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| Bloomberg talks with Stephen Katzman, a president of the Hunts Point Produce Market (Photo courtesy of the Mayor's office) |
Weather: Mostly sunny and in the 80s today.
Quick Hits:
The Times' David Gonzalez, himself a graduate of St. Martin of Tours School in Crotona, offers this poignant piece on the school's closing and emotional last day of classes, which was last Wednesday. The 86-year-old parochial school is one of 26 closed this year by the Archdiocese of New York because of budget cuts and low enrollment.
The Hunts Point Produce Market and its 2,400 employees will remain in the Bronx for at least three more years as city officials expressed confidence that they were on their way to reaching a long-term deal with the cooperative that would include a revamp of the market.
For the next nine months, the city will have exclusive negotiating rights with the market cooperative, leaving suitors from New Jersey out in the cold until at least early 2012.
“Thanks to this agreement, the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative will extend its lease, recommit to the Bronx, and, for the next nine months, work with New York City – and New York City only – on a long-term plan for a larger, modernized market," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement today. "Our Administration and the Co-op both want that to be built in the Bronx, and in the coming months, we will continue working together to make it happen."
Two construction companies responsible for some of the state's largest public-works projects, among them the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park, are under federal investigation. The feds suspect the contractors evaded laws that they hire a certain percentage of subcontrators owned by minorities or women. The long-delayed and massively over-budget water plant (photos here), is one of the most controversial construction projects in Bronx history. Click here for some background.
Cathleen Black, Mayor Bloomberg's Schools chancellor pick, suffered a set back yesterday when the state's education commissioner, David M. Steiner, expressed doubts about her readiness for the job.
Co-op City's board of directors have voted to remove a board member from one of the complex's coveted townhouses. Leticia Morales was improperly bumped up to the top of the waiting list, the board determined.
A pregnant Bronx teen is suing the city and the NYPD. Stephanie Badillo claims she was handcuffed and strip-searched by cops who mistook her for a drug dealer.
An off-duty Bronx cop who was arrested for drink-driving on Monday, repeatedly smashed his car into the back of a pick-up truck.
Fifteen corrections officers were injured after a fight broke out at Rikers Island.
Aaron Davis, a former owner of the Morris Park Boxing Club, talks about boxing, his old club (which burnt down last year), and the new one he's opened near Westchester Square. The story and audio slide-show is by Graham Kates, a former Norwood News intern and author of the BxNN's The Yankees, Unobstructed column.
Thanksgiving is the busiest time of the year for workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market, the largest wholesale food distributor in the country. (On a separate note, the market's future remains uncertain, with businesses threatening to move to a cheaper site in New Jersey.)
Immigrants in the Bronx are getting in the holiday spirit.
A Bronx-based trash collecting company says chef Gordan Ramsey owes it $25,000.
And finally, a tour of JFK's childhood home in Riverdale.
