Last Friday, the New York City Department of Health announced that it was investigating an outbreak of legionnaires’ in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx where 4 individuals were noted as having contracted the potentially fatal type of pneumonia.
Now, as of yesterday, the number of those infected in the area has risen to 10 according to the city’s health officials and all, as those mentioned last week, are located in Highbridge within the 10452 and 10456 zip codes.
If you or someone you know is experiencing flu-like symptoms, difficulty breathing, coughing, or fever, you should seek immediate help from a health care provider.
Those most susceptible to the disease are people over the age of 50, smokers, have a chronic lung disease like asthma or COPD, a compromised or weakened immune system or take medication that weakens your immune system.
The Health Department is continuing its investigation of this outbreak and is conducting testing of cooling tower systems throughout the Highbridge neighborhood.
As mentioned before, The Bronx isn’t new to legionnaires’ outbreaks and in fact, since 2015 there have been several, including the largest ever seen in New York City which killed over a dozen Bronxites seven years ago and infected hundreds throughout the South Bronx.
Unlike COVID-19, legionnaires’ disease CANNOT be transmitted from person to person and instead is transmitted by breathing in the bacteria via contaminated water vapor from cooling towers, showers, hot tubs, air conditioning, and hot tubs.
For more information on legionnaires’ and what you should know, visit New York City’s Department of Health website.
Four years ago, Sharon Pandolfo-Perez, who runs The Parkchester Project, reached out to Welcome2TheBronx to inform us about something disturbing: The iconic terracotta statues that adorn the 171 buildings spread across 129 acres in one of the most well-known planned communities in not just The Bronx but New York City were disappearing.
Many entryways are adorned with medallions and statues.
Back then, Pandolfo-Perez estimated that about 10 of the statues had disappeared without mention from Parkchester Condominium as to what was happening to them.
Now, the New York Times has written about these priceless works of art and the number of statues taken down is up to 45.
One of several statues at the rear of the old theater.
Growing up in The Bronx, a trip to Parkchester was always magical as I would always seek out these statues, the sentries that guarded this community.
“The complex’s unmatched set of polychromatic terra-cotta ornament — some 500 statuettes and 600 plaques — is, quite literally, being chipped away,” Roberta Nusim, president of the Art Deco Society of New York, wrote to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November.
The destruction is the result, she wrote, of “sheer carelessness — the kind of carelessness that landmarks designation could prevent. The damage isn’t overwhelming — yet — and there is still time to act, but that time is slipping away.”
Many entryways are adorned with medallions and statues.
And indeed, we agree, that this is a case of such carelessness. Bronxites know from experience that when it comes to landmarks in The Bronx, whether official or otherwise, the city tends to turn a blind eye. Just look at what was done to the landmarked PS 31 several years ago when it was demolished by the city against the will of New York City’s Landmark Preservation Commission and that of local residents.
If this development were in Manhattan or Brooklyn, this wouldn’t have gone beyond one statue being removed without it being repaired and then carefully replaced back to its original location.
According to Parkchester North Condominium and Parkchester South Condominium, some of the statues needed to be removed in order to repair the masonry behind them and that where possible, the statues have been salvaged and are safely stored away.
There is no question that Parkchester is historically as well as architecturally significant and should be declared a landmark.
A broken statue at Parkchester/Via The Parkchester Project
This planned community, although originally constructed as a restricted “whites only” city within a city, would eventually become home to a very integrated and mixed community truly representative of the borough.
It is also a mix of renters and home owners as the development is now a condominium offering families the opportunity to affordably own their own homes.
Another one of Parkchester’s iconic statues.
Let’s make sure that these magical statues continue to guard Parkchester for generations to come and continue to bring joy to its residents and visitors alike.
The New York City Department of Health has announced that legionnaires disease has been detected in four people in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx.
According to NYCDOH, these infections were detected going back to May 9th and are clustered around the 10452 and 10456 zip codes with results from other individuals presenting similar symptoms still pending.
