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Comedian Robert Klein Probes His Norwood Roots
November 17, 2005
By Barbara Eliasson
If you grew up in our neighborhood in the 1950s and ‘60s, you’ll love Robert Klein’s new book, “The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue.” But even if you don’t remember egg creams, stickball, Spaldeens, or hanging out on Mosholu Parkway, you’ll enjoy Klein’s reminiscences. (The subtitle of the book is “A Child of the Fifties Looks Back.” It could just as easily be called “A Child of the Bronx…”). The book is more than a name-dropping celebrity memoir; it’s the story of how a life is shaped by family, environment, experiences and drive.
In his Afterword, the actor-comedian tells us that he has not tried to write a “comprehensive” autobiography; instead, he marks his boundaries: what happened to him between the ages of 9 and 25, including only those “events that stand out in his memory, that have a chronology all their own.”
Like most of us, Klein’s early years were centered around his family, his apartment, and his neighborhood. The first three chapters introduce us, not just to Klein’s parents (their cautious refrains, we’re told, were “Be careful, be careful … that can take your eye out… you can lose a leg doing that … ”), but to his neighborhood — our neighborhood. For those of us who have lived for years in Norwood, his points of reference are familiar; for everyone else, he includes a map of the area. Here he identifies the locations of some of those places and “events that stand out” — 3525 Decatur Ave., his home; the Woodlawn Cemetery wall, where stickball boxes were drawn; PS 94, where Klein had a confrontation with a bullying teacher; DeWitt Clinton, his high school; Williamsbridge Oval, where he was “jumped by Ace McVay.”
Much of the charm in his story lies in Klein’s narrative voice; it carries us through the years into his young manhood. With it he expresses a complicated dual vision of the experiences he describes: we are plunged into the past with an immediacy that makes us feel every disappointment, every humiliation, and yet we also hear the voice of the mature adult Klein is now. And that adult narrator is, in turn, amused, appalled, judging, forgiving and, often, rueful.
He’s not afraid to show himself in a poor light. In college, he longs to be invited to join a fraternity on campus. He’s desperate to fit in even though it’s an open secret that most of the fraternities don’t accept blacks or Jews. Rejected at first, he’s coached by a friend and eventually succeeds, he says, “by being the biggest brown-nosing ass kisser I could be.”
But he could also be a “Boy Hero,” Klein’s biting take on an incident that happened the summer before he started college. He has a job as a lifeguard at a “small, reasonably dumpy resort.” It’s August and the word is out — a bratty kid has checked into the hotel with his parents. After tormenting everyone — bellhops, guests, other children — he turns his sights on Klein. Finally, in the middle of playing tricks on the young lifeguard, the kid disappears in eight feet of water. Klein jumps in and pulls him out. Dramatic rescue! The next day the father gives Klein a tip of five dollars. Klein’s comment: “Five dollars to save his life? I could have gotten fifteen from the bellhops to let him drown.”
Klein has the novelist’s talent for sketching a character in one or two sentences. A villain in another mini-narrative is described as he clicks open his switchblade: “The Panamanian smiled, revealing ugly gold teeth barely hanging on to rotten bone and diseased gums.” Not exactly a toothpaste ad. He can describe non-villainous characters as well. Here’s a doctor: he was “a stooped, elderly man with wire spectacles drooping down his nose and shabby suspenders holding up his pants.”
Klein, of course, can be extremely funny. But since he’s a well-known comedian, he may think we expect him to be funny at all times. Occasionally, he tries too hard; the result is clumsy and strained. His opening pages – Pre-Preface, Preface and Post-Preface – are examples. (My advice: Skip the multiple prefaces; read the Afterword instead.)
In the Afterword, Klein sums up what he’s tried to do in the book and gives us reasons for choosing specific episodes: “Each of them underlines the basic influences in my youth, among them; humor, love, sex, music, ethicalness, and fear.”
And Decatur Avenue.
Barbara Eliasson, a Norwood resident and former college teacher, grew up in the neighborhood. “The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue,” 384 pp. was published by Touchstone Books in June.
Armory Gets Daffodil Treatment
November 17, 2005
By Jordan Moss
Just because the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory is stalled indefinitely, doesn’t mean nothing can be done to give the grounds outside the armory a makeover.
Armed with more than 2,000 daffodil bulbs provided by New Yorkers for Parks, a couple of dozen volunteers cleared brush and debris from the front of the facility and planted the bulbs along the perimeter of the head house on Kingsbridge Road on Nov. 5. Many of the volunteers expected to return the next day, and passersby also expressed interest in coming back to help beautify the barren armory landscape they pass every day.
Phyllis Reed, who is active with the Bronx arts group NFAMAS, organized the event and said it will be the first of many.
Those who participated included students from Fordham University, members of the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center and volunteers from the Fordham-Bedford Lotbusters Community Garden.
A Taste of Mexico on 198th Street
November 17, 2005
By Heather Haddon
For 10 years, Rocio Bravo sold homemade tamales and tacos outside her North Fordham apartment, just as she had done in her native Mexico. She amassed a dedicated clientele, along with plenty of summonses for running a street business.
Bravo is still bringing her mother’s recipes to hungry patrons, but as of earlier this year, she’s operating legally in her own restaurant right down the block. “I am content,” said Bravo, 31, in Spanish. “I have my own place, finally.”
Bravo is from the state of Puebla, famous for its flavorful cuisine and the fact that the majority of Mexican immigrants in the city come from there. In 1989, Bravo moved to the Bronx, first living on 177th Street before settling on 196th Street. She hasn’t been back to Mexico since. “All my family is here now,” she said.
While her husband worked, Bravo churned out the antojitos (snack food) that she sold on the street and during Hispanic soccer matches in parks. She has watched North Fordham’s Mexican population climb over the years, with two Mexican friends of hers taking over Monte D’Oro’s — a beloved Italian restaurant that was a fixture on East 198th Street for decades — in 2003. When that partnership broke up, she and her older sister, Piedad Martinez, decided it was time to open their own place.
