Bronx News Roundup, Monday, June 6

Welcome back to the program ladies and gentleman of the Bronx and beyond. Lots of great stories and information on tap for this week, so let's get to it. To the news!

Weather: In a word: Perfect. Sunny, 80 degrees with a lovely cooling breeze from the northeast. Could be looking at some rain tomorrow afternoon.

Story of the Day: Bronx Livery Cab Drivers Rally Against New Taxi Fleet
Good luck getting a cab in the Bronx this morning. On my way into BxNN headquarters today, a small army of livery cab drivers swarmed the Kingsbridge Road 4-train station, carrying signs and literature and talking strategy. An estimated 1,000 drivers and car service operators are expected to descend on City Hall to protest a city plan to create a new fleet of hail-able taxis that would operate exclusively in the outer-boroughs. The city would auction off 1,500 new taxi medallions that could legally pick up street hails. Livery drivers and business owners say this plan will do serious damage to the livery cab industry, which includes an estimated 38,000 drivers (according to literature I picked up at the train station). They say that, despite its illegality, livery drivers have picked up street hails for years and that most drivers couldn't afford to buy into the new fleet. A coalition of livery associations have come up with an alternative: create borough permits that existing drivers could sign up for and also develop livery stands where cabs can pick up street customers without the threat of receiving a summons. NY1 talked to a couple of drivers who work for Prestige car service, which operates out of Norwood here in the northwestern section of the Bronx.

Quick Hits:
On early Saturday morning, while driving with a female companion, Michael Robles, a Bronx Democratic district leader, careened off the Bronx River Parkway and dropped some 30 feet onto the top of a truck in the West Farms area. Miraculously, neither passenger was injured. It's unclear whether, for his next trick, Robles will attempt a swan dive off the High Bridge.

Erica Diaz, the lesbian granddaughter of State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., is becoming the face for marriage equality in New York. In Sunday's Post, Diaz writes that Diaz's outspoken and hateful rhetoric is too much for her to stomach: "You cannot tell someone that you love them and stay silent when people call for their death. "Love" is empty when you say someone's life isn't natural. He could quietly vote "no" if that's what he believes is right. But I want him to know that every word he utters hurts his own blood."

Headline of the Weekend: "Uzi does it at Bx. gun buyback." An Uzi machine gun was one of 354 guns turned in for cash at three Bronx churches on Saturday as the NYPD conducted its periodic gun buyback outreach effort. BP Ruben Diaz, Jr. told the Post: "Any day that you get an Uzi off the streets of The Bronx is a good day." Amen.

The Times' Clyde Haberman writes about how the Bronx ticket-fixing scandal has made police testimony, already a problem for Bronx prosecutors, that much less credible.

Here's more on the life of Bronx native Rosalyn S. Yalow, a Nobel prize winning physicist, who died in late May.

If City Island needed extra help on Memorial Day weekend, then why is the city looking to shut down it's only firehouse?

A missing 12-year-old Wakefield boy was reunited with his family, but his nine-day absence remains a mystery.

More on the pair of aspiring Bronx brew companies.

BxNN buddy David Gonzalez of the Times hangs out with Latin jazz flutist and Bronxite Dave Valentin for the paper's Sunday Routine feature.

Here's a video preview of Pete Rock and Bronx duo Camp Lo's new album: "80 Blocks from Tiffany's," which was inspired by (and shares a name with) the recent documentary about the South Bronx:

'Gun Hill Road', Not Your Typical Bronx Tale

Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the latest issue of the Norwood News, out on streets now.

By Alex Kratz

One of the great pleasures of watching “Gun Hill Road,” a new independent film by Bronx native Rashaad Ernesto Green that debuted in front of a New York audience during the first-ever Bronx Week Film Festival in mid-May, is its familiarity.

Look, there’s New Capitol diner on Kingsbridge Road and Jerome! Is he getting on the 2 train or the 4 train? Wait, isn’t that the bodega on Gun Hill Road in Norwood?

“The Bronx itself is a character,” Green said during a question-and-answer session after the screening.

While the setting, characters and dialogue all feel like the Bronx, the storyline deals with difficult topics — most notably, transgender lifestyle choices and how they play out in Latino families — that are only now starting to be discussed openly in the borough.

The history of Bronx-based film is filled with crime stories and gangster tales (think: “A Bronx Tale,” “Fort Apache, The Bronx,” or “The Wanderers”). And “Gun Hill Road,” shot entirely in the Bronx, contains some of those elements. It begins with a prison cafeteria stabbing carried out by the main character, a father played by Bronx-native Esai Morales, who has lived a life of crime.

But the heart of the story centers around how Morales’ character, having just been released from prison, deals with the discovery that his teenage son is transgender. Green, whose family has long hailed from the area around Gun Hill Road and Burke Avenue, says the story is based on a family member who dealt with issues similar to those Morales’ character deals with in the film. Although it’s not your usual Bronx “shoot-em-up” flick, one audience member said, “This is a film we in the Bronx need to see.”

