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An Anniversary Measured in Buildings and Blocks

By Jordan Moss

When 2674 Valentine Ave. went abandoned in 1978 and only one tenant was left, residents of its neighbor to the south, 2670 Valentine, rallied to help. Having learned from their own school of hard knocks, they paid the fuel bills so the pipes wouldn’t freeze and eventually people moved back in.

In a microcosm, that’s what happened to the neighborhood of North Fordham. Time and time again, neighbors added to their already busy lives the unexpected responsibility of protecting their own living situations and then lending their expertise to others.

It is also the story of Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.

In the late 1970s, the embers of destruction in the south Bronx were still glowing. So, as buildings fell into difficulty locally, the infamous infernos were the obvious reference point. The ending of the horror movie had already played out in a theater nearby and no one was interested in seeing a repeat performance.

“The sense that people had was that the abandonment that we heard about below Fordham Road was about to hit above Fordham Road,” said Jim Buckley, then a young community organizer for the Fordham Bedford Community Coalition and now the executive director of University Neighborhood Housing Program. “We were all concerned about what was coming.”

For some, the danger was all too real. Landlords abandoned buildings like 2656 Decatur Ave., where an overwhelmed city just recovering from the fiscal crisis took over that property and many others, but weren’t capable of managing them.

Disinvestment and redlining by banks abandoning inner-city neighborhoods starved the community of the kind of loans necessary to maintain healthy buildings. Though the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) and other grassroots groups succeeded in getting the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) through Congress, there was a lag time before that legislation would prove useful.

“There was a gap in people understanding what CRA was,” Buckley said. “Groups like ours had to figure out how to get banks to do something different.

Meanwhile, tenants like Fran Sullivan, a resident of 2656 Decatur, stepped up to care for their buildings, collecting rents and delivering services. At 2665 Decatur, Eartha L. Ferguson did the same, working with an administrator appointed by the city and eventually becoming the manager of the building herself.

Ferguson and Sullivan, who had careers unrelated to housing management, were among the many who participated in frequent meetings of the Fordham Bedford Community Coalition as they met and strategized about how to help buildings in similar circumstances. Both went on to long careers as managers with the Housing Corporation. (Sullivan died last May.)

This indigenous leadership was critical to Fordham Bedford’s early successes. “The neighborhood was fortunate to get the kind of internal leadership that it developed,” said John Reilly, Fordham Bedford’s executive director. “[There was] a lot of support from community leaders, who [helped] when their own buildings were not directly affected but knew what the repercussions would be.”

Building by building

From these community residents, who by necessity had become housing experts together with NWBCCC staff organizers, came the idea to form the housing corporation. If they could pool their experiences and harness resources from the city’s housing programs and private foundations, maybe they could save many more buildings.

The first money came from the Campaign for Human Development, a Catholic-run charity. When Monsignor Ahearn visited the group’s fledgling leaders, he asked what they would do if they didn’t get the grant. “We’ll do it anyway,” vowed Sullivan or another iron-willed local leader, as Buckley remembers it.

It was a risky way to entice a funder, but it took that kind of moxie to get the job done at a time when landlords looking to sell were intentionally driving out tenants by depriving them of basic services. Into that vacuum came the speculators and even hucksters trying to collect rents they had no right to.

At the beginning, just after it incorporated as a nonprofit in 1980, Fordham Bedford, which didn’t even have a staff yet, purchased 260 E. 194th St. for $100 from a landlord who wanted to wash his hands of it. The 15-unit building had 10 empties. With only a board and volunteers to help, Fordham Bedford got the building back up and running. Had it been allowed to go abandoned, it could have spurred even greater neglect, said Monsignor John Jenik, pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church, who was a parish priest at the time.

“If that went [vacant] right on the corner there, it would probably take the whole commercial strip with it,” said Jenik, who is chair of Fordham Bedford’s board. “Who wants to go shopping [next to an abandoned building]?”

Over the years, building by building, Fordham Bedford acquired its portfolio by piecing together loan money, grant funding and financing from city programs. It now owns 70 buildings and manages eight co-ops. But the Corporation’s trademark blue-and-white signs on each of its buildings do not mark all of its accomplishments. There are dozens of other instances, especially in the early days, where they provided technical assistance to tenants keeping their buildings running until a landlord reappeared or a different owner came on the scene.

In a process known as a 7A, the city has appointed Fordham Bedford to take over the management of about 20 problem buildings. They eventually acquired many of those properties.

And beginning in the 1990s, Fordham Bedford added a number of community projects and programs to knit together its successes transforming buildings. In addition to creating Concourse House, a women’s shelter, it started Fordham Bedford Children’s Services, which provides an array of after-school programs. It also spearheaded a number of community improvement projects including the revitalization of Poe Park. Staff are currently working to create an attractive pathway out of two crumbling streets leading to the new Bronx Main Library on Kingsbridge Road.

For the future, Reilly says Fordham Bedford hopes to build new affordable housing units and renovate some vacant private homes.

The Corporation cannot be everywhere, of course. Stressing the company’s roots in tenant organizing, Reilly says, “Tenants still need to organize if they’re not getting repairs.”

And if tenants need some guidance in how to do that, many of the people central to this inspiring story are still around.

Like Eartha Ferguson. Her building incorporated in 1992 as a co-op. She’s still managing her building and about 10 other properties for Fordham Bedford. “I was there then and I’m there now,” she said.

After a quarter century, so is Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation.

School Sites Identified

By Heather Haddon

The city has identified some possible sites for new school construction in the perennially overcrowded region, but a lack of state funds is preventing work from progressing.

The city Department of Education (DOE) hopes to erect buildings in several schoolyards now home to temporary classrooms. Possible locations include PS 56 and 94 in Norwood, PS 46 in North Fordham, and PS/MS 95 in Kingsbridge Heights.

The buildings would provide more classrooms for the existing institutions, or act as autonomous schools in places that already have large student populations. “We don’t want to take a toll on the hundreds of kids already in the facility,” said Region 1 superintendent Irma Zardoya during a local Community Education Council meeting earlier this month.

DOE administrators say they have been combing the area for places to house seven elementary and middle schools allotted under the DOE capital plan, along with creating more high school seats on a borough-wide level. Efforts have yielded vacant spaces, and while building in play yards would eliminate recreation space, the city sees it as one of the only viable options.

“The needs of this district are so great,” said Jeffrey Shear, a high-level DOE administrator, during the meeting.

