Big Bank Hank of the pioneering rap group the Sugarhill Gang poses for a portrait at Sugar Hill Records on November 7, 1983. (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images – Via LA Times)
Born Henry Lee Jackson in The Bronx in 1957, Big Bank Hank of The Sugarhill Gang has passed away due to complications with cancer. Big Bank Hank is considered to be one of the founders of Hip Hop with The Sugarhill Gang’s hit ‘Rapper’s Delight’ which was released 35 years ago this month.
Hank went to Bronx Community College where he received his Associates Degree in oceanography but was unable to find employment in his selected career. This eventually led to his path to becoming one of Hip-Hop’s pioneers.
For almost 30 years the 3 upper levels of the 4 buildings have been abandoned and the windows were filled in with cinder blocks and cement. Less than a year after the artist Banksy tagged the building, the owner is now converting the upper levels into residential units.
Last year, on October 21st, the infamous street artist known as Banksy struck in the Melrose neighborhood of The Bronx on E 153rd Street (just down the block from me) where Elton and 3rd Avenues meet prompting thousands of fans to trek to the area and catch a glimpse of his controversial ‘Ghetto 4 Life’ piece. The 4 story buildings have been vacant for decades (close to 30 years) with the exception of the retail spaces on the ground floor. Now the owner is beginning the process of converting the top 3 floors into market rate residential units.
“Lots of property owners now remove Banksy pieces so they can sell them at auction for pure (and enormous) profit. His “Slave Labour” stencil piece sold for $1.1 million last June; “Flower Girl” from an LA gas station went for $209,000 in December; “Kissing Coppers” from an English pub wall, sold for $575,000 in February. Banksy doesn’t condone removal, but he has never, as far as we can find, tried to stop a sale. Banksy doesn’t make street art anymore; he gives half-million-dollar gifts to people who own buildings.”
“A mum-of-five woke up to find her home had more than doubled in value overnight – after artist Banksy sprayed a £500,000 mural on her wall. Stunned Karen Smith, 48, heard voices outside in the early hours but thought nothing of it until she spotted men loading huge screens into a van in the morning. She watched them zoom off before finding a painting of three 1950s-style spies on the side of her £300,000 three-bed semi in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.”
But that’s not what pushed the building owner to renovate the derelict edifice according to a statement he made to Welcome2TheBronx.
“I know there is a demand for housing and have seen the positive changes in the neighborhood,” said building owner David Demaggi.
According to Demaggi, the process is in the very beginning phases as they work with the Department of Buildings to determine the number of apartments and bedroom counts, etc. They are also determining if the 4 buildings will be combined to create one single property. He went on to stress that this is very preliminary and that total number of units have yet to be determined let alone rents but the rents will indeed be market-rate.
Patricia Wheeler Bozza, who grew up in Melrose and lived in one of the buildings at 649 Elton Avenue (651 Elton is the one where the Banksy ‘Ghetto 4 Life’ is located), told us she lived there from when she was born in 1947 until 1967 when her parents decided to purchase a house and moved north near the Olinville Section of the Bronx.
“It was a railroad flat above stores and the rent started out at $27.30 a month and once we had radiators and risers, the rent rose to $43.80,” said Wheeler Bozza. “The bathtub was in the kitchen!” she added.
If indeed the units are market-rate, it will be the first of its kind in the area. All construction in Melrose so far has been mixed low and middle income rentals, condos and cooperative apartments.
Residents React
Melrose resident and homeowner in the area since the early 2000’s Dani, says she’s glad that, “Finally something is being done with the building.”
“I was tired of walking by that building and seeing it so abandoned and nothing being done with it for so many years. I think it’s positive for the neighborhood and making use of space that otherwise is sitting empty.” Dani added.
