Taxi Dispatchers Form Close Community

September 22, 2005

By Heather Haddon

“Good morning, buenas. Where are you? Please hold. Two minutes.”

It’s a rapid-fire exchange familiar to any Bronxite needing a cab to go to the doctor’s or across town. It’s a simple transaction — a phone number is called and a car comes — but one wonders about the anonymous operator and their clairvoyant knowledge of where the cabs lurk. And how’d they learn to talk so fast?

“You either got it or you don’t,” said Luis Carela, one of seven dispatchers at Webster Avenue’s Prestige Car Service. Pausing from the addresses and cab numbers he fires off like an auctioneer, Carela jokes: “There’s no talking-fast school.”

For the taxi dispatcher, the verbal drill takes place hundreds of times a day, requiring quick reflexes, patience and a tireless tongue. Some are former drivers, while many of Prestige’s dispatchers, like 25-year-old Carela, grew up in the trade.

That’s also the case for Naomi Lozado. “My mother was a dispatcher,” said Lozado, 34, Prestige’s only female operator and probably one of the few in the entire field. “I’ve been doing this since I was like 16.”

They float in and out of the dispatcher’s seat, but Prestige’s operators always seem to return to the job. “We have known each other for so long,” said Lozado, her hand hovering over the 15 phone buttons. “It’s like a family — some are quiet, some are loud, some are the black-sheeps. But we all get along.”

“Hello, Prestige. Please hold. Hello, good morning, God bless. Give me an address sweetie. Hello, buenas, digame.”

It’s 9:30 a.m. on a summer Tuesday, and the calls are tapering off some. Carela and Lozado sit side-by-side, bantering in Spanish and slurping orange juice in their small office perched above Webster Avenue at the corner of East 204th Street. The room contains little but their desks, taped-up signs and schedules, and a coat rack with ties emblazoned with “Jesus Loves You.”

“She never has to wear ties,” said Carela, eyeing Lozado’s flip-flops and trademark ball cap. “She gets off easy.”

The pair make the job seem simple, transitioning seamlessly between the calls and the cabs. After a request comes in, the dispatchers “throw it out,” or repeat it to the cabbies through a microphone. The closest driver picks it up, and their cab number flashes on a screen. A few years ago, Prestige invested in computers, which feature a digital relay to the cars.

Dispatchers still keep a paper log of the transactions. By the end of a busy eight-hour shift, the record will often run 20 pages — the equivalent of 1,000 calls.

“It’s hard work,” said Felix Medrano, Prestige’s accountant, while sitting in the small administrative office. “I couldn’t imagine doing it.”

The dispatchers all gripe about the stress, and “breaking nights,” or covering the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. There is also the occasional angry, foul-mouthed customer. “My friends say, ‘You work in a shirt and a tie, with clean hands,’” said Carela, his face framed by beaded cornrows. “But you work hard here.”

Dispatchers call police when drivers are victims of robberies or assaults. Lozado thinks things have been safer in the last few years, but the trade is still dangerous. Just six months ago, she remembers a driver getting stabbed in the hand.

Usually the chatter between drivers and dispatchers is light, involving ongoing baseball rivalries and playful jokes. Most is in Spanish for the large number of Dominicans, but English is used for the handful of African and Pakistani drivers.

“Decatur and Gun Hill. Copy, five minutes. The driver gives you the price, sweetie. Just come down. ¿Está bien, papi?”

Carela ends his shift at 10 a.m., taking off his tie and kissing Lozado on the head. Jose Franco, a former driver, takes over. “Driving a cab, everything is up and down,” said Franco, 51, attaching a makeshift pillow to his chair with a bungee cord. “Here you have a schedule, days off.”

But like the cabbies, when the dispatchers don’t work, they don’t get paid. The operators earn between $12 and $16 an hour, according to Lozado, without benefits. “It could always be better,” she said, sucking on a Newport outside. A single mom, Lozado is raising two teenage daughters, and many others support families back in their native countries.

Despite the challenges, there’s also plenty of fun. Prestige’s staff play on a softball team, competing against rival Kiss Cab and La Nueva Estrella Restaurant, a driver hangout across the street. During games, families picnic and socialize at French Charley’s Playground. One year, the team played in Florida.

The base is also homey, offering a long-distance phone, message board and a barbershop. Drivers congregate outside to discuss their day and greet the dispatchers. That morning, Papito (aka driver #67) gives Lozado a smile and a kiss on the hand.

“You have to like people to do this job,” she said.

Still, Lozado doesn’t wish dispatching on her daughters. Her mother, who started in the business in 1978, has left to open a travel agency. Lozado hopes to join her.

But dispatching is in her blood. “I love my job,” she said, sitting in front of the radio microphone. “I love to sing on this. I love to keep the guys on their toes.”

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

A Look at What’s New at Local Public and Parochial Schools

September 22, 2005

By Heather Haddon

Students went back to school on Sept. 8 in what many officials and parents have said was a particularly easy first day. “It was probably one of the smoothest school openings in anyone’s recollection,” said Joel DiBartolomeo, a local instructional superintendent for the area, last week.

That accomplishment was noteworthy given the number of local schools and students, and that 30 new principals started at Region 1 schools this fall. But many new leaders have been working since the summer.

The following is a list of what’s new at area elementary and middle schools. Those who failed to respond are not included. Developments in local high schools will be featured next month.

PS 8
PS 8 is home to a fleet of fledgling administrators and teachers this year. The Briggs Avenue school is hosting two principals in training and 12 student teachers from Fordham University, Manhattan College and St. John’s University.

“I’m thrilled that those colleges have sought us out,” said Maria Quail, the school’s principal.

PS 8 will continue to assign students to small groups for specific skills work, creating smaller learning environments within the school’s full classrooms. Around 1,200 students are registered this year, a similar number to last year.

Quail is excited that after-school programming, provided by the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, will be free this year. The school will again host a choir and a year-end play.

PS/MS 20
Behavior and character development is a big focus at PS/MS 20 this year.

Kindergarten through sixth grade students at the Webster Avenue school will use Tribes, a program where students, working in groups, are asked to take more responsibility over their learning. Older children will use “The 7 Habits for a Highly Effective Teenager,” a new interactive guide to foster more personal accountability. Parents will also receive training in the methods, according to Lisa Kogel, a staffer who is coordinating the effort.
PS/MS 20 plans to host assemblies every Friday by grade, and a variety of other school events. There are roughly 10 new teachers and 1,300 students.

PS 33
Lynnette Vasquez may be new at the helm, but she is no stranger to PS 33. She started teaching science at the Jerome Avenue school 11 years ago after working at District 10 since the ‘80s. “I have been in the community for quite a while,” said Vasquez, 37, who lives on Park Avenue in the Bronx.

Following in the footsteps of former principal Elba Lopez, Vasquez is now homing in on student test data. PS 33 was just removed from the state’s list of schools needing improvement after its phenomenal test scores last year.
The school is emphasizing nonfiction reading across the subjects this year, and holding monthly writing competitions. DreamYard is continuing their longtime relationship with PS 33, and The Youth for Real after-school program has also begun.

For some time now, PS 33 has offered a variety of workshops for parents, including ESL, literacy and parenting skills. The school is adding a technology class this year on Mondays and Saturdays.

Eleven new teachers came on board, along with a new assistant principal, Leonardo Castro. Enrollment is at 1,087, which is similar to previous years.

PS 46
After 21 years as PS 46’s principal, Aramina Ferrer retired last spring. Iris Lim, an assistant principal, is now overseeing the East 196th Street school.

