Archive | Bronx Land Use RSS feed for this section

Is Kingsbridge Armory Ice Plan in Danger of Melting?

7 Jun
How problematic is a legal battle between Kingsbridge Armory ice palace partners? Photo by J. Moss

How problematic is a legal battle between Kingsbridge Armory ice palace partners?
Photo by J. Moss

Transforming the Kingsbridge Armory into the world’s largest ice skating Mecca is under fire as its key developer, Kevin Parker,  is engaged in a legal battle with partners, DNAinfo has reported. The Norwood News had a bit to add to the story. If you’re interested in a longer background (like 17 years) leading up to the deal community activists made with Kingsbridge National Ice Center, check out my story from August in City Limits’ Bronx Bureau.

—Jordan Moss

Tags: , , , ,

5.29.14 — Bronx News that Matters

29 May
Clinton pic Marison

Students of the renewed DeWitt Clinton High School on Mosholu Parkway. Photo by Marisol Diaz/The Riverdale Press

The Riverdale Press reports on DeWitt Clinton High School’s comeback.

A new chair of Community Board 9 in the southeast Bronx is only 31, the youngest in the city. But the Daily News reports that generally there are very few young people — particularly teens — on the Bronx’s 12 community boards. None of CB 11’s board members are under 45, for example.

The Daily News reminds readers that Bernie Madoff’s so-called Ponzi scheme, a financial earthquake, led to Yeshiva University losing $110 million back in 2008, and that fiscal tragedy is a big part of the reason Yeshiva is partnering with Montefiore to run the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

A new retail plaza is headed for the borough’s “Hub” in Melrose by the end of the year, reports the Daily News. It will feature Metropolitan College’s Bronx campus, a Fine Fare Supermarket, and Vista Optical. (No link.)

In one of the borough’s most competitive state Senate primaries, on May 22 the Ben Franklin Democratic Club in Riverdale starkly backed incumbent Jeffrey Klein – A Democrat but co-founder of the Independent Democratic Conference which often collaborates with the Senate’s Republicans — over Oliver Koppell, a former Councilman and long-term member and organizer of that very club.

Speaking of which, in his BoroBeat column, Bronx Times editor Bob Kapstatter credits club president Ellen Feld for “keeping the pandemonium” at the Club’s significant session “to a manageable level.” Kapstatter also reports Gov. Cuomo naming BP Ruben Diaz, Jr. as a co-chair of his re-election campaign.

Community Board 7 is pushing for a store in the Fordham Road D-train station, reports the Norwood News.

Jarrett Murphy, editor of City Limits, takes a look at the city’s rat battle.

The New York Times reports on Lincoln Hospital’s emergency room, probably the city’s busiest.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5.28.14 — Bronx News that Matters

28 May

Harry Bubbins, head of the Friends of Brook Park, lays out his position on why the city’s financial support of FreshDirect taking over a chunk of the south Bronx’s waterfront has gotta go.. He calls on Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. to get back to his previous positions and on Mayor de Blasio to follow his current ones.

Beginning last night, Bronx Times broke a story that Montefiore is merging with Yeshiva University’s Einstein College of Medicine. Montefiore announced it today, the paper just reported.

Do you want the Citi Bike program up and running — uh, biking — in the Bronx?

Think the Bronx is, or was ever, in tough shape? It certainly was, especially in the 70s and 80s, but that seems like nothing compared to what Detroit is going through now. What do you think?

Anyone with kids in city schools knows how limited or completely absent sports and phys ed are in public schools. Jim Dwyer focuses on this issue in the Bronx.

Norwood News reports on the 52nd Precinct cracking down on barbecuing in local parks. Community orgs are doing the same.

Arthur Avenue, the Bronx’s (better) Little Italy, is now home to a new Latin fusion joint, reports Bronx News 12.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5.27.14 Bronx News that Matters

27 May

Though the Daily News reported on Sunday that State Senator Adriano Espaillat, a challenger to longtime Congressman Charles Rangel, won’t appear on a BronxTalk debate “due to Albany’s legislative session,” host Gary Axelbank told Bronx Matters today that Espaillat has decided to take part. Meanwhile, Rangel’s office asked Axelbank for a conference call “for rules and other debate procedures” along with staffers of the other candidates. Axelbank responded by setting that up for 2 p.m. today. Stay tuned on Bronx Matters for debate status update.

