Bronx News Roundup, Friday, July 15

Weather: Not a cloud in the sky. High in the mid-80s. This weekend: more of the same with temperatures creeping up into the high-80s, low-90s. Good beach weather.

Story of the Day: BxNN Beats Times on Muller Story, Loses Headline Battle
A little inside baseball today. (Skip to the Quick Hits if you get bored.) Anyone working in the editorial side of the journalism industry will tell you that a) timing is everything, and b) headline writing is the one of the hardest things to do well. Early yesterday, Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.'s press office sent out a press release with a letter attached that accuses the mayor's office of deliberately abusing the BRAC process to ensure that the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield becomes a homeless shelter.

We've been following this story for more than two years, but this letter contained details, strongly-worded allegations and possible legal action. All the elements for a good, poignant news story. So we rushed to get it up on this site as soon as possible. We ended up beating the Times by about an hour. Chalk one up for BxNN! (On a side note: Kudos to former BxNN intern and native Bedford Parker Andrew Boryga for producing a well-written piece for the Grey Lady's website.) For the most part, we can't compete with the bigger papers, but we do strive to bring Bronx news to our readers as swiftly as possible. And we also take pride in the fact that our stories lead to coverage in bigger papers and more-trafficked websites. Our story on the Oval Park pop-up piano drew national attention and we've been banging the drum on this Muller Center story for two years now. We see ourselves as a megaphone for the Bronx and when our stories get picked up, our megaphone gets amplified exponentially. That means more people will pay attention to our oft-overlooked borough. And that's a good thing.

Which brings me back to headlines. Our accurate, boring, and too-long Muller Center headline: "Bronx BP Asks Feds to Intervene in Muller Center Dispute; Yonkers Mayor Asks Bloomberg to Reconsider Shelter Plan." The Times' headline: "City Hall Accused of Steamrolling Opposition to Bronx Shelter." That's also accurate, but also punchy and succinct. Obviously, there's is much better. So I'll take the win for speed, but here's a tip of the cap to the Times' headline writers.

Quick Hits:

Bronx BP Asks Feds to Intervene in Muller Center Dispute; Yonkers Mayor Asks Bloomberg to Reconsider Shelter Plan

In a letter to federal authorities, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. said the mayor's office blatantly skirted the formal process meant to determine a new use for the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield in order to push its own agenda -- the creation of a 200-bed men's homeless shelter at the center.

Because of this, and what Diaz characterized as a complete disregard of public sentiment, Diaz asked the two agencies responsible for approving a plan for the Muller Center -- the United State Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEM)-- to reject the shelter plan submitted by the mayor's office. He also asked them to "convene a meeting amongst the parties to determine how, if possible, a conforming submission could still be provided."

If this doesn't happen, Diaz says, "I will have no choice but to pursue legal action."

Meanwhile, Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone sent a letter to Bloomberg urging his administration to reconsider its "seriously flawed" shelter plan because of the negative impact it would have on Yonkers, which shares a border-line with Wakefield that lies just 250 feet from the Muller Center.

Despite Outcry, City Moves Ahead With Wakefield Homeless Shelter Plan

It looks like the Muller Army Reserve Center, a former military base in Wakefield that community leaders want to house the Kingsbridge Armory Annex's National Guard so that the Kingsbridge Armory Annex can house a school (confusing, right?), is set to become a homeless shelter--the plan that Mayor Bloomberg's administration has long been pushing.

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who vehemently opposes the idea of another homeless shelter at the Nereid Avenue site, sent out a press release earlier this week saying the Mayor's office "is claiming that a vote was held in November 2010, despite having hosted a public hearing on June 22, 2011, to solicit public input on the reuse of the facility in advance of a vote."

City's Homeless Shelter Plan for Muller Center Blasted By Bronxites

Editor's note: We don't get into this until later in the story, but the big question here is whether Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. will decide to sit down for a vote with the other two members of the local redevelopment authority (LRA), both from the mayor's office. It's supposed to happen by tomorrow. He refused to show for a vote in late 2010, preventing the LRA from voting to recommend a shelter as the best use of the center, but Diaz spokesman John DeSio said on Monday he didn't know what the BP would do. Stay tuned.

