Tear down the Sheridan Expressway?

The Hunts Point Express and the New York Times offer different takes on the first meeting in some time between the state Department of Transportation and local residents, advocates and business leaders. The DOT unveiled its predictions for how tearing down the highway would affect car and truck traffic on the streets of Hunts Point, Longwood and West Farms, but the meeting didn't change minds.

Bronx News Roundup, July 15

It's been a sad week for the Yankees. A funeral is being held today in Baldwin, Long Island for legendary announcer Bob Shepphard, who died Sunday at the age of 99.

Meanwhile, a private service is planned for this weekend for owner George Steinbrenner in Florida.

Here in New York, impromptu tributes to "The Boss" are shaping up at Yankee Stadium for this weekend, as the team returns for a home game tomorrow night.

Espada challenger Gustavo Rivera tripped getting off a bus on the Grand Concourse and landed face first on the sidewalk, City Hall News reports. Ouch! But he's not letting the injuries ruin what was otherwise a good week--he's been endorsed by a major political group and is one rival down now that Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter has ended her campaign. 

Speaking of Pilgrim-Hunter: she's being lauded for her decision to drop out of the race by Rivera and his endorser, Bill Samuels of the New Roosevelt Initiative. The fewer the candidates, the better the chance to oust Espada, they say.

In other election news: Gail Goode, a former Bronx assistant district attorney, submitted her signatures to the Board of Elections yesterday to challenge U.S. Senator Kristen Gillibrand. Today is the deadline for state primary candidates to get their petitions in if they want to be on the ballot this fall.

Allegations that the principal of John F. Kennedy High School misused school funds was old news to some, who say the Kingsbridge school had a history of misconduct. 

Movie on Mosholu

Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, in conjunction with Montefiore Medical Center and Beth Abraham Family of Health Services, is sponsoring a free screening of the film, “Transformers” on Mosholu Parkway (between Van Cortlandt and Bainbridge avenues), tomorrow at 8:30 p.m., preceded by a free blood pressure screening at 7 p.m. Bring lawn chairs and blankets. For more information, call Rivera’s office at (718) 409-0109. Other sponsors of the series include Cablevision, BRONXNET, and the Bronx Council on the Arts.

Espada Lost $1.77M for Local Groups

(This story is from the latest edition of the Norwood News, out today.)

State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., who has spent the past year boasting of the “millions” of dollars he has brought into his Bronx district as one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, appears to have left the vast majority of that money on the table.

Last year, state lawmakers received nearly $148 million in discretionary funds, also known as member items or “pork,” to distribute in their districts. Espada managed to score just over $2 million of that for his 33rd district—something he’s played up on campaign fliers and elsewhere.

“I have secured $2.5 million in community project funds designated for many organizations in the district whose services and programs have become a vital lifeline to residents during these difficult times,” Espada said in a press release in February.

But after Espada botched his first two attempts to distribute the funds, it looks like a majority of the money he scored last year — some $1.77 million — never made it anywhere but back to the state.

Several calls and e-mails to Espada’s spokesman seeking clarification about his member item allocations were not returned.

Bronx News Roundup, July 14

If you haven't heard, Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter dropped her bid to oust Pedro Espada from State Senate yesterday. We broke the story last night, The Times has more on it today.

The Wall St Journal reports that million-dollar homes in Villanova Heights, a community in the estates section of Riverdale, are not selling. Read the story here.

County Executives of America wants to bring free broadband wireless service to more than 400,000 Bronx County households. The plan says it will create 15,000 job opportunities in Bronx County.

Officials told The Times yesterday that a plan to demolish the Sheridan Expressway in the South Bronx would increase local traffic.

Bronx politicians are urging St. Barnabas Hospital to allow residents and interns to form a union.

A new Willis Avenue Bridge, which links Manhattan to the South Bronx, is making its way down the Hudson River this week.  The bridge will eventually make its home in the Harlem River to replace its nearly 110-year-old predecessor.

Pilgrim-Hunter Ends Bid to Supplant Espada in Senate

Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, the community activist who led the local fight to defeat the mayor’s plans to build a mall in the Kingsbridge Armory, told the Bronx News Network late on Tuesday that she was ending her candidacy for state Senate in the 33rd District.