“She has a long history with the school and District 10,” said Sonia Menendez, a local instructional superintendent who oversees PS 46. Lim taught at PS 46 for a number of years before overseeing the district’s gifted and talented program for bilingual students.

Menendez said that Lim will continue to strengthen instruction at PS 46, which did see a spike in its state test scores last year. The school was awarded a federal Comprehensive School Reform grant this year to focus on literacy in the younger grades. PS 46 is divided into five mini-schools, all of which use literacy as a theme.

Work was done on the school’s floors this summer, and several new teachers were hired.

PS 51
Bronx New School students have many new ways to express themselves, with the Jerome Avenue school now offering singing, dance and music classes after school. The school will continue to offer its club program during recess.
Staff is putting extra attention into making sure that students are reading books that are interesting and appropriate for them. “We’re looking at the needs of struggling readers,” said Paul Smith, the school’s principal.

Roughly 250 students are enrolled at the school, similar to last year. The school hired a new parent coordinator, Alina Ortiz, as the previous staffer is now working at the Jonas Bronck Academy full-time.

PS 54
PS 54 is focusing on safety this year. The school is closing off entrances on Decatur Avenue and traffic will flow through one door on Webster Avenue. “We have too many exits and entrances and only one safety officer,” said Carmen Aleman, the school’s parent coordinator. Students are also being asked to wear uniforms.

PS 54 is home to several new teachers, and Aleman hopes to get more parents involved through ongoing talent shows and other events.

PS 94
Diane Daprocida, PS 94’s new principal, has hit the ground running since she started at the Kings College Place school. “I’ve lost weight just walking around the school,” said Daprocida, 46, brimming with enthusiasm. “It’s just one thing after another.”
Daprocida is no stranger to multi-tasking, or the education field. She spent years working in Queens schools, started a family daycare center while she was raising her three children, and led her kids’ parent association. Last year, Daprocida attended the city’s Leadership Academy for new principals. “It was a phenomenal experience,” she said.

Daprocida’s forte is special education, and she plans on strengthening PS 94’s offerings in that area. She also hopes to deepen overall instruction, further utilize her math and literacy coaches, and build a sense of school community across the grades.

A Queens resident, Daprocida says she is growing fond of the local area. She hopes more community members will utilize PS 94’s new library through planned workshops and events.

School registration is hovering at around 1,000. Several new teachers were hired, and kindergarten, third grade and special education classrooms were added.

PS/MS 95
PS/MS 95 students will get to rock out like never before thanks to a VH1 Save the Music grant awarded this summer. The Van Cortlandt Village school purchased woodwinds, guitars, percussion and other instruments with the $60,000 allotted to start a school band for the upper grades and provide after-school classes. “We’ve never had musical instruction on this level before,” said Eileen Rivera, a school assistant principal.

DreamYard is further expanding arts at the school after middle school students won two regional poetry slams last year. PS/MS 95 also received a $275,000 Comprehensive School Reform federal grant for professional development. Additionally, PS/MS 95’s school health center received $5,000 this summer to purchase recreational equipment for a program promoting exercise during recess.

School staff are especially celebrating PS/MS 95’s recent removal from the state list of schools needing improvement. Rivera is also excited about the many renovations to the building this summer, including refinished wood floors and an intercom system.

The school added 11 teachers this year. Enrollment is at 1,400, which is similar to last year.

PS 246
PS 246 is continuing to expand its diverse array of partnerships and special programs with three new initiatives. The Grand Concourse school received a state 21st Century Schools grant, allowing them to start a four-year after-school program. Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit that previously worked with PS 246, will provide art, drama and other programming to students.

Through two grants, selected PS 246 students will receive screenings at the All Kinds of Minds Institute, which tests for learning disabilities and comprehension issues. Staff will also work on-site to provide support for participating students and additional training for 25 of PS 246’s teachers. “It’s something that’s really going to help our kids and families,” said Shelly Pope, a school assistant principal.

The school will also expand its work with Columbia University’s Teachers College. Staff at the college and a well-performing school in Queens will provide professional development in writing, to PS 246 teachers. “Our writing should really pick up this year,” Pope said.

PS 246 was removed from the state’s list of schools in need of improvement this year. Facility wise, the school received hundreds of new chairs and desks this summer, plus a paint job. Mosaics created by kids in conjunction with the Lehman College Art Gallery are now on display in PS 246’s front entryway.

PS 280
With a history of academic success, PS 280 is getting a bit more freedom from the city’s guidelines this year. The Mosholu Parkway facility was one of 10 school selected for the city’s Autonomy Zone, a pilot program granting certain schools more flexibility in their curriculum. After Region 1 was granted the pilot, interested schools applied last spring for start-up this fall.

The school’s particular approach to math motivated Gary LaMotta, PS 280’s principal, to apply. “We felt we could do better here with the freedom to put together our own math curriculum,” LaMotta said. The pilot will also allow PS 280 to create its own system of professional development.

In addition to extra emphasis on vocabulary development, the school is greatly expanding its arts programming. PS 280 purchased musical equipment this summer with a $4,500 allocation from Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, and they will now offer music and drama lessons after school. Dance will be incorporated during the day and LaMotta hopes to begin a chess program this winter.

PS 280 is in its second year of transitioning into a kindergarten through eighth grade school, now with its first seventh grade class. The school expanded into half of MS 80’s second floor and hired nine additional teachers. Enrollment is at about 690 students.

PS 291
PS 291 is happy to welcome several new staff members this fall. The Andrews Avenue school hired another assistant principal, Patty Vulaj, to fill a vacancy from last year. Vulaj has taught at the school for seven years, according to Giovanna LaPietra, an assistant principal. The school also hired seven new teachers and is opening another classroom. Enrollment is about the same as last year, which ended at 600.
PS 291 will continue a book-of-the-month program begun last year where every grade conducts different activities based on the same selection.

PS 340
Students will creatively reflect on Japanese life and aesthetics this year at PS 340. The West 195th Street school’s art teacher recently traveled to the Far East for a three-week fellowship, and will incorporate her studies into the school’s active art program.

Students will further explore multi-cultural themes through a global studies magnet grant.
Last year, students explored the environment and animals of Zambia, for example, and saw the real thing at the Bronx Zoo. “It has real world applications,” said Deirdre Burke, PS 340’s principal.

PS 340 gained three teachers and enrollment is up slightly at 530 students.

MS 45
Principal Joseph Solanto retired from MS 45 last spring after 35 years leading the school. Annamaria Giordano is the Lorillard Place’s new principal.

MS 80
Lovey Rivera, MS 80’s principal, has ambitious plans for MS 80’s small learning communities. The Mosholu Parkway school’s separate academies seem to be taking root, and students can now design robots, grow plants or cover the school’s news. “I predict in two years you’ll see MS 80 on the map,” said Rivera, now in her third year at the school.
MS 80 was divided into houses last year to make the school a bit more manageable.
Students now pick from journalism, sciences and the arts. This year, Microsoft is providing technology assistance for a newspaper and Web site; Fordham University and Cornell Cooperative Extension are helping with robotics and hydroponics; and MS 80 just hired its first visual arts teacher.

MS 80’s enrollment is dropping — now down to 950 from 1,400, when Rivera first started. PS 280 is increasing its numbers, and now shares MS 80’s second floor. Rivera is happy to have a smaller student body. “I’m feeling much more comfortable,” she said.

MS 80’s band is tuning up for another winter concert and Rivera hopes to add drama this year. The school hired 15 new teachers and a new assistant principal.

