web site.