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In Public Interest
October 20, 2005
By None
Bronx Boom or Bust?
The Bronx is poorer than ever, or on the upswing, depending on which recently released economic analysis you read. Reports surfacing over the last two months have either trumpeted the Bronx’ amazing recovery or lamented its entrenched poverty, but the reality is less black-and-white.
The Bronx borough president’s office saw the glass half full and celebrated some optimistic indicators earlier this month. The borough’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in August, which is nearly half the high reached in 2003, according to state Department of Labor statistics. Wages also improved drastically, rising 14 percent since 2000 to an average of $35,000 this year (not including the salaries for the Yankees).
“We have made great strides in combating unemployment and [creating] a new supply of job opportunities,” said Borough President Adolfo Carrión in a statement.
Residential and commercial investment has also poured into the borough. Spending on housing in the first half of this year was double the total for 2001 and 2002. More than 3,000 new businesses were opened during the first part of this year, which far exceeds previous rates, according to statistics from the Bronx County Clerk.
Carrión took credit for much of the improvements and threw some to his predecessor, mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer (though supporters of Ferrer worried that the rosy outlook would only help Mayor Bloomberg in his bid for reelection). After listing several new initiatives, Carrión stated: “These campaigns … have led to unprecedented economic development in the borough.” One of these, the Bronx at Work employment program, is responsible for placing over 20,000 Bronxites in jobs since last year, according to the borough president’s figures.
“[This is] another great example of the unprecedented economic development that has been taking place in our borough in recent years,” Carrión said.
But the borough’s bright economic future isn’t reflected in new U.S. Census data released seven weeks ago. The survey of 236 American counties in 2004 pegged the borough as the poorest urban area in the nation, with nearly one-third of Bronxites living below the poverty line along with 43 percent of its children.
“Those figures wouldn’t support great optimism,” said Bill Bosworth, who runs the Bronx Data Center at Lehman College.
How one assesses unemployment has something to do with the contradictory analyses, according to Bosworth. While a 6.7 percent unemployment rate seems to indicate low joblessness, that figure only reflects active job seekers who haven’t found employment. It does not include those who have given up looking or those who are not in the workforce, like caregivers.
Roughly 42 percent of the Bronx’ total adult population was not in the workforce last year, according to the Census. That is the sixth highest percentage of the surveyed counties, with Philadelphia and some areas along the Mexican border faring worse.
Things may be improving in the borough, but many residents continue to scrape by with low, or no, income. “I don’t know what’s improving, but the poverty rate isn’t,” Bosworth said.
Ballot Initiatives
Picking a mayor isn’t the only task for voters when they go to the polls next month. Four ballot initiatives will also be up for grabs, which touch on the state budget, transportation funding, the ethics code, and accounting in the city budget.
The most controversial initiative would change the state budget process, including delaying the deadline by a month and allowing for a contingency budget if an agreement isn’t reached by May. The measure would also create a budgetary oversight office and generally shift more power over the budget to the Legislature. Some fear that a contingency plan would remove an incentive to pass a budget on time.
The second initiative would issue a $2.9 billion state bond for transportation projects, including funds for the Second Avenue subway line and new subway cars. The mayor and governor both support the measure.
The Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, based in Riverdale, endorsed the two initiatives last month. “I am very pleased that the Club has again decided to take a stand on two very key issues that impact our community,” said Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Club member, in a statement.
The third initiative would establish a code of ethics for administrative hearing officers, who resolve citizen complaints and non-criminal matters. The last would require that the city budget follow generally accepted accounting principles and create a four-year financial plan. These two measures have attracted little public attention.
Senior Funding
A citywide program to help those suffering from Alzheimer’s is getting a lift, thanks to funds secured by the city Department for the Aging and local Council Member Maria Baez, who chairs the Aging Committee. The Safe Return program, which helps seniors who have inadvertently wandered from home, was allocated an additional $250,000. The monies will go toward a publicity campaign and provider trainings.
Comings and Goings
The Bronx Republican Party elected Joseph Savino as its new chairman last month. Savino is a former Bronx commissioner for the Board of Elections, and a Morris Park resident. “As chairman, my goal will be to build the Party from the grassroots level up,” said Savino in a statement.
Savino is currently assisting the campaign of City Council candidate Phil Foglia, a Republican running for the Bronx District 13 seat in next month’s general election.
Making Law
The City Council flexed its muscle last week, overriding a mayoral veto and repealing Sunday metered parking. Capitalizing on the issue in his bid to kick Bloomberg out of City Hall, Fernando Ferrer joined the Council in announcing the change.
“For New York’s drivers and Sunday worshipers, one small day of relief from feeding the meter makes a big difference,” said Ferrer in a statement.
The Council also overrode a mayoral veto against a bill to offer health insurance to employees of larger groceries.
Council members Maria Baez and Oliver Koppell voted to override the vetoes, and Joel Rivera was absent.
The city strengthened safeguards for those in domestic partnerships earlier this month. The city’s Human Rights Law was amended to include partnership status in the list of categories that are protected against discrimination. All local Council members supported the legislation and the mayor signed it into law.
The city also secured agreements this month with four major health insurance companies to provide domestic partner benefits at small businesses. The participating insurers are Group Health Incorporated, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HIP Health Plans of New York, and Horizon Healthcare Insurance Company of New York.
The city will monitor small businesses to make sure they are complying. Partnership benefits were previously made available at companies with over 50 employees.
A state law to increase the amount of asthma inhalers kept on hand at schools took effect this month. “This law will … keep kids out of the emergency room and in school,” said Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a co-sponsor, in a statement.
Community District 7 experienced over 800 hospitalizations due to asthma in 2003, according to city Department of Health records.
Focus on Chocolate at Halloween
Chocolate is considered almost as American as baseball and apple pie, especially around Halloween time, but a local lawmaker has been working to make Americans aware that half of the world’s cocoa is made by slave labor in western African countries like Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
African farms that employ child slave labor produce nearly half of the world’s cocoa, according to Congressman Eliot Engel. And candy magnates like Hershey, M&M/Mars and Nestle use much of it.
Engel, who represents Norwood and Bedford Park has long raised the issue in Washington along with Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.
“If we can have our tuna fish dolphin free, we can have our chocolate slave free,” Engel said in 2001.
That year, the House of Representatives passed an amendment calling on the Food and Drug Administration to require labels on chocolate products that say no slave labor went into their production. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, as it became known, also included a “comprehensive, six-point problem-solving approach along with a time-bounded process for credibly eliminating abusive child labor in cocoa growing.” The Protocol was adopted by the chocolate industry, although Engel and others say a lot more can and needs to be done, including the establishment of a an industry-wide monitoring system which was supposed to be in place last July.