MS 206
MS 206’s new principal, David Neering, is already feeling quite comfortable at the school — though he’s hundreds of miles away from his longtime home. After over 30 years in Michigan schools, Neering left retirement, picked up his life and family, and came to New York. He has no regrets.

“I’m loving it,” said Neering, 55, who radiates compassion and calmness. “The kids have been a pleasure.”

Neering says his 13 years of experience as a principal in an urban environment prepared him well for the Bronx and he’s thinking of moving to the borough next year. If anything, he thinks MS 206’s students are more manageable. “The kids I’m working with now are taking direction a lot better,” he said.

Neering says he’s glad to be in a school with veteran staff and he is working with them now to build standards of instruction and assessment. Bronx Community College has a partnership with the Aqueduct Avenue school, providing classes in technology and science for eighth graders.

In addition to more scholastics, the Good Shepherds organization will provide arts programming after school. Neering hopes to bring in a music program as well.

MS 206’s enrollment is down a little at 500 students, which will allow the school to give extra attention to its new class of fifth graders. The school’s interiors and exteriors were painted during the summer.

MS 254
MS 254 seventh graders are getting to spice up their Fridays with a new electives program at the Washington Avenue school. Students are in the process of choosing from subjects like art, drama or technology for a once-a-week class. “It’s a good way to end the week,” said Robert Piloco, a school assistant principal.

MS 254 will continue with its morning sports program, which offers volleyball and soccer beginning at 7 a.m. “It has really improved our attendance,” Piloco said. As a magnet school, MS 254 will continue to focus on interdisciplinary studies.

The school has a new parent coordinator and 500 students, which is similar to last year.

MS 399
Yolanda Torres, now in her fourth year leading MS 399, feels like things are coming around for the East 184th Street school. “The school has its issues but we are having a really positive start,” she said.

Key to that turnaround is the filling of many teaching vacancies that, last year, forced MS 399 to utilize substitute staff without the proper instructional background. The school hired 18 new teachers, opened up a seventh grade class and increased its enrollment to 730 students.

MS 399 is expanding its already diverse array of extracurricular programming. The Bronx Arts Ensemble is bringing ballroom dancing classes to the school as part of a larger emphasis on etiquette. An initiative teaching conflict resolution through acting will continue, and this year MS 399 will have its own drama therapist. Through a $65,000 grant, the school will participate in the Public Colors program, which uses art to build cooperation. The Youth for Reel after-school program is already under way and auditions for their chorus are happening soon.

Bronx Dance Academy
The Bronx Dance Academy has a new principal this year. Amy Jones is now leading the school, located on Bainbridge Avenue.

Jonas Bronck Academy
In Principal Maria Esponda’s eyes, the Jonas Bronck Academy (JBA) is finally coming into its own. “We are really taking ownership of the school,” Esponda said excitedly.

JBA is still housed on Manhattan College’s campus, but it was recognized as a freestanding school last spring, granted its own number (228), and awarded an influx of resources. The school now has a full-time guidance counselor and parent coordinator, additional social studies and science teachers and funding for a nurse. They purchased laptop computers this year through funds from the region and $50,000 from Council Member Oliver Koppell. JBA also received 100 new chairs and many kids helped clean and paint the school this summer.

Students also took leadership in choosing JBA’s new uniforms. Six and seventh graders now wear blue while red distinguishes the eighth graders. School enrollment is at 150, which is similar to last year.

Esponda is pushing for more academic rigor this year. Writing will be further incorporated in other subject areas, teachers were given additional training in math techniques, and students will begin to learn Spanish. With support from Manhattan College, JBA will offer 30 minutes of individual tutoring for struggling readers.

The school is also placing additional emphasis on high school selection. Later this month, JBA is organizing a trip to a high school fair in Brooklyn.

MS 143
MS 143 is the process of closing as the New School for Leadership and Journalism and Marie Curie High School for Nursing, Medicine and the Allied Health Professions expand in the facility. The West 231st Street school did not admit a new sixth grade and it will cease to exist as MS 143 by 2006.

The New School for Leadership and Journalism

The kinks are still getting worked out, but according to Principal Delores Peterson, the tone at the New School for Leadership and Journalism is solid. “Our staff, veterans and brand new teachers alike, are energized and unbelievably dedicated,” said Peterson about the new school starting at MS 143.

The West 231st Street school will eventually expand into a seventh through 12th grade school as MS 143 proper phases out. The school will add a journalism focus to its curriculum through a partnership with Fordham University.

“The goal is to start a newspaper as a tool to improve writing,” said Arthur Hayes, who oversees Fordham’s student paper. Hayes also hopes to expand into broadcast and other media as the school develops.

Peterson was most recently the principal of PS 306 on West Tremont Avenue.

St. Ann’s School
Technology will continue to play a greater role in instruction at St. Ann’s School. The Bainbridge Avenue facility is one of five Archdiocese schools that was selected to house an “aerobics lab,” a pilot program targeting literacy skills in the early grades. The school also received a grant to purchase laptops for a technology-based math program in grades three through eight.

Enrollment is up this year at around 290 and the school is welcoming a new second grade teacher. During the summer, new cafeteria tables were purchased and gym mats were installed on the facility’s walls. “You can bounce off the walls now and not get hurt,” said Cecilia Rodriguez, the school’s principal.

St. Brendan’s School
St. Brendan’s School is fast making music its forte. Through a new grant, the school hired professional musicians to teach the recorder and hand chimes to older students, and movement classes for younger kids. The H.W. Wilson Foundation approached St. Brendan’s because of its new, free-standing music school, according to Patricia Gatti, St. Brendan’s principal.

The East 207th Street school also received $10,000 to renovate and soundproof classrooms in the music school, which is in the church’s convent, and eight additional rooms have opened for its 60 students. Additionally, St. Brendan’s art teacher was allotted a classroom and she hopes to hold a spring art show.

Our Lady of Refuge School
With 323 kids in attendance, Our Lady of Refuge School (OLR) is very happy about this fall’s registration. “Enrollment has gone up a quite a bit,” said Marivel Colon, the school’s principal.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Security Changes Debut at Clinton

September 22, 2005

By Heather Haddon

Students Walk Out to Protest Scanners

DeWitt Clinton High School fired up its new metal detectors and scanning equipment for the first time this week, resulting in long lines and a growing sense of resentment among students. Clinton’s staff generally support, or feel resigned, to the changes, but hundreds of students staged a walk out last Monday in protest.

“I don’t like it at all,” said Emmanuel Moya, 17. “There’s going to be more fights inside, and it makes us late.”

Clinton underwent major renovations this summer to set up the scanning center, which requires students to enter through one entrance on Paul Avenue. Girls and boys wait in separate lines before swiping an ID card, passing through a metal detector, and putting their bags through an x-ray machine. Those who set off the detectors are questioned in a separate room behind a two-way mirror.

Once students enter the Bedford Park school, they can’t leave until the end of the school day. Clinton rehabbed its cafeteria to accommodate a “captive lunch,” putting an end to students’ ability to eat outside. Three classrooms and a learning center were knocked down to roughly triple the capacity of the basement cafeteria. The room will accommodate 800 students — instead of 300 as in past years — during five lunch periods.

Surveillance cameras were also installed in Clinton’s hallways with funds from the Bronx borough president’s office.

Staff spoke favorably about the increased security during a tour of the changes last month. “I think it’s proven to be effective,” said Maryanne Mola, an assistant principal, about the cameras.

