Weather: Clear and sunny today in the low 80s. It could get a little overcast later this afternoon, but there's no real rain in the forecast until this weekend.
We missed yesterday's news roundup--let's just blame the hurricane--but we're back to our regularly scheduled blogging. Here are some Bronx news headlines from yesterday and this morning.
Crotona Park resident Jose Sierra, 68, is among the 40 or so victims who died during this weekend's storm. A Puerto Rican native and father of 13, Sierra was an avid fisherman who went out to check on his boat at a City Island marina on Sunday morning. His body was found that afternoon in the waters nearby.
Former State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr., and his son are defending themselves against charges of fraud and money laundering by blaming their accountants. The Espadas' defense lawyer, the Daily News reports, is claiming the men assumed their use of taxpayer funds from the Soundview Health Clinics they controlled--to pay for things like sushi restaurant tabs and birthday party pony rides--were legal because the expenses were approved by an accounting firm.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Bronx News Roundup, Aug. 31
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Bronx News Roundup, Tuesday, Aug. 9
Weather: Sunny, with a high in the mid-80s until later this afternoon, when rain and thunderstorms became increasingly likely. There's an even higher chance for rain tonight. Should be hotter, less chance of rain, tomorrow.
Story of the Day: Report: City Knew of Bronx New School Contamination 6 Months Ago
According to a Daily News story out today, a contractor performing tests at the Bronx New School's cafeteria found high levels of trichlorethylene (otherwise known as TCE) contamination as early as January. In March, underneath the school's basement floorboard, the contractor discovered TCE contamination levels that were 10,000 times higher than what the state deems safe. Exposure to TCE has been linked to cancer and it can cause severed kidney and liver problems. The Department of Education says they didn't have the contractor's full report until the end of June. But even Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott acknowledged that the city should have informed parents sooner. "I'm totally shocked by the whole thing," one parent told the Daily News. Also, it's still unclear where the school will move now with just a month left before school starts.
Quick Hits:
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
So Far, So Good on Bronx Milbank Repairs, Say Tenants
Editor's Note: This story was first published in the latest edition of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.
By Jeanmarie Evelly
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| Steve Finkelstein bought the Milbank buildings back in April, under intense scrutiny. (Photo: Jordon Moss) |
The plight of the Milbank tenants, as the group came to be known, captured the attention of countless city groups, the mayor, the City Council and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), all of which vowed to monitor the new owner to make sure conditions at the buildings improved immediately. Finkelstein, a Scarsdale-based landlord who owns dozens other of Bronx buildings, bought the properties for $28 million at the end of April after months of negotiations with tenants and the city.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Bronx Sen. Gustavo Rivera Says Dems Want Strengthened Rent Laws, Not Just Extension of Old Ones
Last night, Democrats voted not to extend rent regulations because they say the status quo isn't good enough. Today, Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera, whose 33rd District includes a wide swath of the northwest Bronx and 72,000 rent regulated apartments, said they are holding out for strengthened rent regulations. See the video above.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Group Plans Massive Housing Complex for West Farms Road
Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the latest issue of the Tremont Tribune, out now.
A development group is proposing to build a series of high-rise apartment buildings and retail shops in West Farms and Crotona Park East, in what the city is calling one of the largest private rezoning projects undertaken in the Bronx for several decades.
Signature Urban Properties, a real estate group headed by former New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, purchased the five-acre site, which runs along West Farms Road and the Sheridan Expressway and north and south of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
The group has requested that the city rezone the 11-block area to allow for residential development in order to construct 10 buildings, each approximately 15 stories high made up of 1,325 apartment units, 663 of which would be affordable housing.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Rent Hike Rattles Biggest High Rise in the Bronx
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| File photo by Adi Talwar |
By Alex Kratz
Residents at Tracey Towers, the twin concrete high-rises (one of them looms in the background of the photo to your right) on Mosholu Parkway, are bracing for another battle with management over their desire to raise rents up to 77 percent over the course of the next three years.
In a recent letter to tenants, RY Management, which has run the 869-unit apartment complex since the early 1980s, said the current rent rates do not cover the cost of maintaining the buildings and they had applied for a rent increase with the city’s department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD). Because it was built under the state’s Mitchell-Llama program, HPD must approve any rent increase.
Tracey residents claim RY’s problems are the result of mismanagement and they shouldn’t be the ones to shoulder all of the burden.