By Alex Kratz

During his lengthy and impassioned testimony at a public hearing concerning the fate of the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield, Father Richard Gorman compared the Bloomberg administration to A) Josef Stalin and B) a group of slave owners (with Wakefield residents being the slaves).

Father Richard Gorman

Gorman, the longtime chairman of Community Board 12, which includes Wakefield and Woodlawn, made those comparisons in the course of blasting the city's controversial proposal to house a 200-bed homeless shelter for men in the Muller Center. The mayor’s office says the city’s homeless needs outweigh the desires of community residents and stakeholders.

Calling the city’s plan “outrageous,” Gorman said the report that determined a shelter would be the best use of the center was full of misrepresentations and inaccuracies. “It’s a shame trees lost their lives to print that garbage,” he said. Gorman also suggested the city’s plan to turn the building over to the Doe Fund and give the group a fat city contract to run the shelter amounted to a giveback to the nonprofit, which provided valuable support to Bloomberg’s campaign to extend term limits two years ago.

BP Diaz's Testimony From Last Night's Muller Center Hearing

The public hearing over the future of the Muller Army Center in Wakefield took place last night, at P.S. 21 on 225th Street.

BxNN reporter Alex Kratz was there and will post a more detailed account later, but he said the majority of those who attended--a strong showing of Wakefield and Woodlawn residents, and many members of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition--are against the city's plan to fill the building with a homeless shelter, and support the idea of moving the National Guard from an annex at the Kingsbridge Armory into the Wakefield site to free up school space (you can read some more background in yesterday's news roundup).

Kratz said that Father Richard Gorman of CB 12 got the crowd going with an impassioned speech that took several hilarious digs at Mayor Bloomberg. Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who sits on a panel overseeing the building's redevelopment, also testified--you can read his full statement in the document below.

Bronx News Roundup, June 22

Weather: In the high 70s today, and thunderstorms likely this evening.

Story of the Day: Future of the Muller Center To Be Debated Tonight
A hearing is scheduled tonight to get public input on the fate of the Muller Army Reserve Center, a 55,000-square-foot former military base in Wakefield that the Bloomberg administration wants to turn into a homeless shelter.

Muller Center Public Hearing Set for June 22 as Bronx BP Looks Again to Stop Homeless Shelter

A public hearing to discuss the redevelopment of the Bronx's Sergeant Joseph A. Muller Army Reserve Center will be held next month as the fate of the vacant Wakefield-area building once again hangs in the balance.   

It's been a while since we've talked about the Muller Center, so here's a quick refresher (for more background, click here, here and here.):

Last year, the local redevelopment authority (LRA) created to find a new use for the Muller Center fractured. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., one of three voting members of the authority (along with Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and the Tokumbo Shobowale, chief of staff for the deputy mayor for economic development) adamantly opposed a plan put forth by his two co-members to turn the building into an enormous homeless shelter. He declined to attend the late-year meetings of the LRA to prevent them from voting on the homeless shelter plan.

Joining Diaz, other Bronx elected officials, activist groups and local community boards also opposed the homeless shelter plan. Instead of a homeless shelter (the area already has it's share, opponents say), Diaz proposed transferring the national guard units currently housed in the annex buildings at the Kingsbridge Armory to the Muller Center, which would free the annex building up to become badly needed schools. The National Guard has said it would be willing to move the Armory-based units to the Muller Center, but with financial help from the city.

The deadline for agreeing on a plan was extended from the end of last year to the end of this June.

Diaz spokesman John DeSio said the borough president's hope is that the LRA adopts some of the suggestions and ideas raised at the public hearing -- scheduled for June 22, at PS 21, 715 E. 225th St. from 6 to 8 p.m. DeSio wouldn't comment on whether Diaz would again refuse to attend a vote if the other LRA members (read: the mayor's office) wouldn't budget on their desire to use the Muller Center as a homeless shelter. If the the LRA doesn't vote, the Muller Center's fate would be decided by the Department of the Defense, which could be swayed by influential members of Congress. DeSio said they might have better luck dealing with the DoD, then with the mayor's office.