The Bedford Park school is following the path of other large Bronx high schools, which introduced scanning students and a captive lunch years ago. Violence has been less of a problem at Clinton than other big schools, but a murder of a Clinton student earlier this year by other teens at a Bronx subway platform was an impetus for the shift, according to Geraldine Ambrosio, Clinton’s principal.

“We are very concerned with student safety,” Ambrosio said earlier this week. “The metal detectors were put in the school to make sure that the students are safe.”

Clinton’s student body has also swelled recently. Enrollment was estimated at 4,725 this fall, up from 4,300 last year.

Staff said they expected kinks in the transition. “You figure it’s going to be a bumpy road at first,” said Alex Castillo, a Clinton assistant principal who oversees security. “We hope to have things running smoothly by Thanksgiving.”

But many students aren’t as patient. “The line was all the way down to Bronx Science,” said Kira Williams, as she was joined by successive waves of her peers who walked out of the building. Security officers kept the protest contained, but did not demand that students return to class. Protesters marched to the Region 1 office at 1 Fordham Plaza, later in the day. Several students met with administrators, and the rest went back to Clinton for a discussion about the situation.

Ambrosio said the situation had improved by Tuesday, with additional detectors allowing lines to move quicker.

Students argued during the protest that they shouldn’t be punished for the crime last spring.“Things were safe inside before this,” said Susan Diaz, 15. “We are being blamed for incidences before school.”

Most students are upset about the captive lunch. “The food is terrible,” said Veronica Lopez, 16. “And now we have to pay for it.”

Cell phones are another big issue, as students say they are now forbidden to bring them to school. “We need our phones,” said Anthony Stafford, 17, of Decatur Avenue. “Many of us have jobs after school.”

Hundreds of students have signed a petition against the changes, which they plan to submit to Region 1 administrators. Stafford said they also plan to send letters to Clinton alumni and elected officials.

Council Member Oliver Koppell, who represents Bedford Park, said he supports scanning. “There’s too much danger, too many weapons found in schools these days,” he said. “It only takes one.”

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

30 Months in Iraq is 30 Months Too Long

September 22, 2005

By None

By Congressman Jose E. Serrano

We are now in the 30th month of the Iraq war. Will it take us another 30 months to admit and correct our mistake?

The time has come for an immediate and complete withdrawal of the troops.

We have created a mess in Iraq, and the sooner we admit that and pull out, the fewer American soldiers will be needlessly lost. As our nation’s civilian leaders, members of Congress owe reality-based assessments of the situation to our troops, whose patriotism leads them to sacrifice for our great nation.

The troops’ job is to carry out the goals that their leaders set before them. The leaders’ job is to make sure those goals are realistic and achievable and to admit when they are not. We must admit that we have failed in Iraq through no fault of our troops.

Since the war began on March 19, 2003, 1,902 troops have been killed and 14,362 soldiers have been wounded, according to a cnn.com estimate. According to a joint study by the Norwegian research foundation FAFO and the Iraqi statistical office, between 18,000 and 29,000 Iraqi civilians have died during that same time period. Sadly, neither of these sobering figures shows any signs of abating.

Some say pulling out the troops immediately will create a chaotic and unsafe situation. Current conditions — even with 130,000 American troops on the ground — are certainly not orderly or safe. Keeping our troops there is not a way to improve the situation. Furthermore, even if we wait 10 years to pull the troops out, the situation could be chaotic and unsafe after a withdrawal.

There is no reason to delay. All that strategy will accomplish is more casualties and suffering among our troops and among the Iraqi people. We cannot afford to wait any longer to admit the obvious.

Some supporters of the Iraq war are doing just that.

For instance, there is growing support among conservatives for ending this debacle. Conservative host Tucker Carlson has called for an end to the war since mid-2004.

Conservative commentator and radio host Armstrong Williams wrote a few weeks ago: “The longer we stay, the more people will come from all over the world to fight us — not to fight for Iraq, but to fight against the United States.”

The former war supporters are looking at the situation and coming to the conclusion that I have come to: the Iraq war is unwinnable, and asking more sacrifice by the troops is immoral and wrong.

These conservatives are courageous to take such a stand in today’s political climate, where criticizing this war is often called unpatriotic, or worse. But when conservatives begin to agree with liberals on an issue, we can know that national consensus is not far off.

They know, like I do, that if we are to defeat terrorism, we have to focus on winning battles that we can win and that will make a difference against our terrorist enemies. Iraq fits neither of these descriptions.

There is only one accurate description of continued American presence in Iraq: a terrible mistake.

But the Bush Administration is afraid of calling a mistake a mistake, so others must do it for them. People like me are elected by the people of this nation to make hard decisions, but this one should be easy. Iraq was a mistake and we must bring our men and women in uniform home immediately.

We cannot wait another 30 months.

José E. Serrano represents the 16th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Big Ideas for Parks

September 22, 2005

By Editorial

When a group of young people at the COVE and the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center gathered three years ago to discuss the future of their park — the southeast corner of Van Cortlandt Park — they came up with some big ideas. At the time, much of it seemed like only a dream, since there was so little money for large capital projects in parks. Few in the community would have traded filtration for the realization of that dream, but now that the plant is reality, it is at least nice to see that the Parks Department has closely adhered to the community’s vision in its new design for the southeast corner.

Now that there are several such projects in the pipeline — including at Williamsbridge Oval and Aqueduct Park — we encourage area residents and community organizations to get their ideas up on the drawing board. The Parks Department appears to be listening.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Freddy’s Moment

September 22, 2005

By Editorial

For the first time in his three campaigns for mayor, former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer has a clear shot at unseating the Republican incumbent.

In 1997, Ferrer pulled out of the primary after a poorly financed start. In 2001, he lost a bitter runoff to Mark Green.

Now that the Board of Elections has certified that Ferrer broke the 40 percent mark and can avoid the distraction of a runoff (which may have been required even though runner-up Weiner conceded the morning after the election), he can spend the next seven weeks making the case for why he would be a better mayor than Mike Bloomberg.

He’ll need every second of that time, because Bloomberg can spend whatever it takes from his personal fortune to saturate the airwaves and because he is a popular incumbent.

Ferrer will have to run a gaffe-free campaign and avoid the flip-flops (on the death penalty, on indictments for officers involved in the Diallo shooting) that have dogged his campaigns in the past.

We hope Ferrer will also show at least a little independence from the Bronx Democratic machine, which has made some terrible choices in the last couple of years, like supporting the construction of a mammoth filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park and the plan to serve frozen meals to senior citizens in order to reward a social service agency friendly to Democratic leaders. Last year, Ferrer announced his opposition to the Meals-on-Wheels reorganization even as his political allies in the borough were championing it.
We hope there’s more where that came from.

Ferrer can be proud of the fact that he presided over the Bronx’ remarkable resurgence from the hellish arson and abandonment that swept through a large chunk of the borough in the 1970s and the rampant political corruption that immediately preceded his taking office. Ferrer’s detractors may point out that many city leaders and community organizations participated in that rebirth, but Ferrer was the borough’s booster-in-chief at that critical time and he certainly would have gotten the blame if it had gone the other way.

But the campaign will be more about what Ferrer can do for the city now. He will have to be bold in presenting his ideas in a way that resonates with voters and credibly contrast them with the record of an incumbent mayor who seems to have the wind at his back.

We look forward to what is sure to be a spirited debate about the future of our city.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Filtration Money Begins Making Its Mark on Parks

September 22, 2005

By Alex Kratz

VC Park Designs Follow Community’s Plan

The $200 million fund created to improve Bronx parks in connection with the construction of the Croton water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park has already been put to good use in local green spaces.

