Village Voice Echoes BxNN Call for NYPD Release of Crime Stats

Here's Voice's coverage of our push to get  NYPD to release neighborhood crime stats. Thanks to reporter Graham Rayman for thinking it important enough to amplify.

Bronx News Roundup, June 22

Weather: In the high 70s today, and thunderstorms likely this evening.

Story of the Day: Future of the Muller Center To Be Debated Tonight
A hearing is scheduled tonight to get public input on the fate of the Muller Army Reserve Center, a 55,000-square-foot former military base in Wakefield that the Bloomberg administration wants to turn into a homeless shelter.

Gustavo Rivera Interviewed on Capital Tonight, Featured in Village Voice

Last night, state Senator-elect Gustavo Rivera was interviewed on Capital Tonight, a political show hosted by Elizabeth Benjamin. Rivera, who's been up in Albany attending orientation sessions for new legislators, talks about defeating Pedro Espada, Jr. in September's primary, and the future of the state Senate.  It's still unclear whether the Democrats or the Republicans will have the majority come the new year.

Talking of Rivera, he's featured in the Village Voice's annual Thanksgiving Honor Roll Call which recognizes those who have bought dignity and fairness to the city. Writes Tom Robbins: "Gustavo Rivera provided one of the few hopeful notes in a gloomy political season, thanks to his gutsy decision to take on a statewide embarrassment, Bronx State Senator Pedro Espada."

Thanks to the BxNN reader who sent us the first link, and Riverdale Ramblings for alerting us to the second.

Bronx News Roundup, April 1

Spring is back! Enjoy the day and some Bronx news:

Tenants of 2710 Bainbridge Ave. plan to file a lawsuit against  landlord Frank Palazzolo in housing court tomorrow in effort to get the building into better hands. Palazzolo was rated as one of the "10 Worst Landlords" by the Village Voice.  (If the name sounds familiar to readers of the Norwood News, it's because of our 2002 coverage here, here and here. Also we have a reporter at a rally in front of the building right now.)

The city's decision to use federal stimulus money to build a parking garage at St. Barnabas Hospital may remove more than the problem of an overcrowded parking lot. A doctor's union has filed a lawsuit against the city claiming that the project would do the opposite of what the stimulus money is meant to do and will eliminate permanent jobs instead of creating them. The Tremont Tribune published a story about the parking garage in February.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. cheers on Bronx residents to complete census forms so that the Boogie-Down can be tops in Census form returns.

The Jewish Association of Services for the Aging received $10,000 in federal funding from Rep. Joseph Crowley toward the Grandparents Connection Program in Co-Op City.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and other local Community Board officials are holding a rally on Monday to protest Mayor Bloomberg's proposed 2011 budget cuts that they say will greatly affect community boards and the services they provide.

Political parties are preparing for a showdown in the selection of the next executive director of the city's Board of Elections.

Community leaders , firefighters and City Island residents rallied again yesterday against the closing of Ladder 53 and other firehouses throughout the city. According to Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts for the 2011 fiscal year, nearly 20 firehouses would be shut down.

A look into why "Morrisania Air Rights" housing project on Park Avenue, was given such an unusual name.

BxNN Featured (Again) In Village Voice

From Village Voice Cover: "I Blog NY"

Once again the Village Voice has recognized Bronx News Network -- this time in a cover story about NYC blogs. (They also rated Norwood News "Best Little Newspaper that Beats the Odds," back in October.)

This is a testament to everyone who makes the blog what it is -- Alex Kratz, James Fergusson, all of our interns, and terrific guest bloggers like Adi Talwar, Gregory Lobo-Jost and Nick Napolitano. Bernard Stein, our colleague at the Hunts Point Express and Mott Haven Herald is also a valued contributor. And everyone who comments and links to us also helps make this blog what it is.

The piece on BxNN is on p. 4 of the artice linked above. But the whole thing is a great read, and our thanks to Voice blogger/reporter Roy Edroso for the great coverage.

Village Voice 'Best Of' Awards Honor Norwood News

We just heard (thank you, Boogiedowners) that the Norwood News was featured in the "Best Of..." Awards in the Village Voice in this week's issue. They call it the "Best Little Newspaper that Beats the Odds."

We're obviously very excited about this this recognition and and we thank the Voice for the honor.

The Norwood News, a nonprofit bi-weekly newspaper founded by Mosholu Preservation Corporation (an affilate of Montefiore Medical Center) in 1988 couldn't exist without its readers, its advertisers, and the many, many people who make publishing it possible -- all the staff here at MPC, our talented team of reporting interns, and a bevy of free-lancers who sell advertising, take photos and write stories, proofread, and deliver the paper. Of course, Alex Kratz, the paper's managing editor, who's responsible for most of the day-to-day management of the paper, deserves special credit.