“We now have set in motion a plan to monitor 50 percent of the growing region of West Africa in the next three years,” Engel said in an e-mailed statement. “That program will oversee conditions on more than 700,000 farms. We are working to create an independent oversight authority to certify that child slave labor is indeed being rolled back.”
Meanwhile, the non-profit Global Exchange is offering fair trade chocolate that certifies farms as slavery free and guarantees a fair price for their beans available on their Web site at http://store.gxonlinestore.org/chocolate.html. Along with different types of chocolate, they have made Fair Trade Trick-or-Treat Action Kits, which come with 30 kids’ postcards with information about fair trade as well as a door sign proclaiming a fair trade Trick-or-Treat household. For information about bringing fair trade into schools, churches and community groups, call Jamie Guzzi at (415) 575-5538.
—David Crohn and Jordan Besek
Guardsman Depicts Iraq Reality
October 20, 2005
By Heather Haddon
The staff at Lehman College’s Institute for Literacy Studies had no idea that Christopher Perkins, the quiet guy who had worked there for a decade, was such a talented writer. They figured it out when he left.
For the past 10 months, since his National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq, Perkins has documented the stark realities of his existence there through frequent letters to the Literacy Studies staff, who have written back religiously. The flow of letters and cards is a riveting account of one Bronxite’s experience as he wrestles with — and sometimes bitterly laughs at — his experience of the war.
“She finally wrote that she loves me,” wrote Perkins, recounting a letter from his little cousin. “She couldn’t do before because I ‘was going to die and get shot,’ according to her on Thanksgiving.”
Perkins and the roughly 200 other members of the 145th Maintenance Company, based out of the Kingsbridge Armory, were called into active duty last winter. Now stationed in An Nasiriya, a city in the south, the unit repairs and armors vehicles bound for Baghdad. Their base rarely experiences active fighting and is relatively safe — meaning, they’ve only been attacked a few times.
Perkins, 32, is a company staff sergeant, overseeing a squad of 15 troops while repairing air conditioners. They toil away in a large base that amounts to roughly the space from Jerome to Webster avenues and Bedford Park Boulevard to Fordham Road, as Perkins describes it. The heat is brutal, and working with a blowtorch every day just adds to the misery.
“It was 120 degrees today and I spent most of it under the sun,” Perkins wrote. Later in the summer, the temperature climbed to 145 degrees.
The conditions are grueling, but boredom and loneliness are often more harrowing. Soldiers have few opportunities to leave the base, filling their time by reading books or watching DVDs. That’s when Perkins typically takes out a pen. “Whenever I have time, even during the day, I write,” he said.
Some of those letters are to family and friends, but it’s the Institute staff who have become some of his most devoted correspondents. He received letters from his co-workers nearly every day, along with packages of sci-fi books and homemade goodies, after he shipped out. “I’ve gained weight since I’ve been there,” joked Perkins, who is tall and fit.
In return, Perkins has sent a constant account of life there. He has depicted the dangers, like vehicles arriving with “shattered windows, bullet holes, and damage from explosives,” and the daily discomforts, such as substituting baby wipes for showers or avoiding ringworm and bedbugs.
Perkins’ writing particularly shines in his wry accounts of the complexities of life within and beyond the base. He gets frustrated when his unit members take their responsibilities too lightly, or act immaturely. Watching CNN gets him thinking about how little Americans know, or care, about news in other countries. And the pervasive poverty particularly disturbs him.
“The children that stand along the roads outside the gate are a heartbreaking sight and a downright shame as they beg for food in one of the world’s most oil rich nations,” wrote Perkins last February.
He felt particularly conflicted when Iraqis went to the polls last January. Part of him wondered if the Iraqis were as jubilant as the news depicted. (“Interestingly, in the classes I’ve sat through, giving the thumbs up [in Iraq] is akin to our middle finger.”) But he also didn’t wholeheartedly agree with the words he saw scrawled on a base bathroom:
“[Operation Iraqi Freedom] is the unwilling … doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful.”
The Literacy Institute is a rapt audience for Perkins’ musings. When his letters arrive, they are photocopied and slipped into each staff member’s mailbox. Someone always responds promptly. “We’ve taken it as a personal mission,” said Julie Conason, an Institute teacher.
It’s been a particularly rewarding experience for staff, who have gained new insights on the war and their shy coworker. “It was a sudden window into him,” Conason said. “Many of us have known Chris for years, but we have a much deeper relationship with him now.”
Perkins, who grew up in Norwood and University Heights, works as an administrative assistant at the Institute, which conducts adult literacy classes and research. He’s taken a few college classes, but says he’s never been a good student. No one has ever complimented him on his writing. “It’s just venting,” he said.
But staff members see beyond his humbleness, especially when they read passages like the following:
“All the desert dust lifted up and remained airborne in a creepy brown haze,” Perkins wrote in one letter. “It looked very eerie, kind of like an eclipse without the moon.”
“He has such amazing insights,” said Anne Campos, the Institute’s assistant director. Marcie Wolf, the director, agreed. “We couldn’t be a more appreciative audience for good writing,” she said.
Staff opinions on the war vary, but they are unified in their support for Perkins. “We’ve all been worried about him,” Wolf said. “It’s been very emotional.”
The entire staff got to deliver their concern in person when Perkins, dressed in his beige fatigues, made a surprise visit to the Institute last month. His coworkers all leapt up to give him hugs, and Perkins presented plaques expressing his gratitude for their support. “It’s going to be harder to say goodbye this time,” said Perkins after the reunion.
Perkins returned to Iraq on Sept. 17, and is looking forward to coming home for good, hopefully in January. When he returns, his desk, and the Institute staff, will be waiting for him. “He was our guy to go,” Campos said emotionally. “We all took it very personally.”
Battling Domestic Violence
October 20, 2005
By James Fergusson
In an effort to raise awareness about domestic violence, victims — and friends and family — gathered in Fordham Plaza on Oct. 6 to metaphorically air their “dirty laundry.”
At the event, organized by Bronx AIDS Services (BAS) during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, participants were asked to write anti-violence messages on T-shirts and hang them on clotheslines. The Clothesline Project is designed to give those touched by domestic violence, a chance to express themselves and the encouragement to break their silence and seek help.
In all, 299 T-shirts were hung. There were messages in English, Spanish and Arabic.
The Clothesline Project was organized by BAS because of statistical linkages between domestic violence and HIV.
Armory Clock Ticks And Ticks
October 20, 2005
By Editorial
There was a lot of good feeling in July, when practically every local lawmaker showed up to escort Governor Pataki on a tour of the Kingsbridge Armory.
But, as far as we know, not one positive development has come from that meeting more than 15 weeks ago — 106 days to be exact.