In St. James Park, the first phase of a $5 million renovation is well under way. The central staircase at Creston Avenue is complete, with new stone steps, cast-iron fencing and a small garden at the foot of the steps. Work has not yet been completed on staircases at the northeast and southeast corners of the park. Phase II of the project, which will include new paths and the repair of perimeter fencing, is scheduled to begin next spring.

Three years ago, a group of young people at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center and the COVE youth center in Knox-Gates gathered with park advocates, an urban planner from Harvard and a designer from the Parks Department to envision what they wanted for the southeastern entrance of the park at the corner of Jerome Avenue and Gun Hill Road, an area known as the Saturn Playground.

At the time, the obstacles to realizing the vision were significant considering the lack of capital funds for such projects. But the money from the sale of water bonds in connection with the siting of the plant just north of the southeast corner, has turned what was seemingly an academic exercise into official architectural plans. The Parks Department has already awarded the job to a contractor and work is expected to begin later this fall and end a year later, according to a spokesman for the agency,

Park advocates seemed pleasantly surprised that their work was so closely adhered to.

“Everything that people asked for — the fence around the area, the water play, the sitting area, the large comfort station, new entrance — all of that is in this plan,” said Paul Sawyer, executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, an advocacy group. “It’s wonderful that this construction is so in line with what the community talked about …”

Sawyer was also pleased that the three-section playground is set closer to the park entrance, another feature the community requested.

Also included in the community’s plan were two additional phases of construction that included a jogging path, a community garden and a dog run. Those parts of the plan are not yet funded.

Several other major park projects in the area are still in the planning stages (see sidebar), but all are scheduled to be completed within the next five years, according to the Parks Department.

Park Projects in Area Associated With Filtration Plant

Devoe Park — $3 million
Reconstruction of playground to include new play equipment, landscaping and drainage improvements. Construction is expected to begin next spring.

Williamsbridge Oval Park —
$15 million
Park work to include the restoration of perimeter walls and fencing with gates ($1,860,000); track and field, ($1,950,000); playground #1, ($1,100,000); playground #3, ($1,100,000); senior area, ($650,000), roller hockey area/skate park ($2,500,000); slope stabilization and promenade ($3,430,035), and recreation site work (2,340,000).

Harris Park Ball Fields — $9,860,000
Reconstruction of nine athletic fields, three new staircases and ADA access leading into the park..

Van Cortlandt Park, Allen Shandler Recreation Area — $1,300,000
Reconstruction of the picnic area landscape and the renovation of the existing comfort station.

Aqueduct Walk — $7 million
Reconstruction of first Aqueduct section from Kingsbridge Road to Morton Place. Section to include new promenade pavement, new playgrounds, and new passive spaces.

Jerome Park Reservoir Pathway — $5 million
New recreational pathway to be constructed around the reservoir.

St. James Park — $5 million
Reconstruction of the retaining walls with new perimeter fencing, pathways, sidewalk, landscaping, and stairs.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Mrs. Ferrer Retires – Quietly

September 22, 2005

By Heather Haddon

As Fernando Ferrer was gearing up for his run for mayor last spring, his wife’s long career as an educator was winding down. Aramina Ferrer retired as PS 46’s principal in June after 20-plus years at the helm.

Ferrer has kept her retirement quiet. A secretary at the North Fordham school did not correct a Norwood News reporter when she asked to speak with Principal Ferrer last week. The city media also continues to report that Ferrer is a city school principal.

Ferrer’s retirement was mentioned by Sonia Menendez, a local instructional superintendent, during last week’s community district education council meeting. “The transition is going smoothly,” she said. Iris Lim, an assistant principal, is filling Ferrer’s shoes

The school had chronically poor test scores in recent years but had a significant jump in statewide math and reading scores last year.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Koppell Wins Big In Council Primary

September 22, 2005

By Jordan Moss

Councilman Oliver Koppell sailed to an easy victory on Sept. 13 against Ari Hoffnung, his challenger in the Democratic primary. The veteran lawmaker received 73 percent of the vote.

“I’m tremendously gratified and pleased not only at the size of the victory, but also the fact that I had support from every part of the district,” Koppell said. In the Norwood part of his district, Koppell said that his support was even stronger than in the district-at-large.

According to an analysis of the returns by Koppell’s ally, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Koppell got 1,017 votes in Norwood to Hoffnung’s 289. In Bedford Park the spread was similar—552 for Koppell, 146 for Hoffnung.

Koppell will face a Republican challenger, Steve Bradian, in the general election. But in the heavily Democratic district, which also includes Riverdale, Kingsbridge and Woodlawn, his reelection is virtually assured.

Koppell, who spent the first three years of his first term out of favor with the speaker and Council’s leadership, said he anticipates “having a greater role in the new Council.” He wants a committee chairmanship and expects to introduce environmental legislation such as the mandatory recycling of batteries.

He also said he wants to help the merchants along Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street in Norwood create a business improvement district.

Koppell, who was a state assemblyman for more than two decades before he was appointed state attorney general, and then the president of School Board 10, said he learned a lot about what concerns residents in the process of campaigning. Norwood residents are particularly concerned about the state of their subway stations, he said.

As for the mayoral campaign, Koppell said he will endorse Fernando Ferrer, even though Ferrer sided with Hoffnung in the Council election. “I’m not happy about it, but I did endorse someone else, so I couldn’t get too angry about it,” Koppell said, referring to his own support for Gifford Miller in the mayoral primary.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Planting and Pruning

September 8, 2005

By Jordan Moss

Student volunteers with
Fordham University’s Urban
Plunge program collaborated
with Mosholu Preservation Corporation’s horticulture
project two weeks ago to
plant a beautiful and diverse
garden behind the park
house in Williamsbridge
Oval. MPC has deployed
gardeners throughout the
summer to plant gardens at
all the park entrances.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

National Award for Local Yiddish Poet

September 8, 2005

By Andreas SCHNEIDER

By ANDREAS SCHNEIDER

Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman is surrounded by her art. Numerous oil paintings of her family decorate the dining and living room walls of her Bainbridge Avenue home and piles of Yiddish children’s books she wrote sit on a small table beside her couch. A CD of traditional Yiddish music she composed lies next to it.

Asked why she creates all this art, Schaechter-Gottesman responds with a laugh, “Why do you breathe?”

She wrote her first poem as a 20-something mother in Chernovitz, Romania, one of the centers of pre-World War II Yiddish culture. She continued writing because her children adored her poetry. “It comes to me naturally, so I do it,” she said. “I don’t do it for money or for awards.”

But awards are what she receives, and last month the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) added to her collection when they recognized Schaechter-Gottesman’s contribution to American Yiddish culture by honoring the longtime Bronxite with a National Heritage Fellowship, one of the federal agency’s most prestigious awards.

“They do the classifications, I just write naturally,” she said during an interview in her living room in July. “But it’s nice [to be appreciated by] the eyes and brains who look at you, who measure you.”

The NEA chose this year’s National Heritage Fellows from a pool of over 270 nominees, said Barry Bergey, the NEA’s director of Folk and Traditional Arts. The selection process begins when friends or cultural groups nominate an artist, usually in a letter to NEA.Then the NEA convenes a panel of experts to evaluate each nominee’s work and lifetime achievement in a particular tradition of folk art.

More than 300 National Heritage Fellowships have been awarded since the program’s founding in 1982. Winners receive a one-time grant of $20,000, and a three-day stay in Washington, D.C., including a banquet at the Library of Congress, an awards ceremony with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, and a public performance at George Washington University. Schaechter-Gottesman is the first Yiddish singer/songwriter and poet to win the award.