Under the proposal, children currently housed in the transportable units would be moved to another school during construction. The city is looking to lease space at Jerome Avenue and East 213th Street, which is currently a parking lot, to build a school that could absorb the overflow. DOE is also exploring a location on Creston Avenue.

None of these plans can move forward without money from the state. The capital plan is contingent on money from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which would grant over $9 billion for construction and upgrades of city schools. Albany and the city are still wrangling over who will pay for the spending increase.

The city started moving forward on the five-year capital plan earlier this year — resulting in some facility upgrades and a new high school on Bathgate Avenue — but now cannot afford additional projects in the area. “We had to pull back on the funding,” Shear said.

The School Construction Authority is moving ahead in converting the old Fordham Library into a site for the Leadership Institute, a high school now housed temporarily at the Police Athletic League on Webster Avenue. Zardoya said that, despite a tight deadline, the school should be ready to open in the fall.

Veteran School Chief to Retire

By Heather Haddon

Region 1 Superintendent Irma Zardoya announced that she will retire at the end of next month after more than a decade of overseeing local schools. She will be replaced by Yvonne Torres, a district supervisor and former local principal, on Feb. 1.

The announcement, made on Dec. 14, came as a surprise to many. “It was shocking,” said Maria Quail, principal of PS 8 in Bedford Park. “I’m devastated.”

Zardoya has worked for the city Department of Education (DOE) for the last 33 years, along with Ray Rosemberg, the deputy superintendent and Zardoya’s right-hand-man. Rosemberg also announced his retirement earlier this month.

In 2003, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein appointed Zardoya to one of the 10 regional posts established under the DOE’s reorganization, which consolidated the community school districts. She gave little prior indication that she was considering retirement, and discussed future plans for the Region in an interview with the Norwood News last August. Local principals were officially informed about her decision on the day of the announcement.

Zardoya says she began contemplating retirement last year. “It’s something I have been planning for a while now,” said Zardoya, after a local Community Education Council meeting earlier this month. “It wasn’t sudden.”

Zardoya received citywide praise earlier this year after the Region’s fourth grade test scores jumped by the highest percentage in the city. She has been credited with devising many techniques — like testing interventions, subject coaches, and reading strategies — that are now being used on a citywide basis. Parents and school administrators have largely viewed Zardoya as responsive and approachable.

“It brings sadness to my heart to see you leave,” said Denis King, an MS 143 parent, during the meeting.

Zardoya’s middle years as superintendent were rocky. She contended with a sharply divided Community School Board 10, where a bitter struggle shifted power to the Riverdale-based majority from those members living in the rest of the district.

At one point in 1999, the Riverdale-controlled board seemed poised to oust Zardoya. They weres planning to interview other candidates until parents protested, and then-Assemblyman and Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez weighed in with board chair Oliver Koppell. Zardoya was offered a one-year contract followed by a three-year renewal the following year.

The Riverdale members chafed at Zardoya’s non-traditional pedagogical philosophy. For example, she favored heterogeneous classrooms where kids of varying skills abilities were in the same classroom. She also had less patience for gifted and talented programs favored by the Riverdalians.

Those tensions erupted around the creation of a zoned high school inside MS 141 in Riverdale, a racially charged debate that consumed district business and school board meetings for months. Zardoya and the non-Riverdale members of the board vigorously opposed the plan because it excluded residents outside of Riverdale. It also replaced precious middle school seats with spots for high school students, who at that point were under the purview of the central Board, not the local districts. Zardoya eventually compromised by agreeing to the zoned high school with the caveat that another zoned high school, MS/HS 368, had to be created for students in Kingsbridge.

“To give her credit, she insisted if we did 141, we had to do 368,” Koppell said at a recent press briefing in his district office. “She was right about that and I give her credit.” Despite their differences, Koppell developed a better working relationship with Zardoya later on and said, “I regret her leaving.”

It was smoother sailing for Zardoya as the state legislature gradually drained school boards’ power to hire and fire superintendents and transferred it to the schools chancellor. Zardoya had the confidence of Chancellors Rudy Crew and Harold Levy, and once the Board of Education became a city agency answerable only to the mayor, Klein promoted her to oversee all the schools of Region 1, which includes District 10 and District 9.

Zardoya nominated Torres as her successor, and Klein approved the promotion. “I have the utmost confidence that Yvonne will lead our children to continued success,”he said in a statement.

Torres has served as a local instructional supervisor for the last three years, overseeing schools in District 9. She was a deputy superintendent in Washington Heights prior to the DOE overhaul, but spent 29 years of her career in District 10. Torres also served as principal at PS 291 in University Heights.

Alan Abrams, a teacher at PS 291 who has worked with Torres since 1972, thinks very highly of her work with students, parents and staff. “I have nothing but good things to say about her,” he said. “She’s a real leader, and she’s not afraid to take chances.”

Quail also thinks favorably of Torres. “She’s been in the Region for a long time, and has the same vision as Irma,” she said.

Both leaders said the transition will be a smooth one. “I hope to continue the work of Irma and Ray so schools don’t feel they are in any turmoil,” said Torres at the meeting. “It’s going to be a great journey.”

Still, some school leaders say Zardoya will be a hard act to follow. “Those are legendary shoes to fill,” said Marvin Shelton, the Education Council’s president.

A longtime Norwood resident, Zardoya recently moved to Westchester. She plans on taking a rest for several weeks after her retirement, but is leaving the door open for future work in education.

“I don’t want to close that chapter just yet,” she said with a smile.

 

Strike Alters View of City

By Heather Haddon

I knew what was ahead of me when there were no screeching sounds on Tuesday morning. The No. 7 subway track looms outside my bedroom, and the trains emit a hair-raising noise when they go around my bend in Long Island City, Queens. It was eerily quiet at 8 a.m., as it would be for the next three days of the transit strike.

I spent roughly four hours a day navigating back and forth on my cold, clumsy commute from Queens to the Bronx. First, I biked to the Queensborough Bridge, crossed the 1.4 mile span, then biked 20 blocks to Grand Central Station. There I waited for a Metro North train, rode it for a half hour to the Williams Bridge station, and finally walked up Gun Hill Road (emphasis on hill) to work.

It was a major disruption of my routine, and part of me loved it.

It was exciting to see so many pedestrians — including an older lady who had no idea where she was — in my typically desolate neighborhood. On the bridge, the crowd was at least three people deep. There were adults on toy scooters, bikers, roller-bladers and runners, and walkers in groups or solitary sorts with their iPods. There were women in fur coats, teens chatting in Asian dialects, and the occasional Santa hat. We marched along with determination despite runny noses and sore calves.