“This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ll ever have to make,” she said. “In the interest of making sure that [incumbent state Senator] Pedro Espada is out of office, and also building power in my community, I’ve decided to withdraw.”

Money, or lack of it, was the main reason she decided to end her bid, she said. Despite several fundraisers in supporters’ homes, she had raised only $30,000, while Espada already has more than $300,000 on hand.

“We did a really good job of fundraising,” she said referring to the number of small donors in the community who gave to the campaign. “It wasn’t enough to be able to have an effective fight and win this race.”

Pilgrim-Hunter said that charges made by a local blog relating to her disability status, and the ensuing heated on-line debate, had nothing to do with her decision.(See our article.)

The move comes just two days before candidates are required to submit petitions to get on the ballot. Pilgrim-Hunter says she had little over 1,500 about 3,000 signatures [Pilgrim Hunter called after publication to say that an additional 1,500 signatures collected by the campaign had been brought to her attention.] but that if she didn’t withdraw prior to that deadline, then she wouldn’t be able to remove her name from the primary ballot. As much of a disappointment as it was to her and her team, she said, it would be “worse if we were instrumental in getting Pedro back in office.”

In April, Pilgrim-Hunter, 53, was the first of four Espada challengers to announce their candidacies. The RWDSU (retail workers’ union), which had worked closely with Pilgrim-Hunter on the Armory campaign, endorsed her but other influential unions like 1199 and 32BJ had yet to weigh in probably because they were waiting to see which candidate was strongest after filing petitions and financial reports. Also, the borough’s Democratic Party has yet to back anybody and may not, for fear of alienating Espada, a controversial but powerful politician who singlehandedly brought Albany screeching to a stalemate last summer when he temporarily sided with Republicans, depriving his fellow Democrats of their razor-thin majority.

Pilgrim-Hunter, a leader in the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, with whom she waged the armory battle, says she will remain active in politics but from a different angle. She wants to form a nonprofit 501-c-4 organization to work together with unions and established community organizations to “recruit strong progressive leaders that can enter into all levels of government .”

Such a group would “build community power in a political way which you can’t do as a 501(c)3,” she said. Donations to 501(c)4 groups that are not government entities are not tax-deductible. Many 501(c)3 groups form separate but affiliated 501-c-4’s for the purposes Pilgrim-Hunter describes. Both types of organizations are governed by federal tax law.

Pilgrim-Hunter hasn’t decided yet whether to endorse someone else in the race, but she said she’s clear what she wants the result of the campaign to be.

“Because the goal is to remove Pedro Espada, there has to be just one candidate that is coalesced around,” she said. “It’s clear that if it’s a one-on-one, that’s the best-case scenario. “

Pilgrim-Hunter said she’s not interested in running for elective office herself again. “It is my place to now to develop other [younger] leaders now that I know what it takes,” Pilgrim-Hunter said. “My work is in the community where it all started out. “

Reactions to Steinbrenner's Passing

There's been an outpouring of obituaries and statements from public figures this morning following the death of legendary Bronx Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who passed away from a heart attack today at his home in Tampa, Florida. He was 80 years old.

"This is a sad day not only for Yankee fans, but for our entire City, as few people have had a bigger impact on New York over the past four decades than George Steinbrenner," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. 

"He committed himself and all of the Yankees' resources to one thing and one thing only: winning. And he won quite often," Governor David Paterson said in a press release. "Opposing players and fans may have bristled at his outspoken leadership over the years, but it was only because they wished they had a Steinbrenner of their own."

A number of Bronx politicians, including Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., released their own statements (we included Diaz' words in our news roundup earlier today). Click the jump for more.

Bronx News Roundup, July 13

Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner died in Florida this morning after suffering a heart attack. He was 80 years old. Already, the accolades are coming in thick and fast, including this statement from Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr:

Today I join 1.4 million Bronxites, and Yankee fans across the world, in mourning the passing of a great man, ‘The Boss,’ George Steinbrenner. During his tenure as owner of the New York Yankees, Mr. Steinbrenner did everything in his power to create his own winning tradition in the Bronx, an effort that resulted in seven World Series championships. While other baseball fans were jealous of this success, Yankee fans, like myself, loved him for it. Both the Bronx and New York City have lost a giant today—in baseball and in charity—and my deepest condolences go out to the Steinbrenners and the entire New York Yankees family.

