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5.30.14 — Bronx News that Matters

30 May

Busy day, but here are a few articles that quickly got my attention this morning:

Bronx Times editor Bob Kappstatter reports on why the borough president is not participating in The Bronx’s Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday.

This Capital New York article reports that Gov. Cuomo may “declare the Senate Coalition,” that is the Republicans partnering up with the Independent Democratic Conference (which Bronx Sen. Jeff Klein leads), a “failure.” That’s because he wants them to pass legislation for “a publicly financed campaign system for statewide candidates,” and that’s not happening. Will this help Oliver Koppell’s challenge against Klein? We’ll see what Cuomo actually does.

Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News reports on how much more public dough Donald Trump is getting from the city for his Bronx golf course compared to all the others.

Bronx Times editor Bob Kappstatter reports on why the borough president is not participating in The Bronx’s Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday.

And this is relevant to every neighborhood in the city: The New York Times reports on legislation the City Council is pushing forward to avoid traffic deaths.

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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5.23.14 Bronx News (and Fun) that Matters

23 May

Norwood News reports on the State Senate primary in District 34: “Senator Jeff Klein emerged victorious in securing an endorsement from the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, after a lengthy evening of accusations of betrayal, debates, rebuttals and questions over whether their decision could cause a divide.” The vote, in Riverdale last night, was 96 to 38.

The long-time Epiphany Lutheran Church on East 206th Street in Norwood is going to be an Ethiopian Church, now that the latter bought the gorgeous but repair-needing building for $1.3 million, which they acquired from decades of saving. (Daily News)

A union is saying that it was a “faulty 911 processing system [that] caused dispatch error during Spuyten-Duyvil Derailment.” (News 12)

A few fun Bronx art stuff this weekend:

Current art exhibits at the FREE shows at Bronx Museum of Arts.

At Wave Hill in Riverdale, take part in a family art class making wash-away patios out of clay on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (I’m not precisely sure what wash-away patios are but it sounds cool, and my family has gone a bunch of enjoyable times.)

Next Wednesday, check out the second edition of the Bronx memoir project at the Bronx Documentary Center in Melrose.

(I want to post a longer Bronx Art Scene feature once a week, focusing on art events, classes, etc., especially if they are free or low-cost. To do that, I need groups to submit a maximum of two events/happenings — by Wed. at noon — each of which shouldn’t be more than two sentences and should include links to your websites for more information. I don’t have the time right now to go through press releases, etc., so sending that to me won’t be helpful. Let’s try it out next week. My email is bronxmatters-at-gmail.com. Thanks! -Jordan)

5.22.14 — Bronx News that Matters

22 May

Former Council member Oliver Koppell, a veteran Riverdale-based politician who occupied several other key political positions, may have an uphill climb to defeat incumbent Jeffrey Klein, a Democrat who has formed a separate committee to partner closely with Republicans. Some key former Koppell allies are backing Klein, but
Koppell is gathering support and enthusiastically taking it on. City Limits files a detailed report.

Former assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson is headed behind bars for three years for taking bribes from a company wanting legislation to temporarily ban additional adult day care centers. In February, I reported in City Limits that Governor Cuomo was publicly struggling with a decision of whether to have the election to refill District 79 soon or wait until the regular primary on Sept. 9. The latter date won out and there won’t be an assemblyman in that district for another six months following the general election. The same is true for District 77, an office former-assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson left when she became a member of the City Council.

The city celebrated its Shop Healthy Program in the Bronx. Through advertising, the project highlights healthier foods which the Department of Health says works by drawing more customers to food that’s better for them.

Congressman Charles Rangel, who now represents part of the northwest Bronx, leads challenger Adriano Espaillat, now a state senator, 41 to 32 percent in a poll conducted by the New York Times, NY1, and Siena College. (Data chart included.)

And according to the Daily News, Rangel and another candidate in his district have a lotta dough. And Espaillat? Not so much.

The ninth murder this year in the northeast Bronx’s 47th Precinct took place on East 229th Street yesterday. That’s eight more murders than there were last year at this time. The New York Times covered this problem May 18 as well.

(To find out more about crime in your precinct or neighborhood, click here and here for city data from NYPD and DoITT. Tell Bronx Matters if you think this data is helpful or how it can be more helpful.)

Speaking of food, a historic pizza joint, Patsy’s Pizzeria, is opening a Morris Park location next month, the Daily News reports. According to the story, the 81-year-old Patsy’s is considered to be the first pizzeria that sold pizza by the slice.

The Ghetto Film School, based in Mott Haven, is partnering with 20th Century Fox to open a partner school in Los Angeles, the Daily News reports.

If you’d like to get e-mail updates on Bronx Matters blog posts, see bottom of page at left. Thanks! -Jordan

 

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Bronx News that Matters

19 May

Today, The New York Times reports on the heavy uptick in homicides in the Wakefield section of the 47th Precinct in the northeast Bronx. At this point last year there was one murder. This year, there has already been eight. Police Commissioner William Bratton is pushing a change in patrolling, having cops make contact with families “on every block in the precinct.”

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a long-time partner of former assemblyman, councilman, state attorney and school board president Oliver Koppell, is not supporting him in his bid to unseat incumbent Jeffrey Klein. Instead Dinowitz endorsed Klein on Friday. This is a big Bronx race but it has statewide relevance as Klein’s small Independent Democratic Conference has pulled Senate control out of Democrats’ hands. As leader of the IDC group, he often partners with Republican leaders regarding legislation.

BronxTalk (channel 67 on Bronxnet) highlights the push for a Hudson River Greenway going up through Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale.

On Saturday, the refurbished gym in Our Lady of Refuge Church was renamed for Daniel Barden, one of the 7-year-0lds who died in the Newtown mass shooting. His mother attended OLR in the Fordham-Bedford Neighborhood (196th Street and Grand Concourse).

To check out some Bronx events coming up, click here.

NYPD Blocks Access to Neighborhood Crime Stats; Bill to Set Them Free Held Up in Council

26 Sep

If you want to know whether crime is up or down in your neighborhood, you’re out of luck. While the NYPD releases the data for precincts — which are as big as many U.S. Cities — on their summary CompStat reports on-line, they don’t make the stats for sectors within precinct available to the public.

The Norwood News (where I was editor until last year) began raising the issue of the sector stat lockdown several years ago and continues to do so under editor Alex Kratz.

Council Member Fernando Cabrera introduced legislation last year that would require the NYPD to post the sector data on the web monthly. It’s gone nowhere. I take a deeper look at what’s holding things up and the sector stat issue in general in this City Limits article. Take a look.

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