The restaurant was reborn as Las Maravillas de Mexico (Marvels of Mexico) in January. Patrons of Monte D’Oro’s might be sad to see that the old-fashioned plate glass windows are gone and that the wood paneling has been replaced. But Bravo wanted a brighter look. The cozy restaurant was completely renovated, with family members and friends pitching in. An acquaintance was recruited to help cook, and the pair has gotten plenty of assistance on the business end.
“We are still learning about that,” said Bravo, smiling.
But they’ve got the cooking down pat. The food is fresh and flavorful, arriving in generous portions. During a visit last month, enchiladas were served smothered in a pungent green sauce, and the marinated chicken breast was moist and tender.
The menu, decorated with famous Mexican sites, is extensive. In addition to the typical tacos and tostadas, there are dishes native to Puebla like cemitas, a sandwich on a hard, seeded roll, and moles, a rich sauce made from an average of 10 ingredients.
“They take about an hour to make because there are so many ingredients,” Bravo said. Simpler dishes like tacos de barbacoa (barbecued beef) and al pastor (marinated pork) tend to be the most popular.
Both sisters have three children, and they divide their time at the restaurant into shifts. The days are long, but Bravo couldn’t be happier. “It’s worth the effort,” she said, noting that husbands and children are recruited on the weekends.
Bravo says she’s still learning the small business ropes — like when to put the trash out and how to store goods properly — but she is already planning on expanding. “I have many plans,” she said. “Little by little, we’re moving forward.”
Ed. note: Las Maravillas de Mexico is located at 211 E. 198th St., between the Grand Concourse and Valentine Avenue. Phone: (718) 584-3455.
DEP Must Reduce Truck Pollution from Plant Construction
November 17, 2005
By None
Ashley Diaz is 11. Last year she missed 41 days of school. Since last December when site preparation for the Croton water treatment plant began across the street from where she lives, Ashley was admitted to the hospital to treat her asthma a dozen times.
Ashley is not alone. In the half mile surrounding the construction in Van Cortlandt Park, the United Hospital Fund says 240 asthmatics spend time in the hospital. Thousands more visit the emergency room. In areas of the Bronx and Harlem, one in four children has asthma, the highest rate in the nation. And that dark green area of high asthma on the Fund’s map extends right up through Ashley’s neighborhood where a mammoth water treatment plant is being blasted into bedrock.
Causes of asthma are complex to track, but the disease is attributed by scientists to breathing “bad air.” The American Lung Association gives New York City an “F” for bad air, and says exhaust from diesel trucks is one of two primary causes. The fine particulate matter (invisible soot) produced by burning diesel travels miles on the wind, sneaks past our body’s natural defenses, and embeds deep in our lungs.
In Washington, industry has managed to postpone federal regulation of diesel until September 2006 when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will require that trucks use ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD is 10 percent improvement) and 2007 when new trucks must come equipped with exhaust controls.
Now, for the good news. In New York City, people are increasingly aware of the problem. In the south Bronx, after years of work, Mothers on the Move, The Point, Congressman Jose Serrano, and NYU recently got the city to reroute Hunts Point trucks away from densely populated neighborhoods. City Council legislation now requires buses and other city owned vehicles to clean up their diesel exhaust, and Local Law 77 requires on-site equipment working city construction to use ULSD and best available emissions controls.
But, in the midst of this progress, the Bloomberg administration decided to build a water treatment plant underground in Norwood. Rock from a hole the size of eight football fields blasted eight stories down into bedrock must be hauled away through neighborhood streets in huge diesel trucks. The Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) own Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) estimates a diesel truck will leave the park every two minutes for the next two years. The same EIS estimates a 2 percent increase in deaths and incidents of asthma in the half mile surrounding the construction site.
We celebrate the DEP’s recent agreement to comply with Local Law 77 and retrofit on-site equipment with best available technology. After 10 months’ work without any controls on the exhaust, these new filters will cut 95 percent of the deadly soot produced by the bulldozers, backhoes and drills. But local residents ask: what about the trucks? Diesel pollution created by the trucks dwarfs the amount created by on-site equipment.
What can be done? Experts at work on the Big Dig in Boston say the DEP could cut harmful truck exhaust by 95 percent if they dedicated a fleet of 60 trucks to this job and retrofitted the fleet with best available filters.
The DEP admits the technology is available, and says cost is not an issue. According to the site manager, what stops the DEP from retrofitting a fleet of trucks is the way truckers organize their business. Following accepted practice, the site-preparation contractor subcontracted the work to many small companies. Trucks working this job one day are often not the same trucks working there another day.
We encourage DEP to write a “change order” and reorganize their trucking. At the September Facility Monitoring Committee (FMC) meeting, Assemblyman Dinowitz asked why “so many trucks have New Jersey license plates. Wasn’t jobs for Bronx residents the major reason for building the plant in the Bronx?” Hiring of Bronx residents at the Van Cortlandt Park site has now dropped to 20 percent.
At the same meeting, DEP announced they will retrofit the trucks and offered 30 percent effective Diesel Particulate Filters (DOC). A DOC does not control particulates (dangerous soot), and because two other technologies listed as options by DEP consultants are 50 percent effective and 76 percent effective with control of particulates, community members of the FMC are asking DEP to complete research on those options before settling for 30 percent effective DOC.
The Bloomberg administration convinced New Yorkers it made good sense to build this plant in a Bronx neighborhood because Bronx residents would get “thousands of good jobs,” and there would be “no significant health impacts.” At present, few good jobs are going to Bronx residents, and for at least the next two years local residents like Ashley Diaz will be paying with their health. We think the DEP should reorganize their trucking, dedicate a fleet of “cleanest possible” trucks, and keep their word.
This article was written by Gil Maduro, PhD, Fay Muir, and Lyn Pyle of the COVE Environmental Justice Committee; Monsignor Robert Trainor of St. Ann’s Church; Dr. A. H. (Hal) Strelnick, MD, Professor and Director, Department of Family & Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center.
Parks ‘Precedent’
November 17, 2005
By Editorial
At the groundbreaking for the new playground in Van Cortlandt Park’s southeast corner, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said something very interesting. The improvement of Bronx parkland in exchange for alienating a chunk of Van Cortlandt, sets a “precedent.”