The streets of midtown were overrun with bikers (one survey estimated a 500 percent increase in two-wheel transportation). I was surrounded by packs of delivery men, professionals, and people pedalling their rusty 10-speeds with bent knees and bowed legs. There were smiles, nods and words of encouragement.

I’ve always feared riding during rush hour. I’ve been hit by a car twice, and vehicles careening too close make my heart race. But with so many others riding next to me, I felt relatively safe.

After locking my bike by a high-rise, I dashed off to Metro North at Grand Central. A stoic ticket clerk directed me to a waiting train. Half an hour later I was at my stop, and on that first day, I beat my boss to the office. I felt triumphant.

That elatedness faded with cold night winds, delayed trains, and exhaustion. My days’ sole activities became commuting, working, commuting back, and complaining. Coffee cups piled up on the bridge and people got cranky. Even the anchors on NY1 looked tired.

The strike began with dramatic saber rattling and ended with quiet acquiescence. So too did my commute — the heady vow that I would bike to work thenceforth melted once reunited with the soothing sway of the train. Participating in the communal resolve and pushing my limitations were priceless experiences. So, too, was returning to one of the country’s best public transportation systems.

Heather Haddon is deputy editor of the

Norwood News.

Bush’s Slippery Slope

By Editorial

Much of the time, democracy can run on autopilot without much more than cursory direction from the citizenry. The checks and balances of the three branches of government and annual trips to the polls are sufficient to prevent tyranny.

But then there are times when citizens must not just rely on the judgment of its elected representatives and wait until the next election comes around.

This may be one of those times.

President Bush’s brazen and unapologetic use of the super-secret National Security Agency, designed to spy on foreigners only, to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant is alarming for several reasons.

The president has bypassed the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court, which was set up in the 1970s to grant law enforcement authorities expeditious hearings on warrant requests (permission to listen in on an American citizen’s phone conversations). The court has only denied four warrant applications among the thousands that have been requested between 1979 and 2004. And by all accounts, the court works very quickly in just the manner it was designed.

So, why does the president think it’s necessary to make an end-run around the FISA Court? One can only suspect that he knew that even this court, which has obviously been inclined to give the executive branch the benefit of the doubt on these matters, would have considered the administration’s requests in these instances unreasonable.

And that is, of course, why we have a judiciary. If presidents think they can bypass it when they think rulings won’t go in their favor, then the judicial branch is seriously weakened, as is our form of government.

The Bush administration is spying on American citizens without permission from the judiciary. This is clearly against the law, but Bush has incredibly claimed that there are powers inherent in the presidency that permit him to act above the law.

We do not live in a dictatorship, but this is little solace. Societies rarely, if ever, become dictatorships overnight. It is the slow, sometimes imperceptible erosion of basic rights (like the right to have a conversation without the government listening in) that chokes off democracy’s civic oxygen and creates an atmosphere in which despots can thrive.

In other words, just because we are a democracy does not mean we will always be one.

President Bush’s brash defense of his actions and his vows to keep violating the law is also troublesome. It is a challenge to Congress and the citizens it represents to call his bluff. As Jonathan Schell wrote recently in The Nation, if his actions are not challenged, then that non-action essentially ratifies the president’s claims that there are inherent powers in the presidency not rooted in law.

The so-called War on Terror has caused this government to enact some controversial laws that reasonable people can disagree about. But they are least law, vetted by 535 members of Congress.

The war does not permit anyone to act above U.S. law, least of all the president, who should model the democracy he represents.

Read as much as you can about this issue. Talk to your neighbors, friends and co-workers. Write your members of Congress and senators. It’s time we all started steering the ship of state. 

Full Court Press

By Heather Haddon

A controversial management company has taken hundreds of tenants to housing court at an extraordinary pace since purchasing dozens of Bronx buildings last year, according to court records.

The Pinnacle Group has initiated over 1,509 cases against Bronx residents in 31 buildings since early last year, with many of the lawsuits filed just weeks after the company purchased the properties.

Bronx housing court records are kept on an outdated computer that is difficult to navigate, but two searches by the Norwood News found that the vast majority of cases are unique actions against individual tenants. The properties included 1,929 units, meaning that Pinnacle has sued as many as three-quarters of these tenants.

“It’s very suspicious,” said Louise Seeley, director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, a city advocacy group.

The majority of cases are for back rents ranging from several hundred dollars to $3,000. Residents paid up in some incidences, but other cases were dismissed or never resolved.

“Either there are lots of really bad tenants, or the landlord is really aggressive and wants to get people out,” said Joe Lamport, another Task Force staffer.

Tenants insist it’s the latter. The company, which is run by investor Joel Wiener, has scooped up hundreds of buildings in low-income areas citywide. Many of the deals were financed by Praedium Group, a real estate investment fund whose goal is to capitalize on properties through “strategic capital improvements and proactive leasing,” according to the company’s Web site.

Pinnacle makes certain infrastructure improvements on the buildings after purchasing them, and Wiener says they are working to bring back neglected properties. But tenants charge they are being slapped with fabricated fees and trumped-up Major Capital Improvement costs to increase the rent rolls and drive them out. Tenants in Bronx and Manhattan Pinnacle buildings report these trends, as the Norwood News has documented in three previous articles.

Taking tenants to court is expensive — costing anywhere from a couple of hundred to thousands of dollars a case — but the volume of litigation suggests that Pinnacle is making the investment in hopes of future return. Serving court papers can be a way for landlords to usher out tenants, legal advocates say.

“A lot of people get scared and simply leave their apartments,” Lamport said.

That’s exactly Wiener’s goal, according to a person close to the situation. “He did not care about the legal fees,” said the source, who asked for anonymity for fear of retribution. “His thought was ‘If I fish enough, I’ll get enough people out. In the long run, my rent roll will go up.’”

Residents of Botanical Square, one of the eight local buildings purchased by Pinnacle, haven’t fled yet, according to Elio Pichardo, a tenant. But threatening letters about nonpayments have been taped on many people’s doors, according to a resident who didn’t want her name used.

Over at 66 St. Nicholas Pl., which is part of a Harlem Pinnacle package bought in the fall, a resident said that dispossess notices were served to a third of the units. Tenants also received threatening letters about removing their door mats and satellite dishes.

“Everything is do it immediately, or else,” said the tenant, who asked for anonymity.

Pinnacle has also gone after tenants in the Dunbar Apartments, a large Harlem complex. Residents and a staffer for Council Member Bill Perkins brought up the issue with management during a meeting last month, according to a tenant newsletter.