The Norwood News is one of the oldest -- if not the oldest -- nonprofit community papers in the country. There are now six nonprofit papers in the Bronx! In addition to the Norwood News and the two others published by the Bronx News Network -- the Mount Hope Monitor and the Tremont Tribune -- Bernard Stein, the former editor of the Riverdale Press, publishes the Hunts Point Express and the Mott Haven Herald with his Hunter and CUNY J-School students.

(One minor correction to the Voice write-up. The Bronx News Network does not publish the Highbridge Horizon, which was published until this past summer by Highbridge Community Life Center. Sadly, they ran out of funding and had to suspend publication. We're trying -- along with Buddy Stein -- to find a way to revive it.)

Again, thanks to the Voice, and we are grateful to all of you who read, write, comment and support the newspaper in various ways. A good community newspaper requires an engaged community, and, as we say at the top of this blog, '...Every neighborhood needs a voice!' Without your voice there'd be no Norwood News and no Bronx News Network. So keep raising it!

-Jordan Moss

p.s. I'd be remiss in my duties as editor of Norwood News and executive editor of Bronx News Network if I didn't use this opportunity to mention that, to continue publishing solid community newspapers in communities that don't have them, we need your support. Just click on the donate button at the top right hand side of the blog. We'll be grateful for any contribution you can afford.

Most Bronx Residents Struggle to Pay for Groceries

The Food Bank for NYC's most recent survey shows that half the City's residents have difficulty affording groceries.

...the number of city residents experiencing difficulty affording needed food has surged over the past five years — doubling from approximately 2 million to approximately 4 million from 2003 to 2008, representing almost half of all city residents (48 percent). The number having difficulty increased by almost 1 million (26 percent) within the past year alone, the highest increase in the history of the poll. Findings also show that 3.5 million city residents are concerned about needing food assistance (food from soup kitchens, food pantries and/or food stamps) during the next year, including 2.1 million (59 percent) who have never accessed food assistance in the past.

Check out the Norwood News's coverage of the report here. The New York Observer also covered these findings, pointing out that "only 34 percent of Manhattan residents said they needed assistance, while 55 percent of Bronx residents said they did," once again putting us #1 in the City. Much of this is likely due to the fact that it's typical for west Bronx residents to pay half of their income on rent. As the costs of housing and food have risen much faster than wages, more and more households are struggling. The report documents how 54% of Bronx residents had difficulty affording food this year, "up from 37 percent in 2003 (a 46 percent increase) and up from 50% in 2007."

Also related to food: The Voice's Robert Sietsema made the trip up to the area to check out World of Taste Vietnamese restaurant on Jerome Ave just below Kingsbridge Rd. The review:

...no place can match the excellent Vietnamese food I've been eating lately at an unexpected location—Jerome Avenue in the Fordham section of the Bronx.

He also profiles two local Cambodian markets in the piece. World of Taste also received a strong review from Jennifer Mitchell in the September 4 edition of the Norwood News.

(If you notice one other trend here -- citywide papers get a lot of their story ideas from neighborhood press like the Norwood News!)

The Bronx Honors... Washington Heights resident Dr. Ruth

The Village Voice has a funny piece on sex therapist Dr. Ruth's induction, this week, into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

Bronx News Roundup for Dec. 10

Brilliant, bold, visionary - some of the adjectives to have been thrown Dan Doctoroff's way since it was announced last week that the deputy mayor is leaving the Bloomberg administration to head up Bloomberg L.P., his boss' gigantic media company. But, as John Desio reports in The Village Voice, not everyone holds Doctoroff in high regard. “I think that Dan Doctoroff is worse than Robert Moses,” Lukas Herbert of Save Our Parks told The Voice, a reference to Doctoroff's support of the new Yankee Stadium project which has swallowed parkland in the South Bronx.

A 26-year-old man was shot dead in Bedford Park on Saturday night.

A construction worker was killed, Friday, following an accident at a construction site in Tremont. (According to The Times story, the man's name wasn't immediately released because the authorities had yet to contact his relatives. The Times, having coaxed the name from the construction company's president, goes ahead and prints it anyway. Perhaps this is standard practice, but it's also a tad unethical, isn't it?)

Twenty-six people were injured in a fire in a Bronxdale apartment building, Sunday night. The blaze was started by sparking Christmas lights.

A Bronx firefighter, seriously injured in a fall in Highbridge on Nov. 18, has left hospital. More on the fire and fall here.

A Highbridge woman struggles to pay her rent.