“If you’re going to build something in a park, you have to make up for it,” he said.
“Precedent” is a loaded term as far as the filtration controversy is concerned. While Benepe sees the replacement of parkland or the addition of amenities in parks as a positive precedent, park advocates, neighborhood residents, and other foes of the project have long argued that the taking of parkland for a giant industrial facility is itself a terrible precedent.
But, for the sake of argument, let’s just consider Benepe’s point. Sure, it’s a good thing that after being saddled with a project nobody wanted we are at least getting our parks upgraded. But if this trading of new park amenities for those that have been lost is a new precedent or policy, as Benepe says, then what have we already lost?
After all, it was only because of a successful lawsuit by the friends of Van Cortlandt Park in 2001 that the city had to go back to the drawing board and come up with the political deal that rewarded the support of Bronx politicians with the $200 million in mitigation monies. That was 10 times what the city planned to pony up before that first successful lawsuit.
So if this is a new city policy, how many other projects resulted in the diminution of our parks without compensation? The Pelham Bay Landfill is surely an example of this. And going forward, what will Bronxites get in return for the stalled golf course project at Ferry Point Park? Or the Department of Sanitation composting facility in Soundview Park? Or the Department of Transportation vehicle facility along Broadway in Van Cortlandt Park?
We look forward in all these cases to the application of the city’s new policy stemming from the precedent of the filtration plant as defined by Commissioner Benepe.
Meals Evaluation Delayed
November 17, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Meals Evaluation Delayed
By HEATHER HADDON
The city is dragging its heels in initiating an independent evaluation of the Meals on Wheels pilot program launched in the Bronx a year ago. The city Department for the Aging (DFTA) has yet to begin the study, though it had promised to do so by now. The pilot completed its first year on Oct. 1 and is moving into its second cycle.
“We are still determining this,” said Christopher Miller, a DFTA spokesperson, about the promised evaluation. “We are finalizing the scope of work before we move ahead.”
Miller said the evaluation would begin later this fall, and that the results will be made public. He did not have information about what components of the pilot will be studied, nor who will conduct the research.
In the meantime, the pilot continues. Homebound seniors now receive frozen meals from two providers, instead of the previous 17, in batches twice a week. Those who elect to get hot food are brought reheated meals daily.
None of the providers cook the food themselves, as was the case previously, but simply dispense TV-style dinners made by ConAgra, a food processing giant, or kosher meals made by a Queens company. A taste test by the Norwood News last summer found them to be watery and barely edible.
The city continues to stand behind the pilot, called Senior Options. Forty-two percent of seniors elected to receive frozen meals twice a week this fall, which is similar to when the pilot started, according to Miller. “Senior Options offers greater meal choice and additional flexibility of meal times for our seniors,” he said in a statement.
Bronx officials have mostly backed the overhaul despite widespread opposition among seniors and their advocates when it was first unveiled. Council Member Joel Rivera, however, says DFTA is not being transparent with the program’s results. “Unfortunately, they have not been forthcoming with information,” Rivera said last week.
Rivera’s office contacted DFTA last summer to determine the number and status of client complaints. He says his request was never fulfilled. “We have no say in this process,” Rivera said.
If deemed successful by evaluators, the pilot can be renewed for up to six years and expand citywide, though the Norwood News reported last year that Brooklyn and Queens providers were adamantly opposed to expansion. DFTA was evasive about whether the pilot will actually go beyond the Bronx during this year’s budget negotiations.
“Why is it not being expanded?” asked Rivera, who thought the election last week might have something to do with it. “If it works … an election year would have been a great opportunity to show its success.”
In Public Interest
November 17, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Showdown for Speaker
Joel Rivera doesn’t care that he’s not the front-runner in the political jockeying to determine who will be the City Council’s next speaker. At this point, he just wants to be near the top of the list of members politicking for the influential seat.
“If I’m not your first pick, then I want to be your second choice,” Rivera said last week.
That formula, and the sway of the Bronx Democratic Party that his father chairs, worked for Rivera four years ago when he was elected as the Council’s majority leader. But there’s more at stake in deciding the speaker position, which is considered the city’s second most powerful post.
Seven officials have been quietly battling for weeks, well ahead of when the Council’s 51 members vote on the position in January. The private contest essentially amounts to who can butter up the most colleagues, and the county political clubs, through campaign contributions and other favors.
Rivera’s campaign doled out thousands of dollars to five races, none of which are in the Bronx and most involving Hispanic candidates. The recipients were James Gennaro and Hiram Monserrate, councilmen in Queens; Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna, councilwomen in Queens; and Steve Sanders, a Manhattan Assemblyman.
Rivera’s competitors, including Bill de Blasio, Melinda Katz, Christine Quinn and David Weprin, had all raised more campaign money, which they are permitted to lavish on others. Katz, of Queens, led the fund-raising pack at $666,670, according to city campaign finance records. Rivera’s total amounted to $102,032.
He might be an underdog, but Rivera is the Bronx’ only candidate, and he could be the only minority running if the Queens organization backs Katz or Weprin over Leroy Comrie, who is black.
Rivera says his team has been working hard at courting support, and feels somewhat optimistic. “We’ve been in communication with everyone who would be involved in the opinion process,” he said. “Some people have said they would be happy to see me as speaker, but they may be saying that to other candidates as well. It is politics.”
Rivera is running on his ability to unify the Council and fight for more state and city funding. But he acknowledged that issues might not be the contest’s clincher. “I can’t find anything negative to say about the other candidates,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that are similar [between us], some things may be different, but there’s not a lot of difference.”
The candidates will try to stand out during a debate next week sponsored by the Citizens Union and the New York League of Conservation Voters at Baruch College. Organizers hope that the session will make the selection process a bit more transparent. “We thought hosting this event would add a new dimension to the selection process,” said Jaime Strohmenger, a League spokesperson.
The process of picking a speaker may be purely political, but Rivera says his reason for running isn’t. “I will not be running for mayor,” he said, referring to the career trajectories of the last two speakers, Peter Vallone, Sr. and Gifford Miller. “People can find comfort in that.”