Wiener denied he is pushing out tenants. “We’re trying to have a stable tenancy in each building,” he said in an interview last month.

In addition to back rent, records show that Pinnacle has disputed tenants’ residency rights in court. Some of these cases pertain to tenants housed through social services programs, like homelessness prevention.

Wiener said that he is in negotiations with the sponsoring agencies, but does not support the practice. “We don’t want to make the building into a Motel 8,” he said.

The company is also very aggressive about suing residents who it claims are living in their apartments without a proper lease, even in incidences when there is a familial connection to the unit. “Their succession rights were violated,” said Hazel Miura, a housing specialist working with Bronx Pinnacle tenants.

Other cases seem to have even less merit. Tenants report that the company is contesting rightful residency for technicalities like rent checks with married surnames instead of a maiden one. “They are saying that I’m not the person who owns the apartment,” said Debbie Brown, a resident of 700 Riverside Dr., a Pinnacle building, for the past 40 years. Brown says she made two court trips to prove her identity. “Other tenants have had to do the same. They like to harass people,” she said.

Seeley said that taking people to court over name discrepancies was “the most bogus claim I’ve ever heard.”

Building staff turnover

Landlords often rely on building staff to assess which tenants aren’t leaseholders or owe rent. But Pinnacle is wiping that history clean by terminating the previous staff —who could potentially vouch for legitimate tenants — and hiring new people.

Wiener bought seven former Mitchell-Lamas in the Bronx in 2002, and promptly fired the buildings’ staff and evicted them, according to a Daily News story.

The source familiar with Pinnacle’s practices said the workers were aggressively forced out. “He told everyone they have half an hour to get out … and changed all the locks,” he said. “His intent was to put his own people in there.”

The move was so egregious that the city passed a law barring new landlords from firing exiting staff within 90 days. Some in the real estate industry refer to it as the “Wiener Law.”

But Pinnacle appears to be flouting the new law. Gladys Criswell has been the superintendent of 87 Ellwood St. in Inwood for the past 27 years. Pinnacle purchased the building in October. Within three weeks, Criswell received a letter stating she had not performed her duties satisfactorily and was terminated.

“It’s very shady,” said Fred Criswell, her son. “They basically didn’t want to work with her from the beginning.”

The younger Criswell said that their Pinnacle property managers never communicated with his mother about the situation. A superintendent from a neighboring Pinnacle building was tapped for maintenance and renovation work. Criswell is disputing the decision in court with assistance from her union, and is still performing her duties.

Carol Abrams, a spokesperson for the city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD), said they are investigating Pinnacle’s practices. “They seem to be firing superintendents in every building and are assuming management control,” Abrams said. HPD has also filed at least three cases against Pinnacle for serious code violations.

Once installed, the company superintendents perform everything from custodial duties to major renovations that require a contractor’s license. “They do electrical work, plumbing work,” said Kim Powell, a resident of a Pinnacle building on 706 Riverside Dr. “They set up a whole laundry room without a permit. It’s substandard work.”

Ernestine Temple, who lives in the same building, said their efforts were shoddy and potentially dangerous. “They ran new pipes in five apartments without treating the asbestos in the walls,” said Temple, who alleges that tenants were never told why the work was necessary.

The source called the company’s tactics an “atrocity.”

“I never saw a [licensed] contractor there,” he said. “This makes a mockery of the system.”

Finding a Home for The Holidays

By David Crohn

Marta Montilla is just like everyone else — and she takes pride in that. Her goal this holiday season is to have what many people take for granted: a place for her kids to play and unwrap presents. A place called home.

Since March, Montilla and her two daughters have been living at a shelter run by Concourse House, a non-profit organization that takes in homeless women. Run by Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation since its founding in 1991, it also helps those who need work find it and provides childcare and drug counseling.

But Montilla has always been clean, and has a steady job as a care provider for the elderly at a firm in Manhattan. It’s a job she loves and excels at, she says. “If there were more people like me in the world, it would be a better place,” she said. She hopes to be a registered nurse some day.

Her story is fairly typical of the 42 residents of this shelter, but uncharacteristic of the perception many people have of the homeless in New York City, according to executive director Manuela Schaudt.

“A lot of people view homelessness as something that happens with people who are lazy, who don’t work,” Schaudt said. “But [Montilla] is someone who has always just bowed her head and did what was best for her family.”

Last year Montilla, 25, and her daughters, Mimi, 9, and Jenny, 7, were living in Norwood with her grandparents, whom she calls her parents because they raised her. It was small and cramped, but it worked — until her grandmother’s worsening arthritis made it impossible for her to climb the six flights of stairs that led up to the family’s roach-infested apartment.

So she put her grandparents’ needs before her own. She found them a better place to live and helped them move. It was, she said, “The least I could do.”

Doing the right thing required the kind of sacrifice we all pray we’ll never have to make. She became one of the many people in New York City who, despite being driven and hard-working, become homeless through no fault of their own. She is truly, as Schaudt says, a “victim of circumstances,” lost in the shuffle and daily grind of surviving in the poorest borough in one of the toughest cities in the country.

Making the Adjustment

As shelters go, Montilla said, Concourse House has been good to her. It’s clean and safe, unlike the popular conception of housing for the homeless.

“When we first moved in [I thought] I had to prepare my kids for the worst,” Montilla said, “but then their faces lit up. They were like, ‘Mommy, this is not bad at all.’”

But even with the after-school programs her daughters enjoy and the friendly faces that greet her every morning and night, it’s not a place where the girls can have friends over — Concourse House is just a place to stay and has done well in that regard, but “When we come home, we want to be home,” she said.

But Marta Montilla almost has her home for the holidays: she’s seen an apartment she loves (clean, with two bedrooms on 183rd Street), aced an interview with the landlord and is just waiting to sign the lease. According to Concourse House housing specialist, Juanita Fernandez, the city agency Housing Stability Plus will pay 70 percent of her rent; that amount will decrease by 30 percent for the next five years, at which time her nurse’s income will have to pay the whole amount.

Montilla says she is optimistic she and Mimi and Jenny will be in their new place by Christmas. Until then, she says, her plans for the holidays will be to continue doing what she’s always done — going to work, coming home, picking her kids up at school, helping them with their homework, going to bed and then waking up and doing it all over again — but with a sense of renewed hope. And joy in the everyday facts of being alive.

“That’s just life,” she said. “That’s what the real world is all about: working, taking care of yourself, taking care of your kids.”