The problem, as Armory watchers and Norwood News readers well know, is fairly simple. Two National Guard companies, now based out of the Armory’s annex to the rear of the Armory main’s buildings — the massive drill hall and head house — must be moved if community plans for the landmark facility are to be realized.
The land that annex occupies is the only part of the Armory where the city can site new public schools. Schools are the linchpin of a consensus finally arrived at last year by community residents and elected and city officials.
The main problem appears to be that no one seems to want to take the lead on finding a new location for the Guard. The city and state appear to think that it is the other’s job.
Mostly, though, it seems that aside from some local politicians, no city or state official particularly cares all that much what happens at the Armory.
We hope that once the mayoral election is over, Mayor Bloomberg will re-direct some of the laser-beam focus his administration applied to the West Side stadium project to goals more achievable and desired by ordinary New Yorkers. The Armory, which has the benefit of already being in the city’s inventory, would seem to be the kind of local economic development project our businessman mayor would seize on with relish.
We expect we’ll now need to wait until Bloomberg retools his administration — or Fernando Ferrer introduces his — in January to see any new movement on the Armory front.
In the meantime, the Armory Clock keeps on ticking …
Building Alarm
October 20, 2005
By Editorial
It started out as good news.
A reader called to tell us about a beautiful garden taking root at Botanical Square, the large apartment complex on Webster Avenue just south of Mosholu Parkway.
We went over to take a picture and came upon even more good news — new owners were in the process of renovating the buildings. A resident showed us newly painted hallways, better lighting and other improvements.
So, when our enterprising reporter, Heather Haddon, got back to the office, she thought she’d be well on her way toward a good-news story about an enlightened landlord who believed that taking care of the property was a good business investment.
But when she consulted city records available on the Web and discovered that the same company that owned Botanical Square had recently purchased many properties in the area, she did some more digging.
What she found was troubling. The strategy of the Pinnacle organization and the Praedium Group seems to be to buy buildings, fix them up, raise rents more than what a normal capital improvement increase should normally allow, and then sell to the highest bidder.
Longtime tenants will suffer and many will have no choice but to leave.
We expect that local housing advocates (the northwest Bronx has many of these thanks to the area’s history of real estate speculation with disastrous consequences), city officials, and local politicians, will investigate these companies’ practices before it is too late.
Tenants are enjoying the benefits of improved buildings now, but a difficult future could be just around the corner.
Company Gobbles Up Bronx Buildings
October 20, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Troubling Track Record
A major city real estate company with questionable management practices shelled out millions of dollars for more than 30 Bronx apartment buildings, including eight area ones, over the past year. Tenants could face substantial rent hikes if the company’s documented strategy is any guide.
Joel Wiener, an investor with deep pockets, purchased the Bronx buildings last summer as part of a $200.5 million deal that included properties in Harlem and Washington Heights, according to the New York Post and financial industry reports. The 51-building package amounts to 2,576 apartment units and 78 stores.
Local properties listed by the city Department of Finance include two on both DeKalb and Sedgwick avenues; one each on East Gun Hill Road, East 196th Street and West 190th Street; and the Botanical Square building.
Wiener purchased the buildings in partnership with the Praedium Group, an investment fund that capitalizes on undervalued real estate in the U.S. and Canada. The Pinnacle organization, a long chain of related limited liability companies which Wiener heads, manages the buildings.
Praedium and Pinnacle first came to the Bronx in 2002, buying seven former Mitchell Lama buildings scattered around Riverdale, Parkchester and Williamsbridge, according to news reports. The properties were well maintained and affordable, but that changed after the $42 million deal was sealed.
“It’s to the point where he’s making everyone in the buildings homeless,” said Carmella Price, the housing specialist for state Senator Ruben Diaz. A former resident of one of the properties, Price has gotten scores of complaints from tenants, especially seniors and those using housing benefits, who accuse Pinnacle of forcing them out with rent hikes related to major capital improvements (known as MCIs). Price said that Pinnacle has passed an undue share of the improvement costs on to tenants.
“He [Wiener] doesn’t follow the law of New York State whatsoever,” she said.
After the apartments are vacated, their rents have been doubled, according to Price.
A veteran Bronx real estate professional, who asked not to be named, also decried Pinnacle’s management practices. The company’s motive is to quickly increase the revenue from the buildings, not to serve tenants, he said.
Several Pinnacle administrators did not return calls for comment. The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) was aware of the purchases, but a spokesperson said they are still gathering data about Pinnacle.
Praedium is part of a new crop of real estate investors that seek to quickly profit from their properties. The companies typically make numerous repairs up front and then raise the rents, as documented by a 1999 Crains article. Within two to five years, the buildings are sold.
“Our goal is to buy a property with a problem we can fix, reposition it, lease it up and then sell it,” said Russell Appel, president of Praedium Group, in Crains.
Real estate is always driven by financial gain, but this new breed of investors appears to have little, if any, concern for tenants. The companies typically carry sprawling portfolios of buildings with massive mortgages, with those turning a profit subsidizing those not yet up to speed.
“These buildings are now seen as commodities,” said John Reilly, executive director of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation. “[They are] not small businesses that need to be individually managed.”
HPD looks favorably on management companies that make improvements and eventually sell their buildings, but does not support the quick flipping of properties. “This is usually a symptom of owners who have a speculative interest only,” said Carol Abrams, an HPD spokesperson.
Pinnacle has been especially forceful in overhauling its purchases. The superintendents working in the former Mitchell Lama buildings were fired promptly after the takeover, and employees received curt letters instructing them to vacate their homes immediately, according to a Daily News story. The move was so egregious that, nine months later, the city passed a law preventing new owners from firing building workers within 90 days.
Things are rapidly changing in the local buildings. At the outset, it’s for the better. Many improvements have been made to the properties, which range from ones that were neglected to those in very good shape.
Kemal Jadadic, Botanical Square’s custodian, counts off a long list of work done to the Bedford Park building this year, including new doors, hallway lights and security cameras.
“We’ve done a lot of big stuff here,” said Jadadic, who planted rows of impatiens and shrubs in the building’s courtyard. Repairs were also made to the sidewalks, and Jadadic said the elevators will be replaced.
Residents of 6 W. 190th, which had over 360 code violations listed by the city, are pleased to see the improvements. “It’s much more clean, and overall, is nicer than before,” said Manny Ruiz, a resident, who pointed to new lighting and a beefed up exterior lock.
Security cameras have also been installed outside 60 E. 196th St. in North Fordham. Over at 215 E. Gun Hill Rd., a resident reported that the lobby had recently been renovated. The floors and walls in the Norwood building were shiny and spotless. Last week, a repairman was busily fixing the front entrance.
