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Chillin’ and Grillin’ with the Finest
August 23, 2007
By None
Kids, parents and cops enjoyed an end of the summer barbecue last week outside of MS 80. The six-week youth program, run by the Police Athletic League (PAL), was the 52nd Precinct’s first attempt at conducting such a program. Officer Patrick McDermott deemed the program a success, saying it was a chance for kids to learn they can trust officers and also just have a good time. He said a lot of the kids "can’t wait to come back."
Editor’s Pick: Oval Fest
August 23, 2007
By Judy Noy
While summer, and its gatherings in the out of doors, is winding down, Williamsbridge Oval Park won’t let it go without a fight. The Oval hosts a Community Festival, featuring live music from Ibrahim Gonzalez and a new local group, the Shameless Manipulators; children’s activities, free food and drink, voter registration and information about community issues Saturday, Aug. 25 from 1 to 5 p.m. There’s a rain date the following day, but either way, the festivities will be presented by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, which can be reached for more information at (646) 642-6313. The Oval’s main entrance is located at Bainbridge Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue East.
Rhythm of the Nights
Women in Steel, an all-female steel drum orchestra and female development organization based in Brooklyn, will be performing Aug. 23 as part of the Carribean Nights series at the Botanical Garden. See Onstage.
Out & About
August 23, 2007
By Judy Noy
Onstage
There’s culture for the whole family at ¡Retumba!, an all-women Afro-Caribbean troupe of singers, dancers and instrumentalists on Aug. 24 at 4 p.m.; and The Ray Abrams Big Swing Band, jazz music by a live 17-piece group on Aug. 25 at 2:30 p.m. Both are at the Bronx Library Center, at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For more information, call (718) 579-4244/46.
Enjoy a Caribbean Nights concert featuring an all-female steel drum orchestra, Women in Steel, performing a variety of music, on Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. on the New York Botanical Garden’s Conservatory Lawn. The music is preceded by a salsa dance lesson at 6 p.m. Grounds admission is $6 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for students with ID and $1 for children ages 2 to 12. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.
For adults, there are Summer Songbooks, a series of concerts at Wave Hill. Aug. 26′s concert is Ecstasies of Hildegard von Bingen: Tapestry, a quartet of women’s voices and instruments, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Wave Hill House. Tickets are $24 and $15 for members at ext. 385. Wave Hill is located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue in Riverdale. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit wavehill.org.
People for Progress presents the 17th Annual 52 Latin Jazz Concert Series ’07, Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. through Sept. 26 at the 52 Parks Miranda Theatre on Kelly Street between Avenue Saint John and Leggett Avenue. For more information, call (718) 548-0315 or (718) 893-9135.
Events
Come see a screening of Akeelah and the Bee at Williamsbridge Oval Park on Aug. 24 at 7:45 p.m. It’s free and presented by Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket. For details, call (718) 409-0109.
The Bronx River Alliance hosts Paddling: Tidal Paddle, to explore the tidal flats of the Bronx River on Aug. 25 and Sept. 8. For more information and to register, call (718) 430-4636 or visit www.bronxriver.org.
The Farmers Market continues at the New York Botanical Garden’s Tulip Tree Allée Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Oct. 31. Admission only to Garden grounds is free from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and all day Wednesdays. All other times, grounds admission is $6 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for students with ID and $1 for children ages 2 to 12. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.
Exhibits
Caribbean Gardens: Journey to Paradise, celebrating Caribbean flowers and culture, will run through Sept. 16 at the New York Botanical Garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.
Learning
Wave Hill offers family art projects. At the World From Above on Aug. 25 and 26, make art from an aerial perspective, such as monotype prints of land and water. Or search for seeds, then collage and paint a seed’s journey at Magic of Seeds on Sept. 1 and 2. Both are in Wave Hill’s Kerlin Learning Center from 1 to 4 p.m. Wave Hill is at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue in Riverdale. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit wavehill.org.
The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:
There’s a film for children ages 3 to 12 on Sept. 5 at 4 p.m.; and Preschool Story Time, featuring picture book stories and songs for ages 2 to 5 on Sept. 6 at 11 a.m.
Ages 7 to 12 can attend Butterfly Book Making, a crafts workshop, on Aug. 23 at 3 p.m.; and also a Summer Reading Celebration for the participants in the Center’s 2007 program, on Aug. 24 at noon. Both require pre-registration.
For young adults, there is YNK: You Never Know, at the Library Summer Reading Celebration, Aug. 31 at 3 p.m. and Game On (for which games are supplied), for ages 12 to18, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m.
The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.
Children who participated in the Mosholu Library 2007 program can attend a Summer Reading Celebration, Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m. (pre-registration is required); and Stories to Play With, Aug. 30 at 10:30 a.m.
Children ages 18 to 36 months with parent or caregiver, can enjoy Toddler Time, featuring picture book stories and songs, Sept. 6 at 10:30 a.m., all at the Mosholu Library, 285 E. 205th St. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.
YNK: You Never Know, for young adults, is a reading celebration for the participants of the 2007 Jerome Park program, Aug. 30 at 3 p.m., at the Jerome Park Library, located at 118 Eames Place. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.
NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by Aug. 27 for the next
publication date of Sept. 6.
Fordham BID Brings Back Discount
August 23, 2007
By Laura Sayer
The Fordham Road Business Improvement District is renewing its Fordham Road "Advantage" program, providing the students, faculty and staff of all local colleges, institutions, medical facilities and healthcare training centers with discounts at 62 businesses on Fordham Road.
The program will run from now through July of next year, and all you need to participate is an ID card from one of those institutions. Look for "Advantage" decals in the windows and doors of participating stores, and watch out for the BID’s "Fordham Road Shoppers Directory" at all of the area’s colleges.
