There was a point in time in Bronx history when there were more synagogues than you could shake a stick at in our borough when the population was majority Jewish. So Jewish that in fact that our borough once had the highest number of Jews in the five boroughs of New York City.
As the decades rolled by, many migrated to the suburbs as they moved up the socioeconomic ladder or escaped the escalating burning of the South Bronx where many once lived.
So in honor of the High Holy Days which are upon us, we’d thought to share some links around the Web on the Jewish history of The Bronx.
Now the matriarch of the tainted Arroyo family, Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo (AD 84), is accused of breaking New York State Election Law for non-disclosure of campaign related contributions and expenditures during this election cycle by her challenger, Angel Molina. Not only is this blatant breaking of election laws appalling but what is even more disturbing is that out of 1,421 elected officials in New York State, Assemblywoman Arroyo leads the list with $33,648 in fines that she owes the State of New York, that is the people of New York for her continual breaking of the law these past 20 years.
Let that sink in. Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo, a representative of The Bronx is at the top of the list of offenders of 1,421 elected officials in the State of New York.
Why we allow these politicians to continue in office is baffling. This is what is wrong with The Bronx political landscape and it’s like we are stuck in a cycle which perpetuates political violence (yes, it’s a form of violence and abuse); getting upset at them when they do wrong but when it comes to reelection time, we vote them right back in.
Read the full press release below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BRONX ASSEMBLYWOMAN CARMEN E. ARROYO BREAKS LAW FOR NON-REPORTING OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS
Challenger calls for investigation and enforcement for chronic campaign finance scofflaw.
Bronx, NY September 23, 2014– With less than forty-two days remaining until the General Election in November, Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo (AD 84) is in violation of NYS Election Law for non-disclosure of campaign related contributions or expenses for this year’s election cycle, even though signatures were collected for her re-election.
New York State Election Law requires candidates with intent to appear on the ballot, including elected officials, to provide full discloser of all campaign contributions and expenditures to the State’s Campaign Finance Board or be subject to fines of up to $10,000, or face misdemeanor charges for willful violation.
To date, Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo has not reported a dime’s worth of campaign cash or receipts, including $12,000 allegedly spent on attorney fees to knock me off the Primary ballot.
According to reports, New Yorker’s are owed approximately $1.7 million dollars in uncollected penalties from elected officials for failing to file campaign related activities, Assemblywoman Arroyo leads the list with a whopping $33,648 owed the state for non compliance during her two decades in office.
I am requesting the NYS Board of Elections Commissioners Gregory P. Peterson and Andrew J. Spano investigate this matter immediately. State lawmakers should not be allowed to flout the laws they expect everyone else to follow.
Contact:
Angel Molina, Candidate for NYS Assembly 84TH AD
Cell: (718) 930-9712
Email: angel@molina4ny.com
Website: www.molina4ny.com
Apparently new land has appeared overnight in The Bronx that will be developed and branded Cromwell-Jerome.
Well that’s not quite what happened but after reading Denis Slattery’s story in the Daily News, about City Planning’s intention to re-christen an existing neighborhood with a new name, it might as well be.
The area in question is carved out of sections of areas of Highbridge and Mount Eden West of the Grand Concourse and Jerome Avenue (and thus the 4 train) acting as the spine of this “new” neighborhood and would be the result of rezoning this 57 block area to promote more residential developments in the area.
How do you feel about such efforts? Do you think the area is in need of rezoning and rebranded with a new name?
The city will involve multiple agencies in planning the new neighborhood, Samol said, keeping an eye on supporting economic development and affordable housing, improving parks and making the streets safer for pedestrians. The project will support Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan, which calls for 200,000 affordable units to be built or preserved over the next decade. A cornerstone of that blueprint is to encourage local involvement — and residents said they will be happy to oblige. “This is definitely a bottom-up approach and we’re thrilled to see this,” said Jose Rodriguez, the district manager of Bronx Community Board 4, which has been pushing for an analysis of the under-utilized area for years.
But are residents happy to comply? So far we’ve only heard from Jose Rodriguez, the district manager for CB4 so we’d like to hear from you, the residents on this issue. Let us know in the comments below.
Bronx Commons rendering and future home of Bronx Musical Heritage Center.
WHEDco and Bronx Health Reach invites you, on Thursday, September 25th from 5:30PM – 7:00PM at DreamYard Project located at 1085 Washington Avenue (at 165th Street), to learn about the findings of the survey and give feedback on their findings.
As many Melrose residents and those who work here may recall, last year from Fall ’13 to Spring ’14 WHEDco and Bronx Health Reach conducted a survey which collected data from 1,000 people who live and or work within Melrose Zip Codes of 10451, 10455 and 10456. The survey asked many questions from health issues to safety to what types of amenities the community would like to see in the area.
