State Senator Pedro Espada is holding a rally in Albany on Monday at 1 p.m. to urge passage of his "rent freeze" bill. We covered the controversial measure in this February post.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Pilgrim-Hunter Said to Announce Espada Challenge Tomorrow
We've held back on reporting this because we've gotten no official word from the campaign, but the blogosphere is loaded with reports that Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter will announce her candidacy for state Senate in the 33rd District tomorrow on Kingsbridge Road near the Bronx Library Center at 11 a.m. We profiled Pilgrim-Hunter when she first began exploring a run. Read it here.
At www.capitoltonight.com Liz Benjamin reports that the campaign has hired BerlinRose a political consulting firm. She has also retained fundraiser Lisa Hernandez Gioia, the wife of former Councilman Eric Gioia.
Rocking the Boat's New HQ in Hunts Point
I took this video on March 25 of Jhairo Colon, an 18-year-old program assistant at Rocking the Boat, at the organization's celebration of their impressive new facility on Edgewater Road next to Hunts Point Riverside Park. Rocking the Boat trains teens in boatbuilding and they develop leadership and job skills along the way. As RTB likes to say, "Kids don't just build boats at Rocking the Boat, boats build kids."
Colon has been with Rocking the Boat for four years. He lives in the Fordham Road area and attends Lehman College. For more information on Rocking the Boat, go to www.rockingtheboat.org.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Villaverde to Challenge Jose Rivera
Sergio Villaverde, an attorney and former police officer, announced in a press release earlier this week that he will challenge Assemblyman, and former party boss, Jose Rivera in the Democratic primary in the 78th District in September.
I spoke briefly with Villaverde, a Kingsbridge Heights resident, on the phone yesterday.
"We have some good grassroots support," he said, adding that he'll be bankrolling part of the campaign himself.
"Since the state doesn't limit how much a candidate can contribute to his own race, that makes it a lot easier," Villaverde said. "I'm not going to be asking too many people for money."
Still, Villaverde is holding a fundraiser at the Hard Rock Cafe in Yankee Stadium on April 26. And he says he'll be out knocking on doors soon.
Villaverde was a cop for 10 years and now practices family law. He's a member of Community Board 8 and was once a member of Community Board 7. He ran for City Council when Adolfo Carrion vacated his 14th District seat to run for borough president, but lost to Rivera's protege, Maria Baez.
We'll have more on this race soon.
Diaz Discusses Armory, Schools and More on BronxTalk
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. appeared on BronxTalk with Gary Axelbank on Monday night, where he discussed the Kingsbridge Armory, development, sheltering the homeless in the Bronx, the charter revision commission, charter schools, mayoral control of schools, and more. (Watch above.)
This coming Monday night, Axelbank's show will focus on charter schools and on April 26 Public Advocate Bill de Blasio will be the guest. The show is live Monday night at 9 p.m. on BRONXNET channel 67 (Cablevision) and re-airs at the same time throughout the week.
Bronx News Roundup, April 15
An Iraq War veteran became a Bronx hero after saving a life at yesterday's Yankee Game. Toby Weiss, the wife of Bronx Rabbi Avi Weiss, was choking on her kosher London broil yesterday when John Stone spotted her from 15 rows back. Stone, an Army medic from Connecticut, rushed to Weiss' side and helped her expel the obstruction. For his heroics, Stone and his party were upgraded to front row seats in the stadium's Legends section.
Police are looking for two Bronx sisters who went missing from their neighborhood yesterday evening. Ella and Genesis Rodriguez, 15 and 16 respectively, were last seen around E. 174th St. yesterday.
Another missing Bronx girl, Mallorie Alaya, is being sought out by police after going missing on April 4 from her Lacombe Avenue home.
One current and one former Bronx cops are looking at serious jail time if convicted of slinging cocaine in the Bronx. Rafael Jiminez (auxiliary) and Alfredo Rivera (ex-cop) are being charged with conspiracy after allegedly being observed moving serious weight in a drug deal last month.
Somebody call the waaaaaambulance! Javier Vasquez is upset over his reception at last night's Yankees game, in which he pitched a stinky 9.82 ERA. Fans were not amused.
And, finally, real estate broker Robert Knackal gives his analysis of the Kingsbridge Armory development drama. He thinks the community and local politicians blew it by opposing and then killing the plan to turn the Armory into a shopping mall. Former Councilman Israel Ruiz, Jr. expressed a similar opinion in the Daily News on Tuesday [no link].