In the past, tenants say, RY has squandered funding that tenants have paid for. A few years ago, RY received a $4 million loan to repair the roof and do some work on the façade, which was cracking and causing leaks. They paid to erect scaffolding, but instead of doing the roof and façade work, RY used the money to replace the boilers. Meanwhile, the scaffolding remains at a cost of $5,000 a month even though it isn’t being used.
Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, June 2,
Weather: Blissfully not as hot today in the Bronx with a nice cool breeze.
Story of the Day: New Housing Designed to Battle Bulge
It's no secret that the Bronx has an obesity problem. The latest statistics say one in every four Bronx adults suffers from being extremely overweight. With that in mind, a new cooperative apartment complex in Longwood called the Melody, which was designed to encourage an active, healthy lifestyle, was unveiled to the public yesterday. The $18 million project, with financing provided by the city, state and borough, is meant for families making $90,000 or less. The building incorporates many of the suggestions contained in an Active Design Guidelines report published by the city in 2010. It has a well-lit gym and a backyard, with climbers for kids and exercise equipment for adults. It also has perhaps the coolest stairs (there are two sets in the history of Bronx apartment buildings: lime-green railings, artwork on the walls and, here's the kicker, jazz playing from stairwell speakers. A sign on the entrance to the staircase reads: “A person’s health can be judged by which they take two of at a time, pills or stairs.”
Quick Hits:
Fatoumata Diallo, a 21-year-old Mt. Hope resident, was killed after fainting on a Manhattan subway platform and falling in front of an oncoming train.
Livery cab drivers would not be served well by the city's new plan to introduce a new fleet of street hail-able taxis, says a spokesman for a coalition of livery cab drivers. Instead, he says, the city should just provide borough permits that existing outer-borough livery drivers could apply for.
Despite yesterday's agreement to keep the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx for the next three years and a deal that gives New York exclusive negotiating rights with the market cooperative for the next nine months, New Jersey isn't giving up hope of landing the market in the future.
PS 73 in Highbridge was victimized twice recently by technology stealing burglars.
A stretch of Van Nest Avenue has been re-named for Bronx sculptor Carl Paul Jennewein whose work can be found at Rockefeller Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the White House.
City officials and housing organizers are going after a neglectful landlord in Pelham Bay.
The Fire and Buildings departments say they will inspect a Kingsbridge Heights house that is suspected of having illegal subdivisions.
A day after a 2-year-old Bronx girl fell out of her fifth story apartment window, a new audit by City Comptroller John Liu says the city has dismissed an alarming number of window-guard violations without doing any follow up.
Because of no-fault scams, Bronx drivers pay the highest amount ($723 per year) for the portion of their auto insurance that covers no-fault accidents. District attorneys in the five boroughs are pushing for a legislative remedy.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Diaz Sr. Blasts Mayor and Speaker, Forgets Supporting Espada's 'Rent Freeze' Bill
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| Diaz at a rally in Albany last year for former Sen. Pedro Espada's "rent freeze" bill, which tenant advocates called a "de-control bill in disguise." (File photo by Alma Watkins) |
But, over the past year and a half, Diaz himself has done his share to divert attention away from the strengthening of rent regulations.
"I would love to see Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn set their priorities straight and spend a day in Albany to push for an extension of our affordable housing laws before the deadline passes," Diaz wrote in a statement sent out last week after Bloomberg and Quinn had trekked to the capitol to lobby for gay marriage.
"The Rev" has spent a fair amount of his own time focusing on same-sex marriage -- he organized a rally last Sunday against its legalization -- but he says that was just in response to other politicians pushing the issue.
"I'm not putting [same-sex marriage] as a priority," he said in a phone interview last week.
His priority, he says, is the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, the set of state laws that protect the rent-regulated status of hundreds of thousands of apartments in the Bronx, and about a million across the city. Tenant advocates have been pushing to see the laws not only renewed before the June 15 deadline, but strengthened to close some of the loopholes that landlords use to hike rents in regulated units.
Diaz said the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were ignoring the approaching June 15 deadline, and that, he says, "is a crime."
