Less than two weeks ago it was announced that the landmark Bronx General Post Office was sold to YoungWoo & Associates (the price tag has yet to be published on ACRIS or disclosed) and now today it was announced that the landmark Banknote Building of Hunts Point has sold to firms Madison Marquette and Perella Weinberg for a whopping $114 million as Taconic Investment Partners unloaded the property — 4 years later than they had anticipated in flipping the property.
If you remember, BAAD (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), a pioneer tenant of the building before Taconic had purchased the Banknote, had to move from the building due to rising rents earlier this year.
It’s pretty intriguing that a property that is 6-7 stations deep into The Bronx (as it sits equidistant from Longwood and Hunts Point Avenue stations on the 6 line) has fetched such a high sales price. Transportation to the building (if you’re coming from downtown) isn’t as quick a jaunt since the 6 trains are running express in the opposite direction. Even though Hunts Point is slated to get a new Metro North station (1 of 4 to be added in The Bronx) that’s something that wont happen until 2023 at the absolute earliest given the MTA’s penchant for delayed projects like the 2nd Avenue Subway and the LIRR East Side Access (which is essential for these 4 new Metro North Station).
For anyone one working in the building, they have to walk for the most basic of services, unless they go to the McDonald’s across the street from it. This is something that the new owners plan to remedy as they are planning to build retail space into the ground floor. This will not only alleviate the situation for the building’s tenants but for surrounding businesses as well.
The Bronx is piping hot in the real estate sector with so many projects whether affordable housing or commercial projects. Only time will tell if these will benefit the people of our borough who desperately need to be uplifted along with the renaissance that is happening in The Bronx as we continue to rise from the ashes. If we leave our own people behind, then we have failed and will become yet another cookie cutter Manhattan or Brooklyn enclave.
16 years, and 2,977 lives later, those of us old enough to remember that day, will never forget what we were doing when we first heard or saw what was happening.
I was working at an ad agency (where two colleagues lost their father and spouse) when the first plane crashed. We ran to the conference room to watch the unfolding tragedy. At that point, so early in the moments of what was happening, we were kind of, in a typical New York fashion, very blasé about it but not to a point where we didn’t care. We realized something big had happened and that there were obvious casualties but the magnitude of it all hadn’t really sunk in. Then the second plane hit right before our very eyes and that was when the tears began to flow. One my co-workers had just arrived at the office and had briefly overheard what happened but this being the age before smartphones wasn’t too sure what was going on until she came into the conference room and saw what was transpiring.
She ran out of the room saying, “Oh my God, my father, my father’s down there!” This was a scene repeated throughout the city and the areas hit thousands of times over.
Out of of the 2,977 people we lost on that day, The Bronx lost 156. One of them being Battalion Chief Orio Palmer, born in the South Bronx and as a small child moved to the Northwest Bronx.
Palmer, a graduate of Cardinal Spellman High School, was one of only two first responders to reach the 78th floor of the South Tower where the plane had crashed. According to accounts, Palmer fixed an elevator and was able to take it up straight to the 41st floor and from there he ran up to the 78th floor. For many, this may have seemed extreme but for Orio Palmer, this type of vigorous activity was what he trained for. This was a man who had finished the New York City marathons and many other intensive athletic activities and received accolades from the FDNY for physical fitness.
It took a lawsuit by The New York Times to make the tapes of the broadcasts from first responders public for the family of Battalion Chief Orio Palmer to learn about his heroic bravery. For 5 years, the family never knew how far he had actually made it. That he was one of only 2 first responders to make it so far up the doomed towers.
In the years that followed the tragic events of 9/11, Palmer’s mother Agnes began to deal with the pain and suffering of the loss of her son by visiting the Cara Art Studio in Woodlawn where she began to learn how to draw. According to her, before she went into the center she couldn’t even draw a pear. As she learned how to draw and noticeably improved, she decided to draw her son from a picture she had. The result was so much to her liking that she eventually embarked on drawing portraits of the fallen members of the FDNY.
As a result of this journey of healing through art by Mrs Agnes Palmer, the Orio J. Palmer Foundation was set up at the Cara Art Studio to provide assistance to local children who want to attend classes at the studio. Through this foundation, he will never be forgotten and a new generation of children can not only learn about art but they can remember a real American hero who was from The Bronx.
