New York Times reporter Sam Roberts blogs about the history of Bronx motto “Ne Cede Malis,” (Yield Not to Evil) which apparently took effect in 1912, but hasn’t had substantial success in deterring the civic evils perpetrated by many politicians. There are some, like Fordham professor Mark Naison, who think the motto should be more reflective of the borough’s progress in recent years. But others like, Ruben Diaz, Jr. and Fernando Ferrer, current and former BP’s respectively, think it’s as important now as it ever was.
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A Bronx Foster Care Survivor’s Tough Journey to Independence
3 JunFekri Kram, a Tunisian immigrant in the Bronx, has faced a number of challenges since he aged out of foster care. (Photo by Bruce Byers )
Ed. note: The following article, by former Riverdale Press reporter Tommy Hallissey, about Bronxite Fekri Kram, is part of a joint project of SalaamGarageNYC and the Long Island Children’s Museum, highlighting problems faced by those aging out of foster care. Entitled “Everybody Needs Someone, The Aging-Out of Foster Care Project,” the project is currently fundraising with crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com (through June 13, 2012). The exhibition runs June 16-September 2, 2012 at the LICM located at 11 Davis Ave. in Garden City, NY. Opening event June 23, 2012 1-4:30pm.
By Tommy Hallissey
Without a word, Fekri Kram’s disarming, toothy smile betrays the suffering he endured coming of age in the New York City foster care system. His crooked pearly whites also hide the agony of being sold into slavery in Tunisia at the age of 5 for a mere $100.
Taken from Tunisia, Fekri was exchanged between parental figures that were often physically and sexually abusive. At age 9, he was beaten severely in Jackson Heights, Queens by his family of the moment. After he was hospitalized, the city recommended he not return to an abusive environment.
Without doting parents, Fekri spent most of his formative years in the less than picturesque settings of New York foster homes. At 21, Fekri was one of nearly 1,000 individuals that year forced to navigate independent living after “aging out” of the city’s foster system. These young adults must transition from a system of familiar structure to the unsettled, often cold reality of independence. According to a 2011 report by the Center for an Urban Future, roughly two-thirds of the 16,000 foster youth in America age out of the system without reuniting with their birth families or being adopted.
“I’ve been through hell and back,” explained Fekri, wearing faded, ripped jeans and a trendy white t-shirt. His inner strength has fueled his drive to succeed where others would have quit. He has overcome such obstacles as slavery, poverty, abuse and solitude to now enjoy some of the gifts of independence, including no direct supervision or curfew.
Remembering & Honoring Meg Charlop at Street Renaming This Morning
10 May
Megan Charlop, the Bronx advocate, activist, cyclist, friend and so much else who died in a tragic bike accident two years ago, is being remembered this morning at 10:30 at 167th Street and Fulton Avenue, which will be renamed in her honor.
The above is a photo of Megan and her eldest daughter, Sarah, in 1979 at what was then called the Roots Garden, now Estella Diggs Park, the site of the renaming.
For a little more background on Megan’s incredible life and work in the Bronx, click here and here and here.
I’m biking down there in a little while. Hope to see you.
—Jordan Moss
Hunts Point Express: BP Should Not Add Rapper Fat Joe to Bronx Walk of Fame
26 AprBernard Stein, editor of the Hunts Point Express, has published an editorial taking Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. to task for planning to induct the Bronx-born rapper Fat Joe into the borough Walk of Fame next month.
It was the Florida-based rapper’s lyrics drew Stein’s attention. He included a few of them from Fat Joe’s song “Porn Star”:
I never seen an ass like that
no I never seen seen an ass so fat (tat, tat, tat)
I’mma beat it til tomorrow
And all I keep telling her is “shut up bitch, swallow”
Your legs is shaking
I won’t hurt you
Now you can be the star of that new commercial
Calling the rapper “an outstanding citizen and role model to countless Bronxites,” Diaz issued a press release announcing the impending induction earlier this week. Stein’s piece was reprinted in The Riverdale Press this week.
We asked the borough president’s office if they’d like to comment on the issues raised in the Express piece but we haven’t heard back yet.
—Jordan Moss
Creating a Bronx Economy: A Forum Tomorrow at Fordham
23 AprI thought this might interest Bronx Matters readers …
The Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice at Fordham University, the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, and University Neighborhood Housing Program invite you to a forum tomorrow morning…
Creating a Bronx Economy:
Banking Options and Alternative Solutions
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Fordham University – McGinley Center, Faculty Lounge
Breakfast @ 8:30 AM / Forum @ 9:00 – 11:30 AM
Much of the economic decline in the Bronx in the 1960s and 1970s was due to redlining and disinvestment by the financial industry and the government. Community organizing led to new laws and a new climate encouraging reinvestment by both the private and public sectors that led to the rebirth of the Bronx. Despite the many success stories of our borough in the last 35 years, redlining has left a lasting legacy in the proliferation of high-cost fringe and sub-prime financial services and the lowest concentration of bank branches of any county in the nation. Meanwhile, as the gap between the very wealthy and everyone else grows nationally, lower income communities are struggling to survive in an economy that does not work in their own interest.
Confirming Correct Time of ‘Safe at Home’ Forum
22 AprToday’s listing on the Daily News Bronx page about tomorrow’s ‘Safe at Home’ housing forum that Bronx Matters is co-sponsoring is incorrect. The event is at 4 p.m. (not 6 p.m. as listed in the News). Hope to see you there. Just email bronxmatters@gmail.com if you have any other questions. Thanks.
Travyon Martin Case on BronxTalk
20 AprBronxTalk, the TV news talk show on Cablevsichannel 67 (Cablevision) and Verizon FIOS channel 33 explored the controversial issues in the Trayvon Martin shooting this week with two Bronx academics. Here’s the link.
Morning Matters — 4/6/12
6 AprGood morning. Today’s Morning Matters is dedicated to the Heritage Field opening and the Times’ coverage.
Heritage Field opened yesterday on the site of the old Yankee Stadium. (Photo: J. Moss)
The New York Times is in loooove with Heritage Field, the high-quality three-diamond spread in the footprint of the old Yankee Stadium, so much so that it merited above-the-fold placement on the front page. It is a lovely sight, but it is laden with the recent history of the city prioritizing the Yankee corporation over the kids in Highbridge and other nabes surrounding the stadium. As Juan Gonzalez reported two years ago in the Daily News …
Three and a half years after Mayor Bloomberg closed huge portions of Mullaly and Macombs Dam parks to make way for the Yankees new $1.5 billion stadium, the replacement ballfields the city promised are nowhere to be seen.
It has been nearly 18 months since the last game was played in the old stadium. Yet its concrete hulk still looms like a gray ghost across the street from the Yankees new palace.
I’ll admit, I have a pretty firm point of view on the democracy-ignoring deals regarding the new stadium, its impact on taxpayers and the community around it. I wrote this lengthy editorial in the Norwood News back in 2006. But I think I’m looking at it with fairness and not bias when I say that in a story regarding a land use issue this big for the Bronx an interview or two with one of the prominent local activists or former community board members who opposed the stadium deal (they were ditched from CB4 by then-BP Adolfo Carrion, Jr.) would have been warranted.
Bronx Matters 