For a list of the participating businesses and any further information, contact the Fordham Road BID at (718) 562-2104 or visit their Web site at www.fordhamroadbid.org.
New Photo Store
August 23, 2007
By Laura Sayer
The newest business addition to Norwood, Sunshine Photo Studio, represents just another family trying to carve out a little niche of their own on the 204th Street strip.
"We feel like we need to make progress," said Fernelis Laj, explaining why he and his brother decided to open their own business, "to show that we control our fate, not anyone else."
Laj’s brother, Nelson worked in a photo shop before. "Since he knew the business," Laj says, "why not open one of his own."
While photos aren’t really his business, Laj is here to offer his help for the time being, because "that’s what family members do," he says.
The brothers, hailing from the Dominican Republic, chose this strip from other Norwood and Bronx locations, because it is fairly large with a lot of traffic. It doesn’t hurt that they, like most of their potential customers, also live nearby.
Laj says people stopping by over the last month ask a lot about the studio, which he thinks is their greatest advantage – that people can have family photos taken of their kids in an equipped, in-house space.
While a sprig of aloe hangs over the door for good luck (a Caribbean custom), neighbors offer aid to the photo shop.
"People are friendly out there in the streets," Laj says, describing the relationships he has already developed with nearby businesses. The store trades customers with the salon next door, while he says nearby stores where he buys supplies, suggest Sunshine for passport photos.
The studio, near where Decatur Ave. crosses East 204th Street, offers a full range of services beyond the popular "30 minute photos," including making CDs from film, prints from digital photos and developing black-and-white film, all in-house.
There are no big goals on their horizon for now, Laj says. As a very new business, with home and business bills, they’re just trying to survive on their own.
Ed. note: Sunshine Photo Studio is located at 355 E. 204th St. For more information, call (718) 231-1581.
Neighborhood Notes
August 23, 2007
By None
Chorus Accepting New Members
The first rehearsal for the Lehman College Chorus, which meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m., will be held on Monday, Aug. 27. The Lehman College Community Chorus, which meets on Tuesdays from 7 to 9:30 p.m., will start Tuesday, Aug. 28. Community members are welcome to join either chorus. There is no course fee unless credit is desired. Previous choral experiences and note-reading ability are recommended. Both choruses rehearse in Room 330 of the Music Building on the Lehman campus at Bedford Park Boulevard West and Goulden Avenue. For more information, call the choral director at (718) 960-7795.
Lehman College Open House
The Office of Continuing Education is holding open houses for non-credit career training certificate programs for fall 2007. Topics covered include business and finance programs, alcoholism and substance abuse counseling, and computer information technology programs. These open houses will be held Wednesday, Sept. 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on the Lehman College campus. Open houses for small business development and childcare will take place Monday, Sept. 10, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at CUNY on the Concourse. For more information, course catalogs, and meeting room locations, call (718) 960-8512 or visit www.lehman.edu/ce.
Writers’ Center Applications Available
The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) has applications available for the Bronx Writers’ Center 2007-08 Chapter One Competition and Writing Series, open to residents of New York City. Applications must be received by 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 1, at BCA’s main office at 1738 Hone Ave. in Morris Park. No entry fee. For more information, visit www.bronxarts.org or contact Lydia Clark at (718) 931-9500 ext. 35 or Lydia@bronxarts.org.
Mosholu Parkway 4 Station Closed for Rehabilitation
The 4 train’s Manhattan-bound Mosholu Pkwy station will be closed for rehabilitation until Nov. 12. To travel downtown from this station, take a Bronx-bound 4 to Woodlawn and transfer to a Manhattan-bound. As part of the rehab effort, there will be new canopies over the stairs and platforms; a renewal of stairs and railings; vandal-resistant fluorescent lighting, and painting of the walls. For more information, visit mta.info or pick up a flier in stations.
Career Info Sessions at BCC
Bronx Community College (BCC) is offering workshops on career options on Thursday, Sept. 6, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in Continuing and Professional Studies (Philosophy Hall-Room 14) at BCC, West 181st Street. and University Avenue. Students receive a 10 percent discount. For more information, call (718) 289-5170.
Free Certified Nurse Aide Training Program
The Citizens Advice Bureau is offering a free training program for Certified Nurse Aides at the LaGuardia Community College at 29-10 Thomson Ave. in Queens. To qualify, you must have a high school diploma, a Home Health Aide certificate, be currently employed for at least six months in any field and be able to work evening and night shifts. The CNA program includes Nurse Aide technical skills, supervised clinical practice, career/employment prep and NYS exam prep sessions. For more information, contact Sophie Mabiala at (718) 993-8880 ext. 44 or Sara Farimani at (718) 993-8880 ext. 22.
Trojans Football League Seeks Players
The Trojans Football Association is looking for players ages 8 to 19 for the fall 2007 season. If you are interested and want information about practice times and location, call Coach Don at (347) 964-5050 or Coach Steve at (347) 934-2176.
Arts-in-Education Grants
The Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) announces the availability of Arts-in-Education grants for Bronx schools. Applicants must be a school, an arts/cultural organization and/or an independent teaching artist. Applicants can apply online at www.bronxarts.org for projects during the 2007-2008 academic year. Deadline for applications is Oct. 11. For more information, call (718) 931-9500.
Bronx River Bike Ride
The Bronx River Alliance continues the Second Sunday Cycling campaign with two final rides on Sunday, Sept. 9, and Sunday, Oct. 14. The five-mile bike tours along the Bronx River Greenway are from 1 to 3 p.m. and meet at the park overlook at 204th Street, east of Webster Avenue. For more information, call (718) 430-4677 or visit www.bronxriver.org.