Other residents were a bit more cautious. 30 year old creative consultant Karah Shaffer said:
“As someone who moved into the neighborhood nearly seven years ago because of the inexpensive rent, express trains to Fulton Street, and lack of “cool” neighbors, hearing of the plans for the upper floors of the four story building at 3rd Avenue and 153rd to be renovated and offered at market rate is a bit bittersweet for me. I understand the elation of any newcomer to the neighborhood seeing the space they can get for the price per square foot. I also understand that the asking price of these units will likely far outpace what I and other neighbors pay per month, and those newcomers are far less likely to accept the neighborhood as it is than to wish for things that aren’t here. I hope potential new residents will be mindful of their surroundings and understand fully that Melrose and the Hub already have everything they’ll need, likely for a fraction of whatever neighborhood they’re moving in from would sell the same necessities for.
That Port Morris has the higher end sushi, galleries, and restaurant fare to enjoy a night out with friends or a cute date. That the people here have worked their fingers to the bone to maintain what some people might turn their nose up at– a friendly, welcoming, diverse, and active neighborhood with local shop owners and family-run businesses. The South Bronx does not need stamps of approval from would-be residents, it needs the respect of all who enter. So long as this attitude is adopted by potential renters, move on up!”
Located next to The Umbrella Hotel and in the middle of The Hub Business Improvement District, future residents will have easy access to shopping and many other amenities in the neighborhood. The Bronx Documentary Center is within 4 blocks from the site as is historic The Opera House Hotel. 3 blocks away will rise La Central which will include a 48,000 square foot YMCA and rooftop farm. La Central will include almost 1,000 units within 5 buildings and include an astronomy observation deck on the roof of one of the 21 story buildings.
Those looking for their fitness fix have Senshi Okami Martial Arts Cener where you can learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the legendary John’s Boxing Gym, Musoko’s Mixed Martial Arts Academy (at 686 Courtland Avenue), and of course the national fitness chains such as Crunch, Planet Fitness, Blink Fitness (Blink has two locations in Melrose), and Lucille Roberts for women.
The cinder blocks and cement that once sealed all the windows are now mostly gone. Windows are being installed. So now we sit tight and see what happens over at the “Banksy” Building as it continues its renovation and eventually begins to welcome new residents into an already dynamic and diverse neighborhood. Melrose is the most diverse it has ever been in its history — let’s make sure we can keep its diversity alive.
If you want to see what Food Justice looks like, its this; a rainy day in the Bronx where Karen Washington and the coalition of La Familia Verde farmers are having their weekly farmers market.
These women, some of who are in their eighties, are growing fresh food in urban gardens through out the neighborhood and are bringing it to the people in their community. Karen Washington and La Familia Verde work to remove the stigma and idea that your income precludes you from access to fresh produce.
For the farmers that come to this market, they know they’re not going to make a ton of money selling produce here – they’re here to make sure that everyone has equal access to their food thus helping build friendship and community.
2417 Third Avenue, with its Bronx Lofts Billboard, is under contract for $31 million. The building is directly across from the Mott Haven Bar and Grill
Will this transaction be followed by others? With so many similar properties in the Lower Concourse Rezoning District, it will be only a matter of time before everyone is ready to sell and then what?
2417 Third Avenue sits within the southern portion of MAP’s development plans for the Special Harlem River Waterfront District.
Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section below.
PEARL GABEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Albert (right) and Chuck Davis in Albert’s Riverdale, Bronx home. The brothers fought in and survived the Battle of the Bulge — together.
Welcome2TheBronx salutes our veterans today and everyday. Here’s a heartwarming story about twins from Pittsburgh, one of which made his home in The Bronx over 50 years ago, and how they survived a major WWII battle:
“The 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in December has twins Albert and Charles Davis thinking back — and looking ahead too.
The 89-year-old brothers are the last surviving set of six pairs of twins to serve in the Army’s 17th Airborne Division in one of the most critical battles of the 20th century.
“I don’t remember that we worried about one another,” said Albert Davis, a retired teacher who has lived in Riverdale, the Bronx, for more than 50 years. “We were so naive and so young.”
“It’s incredible to think back on it now,” said Charles Davis, a retired advertising executive from Centerville, Ohio, who spent a week in September visiting his brother in the Bronx. “We’re twins, but we have very different dispositions. I’m more laid back and he’s more of a take-charge guy.”