“The panel undoubtedly recognized her artistic creativity in many different areas,” Bergey said. “She has excelled in poetry, songwriting, maintenance of the Yiddish language and she’s been a teacher of poetry, songwriting and language.”

Yiddish is a culture and language without a country, Gottesman said, surviving only on the devotion of its broad Diaspora. She uses herself as an example: She was born and raised in Romania, but, like thousands of others, left the country after World War II decimated the population. But rather than leave her cultural roots behind, she brought them with her to the Bronx in 1951.

After moving from elsewhere in the Bronx to Norwood in 1964, Schaecter-Gottesman was an active participant in the Sholem Aleichem Folkshul on Bainbridge Avenue where two of her three children went to school, while continuing to write poetry and music. Schaecter-Gottesman continues to teach Yiddish out of her home, making sure, she said, that the language survives for future generations. (Her son, Itzik Gottesman, is an editor at the Yiddish Forward.)

“She’s unique in that she has been able to keep Yiddish alive as a vital part of New York City’s culture,” said Steve Zeitlin, executive director of City Lore, a cultural preservation group in Manhattan. “She didn’t just bring the old music with her [from Romania], she has written new songs that relate to being an immigrant, and to what it means to be Yiddish in New York City.”

In 1998, City Lore recognized Schaecter-Gottesman’s role in developing, nurturing and strengthening American Yiddish culture by inducting her into its People’s Hall of Fame.

City Lore was also one of the groups that nominated her for the National Heritage Fellowship. “We felt that she, more than anyone else, has helped keep Yiddish music alive in New York City,” Zeitlin said

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Back to School for Superintendent

September 8, 2005

By None

By JORDAN MOSS and HEATHER HADDON

Region 1 Superintendent Irma Zardoya has a full plate. Two years ago she was plucked from her District 10 superintendent post to head one of the city’s new regions, almost tripling the number of schools under her charge.

Region 1 is comprised of District 10 and District 9 and includes schools from Riverdale down to Highbridge. It also oversees the area’s high schools which used to be under the purview of the old Board of Education. The reorganization increased Zardoya’s portfolio from 53 to 135 schools, accounting for upwards of 97,000 students. Zardoya now spends less time ministering to local principals and more time overseeing the new Local Instructional Superintendents, who serve under her and work with roughly 10 schools each.

Despite the challenges, Region 1 saw some of the largest increases in its fourth grade test scores last spring, with District 9 the most improved area in the city. Zardoya was praised for her focus on assessment, professional development, and leadership change.

The Norwood News sat down with Zardoya at 1 Fordham Plaza last month in the office she now shares with her deputy, Ray Rosemberg (because of the consolidation, the bigger job came with a much smaller office), to talk about the state of area schools, what’s in store for this year, and her long-term goals.

How is the situation with overcrowding?
Re-looking at how we use buildings has really helped build capacity. We’re at a good place. We still have some schools that are overcrowded, but we are seeing a decline in enrollment. The elementary schools are getting some breathing space. Middle schools are still overcrowded and high schools are very overcrowded.

If it were an independent district … Region 1 must be among the biggest in the whole country.

Every regional superintendent is carrying quite a challenge on their shoulders because of the vast number of schools they supervise … You have to learn the names, school numbers, where they are located. I still don’t have it all under my belt. What’s different is that now I have Local Instructional Superintendents (LISs) that work directly with principals, whereas I work mostly with the LISs. My role is to strengthen their work and how they work with the principals.

So that was a shift?
Before I was the direct person with the principals, I was in the schools every day. Now it’s not every day. When I visit a school, it’s with an LIS and to talk about the work the LIS is doing with the principal. It’s a very different kind of relationship.

Do you think the restructuring is working well?
One of the positive aspects of restructuring has been the fact that there is an LIS for every 10 to 12 schools, and in our network, some have less schools. That really allows a superintendent to be working very closely with principals to create opportunities for their professional development.

How do you pick what to do in an average day? There must be 10 emergencies every week?
I’m sort of working on different aspects of the organization [on a] larger scale. Let’s say we have an emergency in a school. The principal’s first contact is a LIS … I don’t need to go to the school to do that. My job is more with the bigger plan for the region — to anticipate proposals for new schools, planning for those, looking at math and literacy initiatives … You have more people now to delegate things to.

Region 1 has had some recent successes with test scores. What do you think has been responsible for that?
Hard work! A number of things [like] the structure with the LISs being able to work with a few principals. Principals walk each other’s schools and learn from each other. There’s a lot of focus on instruction now … The fact that once you get good professional development, every year gets better and better … Parents are becoming more involved. And some strategies we used, like looking at assessment.

What do you think of the criticisms about there being [too much] testing?
Schools do their own test prep, but we make sure it’s not during our literacy or math blocks. Teachers need to know what the standards are, so when they are teaching, they incorporate certain strategies. People can confuse that with test prep … but it’s built into study. It’s not that they are just going to learn how to take a test.

Are there areas in the region that need more work?
Let’s agree that we’ve improved, but we are still one of the lowest-performing regions in the city. We were actually the lowest region in terms of attendance, and now are number six. We have a major emphasis on attendance … If your kids don’t come to school, they’re not going to learn.

When you look at third grade, we found it’s one of our lowest performing grades. We are looking at what we are doing in kindergarten, first, and second … and making sure they are really rigorous.

The other one is middle schools. Middle school students still don’t achieve, although the target for middle schools is much higher for [passing the exams].

What do you think of the Community Education Councils? How useful are they to you?
I don’t work directly with them. But we have shared with them our comprehensive education plan for each district. Obviously, it’s difficult because it’s a new role … You see degrees of effectiveness.

Are you glad to have shed the school boards?
[laughs] Don’t ask me that question!

What is your take on ending social promotion?
[It] creates accountability for teachers and students. We also have gotten additional resources for these grades [third, fifth, and seventh] to help support the extra tutoring or intervention programs. In addition, if a student is at Level 1 but has comparable Level 2 work, they will get promoted. Then you have the summer programs. What we’ve found is that, especially in the elementary schools, that many of our students are able to move forward actually with a Level 2 on the second [try with the] test.

[On where local students go to high schools]
One of my goals is to make all our small high schools attractive enough to make our students want to attend them. Our big goal for the region, and everyone in the region knows this, is to work with students to attend college. If we are thinking that way, what we’re saying is that we want to make sure from pre-K through 12th that our students are staying with us. That’s why we want to strengthen our high schools.

Part of the challenge with that is the overcrowding of the high schools. How do you combat that?
There is a commitment to build within our region. The issue for us here, as it’s always been, is where? We are working on that. In the meantime, we’ve been looking for alternative spaces within District 9. A building on Bathgate [Avenue] that will open up next year will house three high schools. We still have a long way to go, but we’ve managed to create more high school seats this year than last year.

What are your top goals?
In the next few years, the literacy and math agenda have to be focused on in early grades and middle school. We’ll put in major thinking about interventions and tracking student progress. The other one is looking at the small schools, and strengthening the high school curriculum.

Was it a big learning curve to learn about the high schools?
There still is a lot to learn. The biggest challenge is the quality of instruction.

