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| Members of the tenant rights group CASA at last week's Bronx rent reform rally. (Photo by J. Evelly) |
Welcome to Monday, Bronx folks. I woke up this morning to the sporadic hissing of the radiator and immediately went about locating my long johns. Despite the calendar's best attempts to tell us otherwise, it's clear winter is making an extended appearance in 2011. Indeed, it remains long john weather. Weather.com says it's 28 degrees this morning, but feels like 16. Temperatures are expected to rise to a less bitter 44 by the afternoon.
To the news!
Story of the Day: Budget Deal Cuts Health and Education Spending
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Albany legislative leaders, five days before the April 1 deadline, announced a budget deal last night that would decrease overall spending by 2 percent and include no new taxes. The deal would, however, cut $2 billion in spending on health care and education, drawing immediate criticism from advocates. Before the budget deal was reached, many city Democrats, including Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera, said such cuts would not have been as substantial if Cuomo had renewed the so-called "millionaire's tax," which had increased tax rates for wealthy New Yorkers over the past two years, but was set to expire this year. On Friday, Rivera told BxNN he wasn't especially confident the millionaire's tax or the extension of rent regulations -- another Bronx Democratic priority -- would be included in this budget, but Democrats would be pushing for both in separate legislation.
On the plus side, state funding for senior centers -- the absence of which could have led to the closing of dozens of Bronx centers -- has been tentatively restored. Details on the budget will be hammered out this week. We'll have more as they come in.
Quick Hits:
In a story that went national, on Friday afternoon, the Bronx Zoo closed its Reptile House indefinitely as it looks for a missing Egyptian cobra. “We are confident that the snake, about 20 inches long, is contained in a non-public, isolation area within the building,” Zoo officials said. As of last night, the snake was still missing. Somewhere, Indiana Jones is terrified. No word yet on whether the Zoo has called in Samuel L. Jackson, who has a history of battling snakes on planes.
A wild car chase on Friday night (early Saturday morning) between police and a fugitive ended in a traffic jam on the Major Deegan, near Alexander Avenue, with cops firing 19 shots and killing 28-year-old Bronxite Orlando Santos, who had an extensive criminal record, but was unarmed. Police said Santos tried to run officers down with his car and would not stop despite repeated warnings. Santos' sister said the shooting was unjustified and friends of Santos orchestrated a protest by slowly retracing the chase route and causing more traffic jams. Here's a map showing the chase route.
According to Census data, the areas of Melrose and Morrisania experienced some of the highest rates of growth in the city, with population up 27.1 percent since the last Census in 2000.
UniverSoul Circus performed in the Bronx this past week on 149th Street. (A toddler was hurt during one of the shows.) Just for fun, here's a youtube clip:
Two lawsuits have been filed in the deadly tour bus crash in the Bronx two weeks ago.
Local residents who live around Yankee Stadium are dreading the coming of Opening Day on Thursday, saying parking in the area turns into a huge, complicated problem.
Speaking of the Yankees, Forbes said the value of the famed Bronx franchise went up 6 percent this past year and is now worth $1.7 billion, almost double the value of the next most valuable team, the Boston Red Sox ($912 million). The average major league team, Forbes says, is worth $543 million.
To operators of the struggling Yankee Stadium parking garages might want to tap into some of those substantial team resources to help dig themselves out of debt, sources told the Daily News.
We'll have more on this, but the City Council last week approved the rezoning of Webster Avenue.
Montefiore Medical Center has revamped its intensive care units and it's working.
Non-profits and community organizations in the Bronx, and all across the state, might not be getting their usual grants from state legislators this year. Governor Paterson vetoed thousands of member item requests (among other cuts) in an attempt to balance the state's long-overdue budget. He delivered his list of vetoes to legislators yesterday; you can check out what got nixed here.
Speaking of political pork: City Councilman Oliver Koppell didn't fair so well this year in securing district funds compared to other council members, according to the Riverdale Press.
This stifling heat wave is finally starting to drop off (thankfully!). Unfortunately, thousands of outer borough residents are still without power, as Con Edison works to repair outages caused by this week's strain on the power grid.
A Bronx man was arrested on animal cruelty charges after leaving his dog in a van while he went for a swim. Police tried to revive the animal after freeing it from the 140 degree car, but the dog died shortly after.
The New York Times has a story and photo slideshow on the growing Mexican population in Belmont, the neighborhood traditionally known as the borough's "little Italy."
Bronx-native and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor raved about her dumpling lunch in Chinatown yesterday but had little to say about Lindsey Lohan's recent legal troubles, according to the Daily News.
A man who tried to rob two women on East 180th Street last year--an attempt that scored him a measly $4--was sentenced to life in prison this week based on a number of previous convictions and unlawful run-ins.
While lawmakers in Albany have yet to come to an agreement on a state budget for the next fiscal year—despite being nearly three months past deadline—the New York City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed on a $63 billion city budget on June 24, and the Council voted to approve the budget today.
In a statement, Bloomberg and the Council announced that the budget was balanced, ahead of its July 1st deadline and doesn’t raise taxes. Still, belt-tightening measures will be taken at every city agency to close a recession-fueled budget gap, the Mayor said in a radio address this weekend.