Elevator & Escalator Outage Updates
Beginning in August, subway riders who rely on MTA NYC Transit’s network of elevators and escalators will be able to view equipment outage information online at www.mta.info. The Elevator & Escalator page will be updated three times daily. In coming months, the page will receive 24-hour, 7-day-a-week updates on elevator availability and will offer riders subscriptions to e-mail advisories.
Adult Computer Class
Beginner computer classes in English will be offered for adults at PS 94, 3530 Kings College Pl., on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:50 to 8:30 p.m. To sign up for classes running from September 2007 to June 2008, contact Ms. Seminario at (347) 563-4772 or (718) 405-6345 ext. 1050.
MetroCard Bus/Van Service
MTA New York City Transit continues to provide MetroCard bus and van service in the Bronx throughout the month of August. Senior citizens at least 65 years of age and persons with disabilities may apply for the Reduced Fare MetroCard or obtain applications with photo identification and proof of age. Stops will take place on Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse on Aug. 24 from noon to 2:30 p.m.; at Scott Towers, 3400 Paul Ave. at West 205th Street on Aug. 27 from 1 to 3 p.m., and at Van Cortlandt Village, 3880 Sedgwick Ave. on Aug. 24 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. For more information, visit the MTA website at www.mta.info.org, or call (212) METROCARD.
Cancer Research Program
Albert Einstein Cancer Center is offering two free research programs for patients with cancer, a Yoga-Based Cancer Rehabilitation Program, which includes 12 weeks of yoga classes, and a Mind-Body Cancer Program, which includes eight weeks of mind-body classes. Both are designed to help cancer patients cope emotionally, physically and spiritually. For more information, and to find out if you are eligible, call (718) 430-2380.
Tips for Seniors in the Heat
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a not-for-profit home health care agency, offers tips for the elderly to avoid serious heat-related illnesses like dehydration and stroke. Stay hydrated by drinking water and eating food containing water (fruit, Jell-o, popsicles); maintain a healthy appetite with small, frequent meals; take frequent cool baths to lower your body temperature; avoid cooking or spending time outside during the peak hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; consider a home health care aide for companionship and care; and spend time indoors, like the library, movie theater, shopping center or other places with air conditioning.
Through Music and Poetry, Teens Address Violence
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
High school senior Jorge Hernandez, sporting a mini-afro, sagging jeans and a business-like demeanor, dropped his backpack and emphatically tossed his black baseball bat to the side as he strode onto a stage in Van Cortlandt Park.
Hernandez wanted to share a few words about violence, he told a scattered crowd of about 50 youth and adults who had gathered just outside the new Sachkerah Woods Playground last Tuesday. All were participants in the ironically named “Stomp Out the Violence” event, sponsored by the youth group Sistas and Brothas United (SBU) and Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz.
In the hot afternoon sun, Hernandez talked about his experience as a student at Walton High School, which is listed as one of the Education Department’s “Impact” or high-violence schools, and will be phased out after the coming school year.
He spoke, in short staccato sentences, about indifferent teachers and scared students. He talked about how the violence at his school, which is now accompanied (and compounded, some students contend) by metal detectors and cops, has interrupted the learning process. People need to speak up about the situation, he said, and let their voices be heard.
“Without your input,” Hernandez said, before walking off stage and picking up his bat, “the future is lost.”
The event, partially born from a horrific shooting in front of nearby Tracey Towers three months ago that left four young men hospitalized, was organized by SBU (the youth wing of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition) to foster youth expression in the face of violence.
Organizers of the event had hoped for a slightly bigger turnout, but said they were pleased with the results nonetheless.
“So far it’s OK,” said Stephanie Ventura, 17, an SBU member and Clinton High School senior, who was co-hosting the event, which featured many performers and speakers. “People are here. We wanted to get them out here talking about violence and they are.”
As a hard rock band started wailing on stage, Ventura talked about the violence that she says plagues her school, Clinton, which is right next to Tracey Towers on Mosholu Parkway. Often, she said, students turn to gangs and violence after becoming disillusioned by overcrowded classrooms and apathetic teachers.
She added that the armed police presence actually contributes to violent behavior. “We get really scared because they all have weapons and guns,” Ventura said.
Ex-gang members like Carlos Sabater and a 21-year-old named Caesar, otherwise known as “Roar,” warned the congregated youth to not make the same mistakes they did. Sabater, who grew up in the south Bronx and spent 19 years behind bars, is now living in a halfway house in Harlem and is finally getting his life in order. Caesar, who lives in Kingsbridge and is now in the Carpenter’s union, said he got out of the gang life before becoming imprisoned or killed.
Others expressed themselves using poetry. Roberto “Eagle” Ventura, spitting stream-of-consciousness-like stanzas, was representing an activist and artist’s collective known as Movement in Motion, which he called, “one big organic glue.” A Columbia student calling herself Ma’at riffed about the evils of systematic repression.
Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties. Upstate poetry-hip hop group Read Nex (like Red Necks) had to rely on sparse handclapping to keep the beat and cut their set short after a couple of powerful, revolutionary-themed, verses (“using racism as a tool for division”).
Plus, there were chips and soda.
Seeing Health Careers Up Close
August 23, 2007
By Jessica Glazer
Twelve students graduated from Montefiore Medical Center Summer Health Careers Internship program earlier this month in a ceremony at the hospital’s Cherkasky Auditorium. The program, which is one of four like it in the country and began in 2002, links high school and college students with Montefiore staff mentors, many of whom share the same cultural and social backgrounds as the students.
Throughout the rigorous six-week program that met five days a week, students worked with their mentors and each other on a variety of projects.
"It was a very positive experience," said intern Tatjana Chung, who is a junior at St. John’s University, and is studying to become a physician’s assistant. "It gave me the opportunity to see what I would do after school."
