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School Space for Priced-Out Bronx Artists?

16 Nov

Adam Forman, a researcher at Center for an Urban Future, has an opinion piece in the Daily News today regarding the diminishing availability of art studios citywide thanks to the growing hike in real state prices all around the city.

He suggests that city schools be made available in the evenings and on weekends. “There are 1,285 visual arts rooms, 1,111 music rooms, 932 auditoriums, 408 dance studios and 200 film production and editing facilities in the Department of Education’s 1,200 buildings,” Forman states.

As he explains, making this public space available could be complicated — liability and security issues, insurance and until expenses, etc. — but he states, “…these challenges are hardly insurmountable.”

Check out the story and let Bronx Matters readers know what you think.

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High School Student Highlights NYC’s Crime Data Cover-Up; Adds to Previous Bronx Reporting

11 Nov

In the Daily News last Friday, high school student Josh Waldman’s letter to the editor tops the page with the headline: “Let us see all the crime numbers.”

Waldman reports how the Police Department keeps all but the current week’s crime statistics a secret. He points out, when the NYPD posts the current precinct-wide weekly data known as CompStat, it removes all prior stats off the site!

Congrats Josh for highlighting this critical issue that virtually no press is paying close attention to, save the Norwood News and City Limits, where I wrote this article almost two years ago.

It focused on the fact that it’s critical to know how current precinct stats compare to past precinct data and, even more importantly, to know where in those precincts specific criminal activity is growing or consistently problematic. That’s called sector stats, more material that the NYPD won’t release. Precincts are the same size as the community districts they are in and many, serving 100,000 residents, are bigger than most American cities. That’s why sector stats are so critical. They keep track of the same crime data — assaults, car thefts, robberies, burglary and murder — as CompStat data. But sector stats provide the data virtually neighborhood by neighborhood.

In the City Limits article, I reported on Bronx councilman Fernando Cabrera’s bill that resulted in law. He was inspired by Norwood News coverage by me and Alex Kratz on the fact that the NYPD refuses to make sector data available. Norwood News did eventually acquire the info through FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests but that took more than a year. All media, community boards, community groups, and interested individuals should submit similar FOIL requests to pressure NYPD and city government in general to make the information regularly available.

Cabrera achieved some, but not all, of the change he sought, particularly the provision of sector stats. In maps where you can click on circles indicating some data, the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) website does show generally what block crimes have been committed on but only on a monthly basis. And the site doesn’t indicate sector or neighborhood crime totals. So forget about complete, clear neighborhood sector data. DoITT has kept that hidden as well.

When it became law, Greg Faulkner, Cabrera’s chief of staff, said his office had a similar concern about the map. “It doesn’t have enough details and our vision of it was there was going to be a lot more,” said Greg Faulkner, Cabrera’s chief of staff, in the City Limits article. “We need to hear whether there were specific security concerns about why they were left out.” He added back then that the website was not shared with Council members before it was fully implemented. Had it been, Faulkner says, the city “would have been able to determine whether their implementation matched the Council’s intent.”

It clearly hasn’t.

One more thing:

Waldman, the high school student, even created a NYC Shootings website that holds on to crime stat data that the NYPD removes. (It looks great but it’s not functioning at the moment. Josh, let me know when it’s up an running again.) If students at every high school in the city were keeping an eye on what was going on around them, and acting on it like Waldman, it would have an impact on city policy.

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In Bronx District Attorney Election, Vote for Kalief Browder, Who Committed Suicide After 3 Years of Clark’s Court Delays

3 Nov

A Bronx Matters Editorial:

There is little excitement about voting in Bronx elections that are non-mayoral, non-presidential, non-borough-presidential, and not even for a city councilperson or a state legislator. It is, however, judicial. It’s not that that’s unimportant, but since there is virtually no coverage, debates, or campaigning, what do we know about any of these people? We could all spend the time finding them on-line and reading a little about them, but that highly unlikely, especially on Election Day.

It’s 1:06 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3 that I’m beginning to write this and I have no clue who I’m going to vote for in eight judicial elections, or whether I’m even going to take part in voting for people I know nothing about.

But here’s one thing I know I will do – vote in the district attorney election today because the story behind it is such a signal of our borough’s lack of sufficient democracy in a so-called democratic society.

Robert Johnson, the 27-year veteran district attorney, left his position not by stepping out of the Democratic campaign, but by staying in his position, avoiding a primary in September (clearly no Democrat thought they had a chance of defeating this multi-term incumbent) and then simply quitting when the Bronx Democratic Party placed him in another virtual victory lane to be a judge.

But in today’s election, I’m writing in the name of someone who couldn’t even serve if he did win. Kalief Browder served three years in Rikers, where he attempted suicide. He was accused of robbery but spent more than a thousand days in jail without a trial. In six court dates, nothing occurred except for delays.

At home, Browder apparently was better and attending Bronx Community College. But he didn’t stay better and eventually hung himself outside his bedroom window.

So, who was the judge? Darcel Clark, the judge that Bronx Democrats chose to replace Johnson. (She is the Democrat running against Republican Robert D. Siano, who has little chance to win a borough with zero Republican elected officials.)

Whether or not you vote for her, Clark is going to be the district attorney. But maybe if enough write-in votes go to Browder, it will encourage more Bronxites and journalists to keep a close eye on Clark for an obvious reason. And more voting could possibly make Bronx pols think before they continue to exacerbate this pervasive dwindling of democracy.

Sharing this with you now at 3 p.m on Election Day is late in the game. But if you haven’t voted yet and reading this soon after I post it, you’ll have about 6 hours to go. You many not feel like voting in any of these “races,” but vote nonetheless. You can choose anyone on the ballot or write in a name. So, please … vote, vote, vote!