How would you advise parents who have concerns about their kids or school to seek help? What’s the order of things they should do?
Parents should always work closely with teachers, then talk with the assistant principal or the principal. If talking with the principal doesn’t work out, then it’s the LIS. Remember you have parent coordinators, so they facilitate this process. Parents can always seek support from the LIS for their school. They are very responsive. And obviously, I’m there. Parents have reached out to me, but I make sure they’ve gone to the LIS or principal first.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Rivera and the Filter Plant

September 8, 2005

By Editorial

The controversy concerning statements by Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the Bronx Democratic Party chairman, has mainly been fueled by his comments about Jewish politicians reprinted in The Riverdale Press. In an interview with a student from the Columbia Journalism School, Rivera made comments clearly insensitive to Jews.

“They got power, you know what I mean,” he told the student, Lani Perlman, a former Press reporter. “God bless ‘em, I don’t hate ‘em, I don’t envy ‘em, I would someday hope that my people would imitate them. What’s good for them, it’s got to be good for us.”

But the main issue, as far as we’re concerned, is that in the interview, Rivera admits that he based the monumental public policy decision to support the construction of the water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park not on what was best for Bronxites, but on his personal dislike for Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who happens to be Jewish.

“If I were powerful enough, I would build it right outside the terrace of Jeff Dinowitz,” he told Perlman, who was interviewing Rivera for her graduate thesis.

Rivera believes that Dinowitz supported putting the plant at Fordham Landing near Rivera’s home in Fordham Hill when that site was also being considered. But Dinowitz publicly opposed any Bronx location for the plant at a community board hearing. And even if he had favored Fordham Landing, what political leverage would he have had to get the plant sited there? Dinowitz would have never gotten the support of the rest of the borough’s Assembly delegation, virtually all of whom support Rivera.

Strangely, Rivera says that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s original commitment to Dinowitz to stop the city’s plan to put the plant in the park was a matter of “blood taking care of blood.” But everyone knows that this vow was just an extension of the Assembly’s standard operating procedure – when a piece of legislation affects a single member’s district, that member is deferred to. So in the world as Rivera sees it, where Jews take care of Jews, Silver should have stuck with his promise for two reasons. But he didn’t. The powerful speaker abandoned Assembly tradition and his promise to Dinowitz to allow legislators to vote how they wanted on the bill that gave the city the power to build in the park.

The bitter irony of Rivera’s tortured logic is that thousands of poor Latino, black, and other minority Bronxites living across the street from the construction site in the park, will endure years of digging, blasting, dust, fumes, traffic and other assaults on their quality of life because of his schoolyard scrap with another legislator. In other words, he used a stereotype of Jews sticking together to shaft his own ethnic group!

Rivera is probably not an anti-Semite, though he sounded like one. City Council candidate Ari Hoffnung wrote in an interesting Riverdale Press op-ed that while he thinks Rivera’s words were anti-Semitic, his actions – traveling to Germany to protest Ronald Reagan’s visit to a cemetery for members of the SS in Bitburg, sharing warm feelings about Jewish neighbors after an appearance at Hoffnung’s synagogue, and visiting Israel with Jewish officials – speak louder.

Nevertheless, Rivera’s comments were wrong and his apology was welcome.

Most of all, though, he owes Norwood residents – not an insignificant number of whom are children with asthma— more than an apology for turning their park into a mammoth construction zone because he doesn’t happen to like their assemblyman.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

CB7 Sets Priorities

September 8, 2005

By Heather Haddon

Community Board 7 (CB7) members gathered at summer’s end to set goals for the coming year. Led by Greg Faulkner, CB7’s new chair, the session preceded the full board meeting, scheduled for Sept. 20.

“There was a whole flood of ideas,” said Faulkner, who replaced veteran chair Nora Feury during elections last June. “People were excited.”

The attendees, including the executive members and committee chairs, agreed on some ambitious goals. Top among them is to increase the visibility and inclusiveness of the board meetings and services. Members hope to reach out to local groups, including ones who haven’t traditionally been involved in the Board, like the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. The effectiveness of the Board’s constituent services will be evaluated, along with the accessibility of the Bedford Park office.

“I think it’s long overdue,” said Judith Freeman, a Board member, about plans to create a constituent intake form. They also hope to create a periodic newsletter and an expanded Web site.

Rita Kessler, CB7’s district manager, thought the meeting went well enough. “We’ll see what we get done,” she said.

Faulkner was more enthusiastic. “We want to raise the bar,” he said, “to stop and look where we have made errors in the past, and reengage with people.”

The Board is reexamining the structure of committees, which have dropped in attendance. Last spring, the Board consolidated its committees from 11 to seven, but members agreed to reverse that change. “It gave a few people additional work, but I don’t think it created a better committee structure,” Faulkner said. It also apparently violated the Board’s bylaws, which require at least nine committees.

To instill a new sense of leadership, Faulkner nominated more recent Board members to lead some of the committees. The youth, health, housing, and aging committees will all have new chairs or co-chairs this year.

Freeman, a 28-year local resident and tenant leader, is excited to lead the Housing Committee. “I think housing is certainly one of the key issues in our area,” said Freeman, a Board member for three years who lives in a building owned by a landlord widely considered to be one of the city’s worst. “My passion is to make landlords accountable.”

Faulkner replaced Feury after she stepped down while facing fraud charges. He is the first new chair in 17 years.

As for Feury, it’s uncertain where things stand with an investigation into whether she siphoned funds from the Head Start program she managed for decades. Ruth Ramos, who worked for Feury and is also being investigated, was recently hired by another Head Start program, according to Kessler. Feury, Kessler said, is expected to attend the Board meeting later this month.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Mayoral Candidates Tour Neglected Buildings

September 8, 2005

By Jordan Moss

With the media assigned to their campaigns in tow, the mayoral candidates helped a coalition of advocacy groups bring attention to a problem all too familiar for many Bronx residents – neglected apartment buildings.

Congressman Anthony Weiner and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer toured two buildings in North Fordham (they were later joined in Manhattan by C. Virginia Fields and Gifford Miller) owned by Moshe Piller at the corner of Valentine Avenue and East 194th Street. Between them, 2654 Valentine Ave. and 237 E. 194th St. have 543 housing code violations, including numerous citations for lead hazards, classified as C violations, the most serious. (Piller also owns two neglected buildings on the Grand Concourse that the Norwood News has written about previously.)

The candidates saw many of the buildings’ problems, including non-working mailboxes, crumbling walls and ceilings and loose windowpanes.

“My door is falling down,” said Omesh Sankar, a tenant whose bathroom ceiling recently fell down. “It’s been a mess for the past two or three months. When you call, they say they will come and they don’t show up.”

The tour was organized by Housing Here and Now, a citywide umbrella group that includes the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition.

“We wanted to use the tour to get the candidates to compete with each other as to who was going to have most aggressive plan for cracking down on landlords with bad track records,” said Chloe Tribich, an organizer with Housing Here and Now.

The group has spent the summer drawing attention to the city’s most troubled buildings and issued a report highlighting the city’s 10 worst landlords. Piller is number two.

In 2003, the city’s housing agency listed Piller as a “problem owner” with 22 buildings and over 9,000 violations. Housing Here and Now also reports that a federal bankruptcy judge forced Piller to sell six neglected buildings he owned in Philadelphia.

Housing Here and Now is pushing legislation called the Healthy Homes Act that would increase fines for severe violations and mandate that the city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development automatically re-inspect and make repairs in crisis buildings within 35 days. The owner would then be billed for the cost of repairs and a 300 percent fine.

The legislation also increases the liability for irresponsible landlords who used Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) to buffer themselves from legal action.

