Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, May 19

Home stretch of Bronx Week(s). Let's get down to business. To the news!

Weather: Brief reprieve from monsoon season right now, but more rain and thunderstorms are possible this afternoon.

Story of the Day: A Bronx Underground Rock Scene Emerges
In a Throgs Neck church basement, the seeds of a Bronx rock movement are taking root. A decade ago, a trio of young Bronx musicians and music lovers -- Dave Rose, Anita Colby and Adam Fachler -- made a simple observation about their borough's music scene: It sucked. So they decided to build one themselves, creating Bronx Underground to put on and promote rock concerts in a borough identified as the birthplace of hip hop. For a few years, they used venues on City Island and other east Bronx locales until finding a permanent home at First Lutheran Church, near Country Club, where a growing list of bands are finding a fan base. Marc Makowski, an assistant music director at Sony, compared the scene to England in the 1960s. "Just like the Beatles," he told a writer for NY Press, "one band is going to break out and the rest will follow." Here's a 2009 clip from A Moment's Worth, one of the Bronx Underground-grown bands that could blow up:


Quick Hits:
We knew City Island's Engine 53 firehouse was on the chopping block, but now, after the mayor released the list of firehouses slated for closure, we know that two other Bronx firehouses could be gone as well: Engine 46 at 460 Cross Bronx Expressway (Mt. Hope) and Engine 60 at 341 East 143rd Street (Mott Haven).

In response to the investigation into widespread ticket-fixing by Bronx cops, the NYPD announced it will form a unit dedicated to preventing it from happening in the future.

While eight Bronx schools got a reprieve from closure and will be "re-started" with independent oversight, the teacher's union is suing the city to stop other schools, including the Bronx's John F. Kennedy High School, from being closed.  

Speaking of school closures, state officials say the Kingsbridge Innovative Design School, a charter school that just opened last year, will be closed at the end of year because of financial mismanagement. And St. Dominic's School in the Bronx's Van Nest neighborhood will also close, but the church will stay and get a facelift.

The hotel maid, who police say was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the now former head of the International Monetary Fund, is a widow and single mother from Guinea who lives a quiet life in the Bronx's Concourse Village neighborhood.

The NYPD was upset with the cancellation of the Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday. In the same column, Bob Kappstatter says Ruben Diaz Sr.'s anti-gay marriage rally drew about 1,500 folks, much less than the 10,000 that were expected.

A fundraiser is being held tonight for Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who survived a re-election bid last fall despite the Bronx Democratic party's best efforts to replace him. Apparently, other candidates are already lining up to take him on in 2012. 

Singer Johnny Mathis performs at Lehman Center this weekend.

Bronx News Roundup, Friday, May 13

Eery start to this Friday the 13th at Bronx News Network. As you can tell, we've experienced some technical difficulties of late. Our website administrator went down last night and all posts from Tuesday on were removed. We're told the posts will be restored soon. We just received access to the site at about 12:30 p.m. In any case, we're back. On to the news!

Weekend Weather: Cloudy and warm today. Tomorrow, a foggy morning  might give way to some drizzle in the afternoon. The real rain is supposed to hit Sunday, just in time for the Bronx parade collision (more on this in Story of the Day). 

Story of the Day: Bronx Parades on Collision (Con)Course
On Sunday afternoon, the Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade will party its way down the Grand Concourse from E. Tremont to E. 167th Street. Just six blocks south, the face and outspoken mouthpiece of New York's anti-gay marriage movement, Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., will be leading a group of other like-minded gay marriage opponents in a "Rally to Defend Marriage." Diaz, who was born in Puerto Rico, says he did not consider changing the route or date of his rally and the president of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, Francisco Gonzalez didn't seem to have a problem with it.

But gay marriage advocates and AIDS activists do have a problem with it. Diaz's anti-gay marriage rally will coincide with the annual New York AIDS Walk in Central Park, leading the state senator's critics say the rally will stunt acceptance of gays and the cause of wiping out AIDS. "We are distressed that Sen. Diaz would focus his attention on increasing homophobia," Marjorie Hill of Midtown's Gay Men's Health Crisis told Metro. A counter-protest is taking shape, which could mean fireworks on the Concourse. Diaz, who has two gay brothers and a gay niece, denies the homophobic label and say he is expecting a love fest on Sunday, telling the Daily News: "We're respecting our love for life and humanity in the Bronx."

The Tremont Tribune, a BxNN publication, has this editorial on the matter. 

Quick Hits:
Drivers navigating the Bronx’s Claremont neighborhood beware, the city is reducing its speed limit on a quarter-mile stretch there to 20 miles per hour, 10 miles less than the city's default speed limit of 30 m.p.h. That pilot program coincides with another speed-reduction effort: the installing new electronic signs that will tell drivers to slow down, using an ominous digitized skeleton, to drive home the point.

At an attempted murder trial in the Bronx, an officer testified that ticket fixing was "a common courtesy" dealt with by union reps.

A Bronx man who won $18.5 million in a lawsuit against the city after spending two decades in prison for a rape he didn't commit, had the award taken back by an appeals court.

Nine city schools, including the Bronx's Herbert H. Lehman High School, Banana Kelly High School, Bronx High School of Business, Grace H. Dodge Career and Tech, will be Re-Started last year, rather than closed.

John Rose is hoping to overcome cerebral palsy and win a seat on the Co-op City board of directors.

Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade

All photos by Alma Watkins

The 22nd annual Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade was held yesterday on the Grand Concourse between 176th and 167th streets. Attendees included Bronx BP Ruben Diaz, Jr., Manhattan BP Scott Stringer, City Comptroller John Liu, and Congressman Jose Serrano.