Legionnaires bacteria
“Any New Yorkers with flu-like symptoms should contact a health care provider as soon as possible,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “Legionnaires’ disease can be effectively treated if diagnosed early, but New Yorkers at higher risk, like adults aged 50 and older, those who smoke or have chronic lung conditions should be especially mindful of their symptoms and seek care as soon as symptoms begin.”
The department of health is actively investigating the cluster by testing water from all cooling towers in the impacted area.
This isn’t the first legionnaires outbreak in The Bronx.
In 2015, The Bronx found itself at the center of New York City’s largest legionnaires outbreak which infected hundreds in the South Bronx and killed over a dozen individuals.
According to the Department of Health:
“Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia that is caused by the bacteria Legionella, which grows in warm water. Symptoms resemble other types of pneumonia and can include fever, chills, muscle aches, and cough. Most cases of Legionnaires’ disease can be traced to plumbing systems where conditions are favorable for Legionella growth, such as cooling towers, whirlpool spas, hot tubs, humidifiers, hot water tanks, and evaporative condensers of large air-conditioning systems.
“Individuals only get sick by breathing in water vapor containing Legionella bacteria, and the disease is not transmitted from person to person. Individuals at higher risk include those ages 50 and above, cigarette smokers, and people with chronic lung disease or compromised immune systems. People living or working in the area who are experiencing these symptoms should seek medical attention with a primary care provider or seek urgent care.“
It is an unfortunate circumstance that many have become accustomed to when living in The Bronx. Shootings and deaths as a result of gun violence are simply something that residents, despite the countless activists trying to curb such violence, have become almost indifferent to.
But the unthinkable has happened, yet again.
11 year old Kyhara Tay, killed in a senseless shooting
Kyhara Tay, an 11 year old child who was coming home from school, was shot in the stomach by a stray bullet intended for someone else.
The shooting occurred on Fox Street near Westchester Avenue on Monday afternoon just before 5PM when a man on a scooter shot at another man who was fleeing.
11 year old Kyhara was rushed to Lincoln Hospital but tragically died later that night as a result of the gunshot to the abdomen.
Her killer is still on the loose but The Bronx will come together to find her heartless killer but we have to stop the violence and stop the shootings.
We are killing our children and for what?
Early last month, 16 year old Angellyah Yambo was walking home from school when she was shot and killed when a man arguing with several other men fired six shots, one of which fatally struck Angellyah.
16 year old Angellyah Yambo was killed early last month while walking home from school
Over 40 children and teenagers have been shot so far this year.
If you know who committed this heinous act, now is the time to speak up. Our children deserve safe streets and not to worry about getting shot on their way to school.
They deserve to live out their lives and achieve their dreams, not end up six feet under because of cowardice of the gunmen who kill them.
Lobbying records indicate Ruben Diaz Jr. is on a six-month $120,000 retainer to lobby the city on behalf of Dynamic Star LLC, the developer behind Fordham Landing. At 40 acres, the anticipated $2 billion development along the Harlem River waterfront dwarfs Hudson Yards.
Former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is getting paid $20,000 a month to press for a massive real estate project at the foot of Fordham Road — a project lobbyists had sought his ear on through his final months in office last year.
Fordham Landing is an anticipated $2 billion, 40-acre mega-development, proposed by a Greenwich, Conn. firm called Dynamic Star LLC linked to the inner circle of former President Donald Trump. Facing the Harlem River across from Inwood, its 5 million square feet would include nearly 2,800 apartments four train stops away from Grand Central via the University Heights Metro-North station.
State and city lobbying records show that on March 23, Diaz signed a contract with Dynamic Star that commits his firm Nuevo Diaz and Associates LLC to “provide governmental relations services in the City of New York” and potentially other services from March 10 through Sept. 10 — a stint worth $120,000 to the former borough president.
Then-Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. speaks at an Eric Adams mayoral campaign event, Oct. 15, 2021. | Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITY
Diaz is lobbying on the Fordham Landing project for “Determination regarding real property,” city lobbying records show. A state filing indicates he expects to lobby the city departments of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Transportation (DOT) on municipal land use.
