Investigative reporter Tom Robbins and I were on BronxTalk with Gary Axelbank on Monday to discuss the “Phantom Landlord” investigation we did with Tom’s students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in City Limits. Click here to watch.
The show is also re-broadcast throughout the week on Cablevision channel 67 and Verizon FIOS 33 at 9 p.m.
—Jordan Moss
Reposting this today. See update below on my appearance with Tom Robbins on BronxTalk tonight at 9 p.m. -Jordan Moss
How do particularly irresponsible landlords get away with so much neglect for so long?
A panel of housing experts will discuss potential solutions at Manhattan College today, April 23 at 4 p.m. in a forum called Safe at Home: Putting Teeth in Code Enforcement and Holding Landlords Accountable. The event is free and all are welcome.
The participants will be as follows:
City Limits editor Jarrett Murphy will moderate the panel discussion which stems from a recent investigation in the magazine about landlord Frank Palazzolo by Robbins, his class at CUNY; and Jordan Moss, former editor of the Norwood News, who will also participate in the forum.
The event, sponsored by the Manhattan College Urban Affairs and Government Departments, City Limits and BronxMatters.com, will take place in Scala Auditorium on the first floor of the Leo Engineering Building, 3825 Corlear Avenue (a block west of Broadway, between E. 238th and E. 240th streets).
Email jordanmoss.bx@gmail.com or margaret.groarke@manhattan.edu with any questions.
UPDATE: Following the event, Robbins and Moss will appear on BronxTalk, the TV talk show hosted by Gary Axelbank on Cablevision channle 67 and Verizon FIOS channel 33. The show airs live at 9 p.m. and is re-broadcast at the same time through Friday.
State Senator Gustavo Rivera along with several advocacy organizations are putting on a housing forum today on the first floor of the Lehman College Music Building from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Issues being discussed will include rent regulation, tenant organization, Section 8 issues and foreclosure prevention. For more information, email Josiris Urena at urenas@nysenate.gov.
Good afternoon. Thanks for reading Bronx Matters.
Here are some links we think are important and/or interesting …
Evictions are way up in the city, particularly in the Bronx. Sally Dunford of West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, tells WNYC: “I don’t even advertise our services because I’m too afraid of what would happen if we actually started advertising.”
Some delectable photos of dishes served up at the Khmer New Years Festival on Marion Avenue recently.
A roving foreclosure blockade came to Bronx Supreme Court yesterday, resulting in 14 arrests. It was Organizing for the Occupation’s seventh blockade. They’re headed to Brooklyn on Thursday. An important fact from Daniel Beekman’s coverage of the same action: The Bronx endures fewer foreclosures than Brooklyn and Queens. But no urban county in the state suffers more foreclosures per mortgage than the Boogie Down, said Justin Haines, foreclosure prevention director at Legal Services NYC – Bronx.
Want to learn more about the country’s foreclosure crisis? Read this special report on Pro Publica (a nonprofit investigative news site).
Steve Ritz of the Green Bronx Machine continues to spread the gospel of urban farming and good food to students and the adults in their lives. (Video)
10 very brief Life Lessons of many in the archives of Esquire.
Beyond our borough: Why San Diego is not hopping on the teacher evaluation bandwagon.
Assemblyman Jose Rivera posted this on his Facebook page yesterday, a video documenting the 1980 South Bronx People’s convention in the rubble of Charlotte Street. There’s footage of President Carter famously visiting the area in 1977 along with south Bronx activists joined by allies from around the country as they met in a makeshift conventional hall on Charlotte Street and marched to the official Democratic Convention site at Madison Square Garden in 1980.
The Bronx faces incredible challenges, struggling with high unemployment, poverty and some of the worst health statistics in the state. But as we address those issues it’s important to remember what Bronxites have already overcome on Charlotte Street and devastated neighborhoods all over the borough.
Anyone out there take part in the South Bronx Peoples’ Convention? Would love to hear from you.
Stemming from the “Phantom Landlord” investigation in City Limits, Bronx Matters is helping to organize a panel discussion at Manhattan College on April 23 to discuss what can be done to make the housing code enforcement system more effective. The flyer below has the details. Hope you can make it. Email me at bronxmatters-at-gmail.com if you have any questions.
Good morning! As some of you may have noticed, Morning Matters is not an everyday thing at this point. I do it whenever I have time in the morning. Here, though, are some interesting nuggets you probably won’t find with a routine “Bronx” Google search.
As Bob Kappstatter reported on Bronx Matters in a previous post, Luis Sepulveda is ramping up a campaign to fill Peter Rivera’s Assembly seat when he becomes state Labor commissioner. Sepulveda now has a one-page website up, with a letter that addresses readers as “constituents,” (a little premature since they won’t be actually be his constituents unless his elected to represent them in the state legislature). The rest of the web site appears to be under construction but a tab titled “To NYS Assembly page” inexplicably leads to the website of Queens Assemblyman Fernando Moya.
The Center for Working Families has released a report on the campaign contributions of former State Senator Pedro Espada, who is currently on trial for allegedly stealing money from the Soundview Healthcare Network, which he founded and managed. Among the report’s findings are that Espada’s fundraising increased sixfold when he became chairman of the Housing Committee and that only 3(!) of those contributions came from within his district.
Daniel Beekman drills down a bit into Census data to find that many more Manhattanites have moved to the Bronx in the last decade, but that may not at all signal gentrification, as many of those intra-city migrants were at or near the poverty level. For more on the controversy concerning whether the south Bronx is gentrifying, which was a hot topic on Bronx Matters last week, click here.
The Riverdale Press reports that the top offender on Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s “worst landlord” list is Riverdale resident Josh Neustein, who owns several violation-plagued buildings. Neustein said his “estranged sister,” Amy Neustein made false reports to the city’s housing agency and its Department of Investigation. But she says she is backed up by tenants complaints and the city’s own work examining those complaints. Earlier this month, Amy Neustein wrote this piece for City Limits explaining why she was shining the light on her brother’s work as a landlord.
A memorial poster for Jashawn Parker (Photo: Jacqueline Vergara)
Those of you who read “The Phantom Landord” investigation in City Limits know that Jashawn Parker is the boy who died in an electrical fire in his family’s apartment on DeKalb Avenue in Norwood in 2002. As I wrote in one article for the package, Paul Parker, Jashawn’s dad, took a little while to find the gravesite in the cemetery when we drove him up there, because it is not marked with a headstone. The family couldn’t afford it.
The Bronx Jewish Community Council, which helped advocate for tenants early on in their battle at 3569 DeKalb, has graciously agreed to set up a fund to raise the money for a headstone, which will be about $1,200. To donate, you can make a check out to Bronx Jewish Community Council (just write “Jashawn Parker” in the memo line) and mail to: Sally Dunford, Bronx Jewish Community Council, 3176 Bainbridge Avenue, Bronx, NY 10467. Donations are tax deductible.
If enough money is raised, a headstone can be put in place by the 10th anniversary of Jashawn’s death on Aug. 6. Thanks for whatever you can do.
Here’s a link to a terrific video interview with Paul Parker about his son. It was produced by Jacqueline Vergara, one of the excellent CUNY Graudate School of Journalism students who were involved in the investigation.
—Jordan Moss
Bronx Matters 