Public Hearing to Stop Cuomo From Giving FreshDirect $10 Million To Cause Asthma in the Bronx Mon, Nov 17th, 5-9 pm;
4:30 pm Press Conference
Hostos Community College, Gymnasium
450 Grand Concourse, C Building
If link doesn’t work, cut and paste the below into an email, then print and bring it with you to the hearing to read it into the record.
TO: FreshDirect@esd.ny.gov
CC: southbronxunite@gmail.com
SUBJECT: I oppose the proposed ESD $10 million subsidy to FreshDirectTo Whom It May Concern:I oppose the proposed Empire State Development subsidy package for FreshDirect because the project: (1) runs counter to the needs, desires and well-established development plans of the local community (with multiple residential rezonings and State open space proposed prioritization of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan), (2) would have devastating environmental and health impacts on a community where one in four children has asthma (as the company would bring upwards of 1,000 diesel truck trips through the neighborhood every day), (3) has no requirement to pay its workers a living wage (including for the more than half of its workforce that is not unionized), nor add any jobs despite promises made to the public, (4) violates the constitutional requirement that the state-owned land on which it is proposed to be sited provide a public benefit and reduce truck traffic, (5) is inconsistent with efforts to protect the South Bronx waterfront flood zone in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and (6) runs contrary to fair business practices – no analysis has been made of its impact on existing brick-and-mortar grocers nor on new entrants to the grocery delivery market; there is also no cost-benefit analysis regarding the potential loss of jobs of Queens residents, nor on the ability of FreshDirect to stay and expand in its already-subsidized Queens location, which it disclosed would be the most economical option.
Additional facts to learn more, share and build more in-depth testimony against this project if you have the time!
IMPORTANT UPDATES: We are winning, but we need everyone to get across the finish line.CLICK HERE for updates on our community’s ongoing litigation against FreshDirect (especially in light of newly disclosed information), overwhelming support for the Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan (which does not include FreshDirect), and growing pressure on the de Blasio administration to stop the still-pending subsidies.
“But why care about sulfur? Even without the lessons learned from that episode of “Hey Arnold!” when the protagonist traveled into the sulfuric depths of a Brooklyn-esque city, most people would agree that the less sulfur they inhale, the better off their bodies. Indeed, the EPA warns of severe health dangers from even short-term exposure to sulfur. “Current scientific evidence links short-term exposures to SO2, ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours, with an array of adverse respiratory effects including bronchoconstriction and increased asthma symptoms,” says the EPA’s website, “these effects are particularly important for asthmatics at elevated ventilation rates (e.g., while exercising or playing.)”
Studies show a connection between short term sulfur exposure and increased emergency room visits and hospitalizations for respiratory illnesses, according to the EPA. “SOx can react with other compounds in the atmosphere to form small particles. These particles penetrate deeply into sensitive parts of the lungs and can cause or worsen respiratory disease, such as emphysema and bronchitis, and can aggravate existing heart disease, leading to increased hospital admissions and premature death,” says the EPA’s website.”
Now CityLab from the Atlantic reports that there is a possible link between air pollution and adolescent ADHD in a study which focused on the South Bronx amongst several other NYC neighborhoods:
Researchers from Columbia University and elsewhere have found a possible link between air pollution and adolescent ADHD. According to the report, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, pregnant women from New York City exposed to certain air pollutants were more likely to birth a child with ADHD. The pollutants —polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)—are released into the atmosphere through the burning of coal, tobacco, and petrol.
The research team monitored 233 nonsmoking women living in Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Bronx. The women and their household pollutant levels were monitored from the time of pregnancy until their children reached the age of 9. Those living in highly polluted areas were five times as likely to give birth to a child that developed ADHD during the course of the study. (The researchers controlled a number of factors, including; sex of the child, the child’s ethnicity, the mother’s education level, maternal ADHD symptoms, and quality of home caretaking environment).
“This study suggests that exposure to PAH encountered in New York City air may play a role in childhood ADHD,” explains Dr. Frederica Perera, the report’s lead author.
Public Hearing
Stop Cuomo From Giving FreshDirect $9 Million To Cause Asthma in the Bronx* Mon, Nov 17th
6-9pm; 5:30pm Rally
Hostos Community College, Gymnasium
450 Grand Concourse, C Building
1) Prepare testimony
2) Show up to the public hearing
3) Sign up to read and submit your testimony
Use some, part or all of this set of facts to form your own statement against this project!
UPDATES: WE ARE WINNING, BUT WE NEED EVERYONE TO GET ACROSS THE FINISH LINE!
Legal Updates –The ongoing litigation to stop Fresh Direct’s move to the Harlem River Yards continues! Newly disclosed information provides us with the opportunity to request renewal of our claim that the State DOT violated the New York Constitution by allowing land at the Harlem River Yard to be leased to Fresh Direct. We’ll keep you posted!
Support the Proposed Prioritization by the State of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan – Our community’s plan for the waterfront – which does not include FreshDirect’s diesel truck warehouse – has received overwhelming support from City and State agencies, Speaker Mark-Viverito and more than 200 residents and orgs. If you have not already done so, submit your comments in support of the plan – LINK HERE.
Continue to Put Pressure on the de Blasio Administration – Mayor de Blasio has the power to stop this deal! More than 400 phone calls and emails have been made to his office asking him to stop this deal. If you have not done so already, contact his team today – LINK HERE.
South Bronx Unite is a coalition of South Bronx residents, organizations and allies working together to improve and protect the social, environmental and economic future of the South Bronx. South Bronx Unite formed in response to the proposed relocation of FreshDirect from Long Island City in Queens to the Harlem River Yard, a 96-acre Port Morris/Mott Haven waterfront parcel of public land leased by the New York State Department of Transportation to Harlem River Yard Ventures in 1991 for 99 years with no public benefit to the community. In an undemocratic and community-excluded process, Fresh Direct has aimed to secure nearly $140 million of publicly financed subsidies from the City and State to assist with its proposed move to the Harlem River Yard. Even though FreshDirect would introduce 1,000 daily diesel truck trips to South Bronx neighborhoods where 25% of children have asthma, the City and FreshDirect failed to adequately review the environmental impacts associated with the project and excluded the affected community from the decision-making process.
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ /FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 92 year old Bronx resident Berta Davidovitz-Rubinszejn hugs Meir Brand, who she saved from the Nazis in occupied Hungary.
“A brave 92-year-old Bronx woman who helped rescue Jews from Germany-occupied Hungary during World War II was honored Thursday for her heroic past.
Berta Davidovitz Rubinsztejn was one of dozens of rescuers who helped Hungarian Jews escape the Nazis by disguising herself as a Gentile and working with the Zionist underground youth movement Dror Habonim.
She was reunited Thursday with one of the refugee orphans she saved from the streets of Budapest and took in as her own.
“I am standing here only because of you, Berta,” said Meir Brand, 79, as he thanked Rubinsztejn during an emotional ceremony at the Riverdale YM-YWHA.
When real estate companies and developers begin to look at your neighborhood more and more intently we know that there is a big danger of gentrification creeping in. When investments begin to top $2 billion in The Bronx, that means we’re no longer the final frontier but things are already happening.
According to Real Estate Weekly:
“Robust job growth, new retail and residential projects, and pro-business local officials are among the reasons investors are finding the Bronx an attractive place for their investment dollars.
During a panel discussion at the Manhattan North Association of Realtors’ 13th Annual Trade Show, moderator Shimon Shkury, president of Ariel Property Advisors, said $1.15 billion was spent on investment property in the Bronx in the first half of the year, and the borough is expected to end the year with sales exceeding $2 billion.
The price per square foot for commercial properties also is rising from $213 per square foot in 2010 to $396 per square foot in the first half of 2014.
“We’re bullish on the Bronx because we like to invest in places where we can make money and part of what we like about the Bronx is we feel we can,” Frost said.
“There is a huge amount of infrastructure here that doesn’t exist in other places. The subways are already here, the parks are already here… and there are some real institutions in the Bronx that help support it such as Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Zoo, Fordham, and the Botanical Garden.”