But last year, Diaz supported a bill (former senator and housing committee chair Pedro Espada's "Rent Freeze" legislation) that many tenant and housing advocates say would have done the opposite of what he now says is his priority.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
New Bedford Park Housing Complex is a Bridge for Young and Old
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| The new Serviam Gardens complex sits on the campus of Mt. St. Ursula Academy in Bedford Park. (Photo by Adi Talwar. See slideshow below for more.) |
Residents call this scenic spot the "Intergenerational Garden" because it straddles the space between the historic all-girls' high school and a brand new, $65 million affordable housing project for seniors that officially opened yesterday. Here, the students are encouraged to stop by after class to mingle with the older residents or volunteer their time to help out in the garden.
"The girls love coming over here," said Sister Mary Alice Giordano, a teacher at Mount Saint Ursula's and a member of the Ursuline Sisters, the group that runs the Bedford Park school. "One of them said to me the other day, 'I love learning about the old days from someone who actually lived through it.'"
The Ursuline Sisters leased the property surrounding an unused former convent to the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, which, recognizing the neighborhood's need for more senior citizen housing, spent the past several years converting the space--which includes two newly built buildings--into a stunning 296 unit apartment complex, named Serviam Gardens.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Devastated Milbank Buildings Finally Sold
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| Speaker Christine Quinn, Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Ruben Diaz, Sen. Gustavo Rivera and tenants celebrate the sale of the Milbank portfolio at a press conference yesterday. |
By JORDAN MOSS and JEANMARIE EVELLY
It was a rare scene for the transfer of a residential apartment building: Tenants, a new landlord and a variety of city elected officials, from the mayor on down, gathered Tuesday for a press conference that turned out to be a celebration.
The now-infamous Bronx Milbank buildings, including one at 2264 Grand Avenue, were finally sold last week to a new landlord after months of local organizing and city involvement. Tenants, advocates and elected officials had fought to wrest the portfolio of 10 deeply troubled properties from irresponsible bankers and owners to a responsible party who could afford to make them livable again.
Over 100 people showed up for the announcement of the sale at 3018 Heath Ave., where the building had brand new windows -- the first of what tenants hope will be many improvements to come at this and the other Milbank properties.
"We now have someone to communicate with -- someone to hold accountable," said one tenant, Twyla Rashid, who described conditions at her building as “devastating.”
The one to hold accountable now is Steven Finkelstein, a Scarsdale-based landlord who purchased the mortgage and the deeds to the properties in a $28 million deal last week, and faces a mountain of some 4,000 housing code violations.
Bronx News Roundup, April 27
Weather: Warm temperatures again today--though not as balmy as yesterday--with highs around 70. Skies will be mostly cloudy.
Story of the Day: Crackdown After Deadly Belmont Blaze
Mayor Bloomberg and chorus of other elected officials are calling for stricter regulation and punishments for building owners who oversee illegal apartments, after a fire early Monday killed a Bronx family of three in Belmont. The apartment where the victims lived was illegally subdivided, faultily wired and a haven for squatters, neighbors said.
It's unclear who should be held accountable for conditions at the Prospect Avenue building, which has no clear owner--according to the Post, the original landlord lost the property to foreclosure years ago, and that the building has since been part of a Texas private-equity firm's multibillion-dollar portfolio of subprime mortgages. The Times reports that some tenants were paying rent to another squatter who was living there illegally. The Bronx District Attorney's office also announced it will be conducting an investigation into the fire.
Quick Hits:
A former NYPD officer pleaded guilty in Bronx Supreme Court yesterday for beating a man on a Davidson Avenue sidewalk last January. The incident was caught on tape by witnesses, and then-officer John Cicero resigned from his post a month later.
The fate of Kingsbridge Innovative Design Charter School is now in the hands of the Board of Regents, which put the school on probation for fiscal mismanagement. Officials at the school have until Friday to prove it is financially solvent enough to stay open.
Gotham Gazette takes a look at the growing artist community in the South Bronx and across the borough.
A third prosecutor has been transferred to the NYPD department advocate's office to handle disciplinary cases in the ongoing ticket-fixing probe. It's unclear just how many officers are being probed in the scandal, which is largely concentrated on Bronx precincts, but some reports are putting the number in the hundreds.
An animal rescue group that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health, for ignoring a law that requires animal shelters be established in all five boroughs, lost its case yesterday. The Bronx and Queens are both without full-service shelters.