Stephanie Pierce, a Botanical Square resident, is happy to see fewer rats and more flowers in her building, but she worries about the long-term prospects. “There are rumors they are going to make it into a co-op,” Pierce said.
Tenants can legally opt out of a co-op, but rents can be raised when MCIs are made. It’s uncertain what will happen to the local buildings, but Price expects the worst. “What he’s doing there is outrageous,” said Price, who has repeatedly tried to contact Wiener. “This man needs to be stopped.”
Jordan Besek and James Fergusson contributed to this article.
What’s New at Local High Schools
October 6, 2005
By Heather Haddon
School has been in session for several weeks now, but the Norwood News continues its look at what’s new in local classrooms by surveying the area’s many high schools.
DeWitt Clinton High School
DeWitt Clinton High School had extensive work done on its building this summer to install new security equipment and expand its cafeteria (see p. 6). The West Mosholu Parkway school’s hallways were also painted, and murals are now taking shape on each floor. Students enrolled in the school’s art program will continue to work on the paintings throughout the year. Clinton’s library was also spruced up through funds allocated by Council Member Oliver Koppell.
Clinton is not housing small schools like Walton and other large high schools, and instead was divided into smaller learning communities. The five divisions, two of which are brand new, each have a specific focus: health professions, animal science, business enterprise, public service and the Macy medical arts program. Students will remain in their community throughout the day.
Geraldine Ambrosio, Clinton’s principal, welcomes the change. “We are building on our successes,” she said.
Clinton is also focusing extra attention on its ninth grade, which, at 1,250 students, is quite large. “We’ve found that those who don’t get through ninth grade, can’t make it through high school in general,” Ambrosio said.
Leadership Institute
With much fanfare, the Leadership Institute opened its doors to its first ninth grade class last month. The high school is housed for now in the Police Athletic League building on Webster Avenue, and extensive work was done this summer to make the facility ready. The school’s seven teachers are instructing the first class of 120 students in brand new classrooms.
“This is something we’ve been fighting for for a long time,” said Ronald Gonzalez, the school’s principal.
The Institute has been the three-year dream of Sistas and Brothas United, the youth arm of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. In addition to academics, students will delve into local improvement projects. “They can range from working on housing development to installing a speed bump on the street,” Gonzalez said. Students work on the projects in teams during and after school. They also attend leadership training classes.
The Institute is in the process of setting up after-school clubs and tutoring. Gonzalez was formerly a regional administrator and a Manhattan teacher.
Marie Curie High School
The Marie Curie High School for Nursing, Medicine and the Allied Health Professions tripled in size this fall, with seventh, ninth, and 10th graders now housed at the one-year-old school. So far, Principal Rodney Fisher says the transition is smooth.
“Space is always an issue, but we’ve managed to adjust,” Fisher said. The small facility, which receives support from the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, will eventually transition into a seventh through 12th grade school.
Marie Curie is now on the third floor of the 231st Street complex, which also houses MS 143 and the New School for Leadership and Journalism. The schools now share the science lab and refurbished library that were completed this summer.
Like its name implies, Marie Curie offers its students plenty of opportunities to explore health care. Tenth graders conduct internships at four Bronx hospitals, where they shadow doctors during their rounds. Students share what they learn, and 10th graders will act as buddies for seventh graders this year.
Nine graders learn health fundamentals at the school’s wellness center, where they are trained to screen for asthma, hypertension, and blood pressure.
Marie Curie was one of 10 local schools that was accepted into the Region’s Autonomy Network, and Fisher is excited about gaining that new flexibility.
Mount St. Ursula
This year, Mount St. Ursula girls will get a chance to express themselves through new debate and dance clubs. The Bedford Park Boulevard school also purchased 15 laptops and a mobile station through a fund-raising walk conducted last spring.
During the summer, participants in the school’s soccer and volleyball teams started gearing up for the coming season. The high school’s incoming class totals 130 students and three new teachers joined the faculty.
Walton High School
For the next three years, Walton High School is in a state of flux as it transitions toward closure. The Reservoir Avenue school did not admit a ninth grade class, and it has lost some of its faculty. In its place, the small schools housed at the Walton “campus” will continue to expand.
There are still over 2,100 students now attending Walton, and severe overcrowding is a persistent issue. The school uses the first floor and half of the second floor.
Walton did receive an influx of support for its supermarket program. Located in the basement, the initiative trains students in retail operations, and this year will offer certification in the city’s food handlers program. Equipment that was donated over the summer creates a realistic retail environment, according to Stephen Ritz, a Walton dean.
Walton’s Green Teen program, which promotes environmental advocacy, is also expanding. The group will work with the River Heroes training program, and with Sustainable South Bronx to help maintain green roofs on Bronx buildings.
The Celia Cruz Bronx School of Music
Now in its third year, the Celia Cruz Bronx School of Music is finally settling in. Extensive work was done on Walton this summer to carve a distinct niche for the school, including renovating some of its classrooms, creating teacher and project rooms, and establishing an administrative suite with cubicles for staff. The school also now has a brand new science lab.
“It’s starting to feel like you have everything a small school would need,” said William Rodriguez, the school’s principal.
That transition has been rocky. Many Celia Cruz parents protested when the school moved from its original home in DeWitt Clinton to Walton last year. The school now utilizes 10 classrooms on Walton’s third floor.
All of Celia Cruz’ 250 students spend three days a week at Lehman College, where they receive orchestral and choral instruction. The school will again perform in winter and spring concerts at Lehman’s Lovinger Theatre. Auditions for the school, which is open to Bronx students with an interest in music, take place in December.
Discovery High School
Principal Scott Goldner is relieved to announce that Discovery High School has moved to its third, and final, location within the Walton campus. “This is the year we really become the school we want to be,” said Goldner, Discovery’s principal and founder. The arts-based school housed on Walton’s second floor received extensive work during the summer, with renovated classrooms and office space.
Discovery has wasted little time in embarking on the new year. The school has already had its first town hall session, an ongoing exploration of selected themes both in classrooms and with a bi-weekly speaker . Leadership was the subject for the first round last week.
Additional staff was hired, especially in the arts, during the summer for Discovery’s 300 students. Each grade has an arts-related theme, with the new 11th grade focusing on music. Students will explore expression from traditional African-American songs to hip-hop and spoken word poetry.
The Manhattan Class Company, a professional off-Broadway theater group, has returned to the school. The company trains Discovery’s teachers to use theatrical techniques for academic instruction.
Discovery’s theme for 2006 is media and technology, and Goldner is in the process of talking with the School Construction Authority and Council Member Oliver Koppell about creating a multi-media lab for the school. “It will make learning more fun, but also provide skills that are suitable for jobs,” he said.
