Bronx News Roundup, March 2

Anyone else out there feeling over-Sheen-ed today? You're a winner whose brain works on a higher level  comprehended only by the accelerated minds of gods and porn stars. We get it. Now I need a shower. Let's move on to the weather: lots of sun today in the Bronx with temperatures creeping into the high 40s.

Story of the Day:
Saying they are tired of living without heat, hot water and working elevators, tenants at 1380 University Avenue are poised to begin a rent strike in order to force the 17-story building's landlord to make amends. Despite 625 outstanding housing code violations, the landlord, Martin Carlin, says the building is fine and it's only the tenants behind on rent who are complaining. Council member Helen Foster supports the tenants, saying she applauded them "for staying organized and together." Some good (gross) imagery from the DN's Dan Beekman, who described the building as a place where "rats scurry across urine-soaked floors."

Quick Hits:
Domenick Lombardozzi, who played knucklehead Baltimore cop Thomas "Herc" Hauk through all five seasons of HBO's "The Wire," is from the Bronx. Lombardozzi, who got his break in Robert De Niro's "A Bronx Tale," plays a U.S. Marshal in the upcoming A&E drama "Breakout Kings." Where's Herc's spot on the Bronx Walk of Fame? He's ready, Mr. Borough President.

Two gas stations on either side of the Hutchinson River Parkway are charging customers more than $4 a gallon, some 10 percent higher than the average New York station. 

A stretch of 180th Street, between Devoe Avenue and Park Avenue, will be named after Dennis O'Connell, a longtime FDNY dispatcher in the Bronx who grew up in the borough and played the bagpipes. His wife, Patricia, could name every street and was "an encyclopedia" of knowledge.

An employee with the Archdiocese of New York was sentenced to 51 months for embezzling $250,000 meant for renovations of two Bronx Catholic schools.

Details are slim, but it appears two Bronx parents and their baby girl died in a fire this morning in Tremont, 2275 Morris Ave. More here.

Franklin Romero, a producer for Bronx super music group Aventura, pleaded not guilty to drug charges yesterday.

Big-box retailer Target, along with two developers, has purchased a 7.9-acre lot in Throgs Neck owned by the U.S. Postal Service but vacant since September. They plan to replace the current Postal building with a mall.

New in the Tremont Tribune

The lastest Tremont Tribune (the third ever) hit the streets last week. The stories are now on-line. They include:

Putting the Farm Back in West Farms
Kaman Fong first saw Drew Gardens through the windows of the Q44 bus. The garden, a lush, two-acre strip of lawn and community vegetable plots running along the Bronx River on East Tremont Avenue between East 177th Street and West Farms Road, sits behind three bus stops and attracts plenty of attention from riders as they go by. Some stop and ask for a tour. Others get off and garden.

Rivera Runs for Third Council Term, Virtually Unopposed
A lot has changed for Joel Rivera, the two-term city councilman, in the past year. There was the contentious leadership brawl in which his father, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, was ousted as Chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party and replaced by Assemblyman Carl Heastie; Joel’s own stillborn race for borough president, suddenly called off in March; and the challenge for his seat in the 15th district from well-funded Community Board 6 member Radame Perez, which inexplicably dissolved in May.

Local Students Given Film Camp Scholarships
It’s summertime, but hundreds of students stream in and out of the Millennium Public School in lower Manhattan each day. Most of them have paid thousands of dollars for a special filmmaking training camp, hosted by the New York Film Academy and taught by its renowned professors, using state-of-the-art equipment. But this year - for the first time - nearly a hundred students are attending the film camp free of charge.

At St. Barnabas, Actors and Mannequins
The patient is sprawled across the bed, his vital signs ticking loudly on the monitor in the corner. “Please, give me something for the pain,” he moans. “It hurts, it really hurts.”

Community Board Looks to Honor FDNY Hero
If local leaders get their way, a Bronx street will soon have a new name. In May, Community Board 6 voted in favor of renaming a block - East 180th Street, between Park and DeVoe avenues - in memory of fire alarm dispatcher and one-time Fordham resident Dennis Patrick O’Connell, who died last year at age 56.