Over the course of the program, the interns attended presentations and workshops on maternal and child health issues, and learned literature review skills, resume writing and interview skills. They also met health care professionals through field trips to the New York City Department of Health and Children’s Defense Fund, among other places.
The students wrapped up their experiences by presenting 10-page papers and slide shows to the other interns and mentors. Past topics include serious public health subjects such as "Obesity and Its Impact on the Minority Community" and "Teens, Sex and Statutory Rape."
Lt. Colonel Floyd J. Carter spoke at the graduation on dedication, perseverance and achievement.
Graduates are encouraged to keep in touch with each other and their mentors, and there is a reunion each winter where all program graduates and family members meet and share experiences.
Keep Jose Chair
August 23, 2007
By None
There are rumors that Jose Rivera, Assemblyman and Bronx County Democratic Chairman, will be selected by Council Speaker Christine Quinn to fill the position of City Clerk, from which Victor Robles has recently retired.
While I wish Jose well, and perhaps understand his reasons for pursuing the City Clerk’s position, I do not want him to have to resign his position as Bronx Democratic chairman, which would be the case should he become City Clerk.
Jose Rivera has been an effective County Chairman. He has been able to bring unity to the Democrats in the Bronx despite the diversity of their opinions. The absence of divisive primaries in recent years attests to his effectiveness in this regard.
Rivera has reached out to all faction and party leaders and has shown sensitivity to ethnic, geographic and political concerns. He has recognized that the Bronx has a diverse population with many different priorities and he has done a good job in being responsive to these priorities.
As Bronx County Democratic chairman, he has played a significant role in the rebuilding of the Bronx and the initiation of numerous ongoing projects including the renovating of the Kingsbridge Armory, the re-building of Yankee Stadium, and the construction of the Gateway Mall.
I hope that his constructive leadership of the Bronx Democrats will continue for some time to come.
G. Oliver Koppell
The writer is the Council member from the 11th District.
Bedford Park
August 23, 2007
By None
If a high-ranking City official lies to a New York Times reporter and the Times prints it, the paper has an obligation to follow-up with a correction, retraction, or further study to explain it.
A Metro Section story on Aug. 11, "U.S. Fines the City $30,000 a Day Over Delay in Water Filtration Project," reads:
"Steve Lawitts, the agency’s first deputy commissioner, said the plant’s 2003 projected cost of $992 million had been determined without calculating for inflation, which would have put the cost at $1.7 billion in 2007 dollars."
As per footnote 4 on page 81 of the DEP’s 2004 FSEIS Executive Summary on the Croton filtration project, the construction costs are, "based on 2.75% inflation, 6.4% interest, and 30-year life cycle."
Therefore, it is undeniable that this DEP official has, in plain language, lied to the NY Times.
This is not a harmless fib. In fact, Mr. Lawitts’ untruth cuts to the core of criticisms being levied on the DEP and the Croton filtration project by Assemblyman Dinowitz and others, including us, who have been alarmed by exploding costs, other budgetary inconsistencies, and gross political duplicity. It is our contention that over the years, the DEP’s statements and filings have contained errors, misstatements, and untruths in a direct attempt to unfairly sway both public opinion and legislative decision-making.
With recent questions about the integrity of the water system’s infrastructure, including the collapse of tunnels around the Jerome Park Reservoir, not only is the Croton filtration project suspect, so is the DEP’s ability to manage the entire city’s water supply.
Furthermore, given the recent behavior of the Department of Investigation, the city has demonstrated it is not capable of overseeing the DEP.
After a Riverdale Press story that accurately reported that community members were barred from a fact-finding meeting on the filtration project that, incredibly, the DEP was permitted to attend, the DOI blatantly and sophomorically attempted to cover up its own actions by calling the newspaper and blaming the community members themselves for not showing up!
In addition, there are serious questions about whether Christopher Ward was serving two masters as DEP Commissioner and recently about the agency’s handling of chlorine, a deadly toxin.
For these and numerous other reasons, we are calling on state and federal regulators to fully investigate the DEP, the Croton filtration project, and the agency’s management of the city’s water supply.
Karen Argenti
Gary Axelbank
A Good Summer’s Work
August 23, 2007
By None
A student worker is pictured here in Poe Park on the last day of the Summer Youth Employment Program on Aug. 16. Thousands of teens were deployed by the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center to fill jobs at local stores, businesses and nonprofits. Twenty-three of these local high school students worked with Mosholu Preservation Corporation (publisher of this newspaper) to improve Poe Park, St. James Park, Williamsbridge Oval and Mosholu Parkway. Led by six mentors from local colleges, the students spent their summer improving erosion control, reestablishing turf, painting park structures and clearing pathways to make Bronx parks better for the entire community.
311 on Wheels
August 23, 2007
By Editorial
Building on the success and popularity of 311, Mayor Bloomberg just introduced a radical but seemingly sensible idea – roving units of city employees whose job it is to look for things like potholes, graffiti and darkened streetlights. It’s commendable when citizens call 311 to complain about such things, but, the mayor said, it’s actually the government’s job to identify problems before people complain. He even expressed surprise that the city wasn’t already doing this.
For city newcomers and other residents who don’t realize what a huge sea change this represents, here’s a little city history lesson: Back in 1974, when the city was almost bankrupt, nearly every local service shifted to a complaint-generated system managed through a backlog. Subway cars got "deferred maintenance" and were only seen to when something broke. Apartments went un-inspected until someone complained. Potholes went unfilled to the extent that the city refused all liability without a complaint, which sent liability lawyers scurrying about to register defects in sidewalks and streets so their clients could sue when they fell over them. And, of course, police officers, in those crime-filled days, were at the mercy of 911, driving from call to call rather than being able to actually patrol.