The High School for Teaching and the Professions
The High School for Teaching and the Professions (TAP) is taking its academic rigor to the next step this year in offering Advanced Placement classes. The school, housed on Walton High School’s third floor, will offer AP English, Spanish and U.S. History. Students can also earn college credit through classes at Lehman College, the TAP’s ongoing partner, and at Hostos Community College.
Like Celia Cruz and Discovery high schools, TAP got extensive work on its facilities this summer. Five classrooms were added, along with a high-tech science lab and a variety of administrative and common rooms. “The teachers and children are so excited,” said Maxine Johnson, the school’s principal.
Now in its fourth year, TAP’s student body has grown to 520, and after new additions this summer, there are 33 teachers. TAP was awarded a 21st Century grant this year, and intends to share it with the rest of Walton through a school-wide mural project.
Drama will join TAP’s full roster of extra-curricular activities this year. Other offerings include a newspaper, choir and Club Verse, which is an open mike forum for students.
The International School of Liberal Arts
The International School of Liberal Arts (ISLA) is a brand new school on Walton High School’s third floor. Currently working with seventh and ninth graders, the school will eventually expand into a seventh through 12th grade school and relocate in the Walton campus.
The Kingsbridge International High School
The Kingsbridge International High School, another new school on the Walton campus, serves recent immigrants who speak little English. The school accepted its first ninth grade class this year, and shares Walton’s second floor with Discovery High School.
Sponsored by International Partnership Schools, the school uses an interdisciplinary approach and assesses students through portfolios. The organization has opened six similar schools since 1985.
Then and Now, Clinton Cultivates Young Activists
October 6, 2005
By Heather Haddon
The organizational means may have changed, but the spirit of dissent felt very familiar to DeWitt Clinton alumnae as they watched students stage one of the largest walkouts in recent city history.
“It brought back memories,” said Greg Faulkner, Clinton class of 1971 and Community Board 7’s chair. “There’s a whole history at Clinton of teaching students to be independent thinkers.”
Students exercised that free spirit en masse last month when hundreds walked out in protest of metal detectors installed this year and a captive lunch program that ends their eating out privileges. Rumors started circulating about the safety devices last spring, and were confirmed in a mailing about the devices over the summer. Before classes resumed, students began posting angry messages about the change on Sconex, an on-line high school chat room.
Considering nearly 2,500 Clinton kids are Sconex members, or roughly half the school, word spread fast. A petition was drawn up the first day students returned to class and it traveled quickly. “We tried to make sure it got around to everyone in school,” said Anthony Stafford, 17, a Clinton student who helped push the efforts.
The protest, like the digital medium that spawned it, was organized fluidly. Anthony doesn’t even know some of the students who started pushing the petition, but before long, they’d netted approximately 1,000 signatures. A call to protest on Monday was posted on Sconex over the weekend, and a recent Clinton alumnus had his mom help with calling the media.
Jose David, one of the main organizers, arrived early on Monday to start things up. Students waiting in the long lines to be scanned joined the rally, and those inside the building soon followed suit.
“I guess they heard our chants,” said Anthony, a Decatur Avenue resident. “It was really a spontaneous thing.”
Successive waves of students poured out of the building during period changes, walking up to Jerome Avenue to buy construction paper for impromptu signs. Clinton’s principal, Geraldine Ambrosio, addressed the crowd, but said that the matter was in the hands of the Region 1 administration, according to Anthony. Undeterred, students marched peacefully over one-and-a-half miles to the Region 1 administrative office on Fordham Road.
Jose, Anthony and four other students were called up to meet with regional administrators. In a victory, students were promised future meetings to discuss the issue.
Twenty-five years ago, thousands of Clinton students also took to the streets after the Kent State massacre. They snaked from Bronx Science, then Walton, Roosevelt and Evander Childs high schools, picking up students and steam along the way. “Floods of kids came out,” said Gary Axelbank, Clinton class of 1971 and the host of the BronxTalk cable TV program. “People were setting fires along Mosholu Parkway and surrounding buses while locking arms.”
The next day, Clinton’s principal sanctioned a day of protest at a neighboring athletic field for the entire school community. “Both faculty and students gave speeches on subjects covering the four students killed at Kent State University, students’ rights, and the right to dissent,” stated an article about the events in Clinton’s school paper. Those who remained at school could attend a symposium on the Vietnam War.
Clinton’s history of activism runs deep. Faulkner, who was the student body president, remembers demonstrating over the school’s rampant overcrowding (Clinton made the 1963 Guinness Book of World Records for having the world’s largest school enrollment). Axelbank was a member of Clinton’s student court, which took up cases ranging from overdue library books to rowdy behavior.
“Clinton has always been on the cutting edge when it comes to activism,” said James Garvey, an alumnus who is now co-authoring a history of the school. The working title is “The Castle on Mosholu Parkway: A History of DeWitt Clinton High School and Its Extraordinary Influence on American Life.”
Some of the independent spirit was, and still is, actively cultivated by the school. Faulkner went to leadership weekends while at Clinton, where assemblymen, judges and other successful alumnae would coach students. “The history of activism goes back far,” said Faulkner, who remembers the men (the school was all boys until the 1980s), many of whom graduated back in the 1930s, talking about Clinton’s independent spirit in their day.
The school still trains new leaders during the weekends. Anthony has participated in a college bound program for years now, where he often does public speaking, but this was the first march he’s organized. If their demands aren’t met, he says Clinton students plan to hold another protest, and the Sconex board is still buzzing with calls to revolt. “We’re going to make it bigger, and make sure our message is heard even louder,” Anthony said enthusiastically.
Regardless, Clinton alumnae are thrilled to see the school’s independent streak is still alive and well. “It was one of the best signs I’ve seen about our young people in a generation,” Axelbank said.
Reluctantly, Clinton Adjusts to Safety Measures
October 6, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Things have calmed down at DeWitt Clinton High School, but students and parents still aren’t cheering new security measures established there last month.
Staff have worked hard to improve the situation after a major student walkout last month, but for a school that has long cherished its openness, it’s been a bumpy transition to a more restrictive environment.
“It’s getting so overcrowded,” said Michelle Montalvo, 17, as her friend nodded in agreement. “It’s our last year here, but it’s only going to get worse.”
Metal detectors and bag scanners were installed at the Bedford Park school’s entrances this summer after growing concerns about violence within and outside the building. The capacity of its cafeteria was nearly tripled to accommodate a “captive lunch,” which prohibits kids from going out to eat. Surveillance cameras were installed in school hallways, and cell phones were banned.
Parents and students were notified of the changes in letters and school-wide discussions, but discontent grew as fall approached. Clinton made citywide news when hundreds of students walked out of class after the devices were activated the second week of school (see sidebar).