I set up a reunion of people from my old Bronx neighborhood. It was in 1988, and took place at the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, NY. There was a Grand Piano in our function room, sitting alone, off in a corner gathering dust. My friend Sonny looked over at the piano, then at me.
“You used to play. Come on, sit down and play something.”
Three or four others who were standing around chimed in, also urging me to play.
“Sorry guys, put another tape on. ‘Used to play’ is right. I haven’t been able to play in years.”
It wasn’t false modesty. Four or five times in the past twenty-five years I’ve begun taking piano lessons again. But each time I’d quit, discouraged because my fingers couldn’t keep up with the music anymore.
I once had three pianos in my home. I still have a decent electronic keyboard. Once in a while I sit down and diddle, hoping, I guess, that some day I’ll be able to pick up where I left off all those years ago; but in my heart I know it’s time for me to face facts. I never played in Carnegie Hall. I never will.
I Never Played In Carnegie Hall
When I was ten, Aunt Esther took me to Carnegie Hall to hear the then popular pianist, Jan August.
Jan August
That was the day I decided to become a concert pianist. There wasn’t any room for a piano in the family budget, so for a while I kept my mouth shut.
Then I read a biography of George Gershwin. I thought I was reading about myself. He’d grown up in a New York apartment overlooking a noisy street. Me, too. He was the younger of two brothers. Me, too. He was from a Jewish family. Me, too. He had a funny-shaped nose. Me, too. Okay, so he was from Brooklyn and I was from the Bronx, but hadn’t my parents lived in Brooklyn before I was born? Gershwin died not so many years before I was born. There was no question about it. I was the reincarnation of George Gershwin.
One of the photographs in the book showed him as a twelve-year-old seated at his piano bench while his friends were playing outside on the street. He was sacrificing stickball, marbles and skelly for his music. These were sacrifices I would be willing to make if I had a piano.
I decided to talk to my parents. But first I wanted to enlist Aunt Esther’s moral support. She was the most devoted music lover in the world.
Aunt Esther and the author on Sheridan Avenue
She went to concerts, Broadway musicals and musical films, and brought them back to the Bronx with her. She hummed to us and to herself. She hummed incessantly; in the house, on the streets, in New York’s subways, at work and while relaxing. No one ever knew what she was humming. Aunt Esther couldn’t carry a tune. But she never let that stop her. She continued to hum away, and took great pleasure in doing so.
Aunt Esther sat in on my conversation with Mom and Dad. As it turned out, I didn’t need her support. My folks’ enthusiasm surprised me.
“No one in the family ever had any musical talent,” my mother said. “Maybe you’ll be the first.”
My father told me not to worry about the money. “We’ll find a way.”
“But you have to promise to stay with it for at least three years,” my mother said.
I promised.
Henrietta taught piano in her apartment on the top floor on the other side of my building. She was in her late forties, tall and slim, with a thin, elongated face. Her long black hair was curled into ringlets and amply flecked with gray. She wore wire rim glasses and had rings on every finger except her thumbs.
Her husband George was chubby and about three inches shorter than she was. He was a soft-spoken man with a Greek accent; a charming, friendly fellow who laughed readily and seemed to get the most out of life. Everyone I knew liked him.
Henrietta said she’d be delighted to tutor me. She charged two dollars an hour, and could fit me in on Tuesday afternoons at four o’clock. She volunteered to go to 149th Street with us the following Saturday to help pick out a used piano.
The days passed too slowly, but when Saturday morning finally came I was more excited than I’d ever been. At ten o’clock my mother, Henrietta, Aunt Esther and I got on the southbound Concourse bus. We transferred at 149th Street for the bus to Third Avenue. The trip took about forty-five minutes. I was bouncing up and down the aisle. Mom kept telling me to sit down and be still.
149th Street was the major shopping hub of the south Bronx. It was in fact called “The Hub”. There were giant department stores like Hearns and Alexanders, and large old discount warehouses that had the best bargains in the city. The streets were crowded with browsers and shoppers and pickpockets. Sidewalk hawkers displayed their wares on pushcarts. Traffic moved at a snail’s pace. Irritated drivers leaned on their horns to vent their frustration.