Community leaders like the late Tina Argenti were quoted in newspapers saying, "Why doesn’t anybody do anything until people start to yell and scream?"
I was the "anybody" she was referring to at the time (I worked in the Bronx HPD office then), but I refrained from pointing out to her that the system was set up that way. Only the squeakiest wheels got any grease in the cash strapped city. Although the building renovation she was rightfully demanding at the time did happen, the system was what it was.
Over the years, some pre-complaint action was taken. There was at least one "cycle" of building-wide housing code inspections in the late 1980s, and various neighborhood policing and patrol programs have come and gone. And of course "deferred (fix it when it breaks) maintenance" in the subway system proved more expensive than preventive maintenance.
Now, we may be seeing a real change. While my ears are ringing with the sound of tens of thousands of civil servants crying, "What, you want us to go looking for problems?" it may be that the 311 system, a flush city budget and a can-do mayor have resulted in a problem-generated, rather than a complaint-generated, system. It remains to be seen if we will get more than a longer backlog, but we have hope.
Now, if we can only do something about the 18-inch law…
-Dart Westphal
Yank the Parking Garages
August 23, 2007
By Editorial
The new Yankee Stadium has 5,000 fewer seats than the old one. Nevertheless, city officials endorse the team’s plan to build four new parking garages, most of them in place of public parks, essentially inviting fans from the suburbs to bring their cars into the area to clog local streets and deposit their exhaust in a community that has among the highest asthma rates in the country. The garages are even more absurd when you consider that a brand new Metro North station is being built right next to the stadium that is expected to transport 10,000 fans to the game.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg and other city officials, giddy about green roofs and expanding ferry service as laid out in the much-hailed PlaNYC 2030, are handing over millions in taxpayer monies to the private corporations building the garages.
Why would the same officials who are in favor of charging people so they don’t drive to Manhattan, encourage people to drive to the Bronx by providing huge public subsidies to build parking lots?
This and more is laid out in "Insider Baseball," a new report published by watchdog Good Jobs NY (on-line at www.goodjobsny.org).
The community lost the battle to defeat the stadium. Construction is well under way. But there is still time for residents to bring officials to their senses and eliminate several of the parking garages, which are receiving an insane public subsidy of $96 million.
The parking lots are not inevitable. The city can still knock them out of the park.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
Public and Community Meetings
August 23, 2007
By None
• Community Board 7 will meet Monday, Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bedford Park Senior Center, 243 E. 204th St. There will be a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 about the rezoning of land at St. James Recreation Center, 2530 Jerome Ave. The following Tuesday, on Sept. 4 at 6:30 p.m. there will be a public hearing at PS 94, 3530 Kings College Place, which will discuss the construction of an early childhood center on the grounds of PS 94. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.
• Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at their office, 3660 Jerome Ave, though this location is subject to change. For more information, call the office at (718) 231-8470.
• Bedford Mosholu Community Association will meet on Wed., Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. at 400 E. Mosholu Pkway South Apt. B1 (lobby floor). All are welcome.
• Community Education Council 10 will meet in September, but there was no further information available about the meeting at press time. For more information, call the office at (718) 741-5836.
• 52nd Precinct Community Council will hold a meeting in September. The date, time and location of the meeting were not available at press time. For more information, call (718) 220-5824.
FORE! Mosholu Driving Range Re-opens
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
The driving range at Mosholu Golf Course has re-opened after being shut down for most of the summer because of safety and liability issues.
Earlier this summer, First Tee, the youth golf organization that runs the public golf course for the city Parks Department, decided to shut the driving range down because balls were being hit into the Croton Water Filtration Plant construction site, which borders the range.
This came after the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is managing the filtration plant project, promised to keep the range open during construction.
Local park activists were incensed. "It seems to me if they can protect our water supply from terrorists, they can protect our heads from golf balls," said Jane Sokolow, a board member of the Friends at Van Cortlandt Park.
First Tee Director Barry McLaughlin told the Norwood News in early July that he was looking to remedy the situation.
"If we can come up with a resolution, we will do it," McLaughlin said.
On Aug. 8, McLaughlin sent out an e-mail announcing that the driving range would re-open on Aug. 11, saying First Tee would be employing the use of a "limited flight ball" to "allow for safe use of the range by all."
Armory Developer Decision Delayed
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
The city’s Economic Development Corporation will not choose a developer for the vacant Kingsbridge Armory until at least October, said Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner.
July was the original target date for selecting a developer.
But the delay is not necessarily a bad thing, said Faulkner, who sits on the advisory Kingsbridge Armory Task Force, in an interview last week. Ostensibly, it means the developers – Atlantic Development Group, the Related Companies and Rosenshein Associates (though the last was all but eliminated by the city during the review period) – are actually taking into account community input, he said.
Last month, the Board and the Kingsbridge Area Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), an organization of community groups and activists focused on the Armory project, sent separate recommendations to the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which is managing the project for the city.
The Board asked the developers to include space for new CB7 offices. They also wanted to see more community space in general, as well as a large grocery store and a plan for attracting competitive-wage jobs.
Jobs were priority number one for KARA, which has said from the beginning of the process that the project should be a source of long-term living-wage jobs, defined by the city now as at least $10 an hour.
Faulkner said the EDC is planning to show revisions to the Task Force and also bring revamped proposals to the Community Board for further review.
The EDC would only confirm that a developer would be chosen "sometime this fall."
Group Enlists Council in Battle to Add School Seats
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
In late July, on a hot Wednesday morning, organizers and youth from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, lamenting chronic overcrowding and its effect on education, stormed City Hall to demand more school seats in the Bronx and citywide.
"What do we want?" an organizer shouted.
"More schools!" an assembled group of northwest Bronx youth shouted back for a gaggle of reporters and cameramen.