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Inside the Bronx's Biggest Construction Project
Yes, the project is vastly over budget and hasn't delivered Bronxites with the amount of jobs promised to them when the city pitched the community the plan to take over a huge chunk of Van Cortlandt Park and use it for a water filtration plant. But this tour was designed to show people what they're getting for that $3 billion, which will be paid for through a 12.9% hike in water rates this year and probably near that amount in the years to come.
Daly -- pictured standing in a pipe that will one day pump clean, filtered water into city homes -- says the project is about 60% complete and should be done sometime in 2012.
I took some video, which we'll try to get up in the next few days and we'll have more details in next week's edition of the Norwood News. But my first impressions are that this an enormous and incredibly complex project. In fact, it's the biggest municipal construction project in New York City history [Update: I guess I was wrong about this, but the contract awarded to Skanska for the actual construction of the plant is the biggest single contract the city has awarded, according to Daly.] . There are somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400 workers on site every day. Sand Hogs, carpenters, electricians, crane operators, masons, steel workers, safety guys, security, spotters. Really, it's impressive, which I think was the point of the tour.
This project has been criticized before it even began and has been plagued by missteps and miscalculations that have enraged the surrounding communities and the activist watchdogs holding the DEP's feet to the fire.
But in the end, Daly -- a relentlessly enthusiastic and energetic man who obviously loves his job (the guy relishes the monthly DEP community meetings, which other DEP officials have treated like trips to the dentist) -- remains optimistic about how it will be received by the community. "I think people are really going to appreciate it," he told me. We'll see. Click on the "read more" for more photos inside, outside and on top of this behemoth.
Bronx News Roundup, April 14
Lots of political news today.
Adolfo Carrión, Jr., the former Bronx borough president and director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, will give the keynote presentation for the Regional Planning Association's 2010 Regional Assembly on Friday, April 16 at 12:30 p.m. His address will be streamed live at http://www.citylimits.org/.
Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, who is expected to soon officially announce her candidacy for state Senate in the 33rd District, will have some company in her primary challenge of Pedro Espada. Bob Kappstatter had the news first yesterday in his must-read Bronx Boro News political column: Kingsbridge Heights attorney and Community Board 8 member Daniel Padernacht has thrown his hat in the ring, too. (Lots of other juicy tidbits in that column, like news of a primary challenge to Assemblyman Peter Rivera).
On her new blog, Liz Benjamin has some updates on Pilgrim-Hunter's campaign, including the fact that she's hired Lisa Hernandez-Gioia (wife of former Councilman Eric Gioia) to help her raise money.
In a Daily News editorial, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. is praised for his "courage" in sponsoring a bill that would cancel a clause in teachers' contracts which stipulates that layoffs are based on seniority.
The healthcare union 1199/SEIU is backing State Senator Eric Schneiderman in the state attorney general's race. Schneiderman also has the backing of several prominent Bronx pols.
Despite running for borough president in 2001, State Senator Pedro Espada would like to see the office eliminated. In a statement, he said, in part:
I am recommending that the offices of borough president and city public advocate be abolished in this round of charter revision, not as a political slap at anyone in these positions, but because we have a sensible and realistic opportunity to reduce city government and empower the people.Away from politics, an alewife herring has been caught in the Bronx River for the second year in a row, a sign that the once heavily polluted waterway is becoming healthy again. We'll have more on this in the next Tremont Tribune, which comes out Friday.
A Riverdale man has pled guilty to accidently shooting and injuring a woman with an arrow last spring. At the time, the case baffled detectives and local residents.
A look back at the history of the University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP), which was founded in 1983 to preserve safe, affordable housing for working class Bronxites. Today, in this latest housing crisis, the group's important work continues.
On Easter Sunday, four people were shot in three separate incidents in midtown Manhattan. Hours later, one of the guns fired that night was used to shoot two men in the Bronx, police have discovered.
More photos of the ongoing demolition work at the old Yankee Stadium.
A new Fairway supermarket is opening today in Pelham Manor, a Westchester village just north of the Bronx.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Scheiderman Running For AG; Bronx Pols Lining Up in Support
So far, he's enlisted the support of a slew of prominent Bronx politicians, including the Serranos (Congressman Jose E. and State Senator Jose M.) as well as Council members Fernando Cabrera, Oliver Koppell, Annabel Palma and Melissa Mark-Viverita, State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (aka the mayor of Riverdale).