Melrose is the fastest growing neighborhood in The Bronx with well over 4,000 units of housing constructed in less than 10 years and several thousand more units are planned and about to break ground. One of such developments will be WHEDco’s and Blue Sea Development Company’s 360,000+ square foot, ‘Bronx Commons‘ a mixed-use, mixed-income housing development which will also house The Bronx Musical Heritage Center which is currently over on Louis Niñé Boulevard by Freeman.
According to WHEDco, this is their most ambitious project to date and will feature 270 units of low and middle income affordable housing as well as permanent home of The Bronx Musical Heritage Center, an important organization which celebrates and preserves the rich musical history of our beautiful borough.
To that end, the organization wants to know what are the issues impacting Melrose as well as what residents and stakeholders in the community want to see in their neighborhood. According to some of the results we’ve reviewed, the most common types of businesses that respondents to the survey would like to see are:
Fruit and Vegetable Vendors
Entertainment (Movies/Arcarde)
Indoor Fitness/Gym
Cultural Institution (Performance space, museum)
Community center/social service organization
Also high on the list of the many questions asked on the survey, which residents indicated concern with, were housing issues such as affordable housing, as well as concerns about health, and employment.
Please come to this important meeting about our community’s future, your voice is IMPORTANT!
YOU’RE INVITED!: MELROSE COMMUNITY MEETING
Join your neighbors and friends on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014, 5:30PM – 7PM to hear and give feedback on the findings around housing, health, youth education, childcare, the arts, jobs etc. on the 2014 Melrose Community Needs Survey! 1,000 community members did the survey(10451, 10455, 10456). Come find out what they said!
When: Thu, Sept. 25, 2014, 5:30pm – 7pm
Where: DreamYard Project, 1085 Washington Ave, Bronx, NY 10456 (BX 6, 15, 21, 32, 35, 41, Metro-North – Melrose)
Amenities: Refreshments and childcare provided. All are welcome to attend!
Come share your ideas and input, and join a team to address key issues identified. On behalf of WHEDco and Bronx Health REACH, thanks in advance! Register HERE(melrosebronx.eventbrite.com) or call Tom (WHEDco) for more info: 718-839-1196. Otherwise, see you on Thu., 9/25 at 5:30pm!
Starting this Sunday, September 28th, for 3 consecutive Sundays, artist Lovie Pignata of Morris Perk, will be teaching FREE drawing classes at the Sachkerah Woods Playground in Van Cortlandt Park (at Gun Hill Road and Jerome)
Yup, you heard correctly, FREE! Just bring your own folding chair and you will be provided with basic art supplies such as pencils, pen, and paper. Lovie will help hone your skills of observation by drawing directly from the beautiful nature found at Van Cortlandt Park.
Members of South Bronx Unite tell their story of the battle for the waterfront and environmental justice against FreshDirect via a cantastoria, or sung story in Italian — a tradition that dates as far back as 1,500 years ago to 6th century India. Hundreds gathered to watch the performance at the end of the People’s Climate March
South Bronx Unite Against FreshDirect, buildOn The Bronx, and La Finca del Sur were some of the organizations that led the historic People’s Climate Marchthis past Sunday down Manhattan’s West Side which saw over 400,000 people in attendance (days earlier, People’s Climate March estimated that about 100,000 people would participate). These Bronx groups were part of the first wave called ‘Frontlines of Crisis, Forefront of Change’ which consisted of ‘…the people first and most impacted and are leading the change’ led by Indigenous people, Environmental Justice, and other Frontline communities.
For the first time in history, the issue of environmental justice in The Bronx, particularly hard impacted communities in The South Bronx were pushed to the front of the global consciousness as we meandered our way down the March route through the canyons of Manhattan. Although many diverse groups were representing the Bronx, one common theme was seen among them: Stop FreshDirect from creating an environmental catastrophe in the South Bronx.
FreshDirect aims to build a 500,000 square foot facility on public land on our waterfront in the Harlem River Yards along with a fueling station — land which was flooded by Superstorm Sandy with over 3 feet of water during low-tide. To add further insult to injury, the land is also the site of a Native American burial ground. 1,000 trucks will be running through our streets adding further to an asthmatic crisis which we cannot afford.
According to USA Today, “The review found that children diagnosed with leukemia were 50% more likely to live near busy roads than children without leukemia,” said Vickie Boothe, a CDC health scientist and lead author of the Journal article.”
The issue is so serious that the CDC is calling for more comprehensive studies to confirm these findings but in the meantime they have suggested, ““As many people reside near busy roads, especially in urban areas, precautionary public health messages and interventions designed to reduce population exposure to traffic might be warranted.”
Can we afford to allow further abuses to our people? Further abuses to our environment in what can easily be called environmental racism in NYC? Only in poor communities of color will you see our government try and get away with plopping such industries next to highly populated areas.