Startling Statistics Put Focus on Latina Suicides

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in the latest issue of the Norwood News, out now. 

Health care professionals and the city’s elected officials are looking for ways to tackle the daunting problem of teen suicides, as data from several sources shows that Hispanic teenagers, especially young Latinas, are disproportionately at risk for self-harm compared to other racial groups.

In the Bronx, 15.3 percent of Latina teenagers reported having attempted suicide in a 2009 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which looked at youth behavior (numbers in Staten Island and Brooklyn were even higher).

City data shows the same disturbing trend: according to a 2008 report from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 46 percent of Hispanic teenage girls polled reported feelings of “persistent sadness.”

“It’s pretty startling across the board,” said Alan Ross, executive director for the Samaritans of New York, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization that also runs a 24-hour emergency hotline.

Bronx News Roundup, June 3

A federal appeals court has ruled that the city can bar religious institutions from conducting services in public schools on weekends. Coincidentally, the ruling stems from a case brought by the Bronx Household of Faith in 1995. That church, which uses PS/MS 15 on Andrews Avenue for services, has led the creation of a new youth basketball league in Devoe Park. The Norwood News just profiled the program this week.

Picture the Homeless, a northwest Bronx group we recently profiled, is partnering with Hunter College's Center for Community Planning and Development to identify vacant land in the borough to help make their case that there is available land to ease the burden on the city's bursting-at-the-seams shelter system.

Nobel Prize winner Rosalyn Yalow, a lifelong Bronxite who did groundbreaking work in the study of hormones at the Bronx VA Hospital, died May 30 at the age of 89.

The family of Fatoumata Diallo, a 21-year-old Bronx college student who fainted and was killed after she fell into the path of an oncoming subway train, is mourning her loss just a few years after her mother died.

You can bring the kid to the farm, but you can also bring the farm to the kid. Such is the nature of the gardening and agricultural immersion project at PS 69 in Soundview.

The Hunts Point Market will stay in the Bronx for the next three years, but Market officials still say they need more space, and New Jersey leaders are anxious to capitalize on that need.

And the Riverdale Press has this story on the massive street project associated with the filtration plant project, known as the "force main." The good news is after exploring the possibility of digging up Webster Avenue, and more recently Sedgwick Avenue, the DEP says the work might not be necessary after all.

And just lots of great stories in the latest Hunts Point Express on-line.

Divinely Inspired, a Youth Basketball League Takes on the Bronx's Devoe Park

A new hoops league that preaches Christian values plays at Devoe Park every Saturday. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

Editor's note: A version of this story appeared in the latest edition of the Norwood News, out on streets now.

Shane Barker, a 16-year-old University Heights resident, does not usually use Devoe Park, the triangular and hilly green space that sits on the corner of Fordham Road and University Avenue and is just blocks from his home.

“Me and my brother don’t come down here because there’s troublemakers,” he says.

But today is different. It’s a gorgeous, sunny Saturday morning and Shane, sporting cornrows and the wispy beginnings of facial hair, is one of 70 kids participating in a newly-formed basketball program created by a Bronx-based group called the New York City Christian Athletic League.

Aided by word of mouth and an infusion of funding from local Councilman Fernando Cabrera, the hoops program is flourishing in a park that has become synonomous with trouble.

The league’s founder, Edwin Santiago, and his “right-hand man,” Frank Abarca, both attend Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical Christian church that meets at PS 15/291 on Andrews Avenue in University Heights.

Rent Hike Rattles Biggest High Rise in the Bronx

File photo by Adi Talwar

Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the latest issue of the Norwood News, which is out on streets now. Tenants at Tracey Towers are meeting tonight to discuss strategy.

By Alex Kratz

Residents at Tracey Towers, the twin concrete high-rises (one of them looms in the background of the photo to your right) on Mosholu Parkway, are bracing for another battle with management over their desire to raise rents up to 77 percent over the course of the next three years.

In a recent letter to tenants, RY Management, which has run the 869-unit apartment complex since the early 1980s, said the current rent rates do not cover the cost of maintaining the buildings and they had applied for a rent increase with the city’s department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD). Because it was built under the state’s Mitchell-Llama program, HPD must approve any rent increase.

Tracey residents claim RY’s problems are the result of mismanagement and they shouldn’t be the ones to shoulder all of the burden.

In the past, tenants say, RY has squandered funding that tenants have paid for. A few years ago, RY received a $4 million loan to repair the roof and do some work on the façade, which was cracking and causing leaks. They paid to erect scaffolding, but instead of doing the roof and façade work, RY used the money to replace the boilers. Meanwhile, the scaffolding remains at a cost of $5,000 a month even though it isn’t being used.