The initially long lines have shortened since Clinton opened three entrances and turned on more scanners. The region is also sending 10 additional officers to scan students. “As soon as I get more people, it will be better,” said Alex Castillo, Clinton’s head of security.
Students seem even more frustrated about the captive lunch. Three classrooms were knocked down to expand the basement cafeteria, and an estimated 800 students eat during each of five lunch periods.
“Let me tell you about lunch,” said Sophia Drummond, 15, exasperatedly. “There are thousands of kids pushing each other to get inside. It’s crazy.”
Mariana Meha, 14, told a similar story. “The lunch is packed,” said Mariana, of Gun Hill Road. “You can’t even walk through it.”
As for the food itself, staff are working on improving the lunch options in tandem with students, who have formed a nutrition committee. The head chef for the city Department of Education (DOE) came to evaluate Clinton’s menu last week. They are also trying to create a more restaurant-like atmosphere, and Geraldine Ambrosio, Clinton’s principal, is looking to convert the school’s interior courtyard into an outdoor lounge for seniors.
Until then, some students say they avoid the cafeteria by snacking and going to local restaurants after school.
But area merchants have felt the diminishing business. “During the lunchtime, it’s so quiet here,” said S.R. Kim, the manager of Pine Deli on East 208th Street. “I have 15 to 20 percent less business a day.”
For Ana Justiniano, who runs the Burger King on Jerome Avenue, it used to feel like she fed the whole school. “It’s bad for business, but it’s good that it’s less crazy,” she said.
Clinton must now shoulder the burden of housing roughly 4,700 teenagers all day.
Several students reported that fights within the building are on the upswing, and parents are concerned about that possibility. “You can’t lock that many people up in the building all day and expect nothing to happen,” said Cathy Chambers, the head of Clinton’s Parent Association (PA).
Letting kids eat out was actually an anomaly. Very few schools in the city let students go outside for lunch, according to the DOE.
Milton Roman, the school’s parent coordinator, said that managing the situation has been stressful. “Things are a little fragile,” he said. The school has started policing hallways and stairwells for students lingering between periods and Castillo believes it has helped.
Mayor Bloomberg has emphasized school safety, and metal detectors have become increasingly common throughout the system. There are currently 70 schools citywide with scanners, including most Bronx high schools. Bronx Science (just down the block from Clinton) and Lehman High School were the only two large Bronx high schools, to Castillo’s knowledge, that lack metal detectors.
The Police Department’s school safety unit recommended that Clinton beef up its security after at least five criminal incidents involving weapons took place during the 2003-2004 school year, according to the DOE. The school began installing the scanners last year.
Still, many students say they had felt safe. “I understand their concerns about weapons,” Sophia said. “But our school is really good.”
Chambers agreed. “Our school has a very high Regents diploma rate, and they are saying that these kids need to be locked up?” asked Chambers, who presided over a very angry PA meeting last month. She is now circulating a petition among other parents.
Clinton staff members tend to see the changes as a difficult necessity. “It’s unfortunate,” Roman said. “But some kids are trying to bring banned things in, and their peers have been victimized by this.”
Honor Gottesman in Bronx
October 6, 2005
By Editorial
Residents of the Bronx and beyond have known for years that Norwood resident Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman is a national treasure. But now it’s official.
Last month, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship.
We can’t think of anyone more deserving. Scha-echter-Gottesman is a world-renowned poet, painter, singer, songwriter and teacher who is devoted to her art and making sure Yiddish language and culture is passed along to future generations.
Now that Schaechter-Gottesman has been honored in Washington, where she participated in and performed at ceremonies for the fellowship winners, we think it’s time she be recognized for her vast contributions here at home in the Bronx.
Every year in June, the Bronx Tourism Council inducts famous Bronxites into the Bronx Walk of Fame on the Grand Concourse. But the worthy inductees are usually former Bronxites.
We suggest that this year, a homegrown artist and scholar who still lives on Bainbridge Avenue, get her own Walk of Fame sign.Anyone second the nomination?
About Those Hex Blocks
October 6, 2005
By Editorial
In our Sept. 8 – 21 issue, reader Nat Solomon wrote in to inquire about the fate of hundreds of hexagonal blocks piled in a dumpster outside the northern entrance of Williamsbridge Oval Park where construction of a new entrance is under way.
Well, we asked the Parks Department and here’s what they told us:
“When we do repairs, we recycle and reset existing hex blocks throughout the Parks system that are still in good condition,” a Parks Department spokesman replied in an e-mail. “However, if they are broken we need to discard them.”
Keep those questions and letters coming.
Register by Oct. 14
October 6, 2005
By Editorial
If you’re not registered to vote, you can only vote in the general election on Nov. 8 if you register by Oct. 14.
You can register by calling the Board of Elections at (866) VOTE-NYC to request a voter registration form or visit http://vote.nyc.ny.us/ to print one out. But forms must be postmarked by the 14th.
If you think you’re cutting it close, you can register in person at the Bronx office of the Board of Elections at 1780 Grand Concourse, 5th floor. The phone number there is (718) 299-9017.
Regardless of who you vote for, voting matters. Politicians take notice of the number of people who show up to vote. It’s no secret that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but you can’t squeak if you don’t register.
Boost for River’s Greenway
October 6, 2005
By None
It was a great week for the Bronx River.
Nearly 20 supporters of the Bronx River Alliance boarded a trolley on Sept. 22 at the Bronx River Art Center on East Tremont Avenue for a trip to the Burke Avenue Bridge, just north of French Charley’s Playground in Norwood. Participants in the fundraiser enjoyed refreshments and a view of the river as the sun set. The banks and forest surrounding the river were recently restored and boardwalks have been installed.
And downstream the next day, river and park advocates watched a dream come true as local politicians and community leaders joined City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe for a groundbreaking ceremony at Concrete Plant Park to mark the start of the site’s construction into parkland.
The park, seven acres of land that hugs the western bank of the Bronx River in Hunts Point’s industrial section, will be a welcome addition to an area chronically short of green space.
Previously home to a concrete mixing plant, the site has lain derelict since 1997. It was set to be auctioned until local residents — looking past the mountains of garbage and polluted river — convinced the Parks Department to step in. “This started from the ground up,” Benepe said.
When work is finished, the first new stretch of the Bronx River Greenway will be in place. An initiative by the Bronx River Alliance, the Greenway Program aims to establish a continuous 23-mile pathway along the river.
— James Fergusson and David Greene
Hurricane in NYC? Those Signs Aren’t for Show
October 6, 2005
By David Crohn
The blue, round coastal evacuation route signs that first started cropping up in the area more than a year ago may come in handy sooner than you think.