"When do we want them?"
"Now!"
The chanting gave way to a press conference where the Coalition announced its SEATS (Schools Exploding at the Seams) initiative, which is designed to pressure the Education Department, using the City Council as a lobbying arm, into adding more school seats for the current Five-Year Capital Plan, which is up for revision in November.
The City Council has an opportunity to weigh in on any capital plan revisions when it approves the city’s budget next June.
Taking a leadership role in this fight, Bronx Council Member Oliver Koppell and his staff recently completed an overcrowding survey in District 10. The results were disturbing and contradicted the city’s line that schools are either at capacity or underutilized.
Koppell’s education specialist, Eleanor Edelstein said that according to the survey, PS 8 in Bedford Park is running at 181 percent capacity, meaning the school was built for 750 seats, but is housing 1,164 students. At the Walton High School campus, which houses five schools, all of the principals said they were suffering from overcrowding. Edelstein also mentioned PS 56, PS 280 and PS 94 in Norwood as schools feeling the strain of overcrowding.
The goal of SEATS, Coalition president Teresa Anderson said, is to make overcrowding a citywide issue. Anderson added that they were already getting a very positive response from Council members, many of whom have already pledged their support for SEATS.
The goal is to have each Council member survey their district’s schools, like Koppell did.
"We need to get a real picture of what’s going on in all the boroughs, so we can tell them they’re wrong when [the DOE] says, ‘We don’t need anymore seats,’ or when they tell us, ‘we’ll just add another teacher,’" Anderson said. "We need to get the stories from the people who are on the ground dealing with this problem."
The overcrowding issue reached a boil last fall when the DOE announced it would be eliminating 1,700 Bronx seats from the capital plan. And recently the DOE announced that no schools were planned for the Kingsbridge Armory, whereas the Coalition has demanded 2,000 seats there.
The DOE and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have repeatedly said that they are confident the new capital plan will ease overcrowding in the Bronx and citywide, but Anderson and other critics aren’t buying it.
They say the DOE’s projections for school seats are skewed and contradictory. For example, when calculating the need for high school seats, the DOE projects that only 36 percent of Bronx students will graduate. Meanwhile, Klein says he wants the graduation rate to reach 70 percent by 2010.
The DOE says the graduation rate is only one of several factors it uses to determine school seat needs. It also uses demographic changes. If that’s the case, wonders Jamin Sewell, a staffer for Coalition ally Koppell, then why is the DOE taking away seats if the mayor is predicting the city to grow by a million people in the next 20 years.
"It’s like the mayor is speaking out of both sides of his mouth," Sewell said.
The Coalition spent the morning before the press conference pitching Council members and imploring them to survey schools in their district to find out exactly which ones and to what extent they are overcrowded.
Manhattan Council Member Robert Jackson (head of the Education committee) and Brooklyn’s David Yassky joined the Bronx’s Koppell and Joel Rivera on the steps of City Hall in speaking during the press conference. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum also pledged her support for the SEATS initiative.
Gina Ortiz, a Bronx student, paraphrased Frederick Douglas in imploring the public and council members to keep up the pressure on the DOE. "Power concedes nothing without urging," she said.
Rivera agreed, telling the assembled youth, "You must keep the pressure on us." He added, "These kids are asking for something that is basic. These are the future leaders of the City of New York."
Then the sweaty youth began chanting again in the hot mid-morning sun.
"Build more schools! Build more schools!"
Dinner with Obama For Council Hopeful
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
Last month, the Norwood News talked with Haile Rivera, a University Heights activist who was one of four people picked to have an intimate dinner with presidential candidate Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. on July 10. Rivera was randomly picked to attend the dinner after donating $25 (not a huge contribution but a relatively big chunk of change for Rivera) to Obama’s campaign.
Though Obama, who was in Iowa earlier that day, didn’t show up until 10 p.m. (Rivera joked to an Obama aide that, at this hour, they should all just go out for beers and shoot pool), Rivera said the Democratic senator from Illinois was very thoughtful, modest and easygoing during their meal at the District Chop House and Brewery. Rivera said they had a great conversation, a portion of which aired on the “Today Show,” that ranged from war (one of the diners was the wife an American soldier serving in Iraq) to poverty and teen pregnancy.
Toward the end of the meal, Rivera gave Obama two gifts: a book on the history of the Dominican Republic (Rivera’s home country) and a Bronx baseball cap. He then invited Obama to visit the Boogie Down as a presidential candidate and Obama replied: “Let’s make that happen.”
Now Rivera is working to create a pro-Obama movement here in the Bronx and citywide called New Yorkers for Obama because he believes in him.
In addition to his duties working for the New York City Food Bank, Rivera has started his own nonprofit and is also contemplating a City Council run in the slot soon to be vacated by Maria Baez, who is term limited. Rivera (no relation to any of the Bronx’s political Riveras who are Puerto Rican) wants to be the first Dominican Council member from a Bronx district, he says. Aside from volunteering, Rivera’s never worked in politics before, but he says that is a positive.
“I’m not anti-establishment,” Rivera said, “but at the same time you gotta get some fresh blood in there.”
Dinowitz Honored by Environmentalists
August 23, 2007
By Cassandra Lizaire
The Environmental Advocates of New York, a nonprofit watchdog group, recognized Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz for his environmental record in Albany.
The Assembly, with the support of Dinowitz and other state lawmakers, passed three of the environmental community’s 2007 "Super Bills." Several environmental goals of the proposed laws include improving recycling of water and beverage bottles; closing a loophole in wetlands protection across New York; and using funds generated from the auction of state carbon dioxide emission credits to promote energy efficiency.
"Working to protect the environment is one of my main priorities in Albany," the assemblyman said in a statement. "These bills represent some of the steps we can take to help make New York a leader in ecologically-friendly thinking."