Rivera wasn’t so modest in 2002 when he told the Norwood News that he wasn’t sure what public office he’d like to pursue when term limits kick in, but a move to Gracie Mansion wasn’t out of the question: “I don’t know exactly what I would run for, but maybe it would be mayor of the City of New York,” he said at the time.
Tenant Voting Flap
A long-term campaign to create a federal affordable housing fund was thrown for a loop last month by Republicans, who successfully pushed through a restrictive amendment. Advocates are up in arms over the last minute addition, which would ban funding for groups who help tenants register to vote.
“To come this close to victory, just to have the legislation poisoned by this unfair and unnecessary restriction, is more than disappointing,” said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, in a statement.
The fund is intended to dedicate a percentage of the profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac federal mortgages to grants for affordable housing organizations. An estimated $500 million would go specifically for construction costs of new projects, with hurricane-damaged buildings given immediate priority.
Republican members of the House stalled on the bill until restrictions were added. The amendment, which groups have dubbed the “nonprofit gag provision,” would deny funding to any organization that has participated in non-partisan voter work in the last year, including keeping voter registration forms on hand. It would also restrict funding to groups that engage in any kind of lobbying, or do not have housing as their primary mission.
“The only conclusion to draw from this action is some members of the majority party are afraid of more low income people participating in elections,” Crowley said.
Congressman José Serrano lashed out at the move. “It is simply appalling and shameful, and possibly even unconstitutional, since it will restrict abilities of the organizations to engage in First Amendment civic activities,” Serrano said in a statement. Congressman Eliot Engel also voted against the bill.
The issue is particularly pertinent in the Bronx, where several nonprofit housing organizations encourage their tenants to become engaged in community affairs.
The legislation now moves on to the Senate, where it faces opposition. The fund is part of a bill meant to strengthen regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after recent accounting scandals.
Rivera’s Queens Office
Council Member Rivera may be a product of the Bronx Democratic organization, but his official campaign office is nowhere near his home turf. For the past two years, city campaign finance records have listed Kew Gardens, Queens as the address for the Committee to Elect Joel Rivera.
The location is coincidentally in the same building as Newsday, where the story was first reported, along with a suite occupied by Congressman Anthony Weiner. But Rivera’s operation is actually located in the law office of James Cullen, an attorney who defended Robert Chambers, better known as the “preppy murderer,” this year. The campaign paid $2,000 to Cullen for rent in July.
Rivera said the office is used because Cullen handles his candidacy’s paperwork. “He’s a good guy,” Rivera said.
Rivera denied that the space was his campaign office, but said the office is used because it is always staffed by someone. “We don’t have the finances to have someone in the office 24-7,” said Rivera about his Bronx operations. “We’re not like the mayor.”
***
In other news involving Joel Rivera, Hispanic Business Magazine nominated him as one of the 100 most influential Latinos last month, joining other officials, business leaders and entertainers in the annual list. Rivera and his influential family members were also recognized by Tempo, a Hispanic review published by the New York Post. The “Rivera dynasty,” which includes father Assemblyman Jose Rivera and sister Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, were listed among 25 powerful Latinos.
School Funds
Council Member Oliver Koppell allocated $213,000 last month to after-school music programs at a number of schools, including PS 8, PS 56 and PS/MS 95. Funds were also issued to the Montefiore Medical Center’s Adolescent AIDS Program and the West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center.
Tenants Take Gripes To Landlords’ Bank
November 17, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Bronx tenants fed up with their landlords’ lack of action in addressing poor building conditions went over their heads on Nov. 7 to the bank that loans the owners money.
Residents organized by Housing Here and Now, a citywide umbrella group of housing organizations, went to protest outside a Madison Avenue building where New York Community Bancorps CEO Joseph Ficalora was speaking about the bank’s expansion.
“We want the bank to agree to a series of lending practices that would ensure that any bad buildings currently in their portfolio are fixed and future loans are for property in good condition and to responsible borrowers,” said Chloe Tribich, lead organizer for Housing Here and Now.
Housing Here and Now has compiled a list of New York City’s top 10 worst landlords, available online at http://nycworstlandlords.com/nycwl/. NYCB loans money to three of these landlords, according to Housing Here and Now — Moshe Piller, Nicholas Haros and Emmanuel Ku. The city’s housing agency considers Piller and Haros, who own several Bronx buildings to be “major problem owners.” Over the summer, the Norwood News covered a visit by former mayoral candidates Fernando Ferrer and Anthony Weiner to one of Piller’s buildings, 2654 Valentine Ave., to highlight the serious housing code violations there.
Ilene Angarola, an NYCB spokesperson, took issue with Housing Here and Now’s charges that the bank lends to slumlords. “[That is] at odds and inconsistent with our performance as a multi-family lender and the quality of our portfolio on the whole,” she said. “Historically, the buildings we lend to are well maintained and because of this they are buildings people want to live in.”
Angarola was not initially familiar with the group’s specific building complaints, but in a second telephone interview, she said, “We will certainly take the information [about the buildings] that [the Norwood News] has shared with us, and based on the facts and circumstances we will decide how to proceed.”
Meanwhile, Housing Here and Now is seeking a meeting with Ficalora.
“This is an opportunity for them to come forward and say that they are going to turn around their lending practices and become a model for other multi-family lenders in terms of ensuring their program properties are properly maintained,” Tribich said.
Bittersweet Park Groundbreaking
November 17, 2005
By Jordan Moss
It’s the kind of event park advocates and politicians celebrate, but like an archaeological dig, the groundbreaking for the new playground at the southeast corner of Van Cortlandt Park revealed layers of complexity below the excitement and ceremonial ritual.
The advocates were present, and some even shoveled dirt and smiled for the camera, but several of those present actively worked for many years to make sure this day would not come under these circumstances.
The $2.3 million renovation of the southeast corner of Van Cortlandt Park, to be known as Sachkerah Woods Playground, would probably not have happened at this time were it not for over $200 million in park improvement monies that were promised to Bronx politicians in return for the siting of a controversial water filtration plant a couple of hundred feet away. Seventy Bronx parks are getting makeovers as a result of that money. Some plant opponents have called it “blood money,” but the mayor and city officials insist it’s a godsend for Bronx parkland. Park and environmental groups sued the city on a variety of grounds but all the suits have now been dismissed.