Joint Commission on Public Ethics records also show that a second lobbying firm working for Dynamic Star, Kasirer LLC, reported targeting Diaz during the final two months of 2021, related to “approvals and permits at 320 W. Fordham Road, Bronx.”
City ethics rules include a lifetime ban that bars ex-public servants from appearing before the city or receiving compensation for “services rendered” on any matter in which they had “participated personally and substantially” while they were on the city payroll. That includes decisions, approvals, recommendations, investigations and “other similar activities.”
But Diaz also championed the development of The Bronx’s western waterfront during his dozen years as borough president. In his 2015 State of the Borough address, he declared: “A complete metamorphosis of the Harlem River waterfront is coming.”
Among the highlights: “To the north we have Fordham Landing. This site could host up to one million square feet of mixed-use development, including housing of all types, community space and additional waterfront and park amenities.”
“This is a great site for a public/private partnership, and we will work with the owners and future developers to activate and revitalize the northwest Bronx.”
He elaborated on his vision at an October 2017 New York Building Conference breakfast, saying: “I would love for the west side of The Bronx to have contiguous waterfront accessibility, sort of like what you see on the west side of Manhattan.”
The Harlem River near Fordham Landing.
Dynamic Star isn’t the only big Bronx player paying the former borough president. Diaz is still a full-time executive at Montefiore Medicine, where he has served as senior vice president of strategic initiatives since February.
And on Monday, the consulting firm Actum announced that Diaz will be joining as co-chair “in an advisory capacity,” Actum partner Rachel Noerdlinger said in an interview.
He will also be keeping his own firm, Nuevo Diaz Associates LLC, Nordlinger said.
A person who answered the number listed for Nuevo Diaz Associates did not respond to a request for comment. Diaz did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Dynamic Star principal Brad Zackson did not respond to a request for comment.
Revolving Door
Diaz incorporated Nuevo Diaz Associates LLC in April 2021 even though he had another nine months to go as a public servant. And he did so in Albany County, many miles from his stomping grounds in The Bronx.
This arrangement with Dynamic means at the time the developer was paying a lobbyist to seek Diaz’s support for his big development, he was already intending to become a lobbyist.
This appears to put him perilously close to violating city conflict of interest laws that bar city workers from receiving compensation regarding a matter with which they’d “participated personally and substantially as a public servant through decision, approval, recommendation, investigation or other similar activities.”
The extent to which Diaz interacted with the developer of Fordham Landing before leaving office is unknown. Borough presidents have a say on land use issues, and Fordham Landing is no exception.
Part of the Fordham Landing property.
Dynamic Star had paid the firm run by veteran lobbyist Suri Kasirer to beseech multiple public officials, including Diaz, during his final months as Bronx borough president. Zackson, the firm’s co-founder, told Norwood News in November that its executives had met personally with Diaz and his staff while he was still borough president to discuss Fordham Landing.
Although it’s clear Diaz has participated in discussions with the developers, it’s not clear whether he took any official action in regard to this project, which has yet to receive land use approval from new Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.
“This project is in the very beginning stages of conversations and as Borough President, it is my responsibility to ensure that any development at Fordham Landing is inclusive of community input and engagement,” Gibson said in a statement via a spokesperson. “Affordable housing must be a real priority and include home ownership opportunities to build economic wealth and pathways to the middle class for our residents and families.”
Bigger Than Hudson Yards
Diaz signed his lobbying contract with Dynamic Star director of development Brad Zackson, whose long history in New York real estate had him working closely with two intimates of Trump.
Zackson got his start leasing apartments to tenants in Queens on behalf of Fred Trump, Donald’s father. The elder Trump had years earlier settled a federal civil rights case after investigators determined Trump buildings discriminated by rejecting Black applicants. More recently, Zackson collaborated with Paul Manafort on real estate investments, before Manafort became Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman.
Dwarfing Hudson Yards, Fordham Landing as proposed would be the largest real estate project in the city since that West Side development.
Spanning a swath of land straddling the University Heights bridge along the Harlem River all the way up to the Target in Marble Hill, the estimated $2 billion project is slated to include 2,800 apartments, 30% of which would be affordable, a 700,000 square-foot science center, esplanades, an e-sports amphitheater and a music venue, Norwood News reported last year.
