Reservoir Blasting Plan Bashed

Local residents came out in force last week to vigorously oppose a city plan to blast away rock with explosives at the Jerome Park Reservoir. The controversial plan is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) contentious Croton Water Filtration Plant project currently under way in Van Cortlandt Park. |  Read More

Construction Workers Escape Accident with Minor Injuries

Two construction workers narrowly avoided death after a large panel of bricks unexpectedly ripped off the side of a Montefiore Medical Center research building earlier this morning, knocking them off their scaffolding rig.

Both workers were taken to the nearby emergency room, but they sustained only minor injuries. |  Read More

Norwood Artist Inspired by Friendship With Film Icon

When Norwood artist Ibrahim Gonzalez met film maverick Melvin Van Peebles in the Bronx three years ago, the two offbeat characters felt a strong connection and became immediate friends.

For Gonzalez, who dabbles in several artistic media but is best known as a conga-playing Bronx bandleader, the encounter also produced a sort of mid-life artistic epiphany that he hopes will propel him to new heights in his career. |  Read More

A Bronx Cheerleader Turned 'Gladiator

"Push your body as far as it can go," read the text message from personal trainer Jessica Garcia's father. This was just one of the countless calls and text messages from friends, teachers and family members that the Bronx native and "American Gladiators" challenger has received the week before her upcoming debut on Monday night's show. |  Read More

The DEP Strikes Again

An annoying tendency regarding the filtration plant project is that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is inclined not to listen to the ratepayers and citizens who are funding all of this.

Concerned residents, some of whom have become experts on the issue, turn up at hearing after hearing and tell the DEP important things.

Agency officials don't really listen; they just "explain" why they're right, as if all it would take for the community to agree is to have it explained in words we poor foolish citizens can understand.

But that's not so. Local activists were right that the DEP could do with a smaller plant and filter less water or use another technology like membrane filtration, rather than just spend money like - well, like water, actually. They were right that the plant would never go in the Jerome Park Reservoir. They were right that you couldn't build something 20 feet high at the street and call it underground. And they were right that that the city had to get state legislative approval to |  Read More

 Haile Rivera Suspends Council Bid

 Foreclosure Bill Passes

 City Pushes Food Stamp Enrollment

 Public and Community Meetings