Concourse House is located at 2751 Grand Concourse. For more information about the organization and its programs, call (718) 584-4400 or go to their Web site, www.concoursehouse.org 

Music Leads the Way for Norwood Couple

By James Fergusson

Scott Rimm-Hewitt, 29, and his fiancée, Amanda Peterson, 23, have much in common. For starters, they are both talented musicians – Rimm-Hewitt plays the tuba and Peterson the trombone – and both teach music at city public schools. They also share a passion for travel and the great outdoors. And in July went on the trip of a lifetime.

With many teachers enjoying a well-earned summer rest, Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson, instruments in tow, joined The New England Youth Ensemble, a group of musicians based at Columbia Union College, Maryland, on a fascinating month-long tour of England, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Lesotho, a small enclave nation surrounded by South Africa.

The ensemble performed in each of the countries they visited and, and through audience donations, raised money for children orphaned by AIDS in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Between performances and many arduous bus journeys, Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson went on safaris in Zimbabwe and South Africa, saw the Cape of Good Hope and bungee-jumped 340 feet off a bridge at Victoria Falls.

“It was a very amazing experience,” said Peterson. “Not only did we get to travel all around a beautiful country [South Africa, where they spent the majority of the trip], but because we were part of a wonderful cause, we were welcomed into the homes and lives of people… everywhere we went.”

Peterson teaches at PS 7 in East Harlem and Rimm-Hewitt at PS 246 in North Fordham, a short bicycle ride from their apartment on Hull Avenue and East 207th Street.

In their spare time, the couple performs with various musical groups and practice their instruments for hours upon hours each week.

They also enjoy hiking, and regularly escape the city for a weekend hike. Rimm-Hewitt relishes adventure, the more challenging and grueling, the better.

In 2000, he trekked the entire Appalachian Trail. The A.T., as it’s known, is, at 2,175 miles, the nation’s longest marked footpath and winds its way through 14 states from Maine to Georgia.

More recently, he has run the Boston marathon and cycled across America – more than 4,000 miles from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.

Takes tuba everywhere

What makes these feats even more impressive is that on each occasion, whether hiking, running, or cycling, his trusty 30-pound tuba has come along for the ride. “I can’t leave home without my instrument,” said Rimm-Hewitt, only half-jokingly.

The sight of Rimm-Hewitt lugging a huge musical instrument in a rucksack, led other hikers on the A.T. trail to dub him, “Super Scott, the Tuba Man.”

The tuba — which he affectionately calls “Charisma” — may be heavy and cumbersome, but Rimm-Hewitt credits it with saving his life on the A.T.

“September 20th, 2000, I was hiking with my buddy down a steep trail and I fell over a cliff head-first 25 feet,” said Rimm-Hewitt. “I thought I was going to die. My life flashed before my eyes. I heard a crunch and realized I was still alive. It was the tuba bell hitting a rock. It would have been my head.”

Rimm-Hewitt escaped with a gash to the leg, and Charisma, while badly dented, was easily repaired, and today shows little sign of the traumatic experience.

The couple is from North Carolina. They moved to Norwood in August 2004, shortly after completing their studies at The University of Greensboro, N.C., where Rimm-Hewitt did a PhD in Tuba Performance, and Peterson, an undergraduate degree in Music Education.

Finding Norwood

They looked at a number of apartments in other Bronx neighborhoods before a friendly stranger, seeing what they were doing, said he knew somewhere they’d like. “He put us in his van, drove us to Norwood, and said you need to try up here,” said Peterson.

“We fell in love with the neighborhood when we saw the Oval Park [Williamsbridge Oval] and we said we needed to stay,” said Rimm-Hewitt, who, weather permitting, practices the tuba in the 19-acre park (to the joy and amusement of local kids who kindly hold his sheet music in blustery conditions).

Peterson prefers to practice her instrument inside — the trombone is far more fragile than the tuba, she explains — but she too enjoys the surrounding parks and green spaces, and takes the couple’s dog, Dacoda, for a three-mile run every morning.

With the days getting colder and the nights longer, next summer may seem like a long way off for a couple who loves the great outdoors. But for the ever-busy Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson, however, there’s much to plan. They’re getting married in July and are considering joining the New England Youth Ensemble on another summer tour, this time of Argentina.

Worker’s Death

By Editorial

We have no idea what was responsible for the death of construction worker Mohammad Nadeem at 2985 Botanical Square last week. What concerns us is that no one seems that concerned with finding out.

Because the scaffolding was cleared almost immediately after the incident, the Buildings Department said it can’t determine whether a permit was necessary. OSHA’s investigation will probably take quite a while.

But, in the meantime, the city should be able to figure precisely what kind of work was going on at the site and make a determination about whether or not a permit was necessary.

We’ve written about the controversial practices of the company that owns the building where Nadeem died. That does not mean that they were at fault in this instance; it could very well be that the Pinnacle organization did not need a permit for the work Nadeem was doing.

But the Buildings Department and any other relevant city agency must try to find out exactly what happened and why.

Nadeem’s death barely made the daily press, and where it was mentioned, he wasn’t even identified by name.

The death of a human being in our community should not pass virtually unnoticed, and certainly not uninvestigated.

Striking Oil

Congressman Jose Serrano came through for his constituency this month, when he brokered an arrangement with the Venezuelan government, whereby 40 million gallons of home heating oil will flow to nonprofit housing companies which provide affordable housing to thousands of Bronx residents.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a bombastic leftist, loves to spar with the Bush administration. But if his lengthy visit with Bronx community groups is any guide, his beef seems to be with the president, not the American people.

But regardless of what you think of Chavez, or Serrano’s relationship with him, the deal is a winner on two counts. It lightens the economic burden on tenants during what is certain to be a difficult winter and it pressures American oil companies who, despite record profits this year, are acting like Scrooge this holiday season.

Think Local, Shop Local

Once again, we urge our readers to shop locally this holiday season wherever possible.

Sure, we have a selfish interest in thriving local business districts; this newspaper wouldn’t exist without them. But we all should care about keeping our commercial areas healthy. When they are, it’s a good sign that our neighborhoods are in good shape, too.

Even if you might save a couple of bucks on a video game or a piece of jewelry at a mall in Westchester or Manhattan — and in most cases you’ll get a better buy in your own backyard — spending money here is an investment in your community.

We ask you to particularly pay attention to the advertisers in this newspaper who are themselves investing in better neighborhoods by supporting our work.

Healthy communities require a healthy local economy. This holiday season, please try to do your part.