Fordham Landing is still years away from breaking ground. The project must go through a public review process known as Universal Land Use Review Procedure – or ULURP – that would begin in 2023 at the earliest.
Bronx Community Board 7 District Manager Ischia Bravo said that she participated in a “brief” informal meeting with the developer in 2020 but that the board has not had any formal meetings.
“There’s always a concern when there’s a project of this magnitude changing the dynamics of the community, and we want to make sure that there are resources that are attached to that, especially when you bring in a certain amount of residents,” Bravo said. “We’re looking at resources like transportation, schools — the typical concerns.”
Local Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, in a statement to THE CITY, urged that the project take seriously the larger community’s many needs. If she is still serving when the project goes through ULURP, she will likely have influence over any final approvals or concessions to the local community.
Councilmember Pierina Sanchez (D-The Bronx) speaks at a City Hall rally calling on Mayor Eric Adams to invest more in affordable housing and homeless services, April 21, 2022.
“The proposed $2 billion Fordham Landing project is the largest proposed new development project in recent NYC history, taking place in one of the city’s most economically distressed neighborhoods…. We have never had true access to the Harlem River waterfront, and also struggle with a high rate of traffic incidents and fatalities,” she said.
“Any proposed development must center the most urgent needs of our Bronx community to earn my support. In the coming months, I look forward to supporting an independent community input process that centers our community needs.”
Last week, the city Department of Buildings disapproved a permit associated with 320 West Fordham Rd., the project’s southernmost lot.
That site, just south of the University Heights Bridge, will reportedly bear a 17-story, mixed-use building. Dynamic Star purchased the property for $31.5 million in 2019. An additional site — 2475 Exterior Street, purchased for $31.75 million in 2020 — is slated to feature a mixed-used building including rentals, student housing, a public school, a research center, retail and office space.
Bronxites and residents across New York City and even New Jersey were awoken by a loud, ground-shaking boom this morning around 6AM.
Many residents were caught off guard given the fact that thunderstorms weren’t in the forecast, just rain, especially given the fact that many were still sleeping snuggly in their beds.
But why did the thunder sound so loud and why could you even feel the vibrations in the ground?
The answer, according to local meteorologists, is a weather phenomenon known as a thermal inversion.
This happens when warm air traps cold air directly below it and causes the thunder to reverberate, or echo, across the landscape, much like being trapped inside a dome or a bell when it rings.
“While inversion itself isn’t terribly uncommon, a range of factors, including its placement and the slow-moving thunderstorm, combined to make the experience memorable for many.
“It probably happens a few times a year, but when it happens over a major metropolitan area like New York City, it seems a little more unusual,” said Dominick Ramunni, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.“
I was fast asleep when the intense roaring and vibrations from it woke me up from my deep slumber and my three cats, who rarely are bothered by weather events, ran for cover in a panic which sent me into a panic wondering what exactly had happened.
Once I realized it was thunder, I soon went back to sleep.
Anyway, let’s hope we don’t have more of these rare events in NYC.
A lottery has opened for 225 brand new affordable apartments just blocks from Yankee Stadium.
Located at 1164 River Avenue at the 167th Street Station on the 4 subway line, the development is one of three going up on that block and the first to be nearing completion.
1164 River Avenue rises above a bustling and vibrant community at 167th Street
The 17-story development was also the second proposed development announced once the controversial Jerome Avenue Rezoning was approved in 2018 which would pave the way for the displacement of dozens of automotive shops and small businesses.
Available apartments range from studios as low as $375 a month to three-bedroom apartments at $672 a month for qualifying households making 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI) and each apartment will have access to free broadband internet access.
Breakdown of available apartments are as follows:
30%
$375 a month for studios for households making $15,429-$28,020
$481 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $19,372-$36,030
$589 a month for 2 bedroom units for households making $23,932-$43,230
$672 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $27,703-$49,650
1164 River Avenue (left) is one of three developments going up on one block as a result of the 2018 Jerome Avenue Rezoning.
40%
$535 a month for studios for households making $20,915-$42,720
$681 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $26,229-$48,040
$828 a month for 2 bedroom units for households making $32,160-$57,640
$949 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $37,200-$66,200
50%
$696 a month for studios for households making $26,435-$53,400
$881 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $33,085-$60.050
$1,069 a month for 2 bedroom units for housholds making $40,423-$72,050
$1,227 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $46,732-$82,750
A bathroom at 1164 River Avenue
60%
$909 a month for studios for households making $33,738-$64,080
$1,143 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $42,069-$72,060
$1,366 a month for 2 bedroom units for housholds making $50,606-$86,460
$1,570 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $58,492-$99,380
70%
$1,080 a month for studios for households making $39,600-$74,760
$1,356 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $49,372-$84,070
$1,672 a month for 2 bedroom units for housholds making $59,383-$100,870
$1,865 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $68,606-$115,850
80%
$1,176 a month for studios for households making $42,892-$85,440
$1,481 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $53,658-$96,080
$1,789 a month for 2 bedroom units for housholds making $65,109-$115,280
$2,059 a month for 3 bedroom units for households making $75,258-$132,400
Typical kitchen at 1164 River Avenue/via Housing Connect
Please note, for each unit, there are other requirements such as number of people per household and further income requirements based on household size so refer to the Housing Connect website for further details.
How to Apply
For those interested in applying, you have until June 27, 2022 and you can do so online or you can request an application by mail by sending a self-addressed envelope to: River Crest Apartments c/o Wavecrest Consulting LLC, 87-14 116th Street, Richmond Hill, NY 11418.
Remember, you can only apply ONCE and you may not apply both online and by mail. Applying more than once can and will disqualify you according to the lottery rules.
1164 River Avenue, along with the other two buildings dwarf the 4 subway line. As development continues along the avenue, Jerome and River Avenues will undoubtedly get darker and darker.
5% of units are set aside for individuals with mobility issues and 2% for those with vision and/or hearing impairments. 50% preference for residents of Community Board 4 (to see which community board you live in, click here), and 5% for New York City employees.
Also, please note: We are NOT connected with this or any other real estate developments and cannot assist you in obtaining an apartment so please do not contact us regarding these units.
For the past 70 years we’ve been taught to never forget the genocide of six million Jews but a new survey released today on Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, shows that it is fading into memory.
Thirty-one percent of Americans, and 41 percent of millennials, believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around six million. Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. Only 39 percent of Americans know that Hitler was democratically elected.
“As we get farther away from the actual events, 70-plus years now, it becomes less forefront of what people are talking about or thinking about or discussing or learning,” said Matthew Bronfman, a board member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which commissioned the study. “If we wait another generation before you start trying to take remedial action, I think we’re really going to be behind the eight ball.”
A remnant of a former Synagogue in Soundview on Evergreen Avenue
But here’s a story about our Bronx’s past that we should never forget.
Many New Yorkers, and Bronxites for that matter, do not know that at one point, the Bronx was the most Jewish of all the boroughs. With over half a million residents of Jewish ancestry, they made up almost 57% of the population of our beloved borough in the 1930s through the 40s.
According to bronxsynagogues.org, there were over 260 registered synagogues registered throughout the borough’s landscape. Most lived in the South Bronx with highest concentration around the lower Grand Concourse.
As Israel and the rest of the world observes Yom HaShoa, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, here is an accountof a Bronx rabbi, as told by his son,
of how they saved one family.
The account begins:
“In the early 1940’s, my father was a rabbi in the Bronx, NYC. His salary was twenty dollars a week.
One day, he received a phone call. It was urgent, the man said. A matter of life and death. It was about the Jews in Europe.
The following Saturday morning, the man spoke to the congregation. He had “inside” information. The Nazis were planning to exterminate the Jews. The “relocation camps” were really death camps. Gas chambers. Gold extracted from the teeth of the dead, their body fat to be used to manufacture soap. He begged people to sign affidavits, at ten dollars each, documenting that they were seeking household help. This had to be done quickly. People could still be saved. Soon, it would be too late.