David Greene contributed to this story.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Hoffnung, Feisty Challenger, Stresses Commitment

September 8, 2005

By Heather Haddon

Ari Hoffnung prides himself on his math abilities, and in the last days of his bid to unseat Councilman Oliver Koppell in the 11th District, numbers are on his mind. “About 20,000 [people] will vote in the election,” said Hoffnung, 31, a Riverdale resident and investment banker. “Can I meet all of them? No. But I’ve been meeting a lot of people and it adds up.”

Hoffnung has focused on hitting the streets to deliver his core message that Koppell is a part-time politician who has failed his district. While not always as pointed on what he would do specifically for Norwood and Bedford Park, Hoffnung says he has worked hard to learn local concerns.

“Am I the best expert on the issues concerning the people of Norwood? No. I’ll be honest about that,” he said during an interview at the Norwood News last week. “But I’ve made it a priority to become familiar with people’s issues.”

Hoffnung has targeted crime as an important area concern, and says he’ll push for more cops and a higher base salary for new recruits. His platform also includes installing more security cameras in subways and combating identity theft.

Hoffnung says his campaign workers called local residents about their crime concerns, and he thinks policing needs to be beefed up on the side streets off East 204th Street.

Hoffnung has gotten a lot of attention for his support of the filtration plant while chairing Community Board 8’s Parks Committee. Pragmatism fueled his decision, he says. “I felt like it was something that was going to happen, like it or not,” Hoffnung said. “I think there are more important issues to focus on now.”

One of those is the mitigation monies. Koppell’s opposition to building the plant in Van Cortlandt Park, in Hoffnung’s eyes, made him a weak negotiator for local parks in the $240 million allocation to Bronx green spaces. He cited Riverdale parks that were missing from the list but not local ones.

Hoffnung’s support of the plant likely played a role in an endorsement last week by the New York Building and Construction Trades’ Council, a large construction union. Hoffnung is also backed by musician, carpenter, mason, and painter unions.

During a visit to John F. Kennedy High School, Hoffnung was incensed over the rampant overcrowding, which has been exacerbated by the placement of smaller high schools within the building. “To put a small school in an already overcrowded school just rings of craziness,” said Hoffnung, a former high school tutor. He also worries that the reorganization of the city Department of Education has made for cookie-cutter solutions to school problems.

Koppell appointed Hoffnung to Community Board 8 and to the board of a local development corporation. But Hoffnung has aggressively attacked Koppell since he first announced his campaign last fall. Both candidates are taking the race seriously, and they have raised comparable amounts of contributions. At least 50 volunteers staff Hoffnung’s campaign office on Riverdale Avenue, including a dozen full-time canvassers over the summer. He hits the subway stations beginning at 7 a.m., including the No. 4 and D-line, and his sharp “Hoffnung for Council” signs are tacked up in many local storefronts.

If elected, Hoffnung says he would operate a satellite office in Norwood, probably along 204th Street. He promises to keep it open full-time, a jab at Koppell for his office hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “People are really becoming outraged that they don’t have a full-time advocate,” said Hoffnung. (Koppell insists he puts in 40 hours a week at the Council.)

While he lives and conducts much of his civic work in Riverdale, Hoffnung says he would not neglect the Norwood and Bedford Park areas of the district. “There are serious issues in Riverdale, but they are not of the same magnitude or nature of those that exist in Norwood,” he said. In addition to targeting crime and education, Hoffnung supports creating more affordable housing, thought he views rising private development in the area as a good thing.

Given his background, Hoffnung would be interested in serving on the Council’s Parks and Finance committees. He received his MBA from NYU, and has worked for a Manhattan investment firm since 1997.

Hoffnung wouldn’t say if he would run again in 2009, when term limits will bar Koppell from running, if his bid doesn’t bear fruit. For now, he’s just focused on next week.

“We’re certainly going to give [Koppell] a run for his money,” he said.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Koppell Banks on Record, Experience in Race

September 8, 2005

By Heather Haddon

After more than 30 years in politics, Oliver Koppell is understandably quite confident in his ability to win elections. “Quite honestly, I’ve run a lot of campaigns and I think I know what to do,” said Koppell, 64, wearing a large “Koppell for City Council” button on his lapel.

Despite the self-assuredness, Koppell is not neglecting his bid for reelection to his Council seat in District 11. He campaigns at subway stations every morning, has visited senior centers and shopping strips, and has mailed leaflets to 200,000 residents — more than during his first Council race in 2001.

“I think we’ve done everything that we need to do,” he said.

Koppell is campaigning on his attentiveness to local issues and needs, like funding Norwood youth programs and helping to open the Bedford Park Senior Center. He is proud of his outspokenness against the filtration plant and the overhaul of the Bronx Meals on Wheels program, and thinks both can still be reversed.

“If we get a new mayor, I think we can stop [the plant],” said Koppell during an interview at the Norwood News last week. “We can fill the hole up. I haven’t changed my view.” He is also looking to rescind the Meals on Wheels pilot, which is up for review this fall.

If reelected, Koppell said he will help start a Business Improvement District in the East 204th Street and Bainbridge Avenue shopping district. He also wants to see more cops in that area. Last month, he met with the 52nd Precinct’s commander to discuss concerns about drugs on the strip and along Jerome Avenue.

The Kingsbridge Armory is important to Koppell, even thought it’s not in his district, and he pledges to continue working with Assemblyman and Bronx Democratic Chair Jose Rivera, a former foe he has gotten closer to, to push the governor on the stalled development. “I think it’s the governor’s responsibility, there’s no doubt,” said Koppell, referring to the task of finding another location for the armory’s remaining National Guard companies. He sees the armory as the linchpin to creating more schools in the area, but didn’t have ideas of other possible school sites.

Koppell met with Tracey Towers management and tenants last week to discuss the buildings’ hefty repair needs, and he hopes to secure a sizable grant or low-interest loan for them next year. “There is a significant improvement at Tracey Towers, but it’s not enough,” he said.

Another priority for Koppell is targeting local problem buildings for a new city housing inspection program. He intends to push several pieces of environmental legislation, and create more incentives for affordable housing.

For the current budget, Koppell brought $4 million in capital funds to the district, an increase from his first three years on the Council. Koppell was long aligned against Bronx Democratic regulars and was a backbencher for most of his first term in the Council. He has since come in from the cold, becoming a close ally of Council Speaker Gifford Miller and working with Rivera and his daughter, Naomi, a freshman member of the Assembly.

Koppell would love to be chosen as the Council’s next speaker, but isn’t overly optimistic about his chances. “Politically, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, [but] I think I would be the best person for it,” he said, smiling. “I guess I’m not modest.”

He also doesn’t mince words fending off his challenger’s attacks. “It’s poppycock,” said Koppell in response to an accusation that he spends more hours in his part-time legal practice than with the Council. Koppell contends that he works over 40 hours a week on Council affairs, and is at City Hall four days a week. He says he averages roughly 15 hours a week at the law office.

“I have one of the best attendance records in the Council,” he said. In response to another of Hoffnung’s attacks, Koppell denied that his office hours are limited, saying that most Council people do not offer evening service.

Koppell counts endorsements from 45 of the 51 Council members, and he’s been out campaigning with Assemblywoman Rivera and other elected officials. The Riverdale-based Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club has been calling voters, and 75 volunteers have distributed some 80,000 leaflets. It’s that support that led Koppell to select his 22-year-old daughter, Jackie, to run his campaign.

“I felt it would be good for her and good for me,” said Koppell, who has two daughters and three grandchildren.

If he defeats Ari Hoffnung, Koppell can only serve one more four-year term in the Council due to term limits. He wouldn’t say what he would do afterward.

“I’m just focusing on the Council for now,” he said.

Filed Under News | Leave a Comment