Bronx BP Asks Feds to Intervene in Muller Center Dispute; Yonkers Mayor Asks Bloomberg to Reconsider Shelter Plan

In a letter to federal authorities, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. said the mayor's office blatantly skirted the formal process meant to determine a new use for the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield in order to push its own agenda -- the creation of a 200-bed men's homeless shelter at the center.

Because of this, and what Diaz characterized as a complete disregard of public sentiment, Diaz asked the two agencies responsible for approving a plan for the Muller Center -- the United State Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEM)-- to reject the shelter plan submitted by the mayor's office. He also asked them to "convene a meeting amongst the parties to determine how, if possible, a conforming submission could still be provided."

If this doesn't happen, Diaz says, "I will have no choice but to pursue legal action."

Meanwhile, Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone sent a letter to Bloomberg urging his administration to reconsider its "seriously flawed" shelter plan because of the negative impact it would have on Yonkers, which shares a border-line with Wakefield that lies just 250 feet from the Muller Center.

Bronx News Roundup, Tuesday, July 12

Speed roundup today, folks.

Weather: Brutal today in the Bronx and most of the rest of the country. Stay inside and drink lots of water. High in the upper 90s with extreme humidity.

Quick Hits:
Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. continues to enjoy support from staunch opponents of legal gay marriage, including the Unification Church (aka the Moonies) and a notorious anti-gay state representative from Oklahoma.

Two Bronx cops from the 46th Precinct were arrested on Monday for allegedly beating a man who apparently was heckling the officers after being arrested in February.

Despite Outcry, City Moves Ahead With Wakefield Homeless Shelter Plan

It looks like the Muller Army Reserve Center, a former military base in Wakefield that community leaders want to house the Kingsbridge Armory Annex's National Guard so that the Kingsbridge Armory Annex can house a school (confusing, right?), is set to become a homeless shelter--the plan that Mayor Bloomberg's administration has long been pushing.

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who vehemently opposes the idea of another homeless shelter at the Nereid Avenue site, sent out a press release earlier this week saying the Mayor's office "is claiming that a vote was held in November 2010, despite having hosted a public hearing on June 22, 2011, to solicit public input on the reuse of the facility in advance of a vote."

Bronx Homeless Advocates Hope to Reveal Extent of Vacant Property in the City

Last month, the Norwood News featured an article about the unique learning center for homeless advocacy called Picture the Homeless (PTH) over on Morris Avenue. The article explored the story of one PTH member Arvernetta Henry and told of her struggle to hold her job as a teacher in the Bronx while being housed in a homeless shelter in Queens. Eventually, because of her long commute, she could no longer keep her job. Henry, like other homeless New Yorkers, remains frustrated with her situation and points to the city's numerous vacant buildings as a possible solution to the problem of homelessness.

This month, PTH and Hunter College’s Center for Community Planning and Development (HCCCPD) are teaming up for the first-ever count of vacant buildings and lots throughout the five boroughs.The survey aims to reveal the extent of vacant property in the city. 

“There should be no reason why there are so many homeless people in New York City when there are so many homes without people!” PTH member Alease Low says.

Picture the Homeless Challenges Perceptions of Marginalized

In March, Picture The Homeless members Arvernetta Henry (far right) and Jeremy Saunders (second from right) were among protesters at a rally at the Albany Capitol Building. (Photo by Sam J. Miller) 

By RACHEL SANDER

Adjusting the yellow bow in her thick gray locks of hair, Arvenetta Henry clasped her hands under her chin. “Everyone calls me Miss Henry,” she said with a smile, “because I am a teacher.”

Henry, who wouldn’t give her exact age, but admits she is over 50, spent most of her adult life as a Bronx teacher. She is no longer in the traditional classroom setting, but through a nonprofit homeless advocacy organization operated by the very homeless population it serves, Henry continues to teach.

“When I was teaching in the 1980s, I didn’t know what transitional housing meant when my students told me about it,” she said. “Now that term has a whole new concept.”

Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Monday, May 2

Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentlemen of the Bronx and beyond. Lots of news to get to, so let's get to it. To the weather!

Weather: Cloudy and cool this morning, high in the mid-60s, with rain expected overnight and tomorrow morning.

Story of the Day: Bronx Homeless Intake Center Opens
Tomorrow, the city is set to open a new, $65.5 million homeless intake center in Melrose, on East 151st Street in the South Bronx. The new center replaces a former one on the same site, which was shuttered five years ago and criticized for being dirty, dangerous and inadequately staffed. Officials from the Department of Homeless Services say that at the old center, a family could wait up to 20 hours to be processed, while the new site predicts wait times of about 6  hours.

New studies show that homelessness in the city is on the rise, and that last year, 16 percent more families were turned away from the city's shelters than the year before.

Quick Hits:

Members of St. Stephen United Methodist Church, one of four Bronx parishes that was burglarized in recent months, say they're willing to forgive whoever is responsible for the crimes.

Some 32,000 cyclists rode through the streets of the Bronx yesterday, one leg of the annual Five Boro Bike Tour.

An 11-year-old Bronx girl, who was abducted from her home seven months ago and forced to have sex with her captors while being held in an apartment on the Lower East Side, tells her heartbreaking story to the Daily News.

Dramatists are taking their purchase of two Co-Op City storage lockers -- bought at auction after their owners missed monthly payments to keep the space -- to the stage of a Chelsea theater.

New Yorkers keep a bevy of weird--and illegal--animals as pets, according to according to Health Department records obtained by the New York Post. Found in the Bronx:  A large Colombian red tail boa constrictor, two ball pythons, a 2-foot-long Australian children’s python, and 11 crowing roosters.

Soccer club South Bronx United has formed the first-ever traveling girls' soccer team to represent the Bronx.

After a string of Bronx bodega robberies, the Bodega Association of the United States is urging deli owners to keep guns on hand for protection.

Bronx prosecutor Jennifer Troiano, who was arrested last summer on a DWI charge after getting into a three-car accident on the Major Deegan Expressway, may have skirted a similar arrest years earlier. 

--Compiled by Jeanmarie Evelly