Councilman Fernando Cabrera announced to tenants of NYCHA’s Ft. Independence Houses in Kingsbridge that its community center won’t be closed, according to The Riverdale Press. Cabrera said NYCHA confirmed that but the Riverdale Press said that “in in recent e-mails, NYCHA’s press office said a determination was yet to be made about the authority’s 106 community centers.” It’s a citywide issue: “The way Mr. Bloomberg left the centers last year, the city would end funding for 57 centers operated by NYCHA itself this June. Nonprofit agencies support the other 49 sites,” the Press reported.

Speaking of NYCHA housing, the Bronx Times reported on the agency’s new commissioner, Shola Olatoye, meeting with residents and local politicians at Pelham Parkway Houses and getting an earful of complaints about long delays making critical repairs — a chronic, unresolved problem during the Bloomberg administration.

State Senator Jeffrey Klein and Assemblyman Marcus Crespo (both Bronx reps) are partnering on legislation to keep alcohol out of the hands (and mouths) of underage drinkers by allowing retailers to swipe bad IDs among other efforts. The Daily News reports that 400 minors were admitted to two city hospitals — North Central Bronx and Jacobi — just over Memorial Day weekend in 2012 and 2013.

Parishioners are battling the proposed closure of Visitation Church in Kingsbridge. St. Gabriel’s Church in Riverdale would also have to cut down its weekday masses. (I’ve also heard that Visitation will merge with St. John’s Church on Kingsbridge Avenue near 231st Street.)

Hunts Point Express files a detailed report on the possibilities for the rebirth of waterfront land where a decrepit Marine Transfer Station in Hunts Point is expected to be torn down.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Schlein May Cash In with No Money Down on No-Bid Project

25 Aug

A Bronx community garden the city razed to make way for a housing development project looks like it’s going to grow some greenbacks for Stanley Schlein, a long-time Bronx Democratic political fixer with a rather controversial work history.

Sean Carlson, a CUNY Graduate School of Journalism student guided by veteran investigative journalist Tom Robbins’, wrote this piece for the Mott Haven Herald. It’s a must-read, particularly in a city run by a mayor whose biggest claim to accomplishment is he hasn’t had to abide by parochial politics as usual.

Tags: , ,

Big News: Bronx Pols Get Behind Ice Center at Armory

22 Aug

Daniel Massey of Crain’s reported today that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and other borough elected officials will announce their support for the Kingsbridge National Ice Center’s vision for the Kingsbridge Armory. The project is one of two under consideration by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the other one being a small-business market like the DeKalb Market in Brooklyn owned by Young Woo. For more info on both prospects,  click here for a link to BronxTalk which featured presentations by both potential developers.

An interesting note: Almost 20 years ago, when I first began reporting on the vacated Armory, Oliver Koppell, now a Council member but then a state assemblyman, loved to talk about the possibility of the Armory being home to an ice complex. As I recall, he said his daughter had trained at such a facility in Lake Placid. No one really paid that much attention. But despite several other non-ice proposals in the mix over the two decades, Koppell never seemed to let go of the idea entirely. I remember him telling George Pataki about the ice center when the former governor came to tour the facility several years ago.

—Jordan Moss

Tags: , , , ,

Must-See TV on Armory Redevelopment

16 Aug

The answer to what the Armory will become is near. (Photo: J. Moss)

OK, it’s not Mad Men, or Dancing With the Stars or Breaking Bad, but this recent edition of Gary Axelbank’s BronxTalk is must-see TV if you care about what happens at the Kingsbridge Armory — and being a vacant mammoth landmark in our midst, we all should.

In a few weeks we hear, the city’s Economic Development Corporation will decide on two very different, but interesting, proposals for the Kingsbridge Armory — an ice skating arena serving Bronx kids with eight rinks or a lively market of small businesses, recreation, and an innovative movie multi-plex featuring 4D films.

Both proposals have precedents. The market would be based on developer Young Woo’s DeKalb Market in Brooklyn. And the ice skating concept has roots in the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation in Philadelphia.

Axelbank gives each side equal time.

For all the controversy and obstacles littering the last 20 years since the state turned over the keys to the city, we’re finally close to the finish line here. What gets picked should be what the community wants. So take a look and see what you think. And comment here about which of these proposals you’d prefer.

John Liu on BronxTalk Tonight

4 Jun

Update: Here’s the link for the video of the Liu interview: http://www.bronxnet.org/tv/bronxtalk/viewvideo/1634/bronxtalk/bronxtalk–june-4-2012

Comptroller John Liu will be on Gary Axelbank’s BronxTalk tonight at 9 p.m. According to Axelbank: “He’ll talk about the Fresh Direct deal, the filtration plant, politics, and much more. BronxTalk is Monday nights at 9:00pm on Bronxnet’s channel 67 (Fios 33).”

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →