As you already read here and probably elsewhere, this past weekend, The New York Post published an article on Real Bronx  Tours that was offering a “ghetto” tour of our borough to mostly Australian and European tourists at $45 bucks a pop.

As of Monday, the company has since stopped its Bronx tours as pressure mounted by angry Bronxites and folks all around the internet who were upset at how we were not only being portrayed but also treated as if we were some sort of zoological exhibit.

There’s even a silver lining to all of this.

After conversations with the Bronx Borough President’s office as well as with Olga Luz Tirado, who in June of last year was named as executive director of the Bronx Tourism Council, I was able to encourage them to check out MCNY Tours which not only provides quality, historical tours of the Bronx but most importantly, it is run by Bronxite Alexandra Maruri and is a Bronx based company – one of our very own.
Olga Luz Tirado agreed that it is important to utilize our best resources – our residents – whenever available and that her office is and will continue to do so whenever the opportunity arrises. It was a pleasant discussion on our love and passion for the Bronx and Olga’s dedication to promoting our great borough to the North we know that literally the rest of the world is missing out on.

(Watch Olga Luz Tirado and Alexandra Maruri being interviewed by PIX11′s Joe Mauceri)

Many lessons have come out of this negative fiasco. What happened with this disgusting tour company is the very reason I launched Welcome2Melrose and Welcome2TheBronx over 3 years ago for I was tired of the one sided stories filled with negative imagery of our community being published.

These last several days since the story was first reported by the New York Post proved to me once more about the power of our voices. It has been a wonderful community building exercise that brought together people on a very grassroots level and provided a platform for the citizens to interact with our government. It also proves to me once more that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We must NEVER stop speaking up.

This is a big win for our borough for it shows that we will not tolerate the exploitation of our fellow Bronxites let alone let some outsiders control our narrative. We pull together, make our rounds of calls to other concerned citizens and get things done. Consider this a fair warning to any entity who thinks that they will come into our borough and do such things and think they won’t be exposed.

Don’t forget to check out MCNY Tours and also thank Olga for her tough job of promoting our borough’s image. As the executive director of the Bronx Tourism Council, in many ways she is one of our top ambassadors and has to battle decades of negative media abuse of our hometown that is still seared into the psyche of the rest of the world.

Lynn Battaglia – Currently the Most Hated Woman of The Bronx – Angel Chevrestt/NY Post

I’m not sure which is worse – the tour operator perpetuating to be a “real” Bronx Tour company and profiting like any other poverty pimp on the economically disadvantaged or the tourists who shell out $45 dollars to get a taste of an “authentic New York City ghetto”.

Over this past weekend, The New York Post (I promise I do NOT read this “newspaper”) published an article on Real Bronx Tours which has apparently been bringing mostly Australian and European tourists to the Bronx so that they can get a taste of a “real” New York City ghetto.  The Post goes on to say that they promise walks through “Pickpocket Park” and even see folks lining up at food pantries.  What the fuck? !  Does this individual not know that we’re actually safer than most places of its size and population  across the country including Boston?!

And it’s not just me who is a little furious over this but friends, colleagues and total strangers (including NYC Mayoral Candidate Joe Lhota, the former MTA Chairman who was raised in the Bronx).  Here is just a few of the comments that folks have been tweeting about this:

(Don’t forget to sign the PETITION against this tour operator!)

People are literally in DISBELIEF that this is actually a real thing, so much so that when they tweet about it they preface it with the hashtag #NotTheOnion.  Then you have people like Johanna M. of the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx who has this to say when she posted the article on Facebook:

I hate New York. I think it is the biggest hellhole on earth. Entering the subways is like entering the very intestines of the Devil, and he has diarrhea  But I love the Bronx. Why? Partly because it does not pretend it is anything it is not, but mostly because there are people here actually working to change things in a more grassroots manner than any other place I have known, people who throw everything to jam the gears of a machinery built to ignore the borough and its people, and when they have nothing else, they throw themselves in. And in the oddest, strangest patches, you find a beauty wilder than manicured Manhattan and planned hipster Brooklyn can ever manifest. THAT is my Bronx, so fuck you, tourists.

Now I know Johanna so for her to speak like this you really have to push her buttons and she’s definitely not alone in her sentiments.

It’s crap like this that has been going on for years why we began to take over our own story and not let others handle our narrative.  If it were up to the rest of the world, we would have been written off a long time ago.  It gets emotionally exhausting not only trying to deal with the realities in our borough that need to be addressed but to also have to deal with this when we can be dedicating our time and efforts to real world solutions to what does ail us.  For years I’ve wanted to give the world tours of the REAL BRONX and show them that we are not what the media portrays us to be.  It is one of the very reasons why I began welcome2melrose.com and subsequently welcome2thebronx.com - because I was sick and tired of the abysmal portrayal of our borough.  If you want to provide tours on our borough then why not tell the tale of our resilience and how we turned around the Bronx from the decay that our own politicians left us to rot in?  How the Bronx is home to the ONLY “green” neighborhood in all of New York State?

There are over 1 million tales to tell on the Bronx and what Real Bronx Tours does is not one of them.

Bronx Rap Duo, All Year Summer

This just in from our favorite Bronxites at from The Bronx (you know, the folks behind the awesome Bronx Beer Hall??)

Bronx rap duo All Year Summer is casting extras for their first official music video “Rock Out” directed by Robert Dumé.

They’re looking for wild, colorful, weird people in costumes, masks, crazy outfits, and whatever else you’ve got! The more over the top the better!

If interested, please contact: rdume.briefcase@gmail.com with “AYS – ROCK OUT” in the subject line.

Make sure you listen to them:

https://soundcloud.com/aysmusic/hazy-all-year-summer

Greco’s One & Only Truffle Burger at Bronx Beer Hall ©Esquire

Not to sound like an ass but DUH!  Come on now, we’ve been saying this for years about that other borough!  The rich culinary offerings of the Bronx are enough to make even the pickiest of taste buds to quiver with anticipation! And as we have ALWAYS said, the real Little Italy is in the Bronx – not the Disney-like attraction that tourists flock to in Manhattan.

Though the increasingly nasal and seemingly conspiratorial promotion of Brooklyn as New York’s crucible of great food has not yet played out, the almost-total neglect of Queens and the Bronx smells of both ignorance and outright snobbery. The fact is, just one square mile of the Bronx, known as the Belmont neighborhood, has more food culture and history than Red Hook, Williamsburg, and Dumbo combined.

Read more: Belmont in the Bronx Is New York’s Best Food Neighborhood – Where to Eat in the Bronx – Esquire
Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook
Visit us at Esquire.com

Our Belmont is one of those best kept not so secrets among the region but has yet to garner a reputation in the general mainstream.  Do you think this kind of publicity is good for the Bronx?  What other areas, landmarks and neighborhoods would you recommend to tourists if they asked you why should they visit our borough?

The Bronx still has a long way to go in shedding its tarnished past although we have definitely gotten a better perception now than anytime before the Great Decline, however, it seems that poor Hunts Point will never get a break.  ”Journalists” seem to just latch on to that image of it for what seems to be purely sensationalistic reasons. There is SO MUCH MORE coming out of Hunts Point than this garbage.

Read if you will, below, and follow the link at the end for the rest of the “story”.

Michael, aka Michelle, is one of the subjects of “Portraits of Addiction” (Chris Arnade)

In this episode of Micropolis, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal ventures into the home of Michael, a transsexual prostitute and heroin addict — and, as you can hear in the segment above — given to baking cookies for her guests.

Michael, who also goes by the name Shelly, or Michelle, is one of the subjects of “Portraits of Addiction,” an ongoing project by Wall Street trader-turned-photographer Chris Arnade and writer Cassie Rodenberg.

The series, now in its third year, brings viewers into close contact with addicts and prostitutes in Hunts Point, in the Bronx. View the series Tumblr here, or the Flickr page.

In addition to images, the project gives us insights into the lives of its subjects. Thirty-five year old Vanessa, seen below, “was standing on the cold street corner looking for business, wearing only flip flops and smoking with her two friends.” When asked how she wanted to be described, one friend jumped in and said “She’s the sweetest woman I know. She will give you the shirt off her back, if she has one on.”

Read and listen to the rest: http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/apr/17/micropolis-images-addiction-bronx/

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kristin Hart, 718-977-9043; Karen Argenti, 646-529-1990

South Bronx Unite calls on Governor Cuomo to take a closer look
at BOEDC and the FreshDirect Deal

South Bronx Unite (SBU) is a group of Bronx community activists and neighbors that formed in response to the City and States’ announcement, in February 2012, that it planned to give the online grocer Fresh Direct upwards of $130 million in public subsidies to relocate its warehouse/trucking facility to the South Bronx waterfront from Queens, without community input or environmental review, after FreshDirect issued false, “race to the bottom”-type threats that it would move its business across the river from its customer base, to New Jersey. The South Bronx has among the nation’s highest asthma rates, and Fresh Direct would bring upwards of 2000 daily truck trips through its already clogged and overburdened streets, while blocking the community from the recreational type waterfront access increasingly enjoyed by the rest of the City. Over 40 community groups have signed on to SBU’s platform of environmental, economic, labor and food justice for South Bronxites and all New Yorkers.