Engel Fights for Phone Card Consumers
August 23, 2007
By Laura Sayer
Congressman Eliot Engel introduced legislation to fight abuses in the calling card industry by requiring disclosure of terms and conditions on packaging.
The legislation, called the Calling Card Consumer Protection Act (HR 3402), also requires the company to list a detailed description of additional fees, as well as the company’s name and contact information in case of a problem.
The bill, in essence, calls for clear, informative communication to shed light on what Engel said are shady practices.
Engel introduced this bi-partisan legislation on Aug. 4. It will now make its way next to the subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Practices. "Many, if not most, people using these cards, use them to try to save money calling their relative overseas," he said. "It is not right that those trying to maintain family ties get cheated in the process."
Deadline Extended For DM Search
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
So far, Community Board 7 has received about 10 applications for the district manager position that’s been vacant since July 1. CB7 Chair Greg Faulkner said he expects to receive several more applications, especially since an advertisement for the position just went up on the city’s Web site a week and a half ago.
Faulkner said the board will continue receiving and reviewing applications until Sept. 5 or until the position is filled.
Since longtime DM Rita Kessler resigned nearly two months ago, the borough president’s community board specialist, Tom Lucania, has been filling in on a part-time basis and doing a great job, Faulkner said.
Ed. note: To apply for the CB7 District Manager position, send a cover letter, resume, and a writing sample to: Search Committee, Jerome Avenue Station, P.O. Box 491, Bronx, NY 10468.
Rivera: I’ve Got $200 K for Council Run
August 23, 2007
By James Fergusson
As the New York Times reported in July, Council Member Joel Rivera, 28, the Council’s majority leader, is planning to run for borough president in 2009, a decision that’s likely to put him on a collision course with close friend Assemblyman Ruben Diaz.
When asked for an update, Rivera, who attended a press conference last week to mark the launch of a new health center on Burnside Avenue, said he’s getting close to formally announcing his campaign, adding that he’s already raised $200,000.
"At the moment I have 140,000 bosses," he quipped, in reference to the population of the District 15. "In 2010, I hope to have 1.4 million."
Rivera will be trying to do what his father, Bronx Democratic boss Jose Rivera, now an assemblyman, never managed. (The elder Rivera stepped aside for the ascending Adolfo Carrión in 2001.)
So far, no one’s officially said they’re running, and with the election two years away anything can happen, but other possible candidates include State Senator Jose Marco Serrano and Council Member Helen Foster.
Proving Change is Possible
August 23, 2007
By Alex Kratz
Looking back on his early life – cycling in and out of prison as a drug dealing, crack-addicted young hustler – Stanley Richards can still remember his Riker’s Island inmate number: 2418616600.
By his mid-20s, Richards had become just another number. He never imagined he would one day be living a dream life.
Now, 16 years from his last incarceration, Richards, 46, is chief operating officer and second in command of a major Manhattan non-profit agency and lives in a Bedford Park house with a loving wife and four thriving children.
You can change, he tells all of the lost souls who come through the Fortune Society, an organization dedicated to helping ex-convicts as well as preventing people from becoming incarcerated in the first place.
Of course, shifting your reality from hustler to the straight and narrow isn’t easy. Often, Richards recounts his own tumultuous story to illustrate that it can be done.
Going AWOL
Richards, now a giant teddy bear of a man, grew up in a Soundview housing project, the second oldest of four kids. His father worked in the Garment District. His mother was asthmatic and died after suffering a severe asthma attack when Richards was just 10.
Though Richards doesn’t use his mom’s death as an excuse for his bad behavior, he says it affected him deeply.
His father tried his best to compensate, even hiring a babysitter to look after his young family.
“He really stepped up to the plate,” Richards says.
Ultimately, however, Richards struggled in school, constantly getting into fights and skipping classes. After getting kicked out of the eighth grade for fighting, Richards was placed in a special school for kids with behavior problems.
“It was a disaster,” he says. “I was in a school with a bunch of kids just like me, who liked to get in fights and party all the time.”
Like many Bronx youth in the early 1970s, Richards fell in with a local gang, in his case, the Black Spades.
He never finished the eighth grade.
Faced with a bleak future, Richards decided to join the Army at the age of 17 after talking with his father.
Stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky following boot camp, Richards encountered racism and a daily grind for the first time. He quickly became disillusioned with military lifestyle, so he went on leave and never went back.
“I went AWOL,” he says.
The Corner and Prison
Back home, the Bronx was burning and the drug trade was booming. Like Richards, lots of his friends who had joined the military, just “faded back into the old scene.” Soon, Richards was on the street corner selling drugs (mostly heroin at the time), making good money, and partying like a rock star.
Then, predictably, Richards says, “Like any good dealer, I started getting high on my own supply.”
He also started getting picked up by police for dealing to undercover cops, and doing prison stints.
“I remember back then, my whole life view was the projects and the corner,” Richards says. “And then the corner and jail.”
He became comfortable with his lifestyle. Richards knew he could do time in prison, where his drug habit and street credibility increased by the day. The corner and prison became his reality.
That reality also included serious debt. To pay off those debts, Richards began “hustling” outside of his drug dealing day job, which usually meant robbing people at gunpoint.
His last “hustle” earned Richards a six-year prison term in 1986. While awaiting trial on Riker’s Island, Richards continued to use drugs: heroin, crack, whatever he could get his hands on.
It wasn’t until Richards was sent to prison upstate that his reality began to change. But first, he went through the painful hell of drug withdrawal, where at times, Richards says, your “bones feel like they’re going to just snap.”
Filling an Empty Cup
At Downstate Prison, program officers asked Richards what he wanted do. He told them he wanted to go back to school and he did, passing his GED test on his first attempt.
