Bronx Building Workers Reach Deal With Landlords

A union representing apartment building workers across the Bronx reached a contract agreement with their management last week, narrowly averting a strike that would have kept some 3,000 superintendents, janitors, handypersons, porters, firepersons, doormen, elevator operators and garbage handlers in the borough from heading to work.

Be Healthy! Q&A: New Study Looks at Housing’s Link to Health

Fordham University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine are collaborating on a study that examines the connection between housing and health in the Bronx. The Affordable HOME Study, which launched last year, is looking to find out how different housing environments affect the health outcomes of the borough’s Latino population. This week, Be Healthy! sat down with Einstein’s Dr. Earle Chambers, a principal investigator on the study, to find out more.

Local Teens Master Their Trades

A group of teenagers at The COVE (Community Organized with a Vision of Excellence) after-school program started their own businesses projects this year, and showcased the fruits of their labor to family and neighbors earlier this month.

Local Tennis Enthusiast Dies on Court

Michael Ferebee, a Norwood resident and tennis aficionado who played regularly on the courts at Williamsbridge Oval, died last Wednesday after suffering a massive heart attack during a match there. He was 63 years old.

New Day Church Turns 2

New Day Church church celebrated its second year in the Bronx during a service held at the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula in Bedford Park.

A Year After Tragedy, Megan Charlop’s Work Endures

On the day she died, Megan Charlop was riding her bicycle to PS 55 in Claremont, on her way to the elementary school’s summer camp fair. The event was one of many projects Charlop spearheaded as the director of Community Health at Montefiore Medical Center’s School Health Program, and one close to her heart, her colleagues say—part of an effort to set local children up with free or low-cost camp programs.

At 30, Lehman Center Mixes Old School Values With New School Outlook

Eva Bornstein is enjoying one of her finest and most successful seasons at the helm of the Lehman Performing Arts Center. It is the center’s 30th anniversary and Bornstein was just featured in the New York Times’ Sunday Metropolitan section. Attendance is up during a down economy. Life is good. But she is concerned. The antics of madcap actor Charlie Sheen are consuming all the country’s media attention. “It’s disgusting,” she says, both of the coverage and Sheen’s behavior. “We are from the old school,” she says, attempting to explain her disgust.

Vagabond New State Senator Rivera Doing Business on the Run

State Senator Gustavo Rivera, the new representative of the northwest Bronx’s 33rd District, called a reporter last week from his cell phone while sitting in an office in downtown Manhattan. That’s life for a vagabond freshman politician in the senate’s minority party who is still trying to nail down a district office more than two months into his term.

State of the Borough: Diaz Praises ‘One Bronx’

In response to recent derogatory portrayals of the borough by “American Idol” and Glenn Beck, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. went on the offensive last month, highlighting the positives and success stories of the Bronx during his second state of borough speech. While continuing to press his mantra of borough residents and workers coming together to form “One Bronx,” or “Un Solo Bronx,” Diaz spent a great deal of his nearly 90-minute speech at DeWitt Clinton High School hyping his accomplishments and all of the great things the borough has to offer. “It is time to let the world