 

Tracey Work Speeds Up

By Heather Haddon

Long overdue improvements at Tracey Towers seem to be finally in the works after an elevator catastrophe earlier this year spurred management into action.

Four out of 12 of the towers’ elevators have been replaced since work began last April, according to Tracey’s administrators, R-Y Management. Two crews are now working on the project, speeding up its pace considerably beyond the previously estimated completion date of 2007.

“It will be finished in 2006,” said Dan Durante, who manages R-Y’s Bronx properties. “A lot is happening.”

The elevators in the colossal buildings have been in serious disrepair for years, a situation dramatically highlighted when a Chinese delivery man got stuck in one for four days last spring. R-Y has since made more effort to address maintenance deficiencies and respond to tenants.

R-Y secured funds for the elevators last year through a much-maligned rent hike. The company recently obtained another loan through the city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development of roughly $4 million. That money is going to the elevators, new roofs, façade repairs and boiler replacements.

Durante said that new boilers have been ordered, and work on the worst of them will start soon. Tracey suffered from unreliable heat and hot water last winter due to the antiquated heating system.

The buildings’ community room was also rehabbed and painted last summer. “They’ve repaired a lot of things,” said Sallie Caldwell, a resident.

 

Worker Falls To Death in Bedford Park

By James Fergusson

At approximately 2 p.m. on Dec. 7, a construction worker fell five stories to his death while working on a Bedford Park apartment building.

The 29-year-old, who the city Medical Examiner’s office identified as Mohammad Nadeem, was apparently replacing brickwork above a window when he fell from scaffolding inside the courtyard of 2985 Botanical Square.

He landed on concrete and was pronounced DOA at St. Barnabas Hospital, according to police reports. Grace Brugess, a spokesperson for the city Medical Examiner’s office, said his death has been ruled an accident and gave the cause as blood trauma to the head and neck.

Police said the man fell from a makeshift scaffold, but weren’t releasing any more details at this time. When the Norwood News visited the building the next day, the scaffolding had been removed, although work was continuing at the site with workers wheelbarrowing rubble into a dumpster on the street.

Two men, a tenant and a delivery man, said workers had been using suspension scaffolding. “Yesterday [Dec.7] they had like three scaffolds and ropes everywhere, now there’s nothing. It’s all been taken down,” said the delivery man, who requested anonymity.

According to the Department of Buildings, which visited 2985 Botanical Square several hours after the incident, no permit had been issued for any building work, but neither did the Department find evidence that one was necessary. “By the time we got to the building, there was no evidence or activity,” said spokesperson Ilyse Fink.

As with all workplace deaths, OSHA (the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is investigating the incident. However, because the case has been opened, John Chavez, an OSHA spokesperson, couldn’t provide additional details.

The building is owned by Pinnacle, a company that has been the subject of several recent articles in the Norwood News because it has bought many Bronx buildings where tenants accuse the company of trying to force them out so Pinnacle can charge higher rents.

Mike Radoncic, a Pinnacle project manager, confirmed a man had died at the Botanical Square building but didn’t want to comment on what exactly happened because the work had been contracted out and he wasn’t present at the time of the incident. By the time he got to the scene, about 45 minutes after the accident, Nadeem had been taken to the hospital. When asked whether the company should have applied for a building permit, Radoncic was adamant.

”For this work there was no need for a permit,” he said. Sarwar Construction, the firm Nadeem had been working for, could not be reached for comment by press time.Several tenants of Pinnacle buildings in Manhattan, however, say the company often skimps on permitting. “They photocopy permits from one apartment and then slap it on another,” said Marge Charron, a resident of 706 Riverside Dr., during a meeting of Pinnacle tenants in Harlem earlier this month.

Charron says she recently saw a permit outside an apartment for wall stripping, but upon inspection, saw much more extensive work under way. “They were actually renovating it,” she said.

Other tenants at the meeting — which was organized by a new coalition against Pinnacle’s practices — also had concerns about permitting. “There are often unlicensed people doing work without a permit [in my building],” said Debbie Brown, a resident of 700 Riverside Dr.

Additional reporting by Heather Haddon.
 

Conquer Your Fears? Author Suggests the Opposite

By Heather Haddon

 

Sam Gillian, a large man who is quick to smile, likes being terrified.

He thinks you should do the same.

“If you’re alive, you’re scared. That’s it,” said Gillian, 66, sitting in his spacious Tracey Towers apartment.

This is what Gillian has concluded from decades of teaching and research into how important fear is to human development. In the last three years, he’s published two smartly argued books — “The Beauty of Fear” and “Terrified by Education” — on the topic, and more are in the works.

His motive, other than an exciting post-retirement pursuit, is to open minds and make people happier. “If people realized that life is about being scared, we would function differently,” said Gillian, an energetic conversationalist. “We could reduce negative fear, and change it into positive fear.”

Gillian is fully aware he’s up against a big perceptional fight, but he’s confident his ideas are sound. Dan Liechty, an Illinois State University social work professor, agrees.

“Sam is undoubtedly a very gifted educator with an important and valuable take on the human condition,” said Liechty, a fan of Gillian’s work.

Gillian has always been drawn to people and how they think. The fifth of seven children, Gillian suffered from rheumatic fever as a child, and spent more time observing adults than playing with other kids. He drifted among various career paths — from the military to law school — before settling on teaching. Gillian started at a middle school in the Melrose section of the Bronx, and stayed for 21 years. “It was too much fun to leave,” he said.

Two things propelled Gillian on his quest to understand fear — a mouse and a dictionary. The former popped up in his apartment one night, scaring a man who thought nothing frightened him. The latter got him interested in the origins of words.

“If you look at the history of words, there is a commonality of meaning in terms of fear,” Gillian said. Frequently leafing through the dictionary during dinner, Gillian discovered that many positive expressions — like joy, awe, terrific, respect — all stem from Latin roots for fear.

He has since spent decades ruminating on how enjoyment and terror could be interlinked. The result is two, 200-page books and a workshop he gives at schools and conferences. Through both, Gillian strives to show how much of human excitement and development is rooted in fear, whether it’s roller coaster rides or marriage. By running from fright, Gillian argues that too many people deny themselves enriching, eye-opening experiences.

“I’m not against protecting ourselves, but we’re [overdoing it],” he said. “Sometimes it’s necessary for people to move away from their comfort zones.” In his second book, Gillian examines how societal institutions, especially in education, encourage this tendency.