Yesterday was only one of the many steps the people of The Bronx have taken to take their battle for their lives and their children’s lives to the forefront. Our community’s struggle against irresponsible deals like FreshDirect didn’t begin over 2 1/2 years ago when the deal was first announced without public hearings or input, this began decades ago during the era of disinvestment in our communities, when we were let to burn to the ground and fend for ourselves. The result was not what they expected. We are tired of being the dumping ground for everything that is bad.
In the fires of the 70’s and 80’s we were forged, like a finely honed weapon, into a people who will not go down without a fight and will use every legal means available to us to end the era of The Bronx being a dumping ground for everything that other boroughs don’t want and a place where we can continue to repair our environment and prepare for the inevitable realities that climate change will bring, which includes, creating sustainable and resilient waterfronts.
Our Bronx youth was at the frontlines getting their voices heard on the environment .Virginia Ayress, Chilean artist and activist in The Bronx.Bronx youth and the youth over all were a huge group of marchers in this historic event.The People’s Climate March was led by the Indigenous peoples of the world, the most vulnerable group to climate change.
Earlier this year in April, The Mix Up Cafe opened up as a pop-up cafe for 3 days.
Earlier this year in April we got a taste of an awesome pop-up cafe called the Mix Cafe and for three glorious days we had a spot to chill, relax and have a hot chocolate or some good coffee served with a side of great conversations with out neighbors. Now the Daily News is reporting that the cafe is looking to raise the necessary capital to make it a permanent fixture in the neighborhood.
Instead of your name, you were asked, “What are you?” as part of the social experiment on race and identity.For 3 days customers kept coming and coming.Some of the offerings the pop-up had back in April.
Coquito pushcarts around the Bronx are as big of an indicator that warm weather approaches as Mr Softee.
Alfredo Theibaud, owner of the coquito helado dynasty known as Delicioso Coco Helado was killed in a tragic freak accident this morning as he was opening up the gates to his business and they came down crashing on him killing him on the scene.
The Daily News reports:
“The beloved Bronx king of frozen ices was killed in a freak accident when a security gate crashed down on him as he opened his business early Friday, police sources said.
Alfredo Thiebaud, 79, had just lifted up the metal gate at Delicioso Coco Helado on when it rolled back down and pinned him about 5:40 a.m., sources and witnesses said.
He died at the scene on St. Ann’s Ave.
“This is a big loss for the whole Bronx,” said Gustavo Cabrera, 57, a longtime friend.
“Everybody in the Bronx knows his ice cream. Everybody loves Coco Helado.”
South Bronx Environmental Justice Waterfront Bus Tour & Cantastoria of the South Bronx Theatrical Performance SATURDAY, September 20, 12:00-3:00 Meet at Brook Park, East 141st St and Brook Ave
This dynamic tour will bring together participants from across the Bronx, NYC and the world to the frontlines of climate change and environmental justice, less than five miles from United Nations headquarters and mere days before world leaders gather for the UN Climate Summit. Following the tour, South Bronx residents will perform a Cantastoria of the South Bronx, a theatrical performance written and developed in collaboration with Papel Machete about the environmental needs, issues and experiences of the South Bronx.
The Historic People’s Climate March
SUNDAY, September 21, 9:00 am (arrive as early as 8:00 am!)
Meet at La Finca del Sur, E. 138th St and Grand Concourse
Join dozens of Bronxites (and the legendary pleneros – Artesanos de la Plena) who will be gathering at La Finca del Sur to travel together to Manhattan to join the historic People’s Climate March Bronx-style. We have dozens of T-shirts, banners and other Bronx-focused materials. Grab your family – grab a friend – or come alone! You do not want to miss this!
John Rozankowski, PhD pictured in 2005 battling against Forest City Ratner’s plan for the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. / Original Image from Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. Image Text by Welcome2TheBronx.com
This morning I woke up to the news that Brooklyn born but Bronx bred and Bedford Park resident of our borough for 58 years, John Rozankowski, PhD, passed away suddenly from natural causes.
John Rozankowski was born in Brooklyn and attended Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx and after graduating in 1971 he went on to Fordham University where he spent the next 8 years and obtained his PhD in History. He spent a large part of his life advocating for better mass transit and transportation (among many other issues) in NYC often times giving a voice to the voiceless and giving hope to those who had lost hope in a system that is broken.
Rozankowski was a follower of Welcome2TheBronx for some time and earlier this year contacted us to become a contributor and lend his knowledge and experience to help educate folks on what steps we can take to improve mass transit in the Bronx which, like most outerboroughs, can be abysmal due to the Manhattan-focused system.