Tensions surfaced just before the groundbreaking when Assemblyman Jeffery Dinowitz, a chief opponent of the plant, quietly confronted Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe about not being invited to attend, much less to speak — a routine courtesy at such events. Benepe later relented, giving Dinowitz a seat on the platform. When he spoke to the small crowd of PS 280 students and advocates, Dinowitz didn’t mince words. While he said it was “wonderful to see improvements take place” and that he was “not going to look a gift horse in the mouth,” he also pronounced the filtration plant a “monument to environmental racism [and] governmental incompetence.”
Less than a decade ago, the southeast corner of the park was virtually abandoned. Only vagrants and drug dealers ventured into the litter-strewn meadow of overgrown weeds. But then a group of residents led by DeKalb Avenue resident Ora Holloway cleaned it up, and that effort paved the way for Saturn of the Bronx to provide materials and labor for the corner’s first playground. (The Saturn Playground was destroyed in a fire over the summer, Parks officials say, though no official records of the incident seem to exist at the Parks Department or Fire Department.)
Asked a week after the event about her feelings, Holloway, who was very much against the filtration plant, began where the grass is greener.
“I am so happy, now that I see that something is being done,” Holloway said. “When I look at the fence around [the playground site], I know how huge it’s going to be, and how much the community is going to enjoy [it].”
But she added, “I still feel like they should have still never put the filtration plant here, because of all the people that are asthmatic.”
The impact of the blasting at the filtration plant site also worries her. “The whole building shakes,” said Holloway, who is on the board of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. “This community shakes.”
Lyn Pyle, a plant opponent who is co-founder of the COVE youth center just a block away from the park, also expressed mixed feelings.
“It was very hard to be there and yet we care about our park, and I wanted to have the COVE represented in that groundbreaking,” she said. Pyle, who sits on the Croton Facility Monitoring Committee (FMC) — the official body monitoring the plant construction —said she felt that Department of Environmental Protection chief Emily Lloyd, who was at the groundbreaking, has been more interested in hearing community concerns than previous commissioners. Pyle and other FMC members want the DEP to take quicker action on reducing pollution from trucks entering and leaving the site (see Op-Ed on p. 9).
The southeast corner will be known as Sachkerah Woods Playground, after an Algonquin name that has been loosely translated as “extended land,” according to the Parks Department. It will include a comfort station, play equipment, safety surfacing, benches, game tables and spray bollards.
Benepe acknowledged that the playground’s design reflected community input generated during a planning process three years ago led by the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and a Harvard School of Architecture student provided by New Yorkers for Parks. Youth from the COVE and the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in Norwood participated in that process.
Elizabeth Cooke, a board member of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, was especially pleased that the plan so closely resembled the community’s vision. “The Parks Department plan for the park has adopted all of the essential design elements that the community requested, and this is a very gratifying experience,” she said.
Work on the new playground is scheduled for completion in one year, Benepe said.
Celebrating 20 Years Of Spanish Mass at St. Brendan’s
November 3, 2005
By David Greene
Twenty years ago, adapting to the needs of a changing community, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Brendan began having Mass in Spanish in the lower chapel of the church on East 206th Street in Norwood.
Two weeks ago, more than 500 congregrants turned out for a special Mass in St. Brendan’s upper church to celebrate the anniversary. Some parishioners wore traditional costumes from their native countries. Bishop Jose Iriondo and the church’s pastor, Rev. George R. Stewart, celebrated the Mass.
“For more than 10 years I’ve been attending,” said Norwood resident Fernando Medina, who came with his son, Manuel, 4. “I live in the area and it’s nice that they have a Mass right here in Spanish.”
Marcia Collado has been attending for the last two years. “The entire family gets to enjoy it,” she said. “I particularly love the music. I come here because they don’t have this in too many places.” The music is performed by a group called “Semilla de Cristo.”
The church hosts Masses in Spanish on Sundays at 11:30 a.m. and on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. The church also hosts a CCD religious instruction class in Spanish. For more information, call the program coordinator at (718) 654-6424.
Faith in Loew’s
November 3, 2005
By Editorial
The scene at Loew’s Paradise Theatre on Saturday night wasn’t just impressive because one of the borough’s most treasured landmarks reopened.
It was that it reopened in such style. Rather than gut the Paradise for a gigantic carpet emporium (only the exterior is landmarked, so that was not out of the question), developer Gerald Lieblich painstakingly restored the former movie palace to its former grandeur.
The Paradise even has a state-of-the-art kitchen and a lobby restaurant run by a celebrity chef.
The new Paradise will mainly be a concert hall, rather than a movie theater. Some will lament that, but it will still be a cultural venue, and Lieblich deserves tremendous credit for having faith in such an ambitious commercial venture. We hope that Bronxites will affirm Lieblich’s vote of confidence at the box office.
Where’s Freddy?
November 3, 2005
By Editorial
New York City voters could be forgiven for thinking that Mayor Bloomberg’s opponents in next week’s election are John Corzine and Doug Forrester, who are, of course, running for Senate in New Jersey. The three wealthy candidates are so ubiquitous on TV with their multi-million-dollar ad campaigns that the relatively meager ad buy of Bloomberg’s real opponent, Fernando Ferrer, is barely noticeable.
If Bloomberg is so confident in his own record, why does he feel the need to bombard us with ads?
But Ferrer bears responsibility for the eclipse of his message, too. He has simply not taken advantage of free media. On an average day, we get about 10 press releases e-mailed to us from the Bloomberg campaign, not to mention the mayor’s office. But we get zip from Ferrer. We asked to be put on the press list and for the next couple of days received one or two releases, but then nada. Ferrer has appeared in his home borough. He spoke at Bronx Community College, which is in our coverage area, but we didn’t hear about it until after it happened.
Other Bronx media outlets say they also haven’t heard from the candidate. The Ferrer camp wouldn’t even designate a spokesman to appear in a surrogate’s debate on Gary Axelbank’s BRONXNET talk show on Monday. So, four times a day, all this week, Ninfa Segarra will get a chance to make her case for the mayor as the show is repeated.