Tomorrow: Bronx Rally for Marriage Equality

A number of LGBT advocacy groups and several local elected officials will be demonstrating tomorrow afternoon on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse in support of marriage equality.

The rally was organized by Bronx Rainbow Independent Democratic Association and Marriage Equality New York.

Expected to attend: State Senators Jose M. Serrano, Gustavo Rivera, Jeff Klein and Adriano Espaillat, Assemblymembers Carmen Arroyo, Jeffrey Dinowitz and Jose Rivera and NYC Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

According to a press release, the event is in part a response to State Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr.'s controversial March 15 parade against the passage of a gay marriage bill for New York. 

The rally will start at 2 p.m. at the Bronx Courthouse, 851 Grand Concourse at 161st Street.

Parks Dept.: Oval Playground to Open in Late June

Originally scheduled to open last January, the Parks Department now says this playground and other amenities in Williamsbridge Oval Park will be open to the public late this month. (Photo: Jordan Moss)

By Jordan Moss

An early burst of summer weather has residents anxious to utilize a new playground, spray showers and basketball courts in the southern part of Williamsbridge Oval Park.

But they’ll have to wait a little while longer.

The Parks Department says the long anticipated upgrades, funded in connection with the political deal that paved the way for the mammoth water filtration plan now taking root in the Norwood section of Van Cortlandt Park, will be completed in late June after the contractor finishes punch list items. The original completion date was last January but the severe winter pushed the work back, an agency spokesman said.

A rehab of the recreation center, including upgraded bathrooms and ADA compliance, which was supposed to be done by May 31, also suffered from the relentless cold weather and is only 70 percent finished. That building will be completed at the end of the summer.

Park advocates say they love the design of the new playground but hope there are no more delays.
“Friends of the Oval just wants to make sure the park is open as quickly as possible,” said Eileen Markey, a member of the volunteer organization, adding that the sprinklers are “a public health need” that help keep the peace in the heat of summer.

Ed. note: This article appears in the current issue of the Norwood News, on the streets and on-line now.  

Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, June 2,

Weather: Blissfully not as hot today in the Bronx with a nice cool breeze.

Story of the Day: New Housing Designed to Battle Bulge
It's no secret that the Bronx has an obesity problem. The latest statistics say one in every four Bronx adults suffers from being extremely overweight. With that in mind, a new cooperative apartment complex in Longwood called the Melody, which was designed to encourage an active, healthy lifestyle, was unveiled to the public yesterday. The $18 million project, with financing provided by the city, state and borough, is meant for families making $90,000 or less. The building incorporates many of the suggestions contained in an Active Design Guidelines report published by the city in 2010. It has a well-lit gym and a backyard, with climbers for kids and exercise equipment for adults. It also has perhaps the coolest stairs (there are two sets  in the history of Bronx apartment buildings: lime-green railings, artwork on the walls and, here's the kicker, jazz playing from stairwell speakers. A sign on the entrance to the staircase reads: “A person’s health can be judged by which they take two of at a time, pills or stairs.”

Quick Hits:
Fatoumata Diallo, a 21-year-old Mt. Hope resident, was killed after fainting on a Manhattan subway platform and falling in front of an oncoming train.

Livery cab drivers would not be served well by the city's new plan to introduce a new fleet of street hail-able taxis, says a spokesman for a coalition of livery cab drivers. Instead, he says, the city should just provide borough permits that existing outer-borough livery drivers could apply for.

Despite yesterday's agreement to keep the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx for the next three years and a deal that gives New York exclusive negotiating rights with the market cooperative for the next nine months, New Jersey isn't giving up hope of landing the market in the future.

PS 73 in Highbridge was victimized twice recently by technology stealing burglars.

A stretch of Van Nest Avenue has been re-named for Bronx sculptor Carl Paul Jennewein whose work can be found at Rockefeller Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the White House.

City officials and housing organizers are going after a neglectful landlord in Pelham Bay.

The Fire and Buildings departments say they will inspect a Kingsbridge Heights house that is suspected of having illegal subdivisions.

A day after a 2-year-old Bronx girl fell out of her fifth story apartment window, a new audit by City Comptroller John Liu says the city has dismissed an alarming number of window-guard violations without doing any follow up.

Because of no-fault scams, Bronx drivers pay the highest amount ($723 per year) for the portion of their auto insurance that covers no-fault accidents. District attorneys in the five boroughs are pushing for a legislative remedy.

Cuomo Pulls New York From Federal Deportation Program

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that he'll be suspending the state's participation in the controversial Secure Communities program, a measure that requires local law enforcement agencies to share the fingerprints of anyone who's been arrested with federal immigration officials, who then check the prints for a person's green card status.