“That gave me a lot of confidence,” Richards says, remembering how his early teachers lamented the fact that he was wasting a keen mind.
From there, Richards went on an academic binge. Through a college program that has since been dropped, Richards went to class in the evenings and spent his days studying.
“It was like filling up an empty cup,” Richards says.
Richards completed his bachelor’s degree in prison and family members came to the graduation ceremony. His aunt gave him a big hug and told him: “I always knew you’d make it.”
Culminating his prison reformation, Richards became director of the prison’s pre-release program, which he hoped would help him land a job on the outside when he was released to a halfway house in 1991.
Richards wanted a social service job, but it was the same story with each rejection. He didn’t have enough experience.
At the same time he was struggling to find a job, Richards met his future wife, Satara. “The two of us together, we both wanted to move on and move forward,” she says.
The couple married and moved into an apartment together two weeks after Richards was released from the halfway house. He took a job as a telemarketer and kept applying to nonprofit organizations. Finally, with Satara pregnant with their son, Marquis, and the family down to their last dollar, “we got that magic call from the Fortune Society,” Satara says.
Joanne Paige, Fortune’s CEO, remembers the woman who interviewed Richards telling her, “This one’s going to be a shining star.”
Completing the Transformation
Soon after establishing himself at the Society, Richards took in his father and gained custody of a son from a previous relationship. Satara brought in two of her own children, as they created a sort of Bronx Brady Bunch in their Castle Hill apartment. They moved to a house in Bedford Park, on Creston Avenue, in 2000.
Richards is now chief operating officer of Fortune, a fast-growing non-profit that is receiving national recognition for its low-threshold, multi-service, holistic model and now operates a $14 million annual budget.
“I’ve seen him grow professionally,” Paige says, gushing. “He’s really smart, really dedicated. He’s also a gentle male figure and so many of our clients are fatherless males. He’s powerful by being caring, not by being threatening.”
Richards is more of a manager now, but his favorite part of his job is working with Fortune clients. Most of them, like Richards in his former life, are struggling with addiction and resistant to change.
The other day, at a meeting at Fortune’s Harlem emergency housing center, an ex-con sat in with his arms folded into his chest and scowl pressed on his face – the “prison face,” Richards called it.
Richards looked him in the eye and asked him, “Why are you here?”
“Because the judge told me to be here,” the ex-con said defiantly.
“No you’re not,” Richards told the man. “You can get up and walk out of here right now, but you’ll have to face the consequences, legal and otherwise.”
“It was like a light bulb flashed on,” Richards said. “It was empowering for him. He said ‘You’re right.’ It was his first step toward changing his reality. He realized he had a choice.”
Community Mourns Loss of Five Siblings
August 23, 2007
By Heather Appel, Cassandra Lizaire and David Greene
Friends and relatives of the five Norwood siblings who were killed in a horrific car accident last month gathered Friday night to say final goodbyes at McCall’s Bronxwood Funeral Home on Bronxwood Avenue in Wakefield.
Heartbroken mother Pamela Ramharrack, 48, laid to rest five of her children: Jessica, 11; Anderson, 13; Emmanuel, 16; Anthony, 21; and Perthrian, 24, who were killed as the family’s Honda Accord swerved across a Suffolk, Virginia highway and collided with an oncoming truck on Tuesday, July 24.
The oldest sibling, Perthrian GoPaul, leaves behind a husband and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. She was presumed to be the driver.
As dozens of mourners packed the funeral home for the pre-funeral wake, Ramharrack said, “My kids were the most beautiful kids in the whole world. They were my million-dollar gift. They were everything to me.”
The family was returning from an annual visit to North Carolina when the crash occurred.
Neighbors of the family at 3395 Reservoir Oval West responded to news of the fatal accident with shock and sorrow for Ramharrack, who was inconsolable after she heard the news. Tenants in the building put up a small shrine of candles, flowers and teddy bears on the front stoop. The shrine has remained for a month.
After hearing of Ramharrack’s loss, community activist Joe Thompson reached out to the family, along with Pastor Jay Gooding of Fellowship Tabernacle Ministries.
“She was at sea, she was lost,” Thompson said. “You can’t do this by yourself. I was moved by her circumstances, and I know Pastor Gooding was moved to help out.”
They contacted other churches, the 49th Precinct Community Council and local elected officials to ask for their help in getting the word out and raising money to cover funeral expenses.
Asked how the family was coping with the tragedy, Ramharrack said, “Well I’m the family. There’s just my niece and my sister. But at the house, it’s just going to be me because the kids lived with me.”
Ramharrack has only one surviving daughter, Selina GoPaul, 23, of Queens.
Neighbor Annelle Tavarez remembered the generosity of Ramharrack’s son, Anthony, who would volunteer to help neighbors carry groceries upstairs. The young man died a week short of his 22nd birthday, according to a Daily News article.
This summer, Jessica, 11, who was to attend Thurgood Marshall Academy in Manhattan, participated in the school’s Gateway summer program for two weeks. William Blair, program director, called her a “very nice young lady, very polite and also very popular.”
At a memorial service held Friday, Aug. 10, in the school’s gymnasium, students read remarks and poetry written in memory of Jessica. They also performed two dance skits as a tribute to the girl who was as diligent with her schoolwork as she was passionate about dance, especially the Soca of her native Trinidad, which she had recently started learning. She would have turned 12 on Aug. 19, the day of the funeral.
“The kids were very touched by her,” said parent coordinator Linda McDougal. “She made a significant impact on the students, which I found really unique for a young person.”
Ed. note: Those wishing to make donations can send checks or money orders to the GoPaul Family Foundation at 3395 Reservoir Oval W., Apt. E-1, Bronx, NY 10467.
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