Gillian points to his residence, Tracey Towers, as an example of how people play things too safe. Last year, Gillian withheld his rent until neglected repairs were made, and won a settlement in court. He has encouraged other tenants in the 870-unit complex to do the same. One neighbor recently followed suit, but he says the vast majority never act.

“I believe in being a troublemaker,” said Gillian, who offers to accompany tenants to court. “I think it’s a high art.”

Gillian spends much of his days writing and tutoring his 17-year-old granddaughter, who lives with him and his wife. He typically rises at daybreak for his pursuits, and is immersed for hours.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in my life,” said Gillian, who seems tireless. “I’m reaching people and getting them to open their eyes.”

Gillian publishes his books through a vanity press and distributes them at his workshops. He has sold over 2,000 copies of his first book, and the second is also moving along. As sales grow, so have the number of people who credit Gillian with helping them.

“Your message is powerful and timely,” said Edward DeBruin, a reader, in an e-mail to Gillian. “It has made a difference!”

Gillian is already on to other ideas, including a fictional exploration of fear for teens. Despite a tremendously successful “retirement,” Gillian stays humble and joyful — or terrified, depending on how you look at it.

“I don’t think of myself as a prophet or guru,” he said. “I just think of myself as a thinker.”

Paradise Back in the Fight

By None

World class boxing now has a Bronx venue. Promoter Cedric Kushner joined former champions Roberto Duran and Iran Barkley at the recently restored Loew’s Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse, to announce boxing matches lined up for Dec. 9. Featured boxers include Bronx prospects Jorge Teron, and Maureen Shea, who helped train actress Hillary Swank for her Oscar winning role in “Million Dollar Baby.” The nine-bout card will also feature Mike Achando (25-1) against Antonio Ramirez (28-7). Latin musicians and the Caliente Dancers will be entertaining the crowd between fights. The show will be taped for a Christmas weekend broadcast on Fox Sports en Español.

Eyes on Yankee Stadium

By Editorial

A civic drama that may rival the local filtration plant saga in emotion, if not the number of meetings and rallies, is unfolding in the south Bronx.

While the plans for a new Yankee Stadium have received mostly positive reviews in the city press, reports by our colleagues at the Highbridge Horizon portray a very different reaction among people in the community surrounding the stadium.

Many residents don’t want the city to take Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks for a new stadium. The promise of new parkland has not convinced those who don’t believe that replacement parkland along the Harlem River will not be accessible to many of the people who now use Macombs and Mullaly. They also fear the affect of construction on those with asthma. Both of these concerns are familiar to Norwood residents who fought the filtration plant for almost identical reasons.

Community Board 4 has voted against the Yankee proposal, but that’s only an advisory opinion. The Borough Board (comprised of Bronx community board chairs, the Council delegation and the borough president), the City Planning Commission, the full City Council and the mayor still have to weigh in.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión,. who seems to be cautiously in favor of the Yankees’ plans, is in the hot seat now, trying to balance his desire for a commercial resurgence with residents’ concerns. But that’s why he gets paid the big bucks.

Bronxites interested in getting a better view of the stadium tussle should frequent www.highbridgehorizon.com   For another lively view, complete with analysis of the Environmental Impact Statement, go to www.saveourparks.blogspot.com 

 

Manhattan Tenants Also Report Problems with Pinnacle

By Heather Haddon

A range of serious issues affecting Bronx residents since their buildings were bought seem to reflect the company’s practices in Manhattan, too. And while tenants say that the Pinnacle organization has stuck them with inflated repair costs, lawsuits and threatening notices, the group’s president denies any wrongdoing.

“We do everything necessary to create a safe environment for tenants,” said Joel Wiener, a large investor who runs Pinnacle.

But since the Norwood News published articles on the concerns of Pinnacle tenants in the Bronx, Manhattan tenants have contacted the paper complaining of similar problems in buildings owned by the same landlord.

Wiener and the Praedium Group, a mutual fund that finances many of the deals, have voraciously scooped up buildings across the city. They purchased 51 properties in the Bronx, Harlem and Washington Heights in 2004, 104 in upper Manhattan this past summer, and seven former Mitchell Lamas in the north Bronx, according to the New York Post and financial industry reports. Eight of the buildings are in Community District 7.

Once purchased, the properties are placed on a similar path. The company starts by making infrastructure repairs, like replacing entryways, installing security cameras, and improving the hallway lighting.

“We’re trying to bring these places back,” Wiener said. “We put a lot of work and effort into this.”

But many Pinnacle tenants in the Bronx and Manhattan say that looks are deceiving. After the work begins, residents are slapped with Major Capital Improvement (MCIs) charges and a laundry list of fees. The Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation (NIDC), a Bronx advocacy group working with some of the former Mitchell Lamas, has documented that many of the MCI bills are grossly inflated.

Leroy Singleton, an Olinville Avenue resident, says Pinnacle recently told him that his studio apartment was actually a one-bedroom, and his rent would be raised accordingly. “I can’t understand where the second room is,” said Singleton, 52.

Hazel Miura, a NIDC staffer working with tenants, has taken Pinnacle to court a dozen times for inappropriate costs. “They say the reason they overcharge is because of a clerical error, but they keep making them,” Miura said.

Pinnacle has also pursued legal action. Last month, they threatened to take several Olinville Avenue residents to court for refusing to let management replace their apartment doors, which would create additional costs.

“They’re trying to lay a muscle game on me,” said Joseph Brown, a resident who received a notice. Brown’s door looked solid when the Norwood News visited his apartment in October.

Several residents in one of the properties, Botanical Square in Bedford Park, were recently told that they were late on rent — even though they had receipts proving they weren’t — and could face eviction. In another trend, some tenants say they never received new leases, though their past ones expired.

“They have been refusing to renew leases,” said a 15-year Botanical Square resident, who didn’t want her name used. “It is shocking to most of the people here.”

Wiener denied that leases were being withheld. “We’re trying to have a stable tenancy in each building,” he said.

Several tenants at 706 Riverside Dr., a Manhattan building bought by Pinnacle in 1999, also say they haven’t received renewal leases. Residents say they’ve heard that Pinnacle intends to turn the rental property into condos. “He is clearing vacant apartments to reach the 15 percent necessary to convert the building,” said Kim Powell, a tenant and lawyer who has contacted the attorney general’s office about the issue.

Wiener would not comment on the matter, but Carol Abrams, a spokesperson for the city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD), thinks Pinnacle wants to create high-end properties. “Pinnacle seems to be buying up lots of properties … with the intent to convert them to condos and co-ops,” she said. “HPD is hearing that Pinnacle is not responsive to the longer term tenants.”