LRAs for every former military building that is being closed as part of DoD's BRAC program are instructed to look at the needs of the local homeless population. But LRAs are not limited to transferring the property to homeless service providers.

Representatives of the city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which is managing the LRA process for the mayor's office, have said there's a glaring need for shelters in New York City and that's why they haven't budged on their desire to use the Muller Center to house the homeless.

Update: To see the draft plan for the Muller Center, click here.  

Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 3

Happy New Year everyone.  Here's some Bronx news from the last few days:

The Riverdale Press looks back at the year that was in Riverdale and Kingsbridge.

The Times has an article about prostitutes plying their trade near an elementary school in West Farms. It was written by a student at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and was developed from a piece she wrote for Bronx Ink.

State Sen. Jeff Klein has resigned as Democratic deputy minority leader. He claims he was "disgusted" with the conference's actions under John Sampson's leadership. Some Albany insiders, however, say Klein was pushed out. Regardless, Sampson looks likely to hold onto his job.

Parking meter rates in Manhattan and Queens are about to be raised. The new rates won't hit the Bronx until March.

Police have charged an ex-con with attempted murder and other offenses after he allegedly tried to shoot another man following a parking dispute in Harlem on Saturday. The intended target was uninjured, but one of the bullets grazed the head of a 13-year-old boy.

Last Wednesday, a Bronx teen was knocked down and killed after straying onto the Bruckner Expressway. Police say Malik Jenkins, 18, was being chased by a group of young men intent on harming him.

A Bronx grandmother was struck and killed on the Hutchinson River Parkway on Saturday.  Marcia Clarke-Hinton was being driven by her daughter when their car span out. She was hit when she exited the vehicle.
A five-year-old boy from the Bronx who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident four months ago, has finally been released from hospital.  At the time, doctors feared Joshua Saunders wouldn't survive.

A woman was found murdered in her Longwood apartment last Wednesday.  Police believe her husband was responsible, and are asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to call Crime Stoppers.

Alan Grayson, a congressman from Flordia who was raised in the Bronx, is leaving office on Wednesday, and has parting shots for Democratic and Republicans alike.

A hike through Manhattan and the Bronx by way of the sewer system. See here and here.

Michael Benjamin, the now-ex assemblymember, says the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory should have been turned into a mall. He told Crain's: “We can't constantly keep saying no while making unreasonable demands. We need to put out the signal that the Bronx is a good place to do business.” The Crain's article is subscription only, but you can access it by Googling the headline: "New tack needed as Bronx bombs."
(Most Bronx pols say the City Council was right to reject Related Companies mall plan in late 2009. A recent Norwood News editorial makes the same argument.) 

Two blogger claims NIMBYism ("not in my backyard") is motivating those opposing plans to turn the Muller Army Reserve Center into a homeless shelter.  You can read more about the opposition here.

A year ago, The Times profiled a group of Bhutanese refugees living in a University Heights apartment building. Now, many of the families have made the decision to move on. 

The city's Environmental Protection Agency has released new guidelines for schools handling and removing  light fixtures contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In 2009, a Bronx mother filed a lawsuit after high levels of the toxin were found at a Co-op City school. 

More on the ongoing renovation of the Edgar Allan Poe cottage, including plans for a "wacky" visitor center.  You can read the Norwood News' coverage of the renovation here.

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Bronx Borough President to Appear on NY1 Tonight

Ruben Diaz, Jr., the Bronx borough president, will be appearing on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” this evening.

The show airs at 7 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. Topics for discussion include the Muller Army Reserve Center and the Kingsbridge Armory.

Fate of Muller Center Goes Federal as Bronx Boro Prez and Mayor Lock Horns

In order to block the Bloomberg administration's plan to turn the Muller Army Reserve Center into a homeless shelter, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. once again decided to boycott a scheduled meeting of the three member authority that controls the Muller Center's fate.

The Muller Redevelopment Authority (LRA) -- made up of Diaz, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Tokumbo Shobowale, the chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and managed by the city's quasi-governmental Economic Development Corporation -- needs all three members to vote on a recommendation for the vacant army reserve center. So, no Diaz, no vote. This is the second time, Diaz has missed an authority meeting in protest.