In 2010, when MTA board members came to The Bronx for their town hall meeting at Loew’s Paradise Theater on the agency’s plan drastically slash service, John was, as usual, at the meeting. The New York Times said of him, “Some people relied on sarcasm. John Rozankowski took the board members to task for, in his view, valuing “high-tech gimmicks” over basic services. He drew laughs from the crowd as he slipped into alliterative high gear and rolled his R’s to denounce the authority’s “myriad menagerie of mechanical marvels.”
The Wall Street Journal quoted him in March 2012 in an article about the G Train that runs from Queens to Brooklyn. They wrote: “John Rozankowski, a mass-transit advocate and Bronx resident, has written about such “other-borough” transportation problems. “They have been given the shaft all along,” he said. In the Bronx, there are complaints about stations that need to be renovated, subway lines that should run express during peak hours and limited bus service. The lack of service affects economic development, argues Mr. Rozankowski. “That stops businesses from establishing themselves in the outer boroughs because there’s such difficulty of access,” he said. “More people are working in the outer boroughs. If you provide better mass transit you will change the riding patterns.”
In his LinkedIn profile, he wrote:
“I am a community activist living in the Bronx, NYC. My main field of interest is mass transit and I write primarily about transportation issues previously for Suite 101 and now for Sheepshead Bites and Welcome2TheBronx.
In my articles, I demonstrate with historical evidence that the MTA, a public authority, has been a disaster for NYC transportation. The agency is out of touch with the people, holds them and their needs in contempt and is beyond the control of NYC elected officials.
My goal is to initiate a NYC grassroots campaign to get the City to take over its subways and buses directly–without a public authority. NYC needs to go back to the days of the Board of Transportation of the 1930’s and 1940’s. It ran a much larger system with a much higher ridership, built numerous subway extensions–all with enormous public support.
Today, a Board of Mass Transit should include appointees by the mayor, public advocate and each of the 5 borough presidents. In this setup, NYC officials would have total control and the borough presidents would guarantee a mass transit policy which is fair to all of the boroughs–not just Manhattan.
It’s important for me to convince NYC citizens that they can change things for the better.
In addition to mass transit, I have campaigned against the new Yankee Stadium project and against the Kingsbridge Armory mall development. Both projects were hated by the people and against their interests.
I have supported term limits all along and the Living Wage campaign. Recently, I have been active in the Rockaway line reactivation and the Letitia James for Public Advocate campaign.
It’s necessary for the people to believe in themselves and in their own power. If all of my efforts contribute to a revival of civic activism then my efforts will not have been in vain.”
When he said “It’s important for me to convince NYC citizens that they can change things for the better…It’s necessary for the people to believe in themselves and in their own power. If all of my efforts contribute to a revival of civic activism then my efforts will not have been in vain,” he reminded me of why Welcome2TheBronx exists and I continue to go to bat for the underdog and the voiceless and provide them with a voice.
The Bronx, New York City and the world lost a great fighter for the people but let’s not let his work be in vain. Let’s continue the good fight as good citizens. Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and loved ones. John, you will be greatly missed along with your signature chutzpah.
Good riddance to a fast food joint in the South Bronx
Great news for the South Bronx! Italian Bakery Palombo is coming to 161st Street and will replace Burger King on Walton Avenue!
DNAinfo reports:
“The cafe, which has been on Arthur Avenue for several years, aims to open on East 161st Street and Walton Avenue by next Easter, according to building property manager Paul Mingrino. He said that the cafe would be a great fit for the community.
“It’s in a good spot. The area needs it,” he said. “You’ve got the courthouse right across the street, and with the neighborhood coming up, I think it’s going in the right direction.”
Burger King will leave the building at 103-107 E. 161st St. on Dec. 31, and Palombo signed a 25-year lease on the property, according to Barry Nissen, the real estate broker who put together the deal.
When the deal was announced, much like FreshDirect which was hashed out behind our backs, the community spoke out against it and began meeting with community leaders to discuss what the residents want in their own backyard rather than having these backroom deals decide for us. Months later, Diaz backed down and changed his position on the stadium and was on the fence.
Now Capital New York reports that, “Developers behind a proposal to build the city’s first Major League Soccer arena are looking to develop land near the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, after plans to build near Yankee Stadium fell apart, sources told Capital.”
They go on to say:
“A source close to the negotiations told Capital the Bronx plan “fell through the cracks,” after developers could not reach a deal with the building tenant, which currently occupies the site the partners had hoped to develop.
“The tenant is in one of the old buildings in the area that they needed to vacate, they had agreed on a price, then he changed his mind and the deal fell through,” the source said.”
THIS is a big win for Bronxites and showing how we can rally together to make sure our voices and needs our heard. While we don’t know the inside details of what actually happened, we’re pretty sure that community pressure had a lot to do with this deal collapsing.
Now onto the next project which we’ve been fighting that the community overwhelmingly does not want: FreshDirect.