Many residents would agree. “No real work is being done in anyone’s apartment,” the Botanical Square tenant said. Two tenants reported that the company “fixed” lead paint problems by painting over the walls instead of stripping them. HPD lists 42 class C violations (the most serious level) for 725 Riverside Dr., and many of them are for lead paint. All of those violations are outstanding.

Wiener defended his maintenance practices, and repeatedly attributed one former tenant’s complaints to the fact that she was evicted for late rent payments. “This person had a different motivation,” he said.

Powell is working with tenants in other Harlem properties to form a coalition against Pinnacle. Council Member Bill Perkins met with residents in one Harlem building last month to discuss their concerns, and Abrams said HPD is looking into the issue. “Our enforcement staff is in the process of investigating the buildings,” she said.

In the meantime, residents fear the worst. “I know a huge storm is about to break,” said the Botanical Square tenant, who is disabled and lives on a limited income. “A number of people are really afraid of being put out on the street.”

 

Former Temple Now Houses Day-Care Center

By Heather Haddon

It may no longer be a house of Jewish prayer, but there were many expressions of thanks and appreciation during the ribbon cutting ceremony of a new child education center and medical facility in Norwood last week. Elected officials and other community leaders gathered at the old Nathan Straus Jewish Center last month for its reopening as an auxiliary site for the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) and Montefiore Medical Center.

“It’s really a blessing,” said Spencer Foreman, MD, Montefiore’s president, who helped spearhead the redevelopment. Invoking the Hebrew word for a good deed — mitzvah — Foreman celebrated the DeKalb Avenue facility’s reincarnation: “This contributes to the life and vitality of the Norwood neighborhood.”

Montefiore bought the Nathan Straus building in the late 1990s after the Jewish population in the neighborhood waned considerably. MMCC, a veteran service provider located just down the street, was desperate for more space to accommodate its overflowing programs.

“We’ve always had large waiting lists,” said Reva Gershen-Lowy, an MMCC director overseeing early childhood programming. “We had no problem filling the new program.”

Montefiore agreed to split the building between space for its internal medicine department and MMCC. The Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), which publishes the Norwood News and is a community development organization supported by Montefiore, began working with the two organizations in 2003 on the project.

The $2.5 million renovation of the site, which involved an extensive redesign, started earlier this year. Classrooms were carved out of the old social hall and first-floor sanctuary, the Hebrew school was reconfigured into the medical facility, and a playground was built in the back. The Hebrew writing, the Ten Commandments, and “Nathan Straus Jewish Center” carved into the stone exterior are the few indications that the site once housed a synagogue.

Council Member Oliver Koppell, who attended the event along with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, has represented the area including the synagogue (first as an assemblyman) for decades. “It had a very active congregation,” he said.

Koppell’s office helped cut through red tape at the Buildings Department to allow the child-care facility to open on time in September.

The space is warm and welcoming, with 51 Head Start and 45 day-care participants arriving on weekdays. The six upstairs classrooms are spacious and filled with art supplies, little kitchens and reading nooks. Staff are particularly excited by how kid-friendly the rooms are.

“Everything is child-sized, even the potties,” said Ilana Angeliades, the site director, as she showed off a tiny toilet.

Arianna Luis, 4, likes having all the activity options. “We get to sleep and we get to play,” she said shyly.

The Center’s New Beginnings program, which works with teens who have dropped out of high school, is housed in the basement. Funded by the city Department of Education, the two-year-old initiative serves 45 teens at the site. “It’s for youngsters who go to school, but don’t get in the door of the classroom,” said Don Bluestone, MMCC’s executive director.

The Nathan Straus project is MPC’s latest success in converting vacated buildings into community facilities. The group converted another former synagogue — the Gun Hill Jewish Center — on Reservoir Oval into offices for Montefiore’s School Health and Child Protection Center programs two years ago. “We are one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of synagogues,” Foreman joked.

Before stepping out to cut the ceremonial ribbon, officials commended MPC and Montefiore’s efforts in neighborhood preservation. “You look around Norwood, and you see so many examples of this work,” Dinowitz said. “It makes me proud to represent this area.”

 

Man Linked to Merchant Killing Behind Bars

By David Crohn

The dangerous ringleader of a group of thugs that robbed and killed local merchant Juan Madera in 2002 is off the streets.

Carlos “Chino” Mendoza pled guilty several weeks ago to robbery in the first degree for his role in Madera’s death during a botched home invasion. He is serving 14 years in prison.

Police said that around midnight, on Oct.16, 2002, Mendoza and three others approached Madera, 38, in his apartment building at 3593 Bainbridge Ave., demanding access to his home. When Madera — accompanied by two friends — refused, fearing for the safety of his wife and two sons inside, he was stabbed in the abdomen by one of Mendoza’s partners, Estile Gonzalez.

According to the detective who led the investigation, Detective Ronald Wilhelmy, Mendoza had heard that Madera had applied for a business loan and believed he had cash in his home. The three men made off with $140 and some jewelry.

“Chino planned the whole thing,” said Wilhelmy, who is now with the Internal Affairs Bureau..

Madera owned and operated the Los Compadres convenience store on the corner of East 213th Street and Bainbridge Avenue.

Mendoza was known to terrorize Norwood residents.

“He made his living doing home invasions,” said Wilhelmy, who added that Mendoza was rumored to be second in command of the Bronx Latin Kings, a notoriously violent gang. “It’s good for people to know he won’t be out there anymore.”

Two of Mendoza’s cohorts — Jonathon “Gordo” DeLeon and Julio “Monster” DeLeon — were arrested in July 2004 in connection with the incident and are on trial for murder in the second degree. They face life imprisonment if convicted.

Gonzalez, in prison for manslaughter, provided tips to police that Wilhelmy said led to Mendoza’s conviction.

Mendoza was indicted in January while serving two years in Pennsylvania for an unrelated charge.

As the Norwood News reported in October, 2002, Madera’s death shocked and saddened many in the community, including another resident of 3593 Bainbridge, Ruben Romana.

“He was a good person. He didn’t hurt nobody,” Romana said. Within a week after the stabbing Romana had decorated his lower right arm with a tattoo of a cross and his friend’s name. “I considered him my best friend.”

A friend who was with Madera just before he was killed, Miguel Rojas, said he was “just a working guy trying to make it from day to day.”

Madera’s Los Compadres bodega has since been sold by his family, but visitors to the block are reminded of him at a colorful mural honoring him around the corner from where he worked and across the street from where he lived.

 

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