Reader Report on Tenant Harrassment Bill Hearing

Thought I'd post this more prominently. It's a report from reader Michelle about the Council hearing this morning about Council bill Inro. 627, which would offer tenant's more protection.

"Some Council Members today were concerned with assessing how fair 627 would be for both landlords and tenants. They were preoccupied with the notion that 627 be balanced. Some other Council Members pointed out HPD's inconsistencies and emphasized what a historic bill it would be. Representatives of the City-wide Tenant Housing Corp. did an amazing job defending the bill!"

Feel free to join the conversation if you have a different take on the proceedings, or if you'd like to add anything to Michelle's comments.

Tenant Harrassment Hearing Thursday Morning

City Council is holding a second hearing on what they are calling "landmark tenant harassment legislation" (Intro. 627) tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

Mt. Hope Monitor editor James Fergusson wrote about the bill when housing advocates protested against Bronx Council Member Maria Baez for introducing and sponsoring a competing bill, Inro. 638 (as did Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera) that was deemed decidedly pro-landlord.

Baez and Rivera's pro-landlord bill is now dead after they dropped their support for it in December, but the pro-tenant bill (627), championed by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, is gaining momentum.

Several housing groups here in the northwest Bronx are working hard to push 627 through the Council and it would be a huge victory for them and the tenants they are working for if it passes.

Stay tuned. We'll hopefully have an update on this legislation toward the end of the week.

Bronx News Roundup for Jan. 2

New York Magazine profiles Dion DiMucci, who has a new blues album out – 'Son of Skip James'– a follow up to 'Bronx in Blue' of a couple of years ago. Photo at right (Dion is at center, with Robert Klein at left and Danny Aiello at right) is from last June’s Bronx Ball, at the Loew’s Paradise Theater, now called the Utopia Paradise.

So, it looks like a $70 million subsidy has been earmarked for a new parking garage next to the new Yankee Stadium that will be used mostly by the team and their VIPs, according to Juan Gonzalez in today’s Daily News. Meanwhile, Gonzalez also reports that game day parking prices will double to $29 in 2010 and that the parking garages are now $80 million over budget.

This article looks at the urban movement for sustainable development in the Bronx and in California.

The Washington Post takes a look at the dueling tenant harassment bills in the City Council – no information West Bronx Blog readers didn’t already know, but interesting that it made the D.C. paper.

The Albany Times Union reports that one-in-five lawmakers in the state legislature has broken the law in recent years.

We just discovered this new Bronx Web site called Talk Bronx. Not sure who's behind it. If you know, let us know.

The deadline to register to vote if you want to vote in the Feb. 5 presidential primary is Jan. 11.

Bronx News Roundup for Dec. 6

The Times takes a look at the 60-year-old Bronx Symphony Orchestra and a new system of arts funding that might make it more difficult for the symphony to continue.

I thought I had it good at Vassar College where the female to male ratio in the 1980s was 3:2. Well, here’s a story about a Bronx kid who is the ONLY male student Wellesley this year.

Parkchester native Pvt. Isaac T. Cortes, 26, who died in Iraq, is laid to rest.

River Park, which is next to a Bronx River waterfall at 180th Street and Boston Road gets new play equipment, a children’s amphitheater and more.

Speaking of the Bronx River, looks like Jose the Beaver has been busy doing some chompin’.

Council members, who get paid $112,500 a year discussed at a hearing yesterday how much outside work its members permitted and those lucrative additional stipends (which go to members who head a committee or subcommittee – which is almost all of them) known as “lulus.” Guess what? There’s not a heck of lot of support for doing things any differently. In opposing proposed changes, Bronx councilman Larry Seabrook said he “took an oath to serve, not an oath of poverty.”

And the Village Voice’s Tom Robbins takes a close look at two competing tenant harassment bills in the City Council. The one that is more favorable to landlords is sponsored by Council Member Maria Baez and Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, both of the Bronx. The Mount Hope Monitor will have more on this when the upcoming issue hits the streets later this week.