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.

Bronx and the Census

Check your mailboxes; census forms arrive this week! If you’re wondering whether or not you should take time to answer the 10-question survey, city leaders and community groups are saying you should—there’s $400 billion on the line.

That’s the amount of federal funding given to state and local governments each year, and how much each area gets is based on population numbers gauged from the census. The city’s been stepping up efforts to get New Yorkers, especially in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, to mail in their forms for the most accurate counts. (Ken Small, director of BronxWorks, wrote an op-ed in this month’s Mount Hope Monitor on the importance of the census for the Bronx).

During the 2000 Census, 56% of Bronx residents responded, according to the Census Bureau. This was slightly more than the city overall (55%) but well below the national response rate of 67%.

Bronx News Roundup Jan. 22

Move over Queens, the Bronx is now the most diverse county in America, according to the U.S. Census. Says Newsweek: "Choose any two residents at random and there's an 89.7 percent chance that they'll be of different races or ethnicities." More here on the Bronx's changing demographics.

A Bronx man who posed as an immigration lawyer has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from unsuspecting clients who hired him to help them obtain visas.

Two Bronx women have been charged with prostitution offenses after police replied to an ad on Craigslist and set up a sting.

The movie Doubt, set in a Bronx catholic school in the 1960s (and filmed in part at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale), has been nominated for four Academy Awards.

Careless drivers make the Bronx an especially dangerous place for kids walking to and from school.

Borough President Adolfo Carrion has returned 20 contributions adding up to $47,450 , according to his latest filing. In recent months Carrion has been linked to four jobs: his current one (a possibility if nothing else works out); city comptroller (ditto); New York senator (now Caroline Kennedy's ruled herself out, his chances may have jumped a little); and, most talked about of all, a heavily rumored (but not yet confirmed) move to Washington to work with President Obama.

Riverdalians who attended Tuesday's inauguration tell of their experiences.