In other news, Sonia Sotomayor, the Bronx-raised supreme court justice, is writing a memoir.

As we mentioned in our story of the day, plans to do away with the Sheridan Expressway are gaining traction.

More on State Senator Pedro Espada's press conference outside the Bronx Board of Elections yesterday, during which he claimed "God is on my side." Here's our coverage of the event.

Bob Kappsatter's weekly political column includes news of Assemblyman Nelson Castro messy divorce, and a look at which Bronx Council members have been awarded the most member item money.

Tentative plans in are place to bring free broadband Internet access to the Bronx, the borough with the highest percentage of households without it.

Bronx detectives believe they know who's responsible for the 1981 murder of 20-year-old Janet Agosto.

In Westchester Square, traffic cops spend their days guarding their colleagues' private vehicles, which are often parked next to expired coin meters, according to the Post.

Bronx schools are set to receive a large slice of the $37 million in capital funds Bronx BP Ruben Diaz, Jr. has at his disposal in fiscal year 2010.

Last Saturday, at a Bronx firehouse on East 150th Street, local residents gathered to commemorate the lives of fire victims and to celebrate the city budget deal which saved several firehouses from closure.

BxNN Story of the Day: Instead of the Sheridan ...

Sam Dolnick of The Times has a story today about a report due out today from the state Department of Transportation that may give cheer to south Bronx community advocates who want to eliminate the Sheridan Expressway (a prime route for truckers headed to the Hunts Point Market). That would restore 13 acres of land that would give the community access to the Bronx River, connect it to other green space and allow the construction of affordable housing (see rendering above). The effort to de-map the Sheridan goes back a long way as the Hunts Point Express, a BxNN affiliate, has documented. For more on the Sheridan in the Express click here, here, here and here.

Espada Fires Back At State Dems; Says He Has 10,000 Signatures

State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., shows off a hefty stack of supporters' signatures at a press conference today on the Grand Concourse.

Despite recent efforts to oust him from the State Democratic Party, State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr., made it clear today that he's ready to compete for re-election in this fall's primary race.

Espada held a press conference this afternoon in front of the Bronx Board of Elections Office, armed with a backpack full of papers—what he said were the signatures of 10,000 supporters in his district (Senate candidates who want to get on the ballot for the September primary are required to collect the signatures of 1,000 unique voters, and have them filed by this Thursday, July 15.)

Espada fired back at his detractors, including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, as well as members of the State Democratic Committee who are urging the Bronx County Democrats to boot him from the party.

(A letter sent by party leaders to Bronx Democratic Chairman Jeff Dinowitz last week said they wanted Espada out based on his history of campaign finance violations, rumors that he doesn't live in his Bronx district, and for his role in last summer's Senate coup. )

"I am supported by 10,000 democrats," an impassioned Espada told the crowd today, holding up his stack of signatures. "The attacks against me are attacks against the community I represent, the Latinos and the African-Americans."

Espada argued that the charges against him are racially motivated and accused the media of "character assassination" and of trying to vilify him.

BxNN Story of the Day: New Kips Bay Clubhouse Welcomed by Residents

The latest edition of Bronx Youth Heard, the publication produced by students in our youth journalism program for high school students, includes this story by Vidal Woods about the new Kips Bay Boys and Girls Clubhouse on University Avenue.

Bronx News Roundup, July 12

There were four shootings in the city on Sunday morning, two in the Bronx.

Seven months later, Glory of Christ Church in Parkchester has reopened after a satanic arsonist, who has yet to be apprehended, torched the place.

The NY Post reports that students at Monroe College are defaulting on their government-backed loans at an unusually high rate.

On BoogieDowner, a Norwood resident calls out people who have misused parking placards in Norwood and Bedord Park.

The family of Albert Hartzog, want the Bronx teenager suspected of murdering him, put to death.Apparently, the teen was upset that Hartzog, who lived the teen's mother, had canceled the cable TV.

Bob Shepphard, the Yankees' legendary public address announcer -- who Reggie Jackson called the "Voice of God" -- died on Sunday at the age of 99.

A doctor with the Bronx's Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine reflects on his program's success making sure HIV-infected mothers don't pass on the virus to their children.

[Note: thanks to intern Samantha Delgado-Perez for compiling these stories and links.]