Some experts say the city is due for a Category 4 hurricane within the next 10 years and the city’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) provides an unvarnished prediction of what that could look like: Imagine Canal Street under 22 feet of water, Coney Island submerged 20 feet or six miles of waves crashing across Flatbush Avenue.
But the OEM — formed in 1996 and more relevant than ever in the post-9/11, post-Katrina era — is taking steps to inform citizens about what emergency measures are in place.
By going to its Web site (nyc.gov/emols, nyc.gov/readyny) or calling 311, you can get a copy of brochures with evacuation routes and procedures and to find out if you live in an Evacuation Zone — areas, such as the south and east Bronx, that are at risk of flooding.
According to OEM spokesman Andrew Troisi, in the event of flooding caused by a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, people who live in Evacuation Zones (and only those in Evacuation Zones who have nowhere else to go) should use public transportation to go to one of 23 reception centers, found throughout the city. The homeless would then be taken to city shelters.
“It’s much more efficient to send people to these few sites and then bus people to shelters,” Troisi said.
Most of the Bronx is not at risk of flood damage. But Bedford Park and the surrounding area, situated on high and safe ground, is home to one of the borough’s two reception centers — Lehman College, located on Bedford Park Boulevard West. (The other is CS 214 on West Farms Road.)
With its convenient access to public transportation, large parking lots and the ability to accommodate large crowds, Lehman is a typical New York City reception center, Troisi said.
Lehman College spokesperson Keisha Anderson said that up to 3,500 people could find temporary shelter in one of three campus facilities: the APEX auxiliary gymnasium, the Center for the Performing Arts, or the classrooms and corridors of Carman Hall.
“People would arrive at Lehman and then stay at Lehman for a short period of time and then city officials would take them to the appropriate place to stay overnight,” Anderson said. She added that Lehman could function as a temporary shelter for about 350 people, who would be given food, water and shelter for two to three days.
In the event of an emergency, Bronxites can get there by traveling along OEM-approved routes: west along Gun Hill Road and south down Jerome Avenue, for instance, or north up the Grand Concourse.
Signs pointing the way to Lehman have been up since spring 2004 but an influential Westchester legislator says city residents wouldn’t know what to do in the event of an emergency and that bus drivers and other MTA employees have not been trained in handling an evacuation.
“The plan that exists today will not evacuate New York City successfully,” said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky at a recent hearing of his Committee on Corporations, Commissions and Authorities. “They [residents] do not know what’s in [the city’s] plans.”
While OEM head Joseph Bruno insists the city is ready, Brodsky has called on the agency, with no success so far, to release its evacuation plans in their entirety.
An interview with one local man who wouldn’t give his last name may illustrate why greater awareness of evacuation plans among city residents might be a good thing. Louie, who lives and works a stone’s throw from several evacuation route signs on Bedford Park Boulevard, said he’d never noticed them and could offer only this advice:
“You have to accept it any time — that’s the truth. New York is very close to the water. [If a storm hits] I guess I’d go to a high building.”
In the Public Interest
October 6, 2005
By None
Chavez Falls for the Bronx
Next time they’ll go up against each other on a Bronx baseball field.
But this time, Congressman Jose Serrano was Hugo Chavez’ biggest fan, inviting the oft-maligned Venezuelan president to the Bronx to meet his constituents.
It all started when Serrano heard that Chavez would be in town for a United Nations conference in September. He called Chavez’ people to broach the idea of a Bronx day trip and Serrano said their response was, “This is incredible! We were just going to call you.” Chavez was interested in meeting with community people in the Bronx, perhaps because Serrano has been one his few supporters in Washington. Chavez has been pilloried by the administration and other politicians for his socialist leanings and his alliance with Fidel Castro.
To save time, Serrano invited several community groups — including Mothers on the Move, Nos Quedamos and Youth Ministries for Peace and justice — to set up display tables at the Point, a community center in Hunts Point.
“Everybody set up a booth and we expected a typical head-of-state situation — shake a hand and leave,” Serrano said in a phone interview. “Three hours later he was still at the center … It was incredible!”
Chavez asked each group questions about their budget, staff size and mission. At the booth for the Mary Mitchell Center, a youth center in Crotona, Chavez instructed an aide to take down the group’s information so the Venezuelan embassy could make a donation, the Miami Herald reported.
Chavez made other speeches that day, before a packed house at the Latino Pastoral Action Center in the Bronx and at a church in Manhattan. His Bronx tour seems to have made an impression.
“Starting today, you known that I [have fallen] in love,” he said to the crowd in Manhattan. “I have fallen in love with the Bronx and New York.”
He added, “I even have a dream, as Dr. King said … Some day I want to take a swim in the Bronx River when we clean it, when we de-pollute it. And I have another dream to play ball at Yankee Stadium.”
He also said he had “met the soul of the American people.”
U.S. policy toward Venezuela is driven by anti-Castro Cubans living in Florida, Serrano said. “Miami gets this country into so many confrontations with Latin America,” said Serrano, who brought Castro to the Bronx a decade ago.
Serrano said Chavez’ relationship with the borough will continue and a number of ideas for collaboration are being batted around.
Chavez, who once aspired to be a major leaguer, did tell Serrano that he had one disappointment on his trip: he wanted to play softball. That will have to wait for his next visit, though the two politicians played catch on stage after one of the speeches.
In the meantime, Serrano gave an appropriate gift of two framed and signed Yankee photos: one of Paul O’Neill, and one of Derek Jeter flying into the stands to snag a fly ball.
“This one reminds me of how you dove into the fight against poverty in your country,” Serrano told Chavez.
— Jordan Moss
Unsafe School Crossing
For many Bronx kids, the process of getting to school safely is scarier than hitting the books, according to grim statistics outlined in a report by the borough president’s office last week. The Bronx leads the city in the number of children struck by cars, and over one-third of the borough’s recent pedestrian accidents involve children under the age of 14.
“People should be able to walk to school, church or simply stroll around the city without the fear of being hit by a car,” said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión in a statement.
Two out of the five most dangerous intersections, according to city statistics, are in the local area. Two children have died in two years trying to navigate between University Avenue and West 181st Street, which is near PS/MS 15 and PS 291, and 26 children were hit by vehicles at the intersection between East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue over the past five years.
Despite the dangers, nine out of 10 children ages 5 to 17 walk to school in the Bronx.
The borough president called on the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to install more traffic calming devices, like speed bumps, around Bronx schools. The DOT began studying safety concerns around 135 city schools, including PS 33, MS 399 and St. Ann’s School, last year.
The DOT did not respond to calls seeking comment.
— Heather Haddon
More Buses
New express buses will soon hit Bronx streets now that the MTA has awarded a $141 million contract to purchase new, fuel-efficient vehicles. The 140 new buses are divided between Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens routes.
