BxNN Presents: The 33rd Senate District Candidates On the Issues (Part 2)

Two weeks ago, the Bronx News Network asked candidates in 33rd District senate race to answer, in writing, a number of questions which we hope will shed light on where they stand politically, their position on key issues in the community, and what they would do if elected.

In the coming days we're going to post their unedited answers on this blog, a few at a time. Part 1 was published yesterday.

There are four candidates in the race - Pedro Espada, Jr. (the incumbent), Daniel Padernacht, Gustavo Rivera, and Fernando Tirado - which is turning into one of the most watched in the city. Padernacht, Rivera, and Tirado got back to us with answers, but Espada didn't. In an e-mail, a staffer of his wrote: "Thank you for the survey, however we will not be participating at this time. The Senator's positions will be made available via other media, including his website and Facebook, at a later date."

Part 2

QUESTION: If you were a member of the City Council last December, would you have voted for or against the Bloomberg administration’s proposal to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping mall? Do you support legislation in the Council right now that would mandate developers seeking city subsidies to require retail tenants to pay a living wage to their workers?

Bronx News Roundup, July 2

Bronx assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo is defending her aide, Wilfredo Nazario, claiming that his arrest on charges of burglary, grand larceny, criminal impersonation, possession of stolen property and trespassing was "a big mistake." The Daily News has the story.

Two wild deer were rescued from the parking lot of the River Plaza Target in Kingsbridge yesterday. At around 3 p.m., the deer were taken from the superstore to Animal Care & Control on 110th St. in Manhattan.

The Bronx Zoo's flock of endangered Waldrapp ibis have produced six chicks after listening to soundtracks of mating calls. The babies are the birds' first offspring in seven years.

The New York City Police Department is increasing its overnight patrols in parts of the Bronx in an effort to deter violence and respond to criminal acts faster. The Times has the details.

Bronx assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is proposing free bus transfer cards for riders of the Bx20 in Riverdale and the Bx34 in Woodlawn. The recent MTA service cuts have resulted in a 100% fare hike for riders in these areas, he says. Read more here.

The murderer of Mary Bea, whose body was found in garbage bags in several locations around the Bronx in 1990, was sentenced to 12 years in jail. Smail Tulja will serve his sentence in Montenegro, where he was arrested and charged.

After hosting a charity dinner last November for the Bronx River Arts Center, Natalie Jeremijenko and Mihir Desai are treating guests to a good meal, and a lesson on environmental health. The Scientist has the story.

Twelve Bronx assistant district attorneys will lose their jobs this month as a result of the New York City financial plan, which significantly reduces the office’s funding for the fiscal years of 2011 and 2012.

The Riverdale Press reports that personal information of Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy students littered West 236th Street yesterday after records that were set out for paper recycling got lose and were blown by a stiff breeze.

Note: Don't forget to check out our new events calendar by clicking on the "What's Going On?" link on the upper right-hand corner of the page. You can also just click here.

Bronx Unemployment Hits 13.9%; Highest in City and State

Ouch. The Bronx unemployment rate jumped again, to 13.9% for December, compared to 13.1% in November and 9.5% in December of 2008, according the latest labor statistics coming out of the state department. And that's only counting those still actively looking for work.

The city's employment rate is 10.6%. Brooklyn's is 11.2%, Queens' is 9.3%, Manhattan's is 9%.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 29

The Daily News' Bronx reporters look back at the year that was.

A 12-year-old girl was killed this morning when the SUV she was travelling in flipped over on the Bruckner Expressway.  Police say the car was being driven by a 15-year-old boy. 

Through last Sunday, murders in the Bronx are down 20 percent this year on 2008 levels. 

The Times has published an interactive map showing unemployment rates in different neighborhoods, and among different ethnic groups. 

On Christmas Eve a construction worker from the Bronx survived an eight-story fall from a building in Midtown.

Yesterday afternoon, a pregrant Bronx woman gave birth outside (not inside) Jacobi Medical Center. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 16

At a hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, a slew of Bronxites, including several representatives from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, urged the Federal Reserve and the government in general to do more to help struggling homeowners.

A front page story in the NY Times about the tribulations of the housing and organizing group, Acorn, starts off with former city housing commissioner Shaun Donovan praising the group for its work on a South Bronx affordable housing development. Lots of interesting stuff in this article, including its ties to the Working Families Party, which has wielded a lot of political clout in Bronx and city races this fall.

Here's the Stella D'oro cookie factory closing story from the workers' side. Here's the story from business/owners' side.