Frost said that his firm is planning to build a Hampton Inn near Yankee Stadium. New projects like the planned re-development of the Bronx Post Office also have the potential to attract tourists. In the last 12 years, the Stagg Group has built 2,500 units of housing and currently has six projects with 600 units under construction in the Bronx.
Seble Williams said that Emmes began investing in properties in the Bronx in the 1990s as part of a 100-plus distressed portfolio across all boroughs.
“If you look at the value that was achieved in that portfolio, most of it was because of the neighborhoods improving and the growth of the neighborhoods where these properties were located,” she said.
“So we recognize the unrealized value of the outer boroughs.”
Last year Emmes launched the Emmes Interborough Fund, a $160 million fund that targets retail, multifamily, and office investments across New York City’s outer boroughs, Williams said. The Fund recently purchased a portfolio of five buildings with 80,000 s/f of retail in the Bronx, all locations near transportation hubs.
The properties, which are 86 percent occupied with a mix of national retailers and small, local businesses, were considered a “core plus play.”
Williams said her firm sees opportunity in the Bronx because there is a $9 billion demand annually for retail in the borough, but a third of the market isn’t being served.
As a result, the borough is experiencing “retail leakage,” meaning that residents are spending their dollars in other boroughs and in other states instead of the Bronx. She said she also sees value on the Bronx waterfront.”
“As I write this, the rain falls on a cold and dreary day and that, I suppose, is as it should be, for a Real New Yorker has fallen.
There is no great tragedy when a person dies at 85 — at least that is what some would have you believe. The common wisdom is that the death of a child, or young adult is, somehow, sadder, because of all the promise that lays ahead in life and because the pain of the parents resonates so fully. Children should not pre-decease their parents.
But what of the 85 year old who never really “gets old,” who never stops learning, or living? We know so many who suffer from “Glory Days” syndrome, to borrow the title of the Bruce Springsteen song. That is to say, those who reached life’s pinnacle in high school, or on the gridiron, oozing with the power and vitality of youth. Too many of us willingly embrace the diminishment of the years and comfortably curtail our ability — and desire — to keep learning, growing, and staying in the game.
Welcome2TheBronx is one of 19 blogs who have provided anecdotal stories on gentrification creeping into their respective neighborhoods for a feature Curbed worked on for the 50th anniversary of the coining of the word ‘Gentrification’. Here’s what Curbed had to say followed by our story:
“Curbed was founded a decade ago as a site that would chronicle real estate and neighborhood changes, two subjects that are inextricably intertwined. And boy, have we ever, tracking the topic with self-proclaimed obsessiveness and attention to minute detail. It’s easy to capture the drastic evolution in areas like the Lower East Side, the East Village, the Meatpacking District, and Tribeca inphotos; comparing historic images and modern-day shots truly does lay bare what’s gone and what’s replaced it. But as the term “gentrification” turns 50, we figured it was time to sit back and take stock on a more microscopic, anecdotal level. We asked neighborhood bloggers and long-time locals to share with us one moment in which they knew their home had irrevocably changed. A shop opens; a dive bar closes. An industrial tank gets torn down; a pile of glassy condos launch. Their 19 tales are but little nuggets, down to the level of a street corner or a storefront, but taken together, they shine a light onto the large-scale transformation of New York City over the last few decades.”
Here’s what Welcome2TheBronx said:
↑ When did the thought of gentrification of the South Bronx hit me? Was it when Bronx Bricks in Mott Haven, the first market-rate condos, opened up in 2007 across from a NYCHA development with 11 units selling from $388,000 to $789,000—sold them all within a few thousand dollars of asking? Or was it when the borough’s first boutique hotel, The Opera House Hotel, opened up in Melrose—or that a year later another one, The Umbrella Hotel, is getting ready to open just four blocks away? Maybe it was when Beverly Boutique on 3rd Avenue in The Hub in Melrose was priced out after many years, and Orva Shoes from the Upper East Side moved in, making their first foray outside of Manhattan? Probably, though, it was when Banksy tagged up a building on my street and thousands of hipsters descended upon my neighborhood to gawk at his (somewhat ironically named) “Ghetto for Life” piece. —Ed García Conde, founder and editor, Welcome2TheBronx