Justin Long-Moton, a 17-year-old from Co-Op City, is the city's Youth Poet Laureate.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Milbank Buildings Sold to Scarsdale Landlord
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| Milbank's 10 Bronx buildings have over 4,000 housing violations among them. (File photo by J. Evelly) |
Steve Finkelstein bought the mortgage and the deeds to the properties in a $28 million deal, the article reports, promising to start serious and immediate repairs at the violation-riddled buildings, and agreeing to report to HPD within 30 days about what work he's done.
Finkelstein, who owns 31 other buildings in the Bronx, told Crain's he expects to face an "amazing amount of work," but that he's sending eight-man crews into every building to start on repairs.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Bronx News Roundup, April 8
Weather: Cloudy with a high of 54, and a slight chance of rain this afternoon.
Story of the Day: Black Steps Down
As we mentioned yesterday, Cathleen Black, the former magazine executive and controversial Schools Chancellor, stepped down from the post yesterday after only three months on the job. Black was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg last fall, a move that drew criticism across the board (and from a number of Bronx electeds) because of Black's scant education experience.
Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., sent out a press release yesterday in response to Black's announcement saying he "wishes her well" and praising her replacement, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. Here's some background on the new Chancellor.
Quick Hits:
The beloved Bronx Zoo cobra that went missing for a week last month has now officially been named. More than 60,000 people voted in the name-that-cobra contest that ended with the clever moniker "Mia." Cute.
An aide at M.S. 219 in Morrisania was arrested yesterday for allegedly showing pornographic photos on his cell phone to a 15-year-old female student.
A group of housing advocates, tenants and elected officials are calling for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take action against New York Community Bank, which owns the mortgages on 34 dilapidated apartment buildings in the Bronx that are in foreclosure. (See more here.)
Residents in Co-op City are sounding off over a loud hissing noise made by a nearby power plant.
Two men were killed and a third was injured last night during a shootout near Devoe Park. No arrests have been made yet.
Mount Eden residents are shaken after a deadly shooting on Monday. Derick Cochran, 37, was shot and killed during a basketball game on the courts of the Highbridge Community Life Center.
A group of grandparents are holding bake sales to raise money for programs at the Grandparent Family Apartments, in Morrisania, which are being threatened by state budget cuts.
A former south Bronx homicide detective has penned a novel inspired by his experiences covering the beat.
A violent attack that took place last month at a bodega in Mott Haven was caught on surveillance tape. Police released the video this week in attempt to locate the assailant pictured. See below.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Bronx Pols Push Cuomo On Rent Reform; Jeff Klein’s Name Absent
The following story appeared in this week's issue of the Norwood News.
By Jeanmarie Evelly
A number of local elected officials are urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to renew and strengthen rent regulation laws, in favor of renters, as part of his budget negotiations with the legislature this month.
Last week, about 90 lawmakers signed a letter to the governor pressing the issue, which requested that he not only renew the existing Emergency Tenant Protection Act that expires this spring but that he include provisions to repeal vacancy decontrol — the law that lets landlords hike rents of stabilized apartments once tenants vacate them, essentially deregulating the city’s housing market.
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| State Senator Jeffrey Klein |
“Jeff Klein is an operative for the real estate lobby,” said Michael McKee, of the Tenants Political Action Committee. “He works behind the scenes to make sure that pro-tenant legislation does not pass.”
Klein’s camp, however, said that the senator was never given the letter to sign.
Landlord Group Chief: Espada Saved Real Estate Industry
Joseph Strasburg, the head of the Rent Stabilization Assocation, a landlord lobbying group, praised former Bronx State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. for saving his industry at this event a couple of nights ago. Comments starts at 0:19 in after the tenant protest.
Bronx Tenants Paying Rent Under $1,000 Dealt Blow by Court
A state court ruled that landlords can impose extra charges on tenants paying under $1,000 a month rent. Landlords say it's fair because the low rents don't cover their costs.
The Legal Aid Society had brought the suit on behalf of affected tenants and call the charges a "poor tax."
For more about this from the Times, click here.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, March 24
Weather: Welcome to spring! Call me crazy, but doesn't spring in the Bronx look and feel -- the snow, the biting cold -- a whole lot like winter? Temperatures will remain in the low 40s today, but skies should clear up this afternoon.
