The latest issue of the Highbridge Horizon is up on the Web. Featured in this issue: A series of tragedies in Highbridge took its toll on the neighborhood as 2007 wound to a close.... Cristina Alesci examines how South Bronx tenants might be impacted by the takeover of their buildings by large private investment firms....Highbridge residents have taken their battle for a new middle school to City Hall.... And new soccer and softball fields are set to open this spring at the West Bronx Recreation Center, generating excitement from some quarters and controversy from others.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Battle in the Bronx to Save Hip-Hop's Home
Here's some shots from this morning's press conference at 1520 Sedgwick Ave., aka the "home the hip-hop," a 100-unit apartment complex in Morris Heights.
It's a building, say housing advocates, that's in danger of losing its affordability, following the landlord's decision, last February, to remove it from Mitchell-Lama housing program, a state program whereby landlords keep rents low in return for tax credits.
At today's event, tenants announced their intention to buy the building themselves (with a little help from HPD) and to convert the apartments into affordable cooperatives. The amount they've raised, however, is a couple of million short of what real estate developer, Mark Karasick, is after. A fundraising Web site has been launched to generate publicity and pull in the rest.
The west Bronx has become a graveyard of sorts for Mitchell-Lama buildings. In 2006, for example, both 1655 Undercliff Ave. and 1889 Sedgwick Ave. were yanked from the program. But it's 1520 Sedgwick Ave. that's getting the attention, chiefly because of its official status as the birthplace of a multi-billion dollar industry.
Originally, tenants and advocates hoped that the building's musical legacy, and the fact that it's now eligible to be listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, would block the Mitchell-Lama buyout. This now seems unlikely, hence the tenants' decision to try and purchase it.
Pictured above is hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc, who lived in the building in the 1970s. (Herc said he'll be calling P Diddy, 50 Cent, and other stars with deep pockets to ask for a contribution.) Below is New York Senator Chuck Schumer with tenants. Above right, a view of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. from the street. (Photos by J. Fergusson)
More here in The Times. And here's what The Times' David Gonzalez wrote about 1520 Sedgwick Ave. back in May. 
Bronx News Roundup January 15
DJ Kool Herc -- widely considered the founder of hip-hop-- is joining forces with tenants of his former West Bronx home, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue , in an effort to save the building from being sold to a private investor. In 1973, Herc threw a party in the rec room of the building, and many people consider this the launching point for hip-hop. Today, Herc, longtime tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Ave, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York)are among those at a press conference at the building to announce their intention to raise $14 million to purchase the building themselves. Check out David Freedlander's front-page story in AM New York.
Bob Kapstatter reports that there was a slight decrease in parking tickets issued in the Bronx in 2007 -- a 0.7 percent decrease from 2006. This downturn was not nearly as large as the citywide reduction of 6 percent. Here in the West Bronx, the 44th Precinct, which includes Highbridge saw a 14.4 percent decrease in tickets issued. The 46th Precinct, encompassing Fordham, Mount Hope, University Heights, and Morris Heights, witnessed a 13.8 downfall in tickets issued. However, the 52nd Precinct, which includes Kingsbridge, Norwood, and Bedford Heights, saw a slight increase -- 2.7 percent -- in parking tickets issued.
The notion that the Bronx is thriving economically has become a staple of Borough President Adolfo Carrión's speeches in recent years. But this article by Dorian Block in the Daily News suggests that it depends on how you measure economic development.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Bronx News Roundup Jan. 14
In the Bronx, Internet cafes are as rare as Starbucks. It's good to hear, then, that one (an Internet cafe, not a Starbucks) is about to be built in Soundview. (More here on the borough's digital divide and what's being done to correct it.)
In the Post today, there's a look at a "murderous gang turf war" that's engulfed several Manhattan high schools. The violence has been fueled by the rivalry of two Dominican gangs, Dominicans Don't Play (aka DDP) and the Trinitarios, says the paper. Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan, has been hit the hardest, but both gangs are active in the west Bronx, too. DDP gang members, for example, have been linked to an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was shot in the back and seriously injured following a house party on Marion Avenue in Fordham, last spring.
Yet another kick in the teeth for opponents of the new Yankee Stadium.
Rates of infant mortality, bucking a city-wide trend, increased in the Bronx from six deaths per 1,000 births in 2005, to seven per 1,000 in 2006, according to a new study. In 2006, the Bronx also recorded the highest percentage of babies born to teenage mothers, at 12 percent of all births. Brooklyn, with 7 percent, was second. More here, in what, above statistics aside, is a mostly positive take on the city's health.