Ferrer’s handlers, who talk like they’ve already won, even when they’re behind almost 30 points in the polls, seem to be operating according to a mysterious calculus.
In a New York Observer article, Ferrer consultant and former Bronx Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez said: “Freddy’s candidacy for mayor will change the world. It will never be the same. The consequences of this campaign will live long beyond 2005.”
The Bloomberg spending spree is unseemly and we worry that the city’s progressive campaign finance system will be made obsolete by wealthy candidates who opt out of it altogether. It seems inevitable that fewer candidates will choose to tie a hand behind their back while rich political opponents get to whack them with everything in their bank accounts.
Still, we’re disappointed that Ferrer, a scrappy Bronxite who saw this borough through some of its toughest times over a solid 14-year tenure, laid his stickball bat down long before the game was over.
Board Discusses Strategic Planning
November 3, 2005
By Heather Haddon
Community Board 7 (CB7) took the first step in the long, arduous journey of creating a local strategic plan. The Board’s Long Term Planning and Land Use committees met with officials from the Department of City Planning last week to discuss the various options in guiding future area development.
Board members became interested last summer in exploring how to create a 197a plan. The document provides guidelines for future actions of city agencies in a designated area, and can touch on topics like housing density and style, waterfront development, and open space preservation. Boards are authorized to sponsor the plan, but they must go through a lengthy community-wide discussion process before they enter the multi-step approval phase.
Since 1992, nine 197a plans have been ratified, including plans in Riverdale and Morrisania. Riverdale’s proposal took roughly eight years to complete.
“We met every two weeks to work out the policy conflicts,” said Barbara Mackintosh, who oversees planning coordination for the city. “A 197a takes a long time.”
They also require money. Most boards hire a consultant to generate maps and acquire the data necessary to justify the plan’s goals.
But 197a plans usually lead to tangible results. Riverdale’s plan spurred the city to rezone some of its neighborhoods. The waterfront near Stuyvesant Town is now being revitalized, thanks to their board’s plan.
“You get a lot of exposure and clout,” Mackintosh said. “It’s a very big political chip.”
Other planning options are quicker and cheaper, and can also yield results. Those include working on a localized rezoning with City Planning, writing a report about a specific area, or developing an agency-wide “action strategy” for a particular problem.
Before picking among those planning paths, CB7 still needs to decide on what issues and areas it’s concerned about. Topics raised during the meeting included the Kingsbridge Armory, the Harlem River waterfront, parkland conservation, rapid housing development and school construction.
Members are interested in creating a survey to gather community input. “That would be a very good thing,” said Rita Kessler, the Board’s district manager. Paul Foster, chair of Long Term Planning, said he would raise the issue during CB7’s next Executive Committee meeting.
Board members seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the options and the work they require, but left on an optimistic note. “We’re beginning to move forward,” said Greg Faulkner, the board’s chair. “This is a big step.”
***
The Board selected new committee heads during its public meeting last month. The chairs and co-chairs are as follows: Sanitation, Rafeek Khan; Public Safety, Lowell Green and Ricardo Parker; Budget, David Laguer; Land Use, Sandra Erickson; Housing, Judith Freeman; Parks, Barbara Stronczer; Health, Elizabeth Errico and Ozzie Brown; Youth, Don Bluestone; and Long Term Planning, Paul Foster.
In Public Interest
November 3, 2005
By None
Race Wraps Up
As the mayor’s race enters its final stretch, the fight between incumbent Michael Bloomberg and former borough president Fernando Ferrer still seems rather lackluster. “It doesn’t appear to be much of a race at the moment,” said Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who is supporting Ferrer despite often being at odds with the borough’s Democratic machine.
The two candidates finally squared off in a debate last Sunday, with Ferrer more on the offensive. He attacked Bloomberg on issues like education, housing, the economy and the city’s failed Olympics bid. “I certainly would not have confused an economic development program with globetrotting for the Olympics,” said Ferrer, referring to Bloomberg’s many trips in promoting the bid.
But most signs indicate that Ferrer’s chances next week are dim. “I read the polls,” Dinowitz said. “The majority of Democrats are behind Bloomberg. Based on people I’ve spoken with … he’s going to win in my area.”
Even Ferrer’s efforts to pull out big political guns have done little. Former president Bill Clinton appeared with Ferrer in Morrisania last month, but the photo-op did not go as hoped. The event in was marred by an inadequate sound system — further hindered by the placement of reporters behind rows of kids — and only one mention of Ferrer’s name by Clinton. Ferrer has also appeared with U.S. Senator John Edwards, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, and black activist Jesse Jackson.
But the long list of city officials and organizations who have endorsed Bloomberg has diluted the pull of national Democrats. Many Democratic Council members, unions and churches, along with almost every large city paper, are all supporting the incumbent.
Ferrer spent his last weeks campaigning on the issue of the divide between the poor and rich in New York, a theme used in his 2001 mayoral bid. “We have grown farther and farther away from each other in this city of possibility,” said Ferrer in a Bronx speech.
But that appeal doesn’t seem to be resonating this time. “Mike Bloomberg has moved this city forward and now is not the time to change direction,” said Rev. Albert Sutton, head of a large Baptist church in Highbridge, during an endorsement event.
Voting Information
The general election for mayor and other city positions takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You must already be registered. For more information, including poll locations, contact the city Board of Elections at (212) VOTE-NYC or visit them on-line at http://vote.nyc.ny.us.
In the mayor’s race, Republican incumbent Michael Bloomberg faces Democrat Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president. Six minor party candidates are also running (one of whom is on the “Rent is Too Damn High” ticket). The Democratic incumbents for public advocate and city comptroller are not facing Republican challengers.
Opponents of the borough president and local Council members all pose weak challenges. Council Member Oliver Koppell is running against Republican Steve Bradian, and Joel Rivera faces Republican Steven Stern. Maria Baez has no Republican challenger. Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión is going up against Kevin Brawley, who is on the Republican and Conservative tickets. Brawley is the former chair of the Bronx Conservative Party.