The state released its September unemployment figures yesterday. The Bronx unemployment rate jumped one-tenth of a percentage point to 13.3 percent. The overal city unemployment also jumped one-tenth of a point to 10.3 percent. The state rate is 8.9 percent.

A Bronx woman is suing a Manhattan club for excluding her because of her race.

The Bronx's JFK High School girl volleyball team improved to 6-0 this year.

DeWitt Clinton's football squad is ranked 8th in the city, according to the latest poll in the NY Post. Clinton play rival JFK, at JFK, this afternoon at 5 pm.

Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 6

State Senator Jeff Klein is considering running for attorney general, should current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo run for governor.

A sickly Westchester boy - whose father lives in Norwood - traveled to the Dominican Republic recently for stem-cell treatment. The procedure is illegal here in the US.

Unemployment in the Bronx is actually down on 2007 levels.

Last weekend, Rocking the Boat, a Bronx-based organization that uses boat-building to empower youth, organized a boat-trip around Manhattan, to raise money for charity.

Animal Feeds, a 4,000-square-foot store in Morrisana that sells what its name implies, is doing brisk business, despite the recession.

The first doses of the H1N1/swine flu vaccine have arrived in the city. Health care workers at Montefiore Medical Center will be among the first to be vaccinated. In their monthly column in the Mount Hope Monitor, Morris Heights Health Center has more on what you need to know this year to stay flu-free.

NY1 profiles State Senator Pedro Espada for Hispanic Heritage Week.

Allison Oldak, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.'s Republican opponent in the Nov. 3 election, has yet to raise any money for her campaign. In April, in a special election, Diaz faced another cash-strapped challenger in Anthony J. Ribustello.

By my count, three Bronxites - Diaz, Adolfo Carrion (Diaz's predecessor who now works for the White House), and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor - have been included in Hispanic Business Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential Hispanic-Americans. There's no room, however, for Espada, who's arguably more influential than both Diaz and Carrion.

Bloomberg in the Bronx

Mayor Bloomberg is continuing his outer borough push today with a stop in Co-op City to talk about jobs. According to the press release from Bloomberg's press people, the Mayor will be announcing that the City has achieved a "record" amount of job placements through the first quarter of 2009.

He'll be at 2100 Barstow Blvd. at 10:15 a.m. to talk about his job placement achievement and to answer questions.

We've asked for more details on this "record" amount of job placements. Last month, the Bronx unemployment rate was in the double digits.

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.)

Bronx News Roundup for Sept. 21

Cops shot and injured an armed man in Williamsbrige early Friday morning. The man, a passenger in a stolen car, was wielding a kitchen knife, cops said.

New York City's unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in August, unchanged from July, but up 1 percent from August 2006. The Bronx has the highest rate out of all the boroughs - 7.8 percent in August, down from 8.1 percent in July.

The Bronx Borough Board still hasn't voted on the new Yankee Stadium parking subsidy deal, according to StreetsBlog. Here's a Norwood News editorial about the parking garages.

Yesterday's Sun looked at how the Mets and the Yankees are getting on with their new ballparks. Construction crews, say the paper, are working at breakneck speed to get ahead before winter comes.

Bernie Williams, the former Yankees outfielder and now a guitarist in a jazz band, performs tomorrow night at Utopia's Paradise Theater, on the Grand Concourse. The evening also features a play starring Williams' former teammates, Jim Leyritz and Darryl Strawberry. Proceeds will go towards the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club of America. Kips Bay, by the way, are looking at opening a new community center in University Heights, in the long-vacant Hebrew Institute.

News Roundup for August 17

Several papers reported on the Mayor's new Street Conditions Observation Unit, or SCOUT. It's a team of 15 inspectors who will patrol the city in small golf-cart-like vehicles to look for unfilled potholes, overflowing trash basins and other quality of life complaints. This is a way for the city to take more initiative in finding and resolving these problems, rather than depending on irate New Yorkers to call 311. Here's the New York Times coverage.

The Times also has an item on the 19-year-old leak in the tunnel that carries half of NYC's water supply from the Catskills. A report by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli estimates that the spilled water costs the city $24 to $28 million a year. Added to the constantly growing costs of the Croton water filtration plant, and this could represent another burden for ratepayers.

The Sun takes a shot at the dozen city commissioners and elected officials who take off early on Fridays in the summer.

Newsday reported yesterday that New York's unemployment rate is up to 4.9 percent, with the City's unemployment up to 5.7 percent and the Bronx at 8.1 percent.

The Daily News reports that a Bronx Family Court judge caught the attention of TV producers after reports that she's been called before the state commission on judicial conduct for allegedly making rude comments toward lawyers, court officers and litigants.