That means the Muller Center's fate will fall back into the hands of the Department of Defense and the federal government. It could become a test of who has more support in Congress: Bloomberg or Diaz.

"We have a lot of friends in Congress," said Diaz spokesman John DeSio, who pointed to Representative Eliot Engel's opposition to the mayor's homeless shelter plan. Engel represents the Wakefield area where the Muller Center sits. 

The deputy mayors have made it clear the mayor's office wants to make Muller a homeless shelter and have not been interested in negotiating the matter. "They aren't budging," DeSio said.

The mayor's office simply is not listening to the voices, or paying attention to the needs, of the community, DeSio said.

Those voices will be represented tomorrow, DeSio said, at a press conference on the steps of City Hall at 1 p.m. In addition to Diaz, he said Bronx elected officials, including Councilman Oliver Koppell, State Senator Jeff Klein and Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, as well as Community Board 12 Chairman Richard Gorman and activists with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and other Wakefield residents will be on hand to let the mayor know they're united against the shelter plans.

Under BRAC guidelines, which the LRA must follow, the authority is required to consider using vacant military buildings like Muller as homeless shelters. But that only means homeless assistance should considered.  It doesn't mean it must become a homeless shelter.

Opponents of the shelter plan say the Wakefield area is already saturated with them.

Is it too early to say the Muller Center is this year's Kingsbridge Armory?

Engel Joins Opposition of Wakefield Homeless Shelters

This morning, Bronx Congressman Eliot Engel came out in strong opposition of proposals that would bring two new homeless shelters to the north Bronx neighborhood of Wakefield.

He provided comments at a public hearing downtown concerning the city's plan to award Project Renewal a $87 million contract to turn a vacant car dealership at 4380 Bronx Blvd. into a 100-bed transitional homeless shelter, saying the Wakefield area would be harmed by the excess influx of homeless shelters.

"The character of the neighborhood, a generally low-rise, low-density homeownership neighborhood, would be disproportionately affected and in a negative way," he said in a statement.

Besides the Bronx Boulevard proposal, there is already a plan to create 63-unit homeless shelter on White Plains Road and the mayor's office says it wants to turn the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center into 200-unit homeless shelter.

Engel also said he supported a plan -- pushed by Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance -- to transfer the national guard units from the Kingsbridge Armory annex buildings into the vacant Muller Center. The annex buildings would then be free to become new schools, as politicians, parents and activists have long advocated for. If not, he said a community center would be more appropriate at the army center.

"The Department of Homeless Services should reconsider these proposals and spare the Wakefield community this disruption of its character and values," Engel said.

Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 2

Happy Election Day, everyone! Make sure you head to the polls today and vote. Here's a roundup of who's running in the Bronx and elsewhere. Now on to this morning's Bronx headlines:

Roberto Huie, a senior at the Eagle Academy for Young Men in Tremont, has been accepted into the prestigious West Point Military Academy.

Family and friends mourned yesterday at the funeral of 17-year-old Luzbenet Ramirez, who was found murdered in a Longwood apartment last week. A 40-year-old man has been arrested in connection with her death.

Catch up on your Bronx political news--including Nelson Castro's unpaid parking tickets and more on the future of the Muller Army Reserve Center--in Bob Kappstatter's weekly column. 

Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg called Yankees fans an "embarrassment" during a radio interview yesterday.

Things are working out well in Morris Heights, where a residence for the mentally ill and chronically homeless was first met with neighborhood protests. Community Board 5 member Bernice Williams said last week that the center's residents are "very good neighbors." 

A 30-year-old Bronx man drove the wrong way on I-81 in upstate New York this weekend. He faces traffic-related charges.

State Assemblyman Michael Benjamin has proposed legislation to put the Board of Elections under mayoral control, following the firing of Executive Director George Gonzalez last week.

To Prevent Wakefield Homeless Shelter, Bronx Boro Prez Not Attending Meeting

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will not attend a meeting downtown tomorrow morning to prevent an authority -- made up of himself, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Tokumbo Shobowale, the chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Robert Steel -- from voting to recommend that a vacant army reserve center in Wakefield be turned into a homeless shelter.