Voters will also get to decide on several ballot measures, including whether to issue a $2 billion state bond for transportation projects. The funds are slated to be used for major projects and maintenance, including $19 million for the Bronx River Greenway and $6.6 million for traffic management on the Bronx River Parkway, according to state Department of Transportation figures.
Immigration Funds
Council Member Oliver Koppell allocated $75,000 last month to organizations serving new immigrants. Locally, funds will go to the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center for ESL classes, and the Organization of Bangladeshi Americans.
Stop the War
Congressman José Serrano reiterated his call last week to bring American troops back from Iraq after the 2,000th U.S. soldier was killed.“We have lost far too many precious lives in a war that was sold on twisted logic and lies,” said Serrano in a statement. “Nothing short of a full withdrawal is acceptable.”
Phony Funding
Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión teamed up with a new ally, Queens Council Member John Liu, in decrying the MTA’s decision to give holiday discounts to passengers last month. The officials said that the $900 million budget surplus, which was suddenly discovered by the MTA, would be better spent on service upgrades.
“Less than 12 months ago the MTA was crying poor and demanding a fare hike,” said Carrión in a statement. “[This is] nothing more than a temporary gimmick.”
The MTA proposal, which was approved last week, includes half-price weekend trips from Nov. 23 to Jan. 1 and 30-day MetroCards that last for 40 days.
Carrion and Liu, the Council’s Transportation Committee chair, argued that the MTA would better use the funds to improve station conditions and overall service. “[The MTA] surrendered to short-term gratification at the expense of long-term reliability,” Liu said.
The MTA has said the discounts represent a small fraction of the total surplus.
Unexpected Allies
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and State Senator Jeff Klein put away their past differences and held a joint town hall meeting last month. “We’re doing our best in trying to work together,” Dinowitz said. “We both want to do what’s best for our constituents.”
The two come from separate sides of the Bronx Democratic political divide. Dinowitz is from the Riverdale-based Benjamin Franklin Reform Club and Klein is a member of the regular Bronx Democratic organization. Dinowitz fanned the flames when he endorsed Klein’s challenger, Steve Kaufman, in last year’s Senate race.
The rapprochement comes on the heels of new alliance between Council Member Oliver Koppell, a Club member, and Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the Party chair. But Dinowitz said his turnaround has nothing to do with Koppell’s unexpected partnership. “That’s his thing,” Dinowitz said.
Making Law
o The city will study the feasibility of creating job centers for day laborers after legislation was signed by the mayor last month. The workers, typically undocumented immigrants, frequently stand outside to solicit work. The city hopes to create centers to pair employers with workers.
o A bill to create a mandatory recycling program for rechargeable batteries is moving forward in the Council, passing the Sanitation Committee last week. Retailers would take back the batteries at no charge and send them to manufacturers for recycling.
o Council Member Oliver Koppell is the bill’s lead sponsor. The full Council was scheduled to vote on the legislation early this month, and it is expected to pass.
o Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has been busily recruiting more support for a package of legislation he sponsored to crack down on human trafficking. Dinowitz held a public hearing on the issue last week, and organized a discussion among trafficking experts and Assembly leaders in September.
o An amendment sponsored by Congressman Eliot Engel to help emergency-related communication passed the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee last week. The provision seeks to create a $500 million grant to help emergency responders utilize a part of the digital television spectrum
Alliance Formed to Push Armory Project
November 3, 2005
By Jordan Moss
Progress Still Hinges on Home for Guard
Charlie Shayne, the executive director of the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, remembers touring the Kingsbridge Armory in 1986 or 1987 with the young district manager of Community Board 5 – a young fellow named Adolfo Carrión (now the borough president).
There was some talk back then of the National Guard vacating the facility, and people wanted to take a look and start imagining what could be.
Now, almost two decades later and 12 years after the Guard left the main armory buildings, all that’s really changed in terms of planning the landmark’s reincarnation is that there’s a new $30 million roof on the massive drill hall. What will go under it is anyone’s guess.
Shayne, who talks passionately about education and understands as well as anyone how chronic overcrowding has resulted in many more kids needing remedial help at his Center, is disappointed by the stark lack of progress. But he’s not embittered, as evidenced by his attendance, along with several of the Center’s staff and volunteers, at a lively community planning session at Lehman College on Oct. 22.
Sponsored by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the event brought together a number of community institutions, organizations and community residents in the hopes of gaining more allies in the organization’s effort to get the city to start focusing on the armory’s redevelopment. Those in attendance included people from a number of churches, the Fordham Hill Cooperatives, the retail workers union (RWDSU), Walton High School, Bronx Community College, various merchant associations and several other groups. About 90 people attended. The meeting also marked the formation of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), a coalition of local organizations.
After a panel discussion, participants broke up into several groups to brainstorm. They discussed, for example, what kind of open space, schools, stores and cultural programs should be included in the final plan, and marked up giant blueprints of the facility with magic markers.
The Coalition has partnered with the Richman Group, a large real estate developer, to draft a plan that includes a movie theater, recreation activities, community space and schools. A consensus seems to have developed among city officials and politicians that the educational component is imperative, but it is also the part of the plan that is preventing the city from issuing a request for proposals (RFP). Two National Guard units still remain in two rear brick buildings occupying the site where schools for 2,000 kids would go. Everyone who wants to see the armory redeveloped agrees the Guard needs to move, but no one has found them a place to go, nor is there much evidence that anyone is looking very hard. This, despite a summer tour of the armory by the governor and borough politicians (see Armory Clock on cover).
Ronn Jordan, a parent and education activist who is president of the Coalition’s board, said that the formation of KARA is designed to get the city focused on what needs to be done. “[We’re showing] that it’s not just the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition that believes in this proposal, that it’s the community itself,” he said.
The Economic Development Corporation, the city agency responsible for overseeing the facility’s redevelopment, won’t say anything publicly about its intentions until the Guard issue is resolved. When they finally do issue an RFP, the Coalition may find it faces some competitors.
The Related Companies, a large and well-known developer, which previously expressed interest in the project when the city first made noise about issuing an RFP a couple of years ago, said it hadn’t heard anything from the city but would consider submitting a proposal if an RFP was issued.