Story of the Day: Husband Pleads Not Guilty to Murder Charge
Throgs Neck resident Eddy Coello, the former NYPD housing cop whose wife's strangled body was found in Westchester County woods last week, pleaded not guilty to murder charges at Bronx Criminal Court yesterday. Prosecutors said evidence linking Coello to the murder of his wife, Tina Adovasio, is overwhelming and includes Coello's own statements. Bronx DA Edward Talty: "We have video surveillance, forensic evidence and statements from the defendant's own mouth that the night of March 11 and morning of March 12, after strangling her, he carried her dead body, put it in his car and dumped her in Westchester County."
Quick Hits:
Kappy talks redistricting rumors that are ruffling Congressman Charlie Rangel; a scuffle between Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and former Council candidate Tony Cassino about a proposed ice rink in Van Cortlandt Park; says they should given ex-Mayor Ed Koch's name to a bridge in the Bronx -- where he was born -- not the Queensboro Bridge, which the Council voted to do yesterday.
The Bronx Museum will host a Negro League baseball exhibit from March 31 through April 6. On April 2, former Negro League star Jim Robinson will sign autographs, along with former Yankee Bill White, at Stan's Sportsworld on River Avenue.
Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera introduced a bill that would require medical care providers to scan the palms of their patients before offering them services. Rivera says the $20 million cost of implementing the technology would save the state "billions" in fraud problems.
A state committeeman wants signs leading to the Bronx to say: "The Bronx: The Birthplace of Hip Hop."
Michelle Parris, a recent Stanford law school graduate from Queens, is doing a fellowship at Bronx Defenders.
Middle Eastern and West African Bronxites talk about the turmoil in the region and the antics of embattled Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy.
Homeowners in the Bronx and other outer boroughs continue to struggle paying their mortgages. Advocates say they need government help.
State Democratic say it will be difficult to get rent regulations extended in through the budget process. (Side note: Affordable housing advocates and elected officials who are pushing for the extension of rent regulations will be rallying tonight at the Bronx Library Center, on Kingsbridge Road, at 6:30 p.m.)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Bronx Tenants Storm Bank, Demand Building Repairs [VIDEO]
A group of Bronx tenants from a number of foreclosed, violation-riddled apartments have filed a lawsuit against the bank that owns the mortgage on their properties, hoping to hold the lender responsible for paying for repairs.
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday on behalf of tenants by Legal Services NYC-Bronx, the Urban Justice Center, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board and NY Communities for Change.
That same day, residents from the buildings and organizers rallied at a Manhattan branch of the New York Community Bank. They were turned away after asking to see the branch manager to make their case (see the video, above, for more from the scene.)
"We don't do those types of loans here," the dismayed manager said, after closing the door to her office once protesters filed inside the bank's lobby.
"You have no idea what we're going through, because you live fine," responded Gennet Riley, a tenant who lives in one of the foreclosed buildings at 735 Bryant Avenue. "We're here trying to let you understand that we care about our buildings. We just want you to acknowledge us."
Bronx Building Workers Reach Deal With Landlords
Averting a strike, Bronx building workers, represented by 32BJ, reached an agreement with landlords. Here's an excerpt from the union's press release.
32BJ and the Bronx Realty Advisory Board (BRAB) reached a tentative four-year agreement this evening for more than 3,000 apartment building workers that provides annual wage increases while maintaining employer-paid family health care and secured pension benefits. The agreement narrowly averted a strike, which would have affected 250,000 Bronx residents throughout the borough including Riverdale and the South Bronx.The whole agreement can be downloaded from the union's web site here.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Budget Could Hit Local Homeless Program Hard
Editor's note: this article first appeared in the latest issue of the Tremont Tribune, which is on the streets and online now.
| Park Avenue Thorpe, a supportive housing building home to 20 formerly homeless families, could be shuttered this year by funding cuts. (Photos by Jeanmarie Evelly) |
But severe funding cuts, proposed to balance the state’s ballooning budget, have put Thorpe and dozens of other programs like it at risk of closure.
“These cuts may be the beginning of the end for us,” said Executive Director Sister Mary Jane Deodati, who oversees the 20 families that call the building home.
Many of Thorpe’s residents are single mothers who have battled addiction, have physical or emotional disabilities or who have been victims of domestic violence. A caseworker helps each tenant with personal finances, with finding jobs and other day-to-day tasks.
“Many of our people are fragile and need constant support,” Deodati said. “If this program is cut, they’re going to be homeless again.”
