Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 10

The Archdiocese of New York is threatening to strip six Bronx Catholic schools of the financial subsidies they've long relied on. In all, 32 schools across the state could be impacted. Without the subsidy, it's expected that most schools would be forced to close. In the Bronx, the following are at risk: Saint Augustine, Saint John Vianney, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Dominic, Saint Anthony-Saint Frances and Saint Pius V Girls High School.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein is stepping down. Cathleen P. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, will replace him, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. Klein oversaw a massive reorganization of the public school system, and won many friends, but fierce enemies, too. In an editorial, the Daily News praised Klein's work and said: "The city's children are far, far better off today than when he started eight years ago." But columnist Juan Gonzalez says he lost the respect of both parents and teachers. 

Students at IS 190, a school near Crotona Park, been have writing letters and sending artwork to a school in Nicaragua, part of a cross-cultural exchange designed to promote tolerance and understanding. Yesterday, the students visited the New York State Division of Human Rights, located at One Fordham Plaza, where some of their artwork hangs, to learn more about discrimination.

Parents with the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice rallied in Bronx on Monday, to demand that the Department of Education step up its game and address poor test scores.

When the Republicans take over the House in January, New York's congressional delegation will lose the chairmanships of several committees and subcommittees. Among those affected: Congressman Jose Serrano and Eliot Engel.

Two gunmen robbed a pharmacy in Mott Haven on Monday evening.

Bronx News Roundup, March 27

We'll start with the economy.

Though Wall Street was on upswing, the latest labor numbers show that New York City continues to lose jobs at a startling rate. The state labor department said the ranks of the city's unemployed has swelled to 355,000 people, with the Bronx being hit the hardest. The unemployment rate in the Bronx last month was 10.8 percent, compared to 8.8 percent in Brooklyn and 7.7 percent in Manhattan. Overall, the city's unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.

[It's important to note that those percentages only include those who are actively seeking employment, which leaves a whole population (which the government doesn't track) of the borough's jobless.]

The owner of an Arthur Ave. bakery, Walter Galliano, was charged with cheating his workers out of $350,000 in pay. In the same Times story, it says Alex Moreno, the owner of a Getty gas station on Jerome Ave. was also charged with shortchanging his workers, sometimes paying them as little as $4 an hour for 12 hour shifts.

Yesterday, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer proposed some ways to keep mayoral control with the city school district, but offer parents more of a say.

This is interesting because Bronx Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., who is expected to win the special election for borough president on April 21, expressed his support for Stringer's plans, which would put control of local education councils into the hands of the borough presidents' offices, in an interview yesterday. (More on this interview next week.) Bronx Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz is expected to introduce the legislation on the state level.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says city education jobs may have to be cut if the state doesn't pony up more money, or a fairer share, of the federal stimulus money that is being filtered through Albany.

A Bronx mom is suing the city over contamination found at PS 178.

Two weeks after receiving a heart transplant, five-month old Adrien Flores was release from Montefiore hospital yesterday. (More on this later.)

News Roundup for July 31

Apparently the United Nations is just as problematic a construction project as the Croton Water Filtration Plant. After some false starts, the Swedish construction firm Skanska AB, one of the contractors involved in the filtration plant, was selected by the UN to manage the renovation of its headquarters in Manhattan. Reuters has the details of the $7 million initial contract that could yield $1 billion for Skanska over time.

Gotham Gazette has a feature by a high school student from New Youth Connections , about efforts to expand mental health services and counseling in the public schools.

The New York Post looks at Joel Klein's five years as schools chancellor and his accomplishments so far. None of his predecessors has lasted that long since the post was created in 1970.

A Daily News story reports on another uninhabitable city-subsidized apartment. Tenant Steven Berry was forced to move his asthmatic kids out of the Valentine Ave. apartment because the power was cut off and he can't plug in the kids' nebulizers. Councilman Joel Rivera is calling for the Department of Homeless Services to withhold rent in situations like this.

And Bob Kapstatter reports in his Bronx Boro News (supplement to the Daily News) column (not on-line yet) that Bronx District Attorney is running unopposed again, at this point, and that Adolfo Carrion has been fined $6,875 by the Campaign Finance Board for campaign finance violations.