Not all the biggest players -- Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and Bronx County Chairman Carl Heastie are notable exceptions -- but it's a good start for Scheiderman, considered one of the more progressive and productive members of the much-maligned state senate.
Other Democratic heavies on board include Congressmen Charles Rangel and Jerry Nadler, Senate Majority Leader John Sampson and Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
This could have wider implications on Bronx politics. If he wins, it's been rumored that Koppell might take a shot at Schneiderman's seat, which is not term limited. And judging by the Riverdalian's tirade against term limits last night at the Bronx charter revision hearing, he's looking to stay in elected office for the foreseeable future.
Bronx News Roundup, April 13
Mayor Bloomberg's $63 billion budget plan will cut more than half of pest control jobs in the city. Politicians says this could possibly lead to a bigger rat infestation in the Bronx.
A new law says the city can remove graffiti from buildings whether property owners respond to waivers or not.
The landlord of 1585 E. 172 in Soundview could end up in jail if necessary repairs aren't made. Tenants have been fighting in court for over a year.
Last night's Charter Revision Commission meeting at Hostos Community College took a turn when Councilman Koppell exceeded his time limit by four minutes as made a plea for an end to term limits.
Two Democratic state lawmakers sponsored a bill that gives principals in NYC the power to choose what teachers should lose their job due to budget cuts.
Police are searching for missing Bronx sisters. Both were last seen Friday on E. 174th Street.
Bronx resident Alex Johnson is going to college through new program that allows carpenters to receive college credit for apprentice work.
In the Daily News, Patrice O'Shaughnessy writes about Castle Hill resident Andrea Magnotti, a woman with bipolar disorder. Magnotti will be taking part in a public walk to raise awareness and funds for the National Alliance of Mental Illness' New York office.
An elderly Bronx male of 801 Co-Op Boulevard is missing. Police are seeking the public's help in finding him.
A Promised Track Finally Comes On-Line
Most of the news about the replacement parks the city promised in return for taking parkland for the new Yankee Stadium is not good -- lots and lots of missed deadlines (not the least of which is the ridiculously long time to take down the old Yankee Stadium).
But David Gonzalez had a nice piece the other day about one bright spot in the as yet unfulfilled landscape where kids and their track coaches finally have a place to chase their dreams. Check it out.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Montefiore Leads Fight For Sugary Drinks Tax
On Friday morning, Dr. Steven Safyer (speaking in video), the president of Montefiore Medical Center, made an impassioned plea for the implementation of the sugary drinks tax, a.k.a. the "soda tax."
The fight for and against this proposed state tax -- which health officials say would amount to about a 17% increase in the cost of drinks with a high sugar content (Coke, Pepsi, Snapple, Orange Crush, etc.) -- is being waged on airwaves, in supermarkets and on city streets.
Crain's estimated last week that the beverage industry (against the tax) and the Alliance for a Healthier New York (for the tax) had each spent some $2.9 million on their respective campaigns.
The beverage industry is making the argument that this is an unfair tax that will hit working-class families hardest. But Safyer, who spoke at a press conference at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, and the alliance say it will only affect families who continue to make the unhealthy choice of buying sugar-heavy drinks that are a primary culprit in the the Bronx's (and the state's) growing obesity and diabetes "epidemic."
Health care officials say this tax is an easy win-win. It will cut consumption of sugary drinks by an estimated 10% (which obviously isn't good news for the beverage companies) which, in turn, will prevent 150,000 people from becoming obese, according to Deputy Health Department Commissioner Dr. Andrew Goodman, who also participated in the press conference.
In addition, while it's unclear exactly where the tax money will go, Ken Raske, president and CEO of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said the funding would go back into the state's struggling hospitals. He pointed to the recent shuttering of lower Manhattan's St. Vincent's Hospital as a reminder of what can happen when a facility is "chronically" underfunded.
Montefiore kicked off the press conference with a health fair where they showed some of the effects of drinking soda. Doctors there compared the proposed tax to the taxes on cigarettes, saying the taxes had proved effective. They compared the obesity epidemic to tuberculosis outbreaks and the spread of AIDS/HIV in the 1980s.
This fight, inevitably, will end up in the hands of the state legislature. So far, Bronx senators Jeff Klein and Ruth Hassell-Thompson have stated their opposition to the tax, while Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz says he's for it. If you know of others who have stated their position, let us know.
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