Soon, you'll have to think twice before you light up on your local park bench. The City Council voted in favor of a resolution yesterday that will ban smoking in public parks, city beaches and boardwalks.
The bill is an extension of the city’s Smoke Free Air Act, which banned cigarettes in bars and restaurants back in 2002. Smokers who take up their habit in public parks, beaches or outdoor plazas could be slapped with a $50 fine from the Parks Department, according to the new law, which goes into affect in 90 days.
Supporters of the law are optimistic about how effective the ban will be.
"The expectation of the bill’s sponsor and others who voted for the bill is that it will be self-enforcing, as the Smoke-free Workplace Law of 2002 has been," said David Lehman, manager at Bronx Smoke-free Partnership, in an e-mail.
"When it passed 8 years ago, there were predictions of fist fights, high non-compliance and more. The exact opposite has proven to be true. Compliance is at 98%, as smokers are largely law-abiding and non-smokers love breathing clean air."
Some background on the bill, which was heavily backed by Bronx Council Members, can be found here. What do you think, readers? Is it fair to tell smokers they can't light up at the park?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
City Passes Parks and Beaches Cig Ban
2011 Annual Appeal Update: We've Reached 25%
We've officially reached 25% of our goal and we've now raised $2,571. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We'd especially like to thank Gregory Lobo-Jost whose donation officially tipped the scales. The Lobo-Jost family has supported BxNN for several years, and we really appreciate their dedication to our programs.
We only need $429 to make it to $3,000. Please donate today and help us fund our programs in 2011.
In case you missed this week's videos, here they are again:
Donate to BxNN to help the next class of students, like Geovanna Borden, in the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative. The spring session began yesterday at Hostos Community College.
Geovanna Borden for BxNN from Bronx News Network on Vimeo.
Listen to why Nick Napolitano, Norwood resident and Community Board 7 member, supports BxNN.
Bronx Events: Rooftop Films at the Bruckner Bar and Grill
Tonight, Rooftop Films will present a screening of the documentary "P-Star Rising," at the Bruckner Bar and Grill, 1 Bruckner Blvd, at 7 p.m.
The film follows 9-year-old rap performer Priscilla Star Diaz, and her single-parent father, as they struggle to make it big in the music business. Both Priscilla and her dad will be at the screening for a special question-and-answer session following the film. See the trailer above or visit Rooftop Films' site for more details.
This and other Bronx events are posted below, in our community calendar.
Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 3
Quick Bronx news roundup today as we're focused on producing the Mt. Hope Monitor, which will hit streets in Community Board 5 tomorrow.
Weather update: Sun! Winds could reach 25 mph tonight.
The Bronx homeless population has dropped significantly since 2005, when the city began its annual effort to count the population of people living on the streets. Volunteers started tallying homeless numbers again on Tuesday.
Wakefield's Harvest Worship Center is struggling to come to grips with indictment of their pastor, Michael Clare, on rape charges. A lawyer for Clare says the charges are "baseless."
Police say a drunk and emotionally disturbed man stole a garbage truck in the South Bronx yesterday.
The Bronx Zoo is dedicating this year's Run for the Wild fundraiser to save an endangered penguin population native to South America.
In reaction to the city's stagnant 41 percent abortion rate (essentially two of every five New York City pregnancies end in abortion), Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. said today that abortion is an attack on minorities. Here's a quote from the Times story: "They might think that we will take over, and that they’ve got to stop us,” Diaz said. “What they did, they are killing black and Hispanic children."
BxNN's Comment Policy
We wanted to share with you our new comment policy.
Jordan Moss
Executive Editor
Icy February 2nd
After a night of freezing rain the Bronx awoke to an icy February 2nd morning. I made this photograph of An Ice encrusted fire escape facing Tryon Ave in the Bronx.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
2011 Annual Appeal Update: Helps us Raise $10,000
A reminder that our campaign is still going on and that we've raised $2,471--almost 25% of our $10,000 goal. We just need $29 dollars to make it to 25% of our goal.
Please donate today and help us reach our goal of raising $10,000 by February 18th. To learn more about our programs, visit our About Us page.
Today we also kick off a new semester of the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, which meets after school at Hostos Community College, and provides free journalism training to Bronx high school students. Check out this video from one of our former students, Geovanna Borden, and why she loves the Bronx News Network.