Bronx pol Helen Foster is one of only four Democratic Council members supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The other 48 are in Hillary Clinton's camp.
Friday, January 11, 2008
News Roundup January 10
The City University of New York (CUNY) is asking for $178 million to renovate buildings at Bronx Community College.
Councilmember Helen Diane Foster, whose 16th Congressional District includes Highbridge and Morrisania, got the kicker quote in Diane Cardwell's piece about Barack Obama in today's New York Times. Read what Foster had to say about why she is supporting Obama over Hilary Clinton.
Two people were arrested on Sedgwick Avenue after police said they found more than $500,000 worth of heroin at their apartment.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
New Norwood News Stories Online Now
Check out a fresh batch of Norwood News stories, online now.
Hard copies will be out on the streets of Norwood, Bedford Park, North Fordham and University Heights tomorrow.
Enjoy and become informed about your neighborhoods.
Victorious: Clinton and McCain
Hillary Clinton, then, somehow defied pundits and pollsters to snatch a win that just 24 hours earlier had seemed all but impossible.
Here's talkshow host Arnie Arnesen's fascinating (and funny) take on how the New York senator did it.
On the Republican side, John McCain pushed Mitt Romney into the silver medal position. See the full results here.
I was at Barack Obama's event. His supporters had come for a victory party, but as the evening wore on it became clear that Clinton's early lead would hold. The young crowd looked deflated; the "Fire it Up!" "Ready to Go!" chants were not as convincing as the previous night's.
Flanked by his wife, Obama was gracious in defeat. If shell-shocked, he didn't show it. (In a measure of how unexpected the result was, several reporters we heard from had already written their "Obama Wins Big" story, and were just waiting for the polls to come in so they could fill in the numbers before filing.)
I'm up in the Granite State with the New York Community Media Alliance, formerly know as IPA-NY. (See here for details on how the trip came about.) Yesterday morning, long before the results came through, we met with Andrew Smith, a pollster at the University of New Hampshire. Smith, who like everyone expected Obama to walk it, ran through the pre-election polls - Obama's meteoric rise, McCain's recovery, Clinton's stutter, etc. And he gave us his colorful opinion on some of the mistakes each candidate has made, and the hurdles they need to overcome to stay in the race. Here's some choice bits:
Smith said Giuliani's campaign was "horrible," and that he'd been arrogant to think he could get somewhere without old fashioned campaigning (he flew to New Hampshire for an short speech now and again but then got out of town). Smith compared Giuliani to a man who's about to walk off a cliff but is too stubborn to change direction.
McCain's chief problem, said Smith, is his stance on immigration which has dried up his fund-raising; Romney's, "his inability to be a skillful enough politician to change his position and make it believable."
Clinton, meanwhile, "has the worst media handling people of all the campaigns." Smith said that he'd spoken to reporters who'd received calls from Clinton's people demanding they retract a certain story and threatening to block a reporter's access to the White House if their boss is president. "The way they [Clinton's campaign] treated the press [in New Hampshire] was her biggest mistake," he said. "There was a level of control and paranoia in that campaign that’s scary." Because of this treatment, said Smith, reporters never gave her a break.
Obama's biggest issue is his lack of substance, thinks Smith. "[He's] like the meringue of American politics, light and fluffy, looks good, but when you eat it you wonder was it was." It a criticism, of course, that's been made before. But having heard Obama speak twice this week, I think it rings true. He spoke powerfully, as you'd expect, yet he was strangely boring and repetitive, hardly touching on his would-be policies or how he'd make them a reality. All talk ("change" "hope" "tomorrow") and no substance to speak of, may not wash for long.
Obama and company will soon be in New York ("Super Tuesday" is on Feb. 5). If you wish you vote, you need to register by Friday.
On a local level, here in the west Bronx, some community groups are using the hype to encourage local residents to take more of an interest in politics. On Saturday, for example, an event's being held at the Gambian Society on Jerome Avenue. The aim is to educate the borough's African population on the importance of voting.
Dinowitz: Bronx 'Just As Good' as Iowa, NH
I spoke with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz yesterday about he presidential nominating process and his support for Hillary Clinton. Here's the short piece I wrote about it for the Norwood News (on the Web later today).
Leading up to Tuesday’s
And despite polls on Tuesday that predicted an Obama win in
“I’m with Hillary. I believe in her,” he said.