Everyone was shocked. Surely, this man was exaggerating. Maybe even crazy. Germany — the most cultured of countries — How could this be?
The man asked my parents to sign two affidavits, stating their interest in hiring a butler and maid. They would have to pay twenty dollars for the affidavits. A week’s salary – somehow they would manage. But my parents were not sure whether to believe him. And, documenting that they were hiring a butler and maid, in their small Bronx apartment? Wasn’t that fraud?
My parents gave him the money, and they put their signatures on the affidavits.
Three months later, the doorbell rang. A man and woman held a piece of paper. “We are looking for this family,” the man said, in heavily accented Yiddish. My family’s name was written on the paper. The woman bent down, and kissed the hem of my mother’s dress. “You saved us,” she said. Let us always remember and never forget.”
The sound of slot machines may soon ring in the air along the Hunts Point waterfront in the South Bronx if a local politician gets her wishes.
On April 9th, New York State’s new budget was enacted and it provides for three full new casinos and state Assemblymember Amanda Septimo thinks that The Bronx should get one and benefit from the economic boom such entertainment facilities bring with them by way of jobs.
A number of vacant or underutilized waterfront lots dot Hunts Point
Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was hoping for two of the three casinos to be cited within the city.
In a tweet, Septimo mentioned that she brought the idea to Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr, who also represents the area and appears to welcome a casino in Hunts Point with open arms.
Yes! I brought this idea to @Salamancajr80 & local leadership because it could present a major economic opportunity for our community!
According to the Bronx Times, who reported on this story, Salamanca stated he could see such a facility along with hotels on the Hunts Point waterfront:
“City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr., whose South Bronx district includes Hunts Point, said that while advocating for a casino is not a priority for him, he envisions vacant Hunts Point waterfront property as a good site for one.” reported the Bronx Times
“If I get a call from someone that’s interested in doing this, my ears and my doors are open to hearing them out and making sure that it’s the right fit,” the Longwood Progressive told the Bronx Times. “And if it’s something that could be a reality and my community could benefit from, I will support it.”
And it’s important to note that this isn’t something that is being pushed on the community without input from area residents and stakeholders.
Assemblywoman Septimo has made it clear that the community needs to be a part of this discussion on what they would like to see happen and what it should look like in terms of benefits to residents of Hunts Point who will be the ones directly impacted by such a casino were it to be approved.
If a casino does come to the Hunts Point Waterfront, the waterfront must be accessible by way of a public park and esplanade.
One thing is for sure: If this idea were to gain steam and actually happen, the waterfront needs to be accessible to residents who have been cut off from the area due to industry for decades.
If a waterfront site were to be chosen, it needs to be written within the agreement with any operator and developer chosen that a public waterfront park and esplanade must be a part of any deal struck.
With thousands of Bronxites going across the Bronx/Westchester border to Yonkers to gamble away, why not build it here and keep the money locally? But ultimately, that’s a question for the residents of Hunts Point to figure out and answer.
The Trump Organization can continue to operate a city-owned Bronx golf course, a judge ruled Friday.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio terminated a Trump company’s contract for the Ferry Point Park golf course last year citing the former president’s role in stirring up the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The city attempted to argue that the Trump name, and by association the golf course, was tarnished as a result of the Jan. 6, 2021 attempted insurrection and would not be able to profit or to operate tournaments — which city lawyers claimed was a requirement under the Trump Organization’s 20-year contract with the city Parks Department.
The Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, Bronx, Jan. 6, 2022. | Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
In her decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Debra James agreed that the contract is unambiguous in that the Trump Organization shall operate world-class tournaments — but not that it requires the “petitioner act so as to attract professional golf tournaments.”
She vacated the city’s termination of the contract and sent the matter back to the city Parks Department.
Donald Trump speaks alongside former Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the opening of the Trump Golf Links in The Bronx, Oct. 16, 2013. Spencer T Tucker/NYC Mayor’s Office
The Trump Organization cheered the decision on Friday.