One last thing: Choosing Kalief Browder as a write-in vote for district attorney was not my idea. A friend mentioned it to me and I felt it was such a good idea I had to share it.

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NY1 Report: Bronx DA Candidate at Center of Controversial Rikers Case

23 Oct

The Bronx Democratic candidate Darcel Clark faces new controversy beyond the fact that she is essentially an appointed successor to retired district attorney Robert Johnson in a borough led only by Democratic elected officials. As a former judge she presided over the case of Kalief Browder, “a Bronx youth who committed suicide earlier this year after he had been held at Rikers Island for three years without trial,” NY1 reports.

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Phenomenal Bronx Documentary Photo Exhibit in a Muffler Shop. No Kidding.

7 Oct
Just one impressive photo in the unusual, creative exhibit scene at Vasquez Muffler on Jerome Ave. This photo in exhibit is by Osaretin Ugiagbe. This blog photo by Jordan Moss.

Just one impressive photo in the unusual, creative exhibit scene at Vasquez Muffler on Jerome Ave. This photo in exhibit is by Osaretin Ugiagbe. This blog photo by Jordan Moss.

The Jerome Avenue Workers Project, a remarkable exhibit put on by the Bronx Photo League and the Bronx Documentary Center, had a remarkable, packed opening on Oct. 3 at — get this — Vasquez Muffler at 1275 Jerome Ave.  Sixteen photographers took photos of community residents and workers in the south Bronx neighborhoods that Jerome Avenue links, like Mount Hope and Mount Eden. Though the exhibit is independent, its focus is linked to efforts by community organizations like CAAAV and Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition which are working with residents to challenge and change city plans that would rezone the area. That would allow landowners to sell their property to housing developers. The city plan, they say, will not be affordable and will essentially lead to illegal removal of local tenants, a crisis growing around the city.

The exhibit is on until Oct. 18. The hours are Monday – Saturday 4 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Here’s a bit of what to expect: 

Vasquez Muffler was packed for the Workers Project photo exhibit opening on Oct. 3. Photo by Jordan Moss

Vasquez Muffler was packed for the Workers Project photo exhibit that opened on Oct. 3. Photo by Jordan Moss

Bronx photographer Adi Talwar took two photos for the exhibit including this at a hair dresser in the area. Photo by Jordan Moss

Bronx photographer Adi Talwar took two photos for the exhibit including this at a hair salon in the area. Photo by Jordan Moss

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More on Bronx DA Race, and Lack Thereof

6 Oct

As explained in previous post, Darcel Clark replacing District Attorney Robert Johnson is a virtual certainty thanks to Johnson’s post-primary resignation and Bronx Democrats dropping Clark in his place. A Republican lawyer, Robert D. Siano, has entered the race, but with no other elected Republican in the entire Bronx of 1.4 million residents, his chances are, uh, a tad limited.

In the Daily News today, Errol Louis writes about wrongful convictions during Johnson’s 28-year tenure,  and says, “voters deserve to hear much more about the decade [Clark] spent in Johnson’s office and how she intends to correct the scourge of wrongful convictions.”

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Virtual Appointment of New Bronx DA Without Significant Election Criticized

1 Oct

After almost 27 years as the Bronx’s district attorney, Robert Johnson retired, or maybe resigned is a better word, as he’s likely to acquire another impressive legal gig as judge.

Many people are pissed. Why? Because Johnson, DA for a quarter of a century, departed after primary election day in September. Therefore, his Bronx Democrat pals got to nominate a current judge, Darcel Clark, to essentially replace him without a November vote that matters. And those same Dems have effectively appointed Johnson to be a state Supreme Court justice. And since Primary day is long gone, potential Democratic challengers have literally been dismissed. As for Republicans, there hasn’t been a GOP elected official in the Bronx since State Senator Guy Velella resigned in 2004 (following his corruption conviction).

The Riverdale Press covers the story. It also shares its outrage and profiles Johnson’s likely replacement. And today, in the Times, former Riverdale Press editor Kate Pastor covers Clark’s visit to the Benjamin Franklin Democratic Reform Club on West 231st Street in Kingsbridge. Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, who is the chair (a second position actually) of the Bronx Democratic County Committee, had this to say about the election in Pastor’s article:

“The power that was allegedly taken away from the voters was gone already, because nobody chose to run against him,” Dinowitz said.

True, but 27-year incumbent DAs, particularly in Johnson’s case, rarely get much of a challenge, if any at all. Open seats do. Johnson sat on his seat until he got a new job.

What Johnson said about leaving his veteran position was in the New York Times right after the Democratic convention:

“Don’t resign a job without a job,” he said was often his advice to friends. “If I had resigned before this convention tonight, I would not have a job. I think that after 40 years of public service that I deserve to be able to continue to serve the community.”

If you’re interested in this, as all Bronxites should be, WNYC’s metro editor (and Bronxite) David Lewis, along with NY1’s “Inside City Hall” host (and Daily News columnist) Errol Louis — both veteran reporters — take a well-educated whack at what are essentially Bronx Democrats’ actions that ain’t so democratic.

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Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz on BronxTalk Tonight

24 Aug

From BronxTalk host Gary Axelbank:

Tonight’s guest on BronxTalk will be Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz of the 81st Assembly District in the Bronx. We’ll ask him about the explosion at JFK High School, a number of housing and development issues, the upcoming pilot plan for access to the Jerome Park Reservoir, the Mayor and the Governor, and a number of other issues. BronxTalk is seen live Monday nights at 9:00 p.m. on BronxNet’s channel 67 and Fios 33. It is streamed live at bronxnet.org.

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