“I’d rather support someone who’s actually talking about issues,” Dinowitz added, comparing Clinton’s policy prowess with what he described as Obama’s soaring, yet vague, rhetoric of hope and unity.
Dinowitz didn’t want to criticize Obama harshly (he admitted he’d be a supporter if the
Dinowitz also offered a critique of the nominating process, particularly
Dinowitz also pointed out that in
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Campaigning in New Hampshire
I’m currently in New Hampshire, covering the primaries with a group of eight other reporters and editors from New York City’s ethic and community press (in all, I told, there’s something like 1,200 media people here). The trip’s been put on by New York Community Media Alliance as part of their 2008 Elections Fellowship. We’re fortunate to have a knowledgeable guide in Feet in Two Worlds' John Rudolph, who has been driving us around as we follow the candidates on the campaign trail.
Each candidate and their staff spent the weekend and Monday jumping from town to town, putting on last-ditch rallies, as they try and pick up last-minute votes, and decide the undecided. They’re not really saying anything new at this stage, except, perhaps, to refute a rival’s latest attack and launch one of their own.
Yesterday, we caught up with caught up with John McCain in Exeter, Mitt Romney in Bedford, and Barack Obama (pictured) in Concord. Some 1,500 people showed up for the Obama event. There was just 300 at McCain’s and maybe 500 at Romney’s. So, first things first, the Democratic candidates are getting a lot more attention than their Republican counterparts. (We were hoping to see Clinton too, but there was a mile-long line of car-traffic to get into her event.)
McCain was a little lackluster in his speech. He looked tired – it was one of seven rallies he was holding that day – and kept things brief. Still, there was the odd moment of fire: “I'll get Osama Bin Laden if I have to follow him to the gates of hell!” (It’s the kind of talk that sounds much more convincing coming from McCain, a war hero, than, say, our current president).
If McCain was folksy and homey, Romney, all polished, professional and dapper, was the opposite. He stressed how he his experiences as a successful businessman would help him get things done, and turn around a Washington “that is fundamentally broken.” (Washington being rotten at the core, and the need for a change in direction, were common talking points through all three speeches).
Obama's event, in a school gymnasium, was the most impressive. Even the build-up was electric. Dozens of volunteers, mostly teens and early-twenty somethings, danced, high-fived each other, and screamed Obama’s signature chant: "Fire it up!" "Ready to go!" A little farcical? Perhaps. But electric all the same. By the time Obama was introduced by his wife, the crowd (a younger, more fresh-faced lot than Romney or McCain’s turnouts) had been whipped into a frenzy. Obama talked at length about hope and change, themes central to his campaign. "We’re at a defining point in our history," he said. "The time for change is now." He also hit back at claims his policy ideas are vague and ambiguous.
Today is election day; the results are out tonight. For more, check out Talking Points Memo. According to the latest polls, Obama’s lead over Clinton is growing. The Republican primary is likely to be closer, although McCain is the favorite. We'll have more tomorrow.
Photo: J. Fergusson
News Roundup January 8
It's been almost a year- and -a -half since construction began on a new Yankee Stadium. And yet the team has not taken even the most basic steps towards implementing the community benefits agreement, under which the Yankees are required to give $1.2 million to local community groups. In fact, as the New York Times reported Sunday, the group is yet to meet or select a chairperson.
State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) has joined "Blacks and Jews Together," a coalition of state politicians convened to denounce recent incidents of bigotry and violence against African-Americans and Jews. There has been an alarming rise in these incidents in New York City during the past few months. Nooses, Swastikas, and racist graffiti were found at Columbia University and other locations in New York City . And last month, four Jewish subway riders were attacked on a New York City subway after saying "Happy Chaunkah" to a group that was shouting Merry Christmas.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Bronx Officials Stump for Hillary
Just got these two photos e-mailed to us from Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz' office. He was in Manchester, New Hampshire at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with other members of the Riverdale-based Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club. Pictured in top photo, from left to right, are Ben Franklin club member Michael Heller (who is also a spokesman for the North Bronx Healthcare Network), Dinowitz, Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton).
In the second photo, Dinowitz is pictured with Clinton and Bronx Democratic leader Assemblyman Jose Rivera.
By the way, Mount Hope Monitor editor James Fergusson will be up in New Hampsire later today and tomorrow with a delegation of editors from NYC ethnic and community newspapers. We expect he'll be blogging a little here on his experiences up there. So, check back!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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.
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.
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