“We were interested once before in the project,” said Related executive Dean Vanderwarker. “We would definitely be interested again in any new … RFPs the city sponsored. But, as of yet, we’ve heard zero on the intentions of the city to reissue that and would obviously look forward to that if there were one.”
But while Jordan and other Coalition members hope that Richman’s proposal is selected, they say they would be satisfied if the main objectives of their plan – particularly the creation of new schools – showed up in another company’s proposal.
“At the end of the day, if there’s another developer that comes along and does that stuff,” that would be fine, Jordan said, emphasizing that KARA would still push for a community benefits agreement, so that local residents would have a say in how the project moves forward.
But before any developer makes a bid, the city and the state must find a new home for the Guard.
“I would like to see someone start working on moving the National Guard,” Shayne said. “I can’t believe that we cannot find a space for a small number of people like that vis a vis 2,000 school seats …”
Investor’s Tactics Worry Tenants
November 3, 2005
By Heather Haddon
A landlord who recently acquired dozens of Bronx buildings has a track record of aggressively raising rents, suing tenants to recoup extra fees, and evicting people, according to residents.
Joel Wiener, a large city investor, purchased over 30 buildings in the Bronx over the past year, including eight in the local area, as the Norwood News documented issue. Back in 2002, Wiener also purchased seven former Mitchell Lama buildings in Riverdale, Pelham and Williamsbridge, according to news and industry reports. The Pinnacle organization, which Wiener heads, manages all of the properties.
Tenants of the former Mitchell Lama buildings were initially encouraged when Pinnacle took them over and made a number of major capital improvements (MCIs). But the situation deteriorated within a year after the deal. Many tenants now accuse Wiener of saddling them with extra fees and exorbitant renovation costs.
“It’s really ridiculous,” said Joseph Brown, 50, an Olinville Avenue tenant. “He’s very aggressive in trying to get more money.”
All residents were slapped with a $40 air conditioner fee, as documented in rent receipts obtained from several tenants. Then there were additional parking charges. Recently, $25 carbon monoxide detectors were installed, and now Pinnacle wants to replace the apartment doors in some of the Olinville Avenue properties.
“I don’t want a new door,” said Brown, standing next to his solid entryway. “They’re just trying to get more MCIs.”
Landlords can pass off a fraction of expenses for MCIs, such as a new roof or boiler, onto tenants in the form of increased rent. It seems that Wiener is abiding by the legal percentage, but tenants charge that the cost of the original items are significantly inflated. “He’s not stupid, just greedy,” said Hazel Miura, a housing specialist for the Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation, an east Bronx nonprofit that is helping the Olinville tenants.
Pinnacle did not return calls for comment.
Miura researched how much new closet doors would cost after they were installed in one apartment. The doors and hardware at Home Depot were under $200. Pinnacle put the total bill at $1,000, according to Miura.
Pinnacle does an extensive makeover on vacated apartments, including new kitchens, bathrooms and floors. Those costs are also figured into the rent, and Miura said the expense total has gone as high as $25,000. “What he says he spends on renovations is so outrageous,” she said.
Pinnacle took several tenants to court in 2002 to recoup the extra fees, as stated in Bronx Civil Court records. Rappaport, Hertz, Cherson and Rosenthal, a Queens firm specializing in housing disputes, represented Wiener. An attorney who tried the cases refused to comment.
Pinnacle is part of a new crop of investors who seek to quickly profit from their properties by making repairs, raising rents and selling them, as documented in a 1999 Crains article. Jonathan Bowles, who heads the Center for an Urban Future, a progressive think tank, has observed this trend in Brooklyn neighborhoods. “Beginning in the late ‘90s, there are countless stories of investors buying buildings and flipping them more than one time,” Bowles said.
Wiener purchased the properties in conjunction with the Praedium Group, an investment fund that capitalizes on undervalued real estate. Since 1994, the company has funded the acquisition of hundreds of commercial and residential properties, including 210 in New York state, according to its Web site.
A Praedium spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on specific assets.
Their Web site, however, is telling. The company purchases “properties that are ‘broken’ and can in turn be fixed and then sold upon stabilization,” it states. Broken properties are identified as those that fail to “aggressively manage the current tenant/leasing base.” Solutions include “strategic capital improvements and proactive leasing.”
The local buildings are on DeKalb Avenue, East Gun Hill Road, East 196th Street, Sedgwick Avenue, West 190th Street and Botanical Square, according to city Department of Finance records. They were purchased as part of a 51-building, $200.5 million deal that included properties in Harlem and Washington Heights, according to the New York Post and financial industry reports.
Pinnacle has made many improvements to the local properties, including new doors, entryways and lighting. The lobby was renovated at 2304 Sedgwick Ave. during the summer, according to a tenant, and last week was clean and well-lit. Security cameras and a new door were installed over at 6 W. 190th St.
Stephanie Diallo, a resident of 60 E. 196th St., said Pinnacle did some work on the building’s exterior, but nothing on the inside. She’s more concerned about rumors concerning the rents. “I could not stay if they raised the rents,” she said. “I don’t know where else I would go.”
Some residents are already facing that reality. Alice Marx, a tenant of a University Heights building on Cedar Place, says she was recently told by Pinnacle that her lease will not be renewed. “I pay my rent every single month,” said Marx, 49. “I’ve never been a problem.”
The Bowery Residents’ Committee, a nonprofit serving the homeless, disabled and ill, has housed clients in private Bronx apartments since 1994. After Pinnacle purchased four properties accommodating their clients, Marx and several other residents were told that their leases would not be renewed next year. One man with a current lease was already forced out, according to Alice Jordan, a Bowery program director.
“All of the client’s stuff was just put out on the street,” she said.
Bowery is taking the issue to court, and Jordan is currently trying to locate new apartments for her clients. “It’s just short of a nightmare,” she said.
Miura is also looking to take legal action, and is creating a newsletter to distribute to prospective tenants about Wiener’s practices. “He thinks he’s above the law,” she said.
Jordan Besek contributed to this story.
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