Less than two weeks ago, Diaz sent a letter to the offices of the two deputy mayors expressing his displeasure with their support for turning the Sgt. Joseph A. Muller Army Reserve Center (ARC) into a 200-bed homeless shelter for men.

Diaz said the Bronx had other (better) plans for the site, which the Department of Defense closed as part of its Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) effort.

"Local elected officials at all levels, including my office, have expressed support for relocating the National Guard units from the Kingsbridge Armory to the ARC, and are opposed to the homeless shelter proposal," Diaz wrote in the letter dated Oct. 14.

The removal of the guard units from the Armory's annex buildings would free those buildings up to become schools, which activists have long advocated for and the overcrowded local school district badly needs.

Diaz spokesman John DeSio said Diaz was "not happy" to find out that the other two members of the Muller Local Redevelopment Authority, which was tasked with finding a suitable use for the abandoned reserve center, were planning to vote to recommend the homeless shelter at the authority's scheduled meeting at 11 a.m. at the downtown office of the city's Economic Development Corporation.

After combing through the fine print with lawyers, DeSio said they believe the authority requires Diaz's presence to have an official quorom to vote on anything, including any recommendation. In other words: no Diaz, no vote.

Advocates Want Vacant Army Center Used to Free Up School Space

It’s a game of musical buildings in School District 10.

One of the most crowded districts in the city, parents and advocates have been trying for years to have new school space built at the Kingsbridge Armory Annex, a cluster of buildings on West 195th St. For that to happen, the building’s current tenants—the National Guard—would have to move. Organizers have suggested what they see as a perfect new home for the military units: a now-vacate building in Wakefield known as the Muller Army Reserve Center.

But there’s a catch. The Muller Center, at 555 Nereid Ave., is subject to the Base Reassignment and Closure, or BRAC, process—a federally mandated procedure for closing excess military bases and transitioning them for community use. The process requires that priority be given to the needs of the homeless in the area, making it a possibility that the Muller building could be used as a shelter, an idea community members are resistant to.

“I don’t see any way it could benefit the community,” said Father Richard Gorman, chairperson for Community Board 12. There are already two homeless housing projects in the works in this Wakefield neighborhood, he added, saying the area doesn’t need any additional sites.

Gorman said the proposal to move the National Guard into the facility would be a “win-win” for the neighborhood, as it would be an appropriate use for the building and would simultaneously free up space at the Armory Annex for much-needed schools.

A decision on the Muller Center has been delayed by the city, he said.

The building’s future is in the hands of a Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA)—a panel comprised of the Bronx Borough President and two deputy mayors from Mayor Bloomberg’s Administration.

A spokesman from the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which began accepting Notices of Intent from community groups for use of the building last year, said that no decision has been made yet about the center's future. The deadline was pushed back 270 days to December 15th, according to the spokesman, because the LRA is still reviewing its applications.

Liseth Pérez Almeida, press secretary for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who serves as the Chairman of the LRA, said the Borough President is behind the community's efforts to free up space at the Armory.

“The BP strongly supports using it to house the National Guard units from the Armory to facilitate development of schools,” she wrote.

But the National Guard will have to compete with two community groups who are also vying for the space. An article in the New York Daily News last fall reported that the Doe Fund and the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBro) were petitioning to use the site.

The Doe Fund, a Manhattan-based non-profit that runs a work readiness program and supportive housing for the homeless, said it could not comment on whether or not it had applied.

Phillip Morrow, SoBro’s president and CEO, said the group had indeed submitted an application for the building in response to the EDC’s Requests for Proposals, but that they hadn’t heard anything about it since.

“You probably know about as much as we do,” Morrow said. “It’s sort of fallen off our radar.”

SoBro had proposed using the space to build a Challenger Center—a mock space shuttle that children could use to learn about the science and technology behind space travel. The rest of the building, he said, would be used as permanent housing for the homeless, which SoBro included in the plan to align itself with the EDC’s request. SoBro has since started looking for other buildings to house their space center.

The EDC spokesman said there will be a public hearing, followed by a period for public comment on the reuse plan and homeless assistance submission, before a decision is made by the end of the year. Dates have not yet been set.