Bronx Activists Arrested at DOE Protest
Leaders from Sistas & Brothas United, the youth organizing arm of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, were among those arrested Monday night during a protest against the Department of Education's controversial plans to close 25 public schools across the city.
Sistas & Brothas United helped organize the press conference and rally, outside of DOE headquarters on Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan. Director Maria Fernandez and four other leaders from the group were among those arrested for making a human chain to block the sidewalk outside the DOE's building, in what Fernandez described as an act of "civil disobedience."
"You shut our schools down, we shut your streets down," Fernandez said. "It was 23 of us lined up on Chambers Street. We linked arms, and we had 300 students, parents and allies chanting and cheering us on."
NYPD officers read them their rights, she said, then brought the group to a nearby police precinct for about an hour. Also arrested were City Council Members Jumaane Williams and Charles Barron, of Brooklyn. Fernandez said she received a citation to appear in court in April.
The DOE's Panel for Educational Policy voted last night to shut down 10 schools for poor performance, including four in the Bronx: School for Community Research and Learning, Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men, New Day Academy and Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School.
The panel will hold another hearing tomorrow to decide the fates of another batch of schools, including the Bronx's John F. Kennedy High School, Christopher Columbus High School, Global Enterprise High School, P.S.102 and Performance Conservatory High School.
Imperiled Cemetery Workers Say They Have Tapes
Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the most recent issue of the Norwood News, which is on the streets and online now.
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| Workers at Woodlawn Cemetery protest proposed layoffs. (Photo by David Greene) |
Defiant Woodlawn Cemetery workers and their supporters recently held a boisterous rally to protest the outsourcing of 23 of the cemetery’s 38 caretaker jobs. Cemetery officials say the outsourcing is a necessary cost-cutting move, but workers claim it’s payback for publicizing their concerns about discriminatory practices among supervisors.
Now, in an attempt to save their jobs, workers are exploring all options, including legal action and the possible airing of tapes that they say expose discriminatory practices among cemetery supervisors.
“We have evidence to show and prove some of the discriminatory practices and documentation of grievances,” said one worker who requested anonymity because he feared retribution. The worker said the tapes in their possession could put management in a bad light.
Over the summer, after it hired a firm to investigate workers’ discrimination charges, the cemetery fired at least one supervisor and acknowledged that it needed to change its training practices. But minority employees said little had changed and the practices were continuing.
Workers were back protesting at the cemetery on Sunday, Jan. 16. Many of the union supporters in attendance were wearing shirts with photos of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., using their day off to protest on the birthday of the slain Civil Rights leader.
Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 2
The ice storm apocalypse that threatened to freeze everyone's lives today didn't quite materialize overnight. But make no mistake, it is nasty out there. Exercise caution in all your travels today.
A few quick weather/transit updates:
--Service on the 4, 5 and 6 trains has returned after an earlier suspension, but there will be delays. All other Bronx lines have "good service," according to the MTA. (Click here for more MTA updates.)
--Access-a-Ride pick-ups scheduled before 10 a.m. today were cancelled. Call to reschedule if you had an appointment.
--Buses: The Bx34 buses are detoured north-bound on Webster Avenue between Fordham Road and Bedford Park Boulevard and then south-bound on Bedford Park Boulevard and Kingsbridge Road"; Bx19 buses are not operating into Riverbank State Park; All limited buses are making local stops; Riders should expect delays throughout the day.
--Temperatures are expected to get up to around 40 degrees today, causing yet more slushy nastiness. This will be followed by colder temperatures tomorrow.
Story of the Day:
Following a raucous meeting attended by between 2,000 and 3,000 people in Brooklyn that stretched into the wee hours of this morning, the city's Panel for Education Policy, led by new Chancellor Cathleen Black, voted to close 10 schools, including four in the Bronx. The PEP said the schools slated for closure were failing students. Those slated for closure in the Bronx include: School for Community Research and Learning, Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men, New Day Academy and Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School.
The Times' Fernanda Santos writes about Black: "It was not Ms. Black’s first public meeting, but it was by far the angriest, loudest crowd she had faced since taking the job on Jan. 3, and certainly more intense than the subdued meetings she was used to in her many years as a publishing executive."
The city is looking to close a total of 25 schools this year, the most ever in a single year. On Thursday, the PEP will vote on the fate of 13 other schools, including the Bronx's Christopher Columbus High School.
Quick Hits:
At least one Egyptian business owner in the Bronx says he will be happy to see embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leave office.