Cuomo's move comes after weeks of mounting pressure from local legislators and immigrant advocacy groups, who say the program is not meeting its supposed goal of deporting serious and violent criminal offenders. Critics point to data showing that since its start in 2008, a majority of the people who have been deported through Secure Communities--some 79 percent--had never actually been convicted of a crime.

Last month, a number of Bronx legislators and others from across the state sent a letter to the governor asking him to withdraw.

"There are concerns about the implementation of the program as well as its impact on families, immigrant communities and law enforcement in New York," Cuomo said in a statement sent out today.

Other states, like Illinois, also dropped out of the program recently.

“Governor Cuomo has demonstrated tremendous leadership," Congressman Jose Serrano, who represents the South Bronx, said in a statement this afternoon.

"He is firmly in line with our state’s pro-immigrant tradition, and on behalf of the immigrants and their friends in our community, I would like to thank him. Having New York State pull back from this aggressive program should be a wakeup call to the Department of Homeland Security. It is time to end this program and I am glad my home state will no longer take part."

The Department of Homeland Security had previously stated that participation was mandatory, but announced this week that there would be an investigation into how the program has been carried out.

Hunts Point Produce Market to Stay in the Bronx for at Least 3 More Years

The Hunts Point Produce Market and its 2,400 employees will remain in the Bronx for at least three more years as city officials expressed confidence that they were on their way to reaching a long-term deal with the cooperative that would include a revamp of the market.

For the next nine months, the city will have exclusive negotiating rights with the market cooperative, leaving suitors from New Jersey out in the cold until at least early 2012.

“Thanks to this agreement, the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative will extend its lease, recommit to the Bronx, and, for the next nine months, work with New York City – and New York City only – on a long-term plan for a larger, modernized market," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement today. "Our Administration and the Co-op both want that to be built in the Bronx, and in the coming months, we will continue working together to make it happen."

Bronx News Roundup, Wednesday, June 1

Welcome to June, Bronxophiles. Here's today's lineup of Bronx news!

Weather: The National Weather Service is issuing a "hazardous weather outlook" warning, which could amount to nothing, or severe thunderstorms. After a high of 89 today, it's supposed to cool off tomorrow, down to a less stifling 76 degrees. 


Story of the Day: Education Leaps Should Be Taken with a Grain of Salt
Education guru Diane Ravitch writes an op-ed in today's NY Times dispelling the myth of huge short-term gains at schools that have been re-vamped/re-started/re-invigorated by some manner of policy or strategy shift. On the 10th anniversary of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which set a goal of having every child in the United States reading at or above their grade level by 2012, Ravitch says this "utopian mandate" is mission impossible. The public (and news media) should be wary of political attempts to show gigantic leaps in performance at urban schools who cater to traditionally low-performing students.

Which brings us to the Bronx. In 2005, Mayor Bloomberg trumpeted the success of his DOE takeover by holding a press conference at PS 33 on Jerome Avenue, just south of Fordham Road. The school boasted a ridiculous 49-point jump in its percentage of fourth graders who had met state standards in reading -- from 34 percent in 2004 to 83 percent in 2005. By 2010, that number was back down to 37 percent (where many Bronx schools are at).

Ravitch says we can close and re-open schools and/or fire teachers and principals as much as we want, but if we really want to improve education, we need to focus on improving families, "our most important educators." She goes on to say: "If every child arrived in school well-nourished, healthy and ready to learn, from a family with a stable home and a steady income, many of our educational problems would be solved. And that would be a miracle."

Quick Hits:
The two fledgling Bronx beer start-ups -- the Bronx Brewery and the Jonas Bronck's Beer Company -- are preparing to unleash their suds at city bars this summer (the Bronck's Woodlawn Weiss perhaps as early as next week). Neither company, however, will actually brew its beer in the Boogie Down.

Speaking of the nectar of the gods, the Bronx's first beer garden, Nicky's BBQ & Beer Garden, is scheduled to open this week on East Tremont Avenue. 

Here's an architecture review of the new Poe Park Visitor's Center, which is set to open soon (I guess, we'll look into it).

Last weekend's outbreak of gun violence makes this weekend's gun buyback effort that much more urgent.

The Times' Clyde Haberman writes that while the outbreak is unsettling, we're nowhere near the dark days of the early 1990s when the city's murder count was 2,245. For the last decade we've averaged 547 murders.

The city's Department of Small Business Services is going to focus on diversifying retail at four commercial districts, one of which will be Southern Boulevard. They want less nail salons, more food options. 

Rent reform advocates in the state senate, including Bronx Democrats Ruth Hassel-Thompson and Adriano Espaillat, are making a final push to strengthen rent regulations by the June 15 deadline.

Bronx State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.'s outspoken efforts to keep gay marriage unlawful is leading to backlash from gay rights groups, websites and bars (one Brooklyn gay bar is hosting a "F--- Ruben Diaz festival") and, he says, has led to death threats being called into his district office.