Council Member John Liu of Queens praised the decision, but said it was too long in coming. “This is welcome news, finally, since bus riders in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx have been starved of desperately needed new buses,” said Liu, the Council’s Transportation Committee chair, in a statement. “These 400,000 bus riders should never have suffered for so long with decrepit and breakdown-prone buses.”
Last year, the MTA took over several private express bus routes, including the Liberty Lines that travels between the Grand Concourse and Manhattan. A survey conducted by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Council Member Oliver Koppell last month found that rider satisfaction has plummeted since the takeover.
— Heather Haddon
Comings and Goings
Madeline Provenzano’s final term in the City Council doesn’t officially end until January, but Tom Lucania, her chief of staff, has already moved on. The borough president appointed Lucania as his new director of community board affairs last month.
Lucania has a long career of public service in the Pelham Parkway and Morris Park areas. He served as the district manager of Community Board 11 until 1995, and most recently worked for Provenzano, who oversees Council District 13. The Bronx seat serves Pelham Parkway, Throgs Neck and Morris Park.
In his new role, Lucania will handle all issues related to the Bronx’ 12 community boards, which borough presidents oversee. “His strong ties to the Bronx and many years of public service to our borough will be invaluable to this office,” said Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión in a statement.
— Heather Haddon
Making Law
In light of skyrocketing fuel costs, state Senator Jeff Klein introduced a package of legislation last month that details some creative ways to encourage energy efficiency. The proposals include easing taxes and eliminating tolls for hybrid vehicles, which run partially on electricity, and a sales tax exemption for purchasing new energy-efficient appliances. “These are proven common sense steps we can take to reduce our dependency on foreign oil,” said Klein, who represents Riverdale and other neighborhoods in the Bronx and Westchester.
— Heather Haddon
Hoisting of Fordham Antenna Ends Decade-Long Dispute
October 6, 2005
By Jordan Moss
The great Bronx radio tower tiff is history.
Eleven years after the construction of a mammoth antenna for the WFUV radio station on the Fordham University campus enraged its neighbors at the New York Botanical Garden, officials from both institutions and Montefiore Medical Center watched the biggest crane in New York City hoist a new tower and antenna atop a Montefiore-owned apartment building in Norwood.
The new antenna means that Fordham will be able to dismantle the half-complete tower on its campus once the wiring for the new one is all hooked up next spring. It also means that the Garden has essentially won its long battle to reclaim an uncluttered vista. Garden officials and some patrons felt the towers particularly marred views of its landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.
Fordham had begun construction of what would have been a 480-foot tower in 1994 to comply with new Federal Communications Commission standards and to reach a wider listenership. But the Garden successfully appealed to halt construction, leaving the tower unfinished at 260 feet. Years of hearings and court rulings followed, as did fruitless efforts to identify another suitable site.
But in May 1994, Montefiore president Spencer Foreman, MD, announced that it could provide the roof of a Wayne Avenue building — for $100,000 in yearly rent to cover maintenance — as a surefire remedy for Fordham’s 11-year headache.
Last week, workers began assembling the antenna and tower on a vacant Montefiore-owned plot across from the building at the corner of Wayne Avenue and East 210th Street.
And on Sunday, officials assembled on top of a parking garage across the street for a press conference and dramatic viewing of the tower being hoisted section-by-section onto the roof of the building known as Monte II, a 28-story, 299-unit residence for Medical Center staff.
The new structure is slimmer and shorter than the one on Fordham’s campus. It has an 80-foot supporting mast and a 60-foot antenna on top of that. It is 10 feet wide at its base and tapers to four feet as it rises. But by basing it on top of the tall building, which sits on the highest point in the city at Gun Hill Road, it gains the necessary height.
Fordham’s president, Fr. Joseph McShane, expressed gratitude to Foreman and Montefiore for offering the roof and brokering the peace between Fordham and the Garden.
He said the solution was “an answer to our prayers.”
“Without Montefiore, we’d probably still be looking for a site and still be at sea,” McShane said, adding that the resolution of the dispute “helps us mend a relationship [with the Garden] and bring it back to that level of affection and respect that has always been there.”
Garden president Gregory Long was out of the town, but other Garden officials were present.
The tower will not be fully operational until it is fully wired and tested next spring. At that time, WFUV, an FM station at 90.7 known particularly for its folk music programming, will have the ability to increase its reach to 13 million potential listeners from seven million it broadcasts to nownow.
Ed. note: Mosholu Preservation Corporation, the publisher of the Norwood News, is a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center.
Paradise Will Reopen Oct. 29
October 6, 2005
By Jordan Moss
Mark your calendars.
The memory-drenched Loew’s Paradise Theatre on the Grand Concourse will reopen in style on Oct. 29 with a gala concert featuring Puerto Rican music star Gilberto Santo Rosa.
Following years of uncertainty over its future, the theater’s ornate interior, which includes marble columns, Greek statues and gilded fixtures, has been painstakingly restored by developer Gerald Lieblich, the owner of the building. It was given its first showing to an eager public on Sept. 26 when the Bronx Museum of Arts culminated a day celebrating the Concourse’s centennial in the lobby of the Beaux-Arts theatre.
As people wandered the lobby with plates of fruit and cheese, some who had been there before remembered the last movies they had seen there before the theater closed in 1994.
Now that same lobby, and the mezzanine above, will feature a high-end restaurant run by celebrity chef Eric Basulto, who caters for Jennifer Lopez.
Boter said the 3,800-seat venue’s 30 events a year will not be limited to Latin attractions. He envisions classical music concerts, opera and even daytime children’s shows. On the other days, the Paradise will operate only as a restaurant and lounge.
Last Friday, Boter said tickets would go on sale for the Oct. 29 concert on Monday, Oct. 3 at the Paradise box office and can also be purchased through Ticketmaster. Tickets for opening night will run from $40 to $75. Mily, the Dominican singer, is another upcoming attraction.
Valet parking is available for $10. The Paradise is using a garage for this purpose on the Concourse near 177th Street.
The theater’s rebirth (it opened in 1929) was a struggle. A Westchester developer, who signed a 10-year lease in the mid-1990s, sunk millions of dollars in restorations into the theater to create a sports and entertainment complex, eventually ran out of funds. A lengthy legal battle ensued over who controlled the facility. The owner, ABI Property Partners, won the suit in 2003 and then sold the theater to Lieblich.
Boter, who emigrated from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in the early 1970s, predicted the Paradise would quickly become a popular Bronx destination.
“I think this is the most beautiful theater I’ve ever seen in the world,” he said, adding that the ticket prices will be much more reasonable than those for similar events in Manhattan.
“Like they come [to the Bronx] for the Yankees, they will come for this venue,” Boter said.
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