A Bronx man saved his niece and nephew from a burning building yesterday on E. Tremont Avenue and Southern Boulevard.
After undergoing what he is calling an illegal and humiliating body cavity search, a Bronx man is suing the NYPD.
The Voice takes an in-depth look at controversial charter school maven Eva Moskowitz's newly opened Bronx Success Academy 1.
A jury convicted a Bronx man on Monday of murdering another man after a minor car crash in 2008.
A reporter lives through the First Annual Pipe Smoking Society's Small Game Dinner. Joshua Bernstein, the reporter, writes that he was given a waiver to sign before participating in the dinner, which included squirrel, beaver and Colombian big-butt ants. The waiver included this language: "Attendee understands that the risks in executing any Bronx Pipe Smoking Society experience include, without limitation, seizures, drowning, broken or loss of limb, indigestion, illness (mental or physical), haunting, possession, insomnia, night terrors or concussion." Awesome.
[Editor's Note:] Just a reminder to our readers that the Bronx News Network is in the middle of our annual fundraising appeal. If you value quality local journalism, please consider donating so we can continue to bring you news and features, like our daily roundup or our borough events calendar. More details on how to contribute can be found here
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Bronx Culture Trolley Cancelled Tomorrow
Due to pending inclement weather, the Bronx Culture Trolley that was scheduled for tomorrow night is cancelled, along with art exhibits at Hostos Community College's Longwood art gallery. Our events calendar is posted below, but it's best to double check before you head out in this winter weather.
Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 1
Welcome to February, Boogie Downers. Everyone enjoying Mother Nature's offering this morning of a swirling, prickly mongrel mix of snow and ice? It feels like someone's tossing a fistful of tacks at you while you walk around in this stuff.
This type of sleet/snow is expected to continue through the morning, tapper off in the afternoon and then pick back up tonight with winds blowing everything around after midnight. Then, for a fun change of pace tomorrow, it's going to rain!
[Pause for everyone to throw something or bang their head against their desk.]
OK, we've regrouped. On to the news.
Story of the Day:
Norwood's Foodtown supermarket, which burned down 13 months ago in a fire that investigators say was the result of arson, is scheduled to re-open this month, say co-owners Dan and Noah Katz. Residents say Foodtown's big (11,000-square-feet of shopping space) return will be a boost to a community beset by two devastating 2009 fires.
The other fire, on Halloween of last year, destroyed a bustling commercial corner (where Bainbridge Avenue turns south toward Mosholu Parkway) of 10 businesses. That lot remains vacant and serves as a constant reminder (read: eyesore) to residents. But as we reported last month (and the Daily News reiterated today), West Bronx Stores, Inc., the entity that owns the lot is actively trying to lease and develop the property. Stay tuned.
Quick Hits:
Despite vague and gossipy rumors of a serious illness, the Bronx's own Father of Hip-Hop, DJ Kool Herc, aka Clive Campbell, is simply recovering from surgery to remove kidney stones. However, it is true that Herc doesn't have medical insurance and is struggling to pay for continued health care.
The Baron Ambrosia, aka Justin Fornal (does everyone have a moniker these days?), the colorfully eccentric star of Bronxnet's "Bronx Flavor" food show, hosted the First Annual Bronx Pipe Smoking Society Small Game Dinner at the old Bronx Borough Courthouse. The Baron asked chefs to prepare meats taken from small woodland creatures, including beavers, muskrats, otters, a squirrels, an opossum and a fisher. Yum.
Cory Gunz, the Bronx rapper managed by his father, Bronx rapper Peter Gunz, is set to star in a new show on MTV.
More reflections from Bronx-born filmmaker Rashaad Ernesto Green following the debut of his film "Gun Hill Road" at Sundance.
The DN's Bob Kappstatter says Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein's bold move to break away from the Democratic minority conference and form his own independent caucus is paying dividends, as the foursome has garnered three chairmanships (which are handed out by the GOP majority) and is increasingly making the John Sampson-led Democrats "irrelevant." Kappy also has some nice to things to say about the late Bronx pol Guy Velella who died last week and a buffet of other Bronx nuggets.
[Editor's Note:] Just a reminder to our readers that the Bronx News Network is in the middle of our annual fundraising appeal. If you value quality local journalism, please consider donating so we can continue to bring you news and features, like our daily roundup or our borough events calendar. More details on how to contribute can be found here.
