Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, July 21

Weather: Today's high of 96, which will really feel more like 104 with the humidity, will be roundly trumped by tomorrow's high of 101, which will really feel more like the seventh circle of Hades.  

Story of the Day: Bronx Charter School on Probation for Shady Lottery Practices
The Academic Leadership Charter School, which opened on East 141st Street in 2009, is in hot water and in danger being closed after city investigators discovered that the school may have manipulated its lottery selection process to weed out unwanted students. City officials accused the school's leadership of investigating students' past history and possibly even testing them before the selection played out, a huge charter school no-no. The lottery system, which is mandated by state law, "is at the heart of being a charter school," says James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center. If the school doesn't revamp its lottery process and implement other changes, the school could be closed.

Quick Hits:
Residents say the city should have shuttered a Morris Heights brownstone that had been chopped up into illegal subdivisions before a fire that engulfed the house resulted in the death of a 65-year-old man.

Deadly Belmont Fire Points to Illegal Housing Dangers; City Launches Crackdown

Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in the May edition of the Tremont Tribune.

A fire at 2321 Prospect Ave. killed
three people in April (Photo by David Greene)

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council announced yesterday that the city will be taking a new, more aggressive approach in identifying and inspecting apartment buildings suspected of being divided illegally.

At the end of April, a fire tore through an apartment building in Belmont and killed three family members who had been living there--Christina Garcia, 43, Juan Lopez, 36, and their 12-year-old son Christian Garcia.

The early morning blaze broke out on the top floor of a multi-family building at 2321 Prospect Ave., a space that had been subdivided into several rooms using partitions, according to FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer.

The tragedy has shined a spotlight on the proliferation of dangerous housing conditions in the Bronx, and across the city. Experts and elected officials say practices like illegal divisions, erected by both tenants and landlords alike, are frighteningly common and growing in number.

Sally Dunford, of the West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, called the problem “endemic.”

She described some of what she’s seen in the community in recent years: already small apartments portioned off into even smaller ones, blocking access to the fire escape or stationed dangerously close to the building’s heating source; five people living in a basement with no bathroom or kitchen; an elderly couple living in a closet; tenants moving back into a property immediately after the city ordered them to vacate.

“It’s just scary,” Dunford said.

Bronx News Roundup, Wednesday, June 8

Weather: Stay thirsty, my friends, and drink lots of water. It's going to be a scorcher today in the Bronx, with highs reaching the mid- to upper-90s. Should be similarly toasty tomorrow and Friday before it cools down this weekend.

Story of the Day: Bloomy: FDNY to Aid in Illegal Subdivision Inspections
In late April, a 12-year-old and his parents were killed during a fire that quickly engulfed the illegally subdivided Belmont-area row house they were living in. The tragedy highlighted the dangers of illegally subdivided houses and buildings throughout the city and underscored the difficulty the city has in policing the problem. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council got proactive about it, announcing a new program designed to urgently target "high-risk" buildings where illegal subdivisions have been reported and use city firefighters to help gain access to buildings during inspections. Prior to the deaths of the 12-year-old and his parents, the city had received several complaints about the row house being dangerously chopped up into single-room units. But after twice attempting and failing to gain access to the building, the Department of Buildings, as is the agency's policy, stopped trying to get in and inspect he place. In a test run of the new program, the city targeted 16 buildings and was able to inspect 93 percent of them.

Quick Hits:
Last Friday, in reaction to series of violent incidents in the Bronx this spring, students staged an anti-violence rally outside of Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School.

In anticipation of a rally against proposed school closures and layoffs, Bronx teachers met to commiserate, drink and talk strategy.

A former Bronx transit cop, Jorge Arbaje-Diaz, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for using his uniform and badge to steal cocaine and $4 million in illegal drug proceeds.

WNYC takes a look at the Botanical Garden's new Resplendent Roses show.

Students unveiled a new art exhibit in the Bronx's Crotona Park.

A Bronx mom who killed a 67-year-old woman after running a red light on the Upper West Side was sentenced to a year in prison.

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.