“We would like to thank the court for its well-reasoned decision based on law and facts,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement, calling the de Blasio administration’s decision last year “nothing more than a political vendetta.”
“Former Mayor Bill de Blasio used his position to weaponize the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the New York City Law Department all in an effort to advance his own partisan agenda, score political points and interfere with free enterprise,” the Trump rep said.
The city Law Department said the Adams administration is reviewing further legal options. “Anyone holding a city concession is held to a high standard. We are disappointed in the Court’s decision,” said an agency spokesperson.
De Blasio, now a private citizen, did not respond to a message seeking comment but posted a response on Twitter Friday night calling the former president “an ignominious figure in U.S. history.”
“NYC did the right thing by canceling his contract and the city will win this case in the end,” he tweeted.
Spokespersons for Mayor Eric Adams and the city Parks Department deferred to the Law Department.
Bobby Jones Links, the firm that was poised to take over the course concession, did not return requests for comment.
Giving Golf a Bad Name
The city had announced it was terminating all of its contracts with the groups associated with Donald Trump in January 2021, days after the Capitol insurrection.
The city purged its deals with the Trump Organization, which at the time included two ice rinks, the Central Park carousel and the Bronx golf course.
“Inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government clearly constitutes criminal activity,” de Blasio said at the time. “The City of New York will no longer have anything to do with the Trump Organization.”
The The Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, Jan. 6, 2022. / Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The Parks Department then moved to sign a deal with a new operator for the golf course last September — revealed by THE CITY to be a joint-venture between an existing course operator and a homeless-shelter provider.
The Parks Department removed that nonprofit, CORE Services Group, following THE CITY’s reporting, leaving its partner, the Atlanta-based Bobby Jones Links, as the sole proposed operator.
Ken Caruso, an attorney for the Trump Organization, told THE CITY in September that the contract cancellation was “a mere pretext that Mayor de Blasio used as a cover for his political retaliation.”
“The city has no right to award the license to another operator,” he said. “The Trump Organization’s long-term license for this property is legally binding, enforceable, and remains in full force and effect.”
In a Nov. 4 injunction, James sided with the Trump Organization, finding that Trump Ferry Point LLC had shown it was likely to prevail on the merits of its case.
With only a few months into the new year, the Adams administration has announced a radical plan to speed up the gentrification of the South Bronx and create an entirely new neighborhood.
The plan will focus on mostly the Melrose area of the South Bronx from 149th Street to 163rd Street where hundreds of buildings are being targeted for demolition to make way for high-rise luxury rentals and condominiums and will evict thousands of families in the process.
Rendering of Third Avenue looking north from 149th Street
“The area is well situated and ripe to be the next big neighborhood in New York City and our plan is to give Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City a run for their money,” said Mayor Adams at a press conference this morning.
Adams added, “The South Bronx deserves people who will take care of their neighborhood and in order to do that we need to basically start from scratch and bring in a fresh, new population.”
The plan calls for up to 7,500 units of housing marked towards household incomes of a minimum of $85,000 per year and demolition of existing buildings to begin by the end of the year once all families in the area are evicted.
As you can probably tell by now, this is an April Fools’ post, however, did you know that it’s loosely based on actual events from decades earlier?
In 1992, residents of the Melrose neighborhood in the South Bronx, found out about an urban renewal plan that was being hatched for the area, and, even worse, it was a plan that wasn’t being made for or by existing residents.
Led by the late Yolanda Garcia, the group of residents organized and eventually mounted so much pressure that the city dropped their plans and gave into the group’s demand that residents be included in any planning process for their neighborhood.
Through these organizing actions was born We Stay/Nos Quedamos which helped guide and develop a truly community based plan for the future of the neighborhood and continues to do so 30 years later.
So while the post started out as a work of fiction, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination that something like this could happen given that it almost actually did.
Almost.
And we have Yolanda Garcia to thank for leaving no stone unturned and uniting a community against the nefarious actions of a city government that historically has not cared for its most vulnerable residents.
PS this is also a lesson for those who only read headlines and don’t bother to ACTUALLY read the article.
