A listing of arts, entertainment and recreational events for our readers in the Bronx and beyond.

A five-alarm fire gutted at least 10 stores and severely damaged four others in the heart of the Bainbridge Avenue merchant district early Saturday morning.

Officials are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze which took 198 firefighters more than five hours to extinguish. Four sustained minor injuries, including a sprained ankle and smoke inhalation.

After more than three months of no hot water, cooking gas, heat or answers, tenants at a deteriorating building in University Heights rejoiced last Friday evening. Finally, Con Edison restored gas lines and fired up the building’s boiler. Finally, a hot shower was no longer a distant fantasy.

"Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, God is good," exclaimed Caroline Loja

Local City Council candidates Fernando Cabrera (14th District) and Oliver Koppell (11th District), both Democrats who were expected to coast to easy general election victories on Tuesday, raised significant amounts of money during their campaigns. But where did it all go?

A group of New York lawmakers, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., came together for a second time recently to continue developing the Empire State as an "advanced energy center."

After saying earlier this summer he would not support the repeal of vacancy decontrol, which housing advocate say would protect hundreds of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments, State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. now says he will work to end it as head of the senate’s housing committee.

Since her primary defeat in mid-September, Council member Maria Baez has been conspicuously absent from events and Council meetings.

Speaking before a crowd of at least 1,000 people at St. Nicholas of Tolentine School on Oct. 25, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. said the battle for living wages jobs at the Kingsbridge Armory was the beginning of a movement for economic justice in the borough, calling it "our new revolution here, our new civil rights movement."

The Related Companies’ proposal to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a massive shopping mall is near the end of the city’s land use review process and is now in the hands of the City Council.