SBU commends Governor Cuomo for vetoing the recent attempt by State Senator Jeff Klein to funnel $17,500 in “pork” payments to the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC), and we call on him to go farther. As BOEDC is a key Bronx player in the FreshDirect deal – pledging $500,000 in capital funds and a $3 million subsidized loan – we ask the Governor to take a fresh look at the entire Fresh Direct deal of inappropriate land use, subsidies and tax credits and to join us in demanding a full Environmental Impact Statement of FreshDirect’s proposed relocation.

We Bronxites awake to fresh stories of public corruption almost daily. We request the Governor’s help in stopping the flow of our public coffers into questionable projects that create few benefits and often generate great harm in our communities. BOEDC (which was also censured for not filing its annual financial statement with the Authorities Budget Office) is often a driving force behind these projects, providing funding and political muscle to streamline massive projects with no public review.

Far too often, these massive public subsidies are issued with little scrutiny or public oversight, accompanied by vague promises of job creation. A March 2012 audit issued by New York City Comptroller John Liu found the New York City Economic Development Corporation was subsidizing largely “empty job promises”– essentially rolling the dice with public money and hoping for the best: “The EDC… has handed out huge taxpayer subsidies with alarmingly spotty results…. Corporate subsidies must be used more sparingly and only be granted after careful and thorough assessment that the job creation and retention will be real.” (http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2012_releases/pr12-03-025.shtm)

The FreshDirect proposed subsidy package and FreshDirect’s potential environmental impact on the South Bronx community need to be carefully reexamined. The people of the Bronx and New York taxpayers deserve and demand better.

So here we are with BronxMama, The Bronx Socialite and of course the folks at From The Bronx at The Bronx Beer Hall minding our business as we plan on how to continue promoting our wonderful borough and who walks in? Yup, Alan Alda! He sat down next to our table and is enjoying some of our wonderful Bronx brews with friends and enjoying the crowds.

Right in the heart of the Bronx and the heart of the Arthur Avenue, The Bronx Beer Hall is an awesome spot to relax with friends have some great grub and beer of course. Make sure you check them out!

But I won’t.

Instead, I’ll provide all the information that’s out there for you in one concise posting so that you can come to whatever conclusion that you may.  Read all about it folks. Oh and to quote Maria Del Carmen Arroyo’s official website:  Service with a passion is her motto. “Our people deserve no less”. Perhaps we should heed her words and make sure she’s not re-elected because “less” is already representing us.

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ENID, ALVAREZ/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

HEAT FROM the slush fund scandal may have made it tough for Bronx Councilwoman Maria Del Carmen Arroyo to steer taxpayer cash to relatives through dubious nonprofits, but she’s still finding ways to line her family’s pockets.

Arroyo put her husband on her campaign payroll — paying him $15,000 from her campaign funds for “consulting” over the past six months, records show.

Her husband, lawyer Ricardo Aguirre, has gotten the vast majority of the $21,173 she has spent so far on her reelection.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/bronx-councilwoman-maria-del-carmen-arroyo-probed-slush-fund-scandal-hubby-payroll-article-1.1115735#ixzz2QGf2ARRf

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City Council members and staffers yesterday predicted that Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo could be the next member of their body indicted in an ongoing “slush fund” probe that just snared fellow Bronx Democrat Larry Seabrook.

“Everybody I spoke to today thought she was next,” said one council member, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another said, “Everybody’s speculating [about Arroyo]. There’s lots of talk.”

And a third council member noted that after Seabrook’s arrest on federal charges Tuesday, city Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said the probe is not over.

Arroyo, who refused to answer questions yesterday, is a member of a powerful political family whose members have close and complicated ties to several nonprofit groups that have received taxpayer funds at the behest of her and her mother, state Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/bx_councilwoman_eyed_as_next_fed_w3Dzg9A0ba1WZOf8xgdBcN

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In the Bronx, you could take your pick, but in this case it seems South Bronx Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo and her mama, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, have been pumping taxpayer bucks into the South Bronx Community Corp., which employed Maria’s sister Iris and Iris’ politically ambitious son Richard Izquierdo, now abuela Arroyo’s chief of staff and apparent successor-in-training.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/political-clan-funding-microscope-article-1.280296#ixzz2QGirbDWS

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SMITH FOR NEWS

A mother-daughter pair of Bronx pols got free airfare to Puerto Rico with cash stolen from a nonprofit controlled by a relative, prosecutors charged Wednesday.

Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo and her daughter, City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, got the free flights.

The check writer was Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, the assemblywoman’s grandson and the councilwoman’s nephew.

Izquierdo Arroyo was charged with stealing more than $200,000 from SBCC Management Inc., a Bronx group that’s supposed to manage low-income apartment buildings.

He also spent $3,800 of SBCC’s funds to install a new floor in his grandmother’s Assembly district office and $9,000 for illegal donations to her campaign, prosecutors said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/prosecutors-mom-daughter-city-pols-flew-puerto-rico-funds-stolen-non-profit-article-1.374170#ixzz2QGkCbb6X

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Last week, tenants at a run-down 145-unit apartment building for seniors in the South Bronx cut a cake to celebrate their new owner, a Manhattan-based nonprofit housing group that had just bought the property’s foreclosed mortgage for $1, promising to make $8 million worth of desperately needed repairs.

And they gathered to breathe a sigh of relief that City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo failed in her efforts to deliver the seven-story property—known as Borinquen Court—to a politically connected team that did not have the experience needed to operate it, according to federal housing officials.

By inserting herself into the situation, Ms. Arroyo upended a process established by federal law that gives local government agencies, such as the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the power to ensure that certain distressed buildings go to qualified buyers. When properties like Borinquen—built in 1979 with a loan from a federal housing program—go into foreclosure, the city typically works with tenants and advocates to choose a nonprofit group committed to preserving the property. In this case, they chose West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, a 35-year-old nonprofit that focuses on Manhattan but has a presence in the Bronx.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110306/REAL_ESTATE/303069977#article_tab

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Had enough? I know I have.

Make sure you also check out the excellent segment Joe Mauceri of PIX11 did on the Veggie Mobile Market as well as Patrick Wall of DNAinfo!
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With the warm weather approaching, the sounds of ice cream trucks are sure to fill the air as the chirping of the birds in the morning. Trucks offering such delights are nothing new. Heck, we even have lunch and dinner trucks throughout the city serving up full fledged meals. But imagine a mobile Veggie Market that brings you the very important items that are often missing in your neighborhood, particularly economically depressed neighborhoods like Hunts Point, and really, the rest of the South Bronx. That’s exactly what Bronxite, Tanya Fields, is working on. Tanya is the epitome of a Bronx entrepreneur who, after years of frustration that comes with trying to raise a family on a healthy diet – something that seems anathema to local supermarkets and the infrastructure of our neighborhoods, left her job to battle against this injustice. Besides her beautiful children, food justice is her passion and she started on this battlefront from the ground up (literally AND pun intended). Through education and guerilla farming, by taking underdeveloped and neglected lots, she has taught the people that you can take control of your food supply. Let’s face it, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we live in the poorest congressional district in the nation. A neighborhood plagued by obesity, hypertension, heart disease and hunger. As ironic as these combination of issues seem, the ultimate irony lies in the fact that Hunts Point and the Bronx is home to the largest food distribution center in the nation and indeed one of the largest in the world. All this wonderful food from meats, fish and poultry to fruits, vegetables and all sorts of produce of the highest quality and caliber comes into this neighborhood – but never gets to the tables of the folks who live here. The food is carted in and out of the area via trucks that contribute to one of the highest rates of asthma in the country. People are being killed by these trucks in pedestrian accidents. They are dying from the asthma.

With the Veggie Mobile Market all that can change. Fresh produce will be delivered by a solar powered school bus that runs on veggie oil! The Veggie Mobile Market isn’t just about delivering fresh produce but it will serve as an educational experience as it will have several vita-mixes to introduce folks to healthier living by way of green smoothies and drinks.

I rarely ask readers to invest in anything but if you have a spare $1, $5, $10, $100 or whatever you can, please consider in INVESTING in our community’s health and future. This entire project just needs $15,000 and they have already raised almost $2,500. $15K is a drop in the bucket compared to $127 million in tax subsidies that are given out to programs that will not benefit our communities.

Check out out the link below to see more about the Veggie Mobile Market and hear what Tanya Fields and others have to say about the issues!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-veggie-mobile-market