The Third Avenue El loomed over the scene, casting its giant latticework shadow. Hordes of people jostled each other as they scrambled up and down the staircases between the street and the elevated platform. The roar of the trains thundering into the station drowned out everything else, even the mayhem on 149th Street.
The Hub in 1951
In the midst of this hubbub was the large store that sold used and new pianos. Unfortunately the passing years have shielded its name from my mind. It was situated in an ancient four-story building. On the first three levels were pianos. The fourth level had one section filled with pianos, while another, occupying about half the floor, was crowded with organs. A precariously narrow wooden staircase with a rickety railing led from one floor to the next. On each level the walls were lined with uprights and spinets. In the center of each floor were grand pianos and baby grands which one had to weave through in order to walk around the floor. There were pianos as far as the eye could see, every one of them neatly polished and gleaming.
Each of us had a different agenda when it came to choosing the piano that would sit in the living room. Aunt Esther wanted one she could hum to. Mom wanted one that would match the décor of the living room, sort of early anarchy. Henrietta was concerned with the practical aspects of sound and durability. I wanted a piano that would allow me to play and compose music like George Gershwin.
Mom saw what she wanted in a corner of the second floor, a dark mahogany Baldwin upright. Henrietta put it to the test. She sat down on the matching bench and started to play. She played popular tunes and sonatinas. She tested all the keys and the three pedals at the base of the piano. Several people stopped to watch her play. I felt proud that she was going to be my piano teacher.
When she finished playing, Henrietta looked up at my mother. “This is a fine piano. The sound is excellent, and it’s sturdy. It will last for years.”
A salesman accompanied us to the cashier’s office, where Mom paid and made delivery arrangements. The piano was $125. Delivery was $25 extra. It would be delivered the following Saturday morning.
I was full of glorious anticipation for the whole week. I told anyone who would listen about the piano. Most of my friends said something akin to “so what.” The adults, especially my relatives, at least feigned interest. But nothing could dull my excitement and enthusiasm. The entire immediate family, seven of us who lived in the apartment, eagerly awaited the arrival of my piano.
Saturday morning finally arrived, and at seven-thirty we began to move the furniture out of and around the living room. The piano was going to be placed against the wall the breakfront had occupied. We moved the breakfront, a family heirloom, to a less prestigious position in the room. At eleven o’clock the piano store’s truck pulled up in front of my building. Three men got out and came up to our apartment. The supervisor, a short, swarthy, powerfully built middle-aged man, looked around the living room and clucked his disapproval. “This is going to be a tough one,” he said.
One of the men stayed in our apartment. He removed a living room window, sash and all, from its frame, and set up a winch near the open window frame. It had ropes that he dropped to the street. The supervisor and the other man went back down to the street.
By now the neighborhood was awake. A crowd of thirty or forty people had assembled across the street. They watched as blankets were thrown over the piano and ropes from the winch tied around it.
The crowd across the street had doubled by the time the piano began its slow ascent. My family was on the fire escape outside the other living room window. We watched the blanketed hulk as it was slowly winched toward our apartment, two floors above street level. It was a slow motion drama. The winch creaked and squealed; the piano seemed to move but inches at a time; the crowd across the street oohed and aahed with each creaking and squealing sound until, finally, the piano was dangling directly in front of the open window frame.
All three workers were now in the apartment sweating profusely. The muscles in their arms and backs stretched and bulged visibly. They maneuvered the piano through the window frame into the living room.
When the piano had safely been pulled into the living room, the crowd across the street heaved a collective sigh of relief, applauded, and within a minute of the end of the show the people went their separate ways.
The deliverymen, following instructions from their new supervisor, my mother, placed the piano against the wall, replaced the window, and left.
After my family finished rearranging the living room, it hit me. I have a piano! I sat down, lifted back the keyboard cover, and began to play. What I played sounded like Aunt Esther’s humming, but I didn’t let that stop me. I had a piano!
The following Tuesday I had my first lesson. In the weeks that followed I practiced at least two hours each day. For the first month I didn’t play with my friends. Not once. Henrietta said I was making great progress.
Not really Gershwin
When school let out for the summer, I practiced while my friends played outside. The sounds of their merriment came through the open windows, and I longed to be with them. But I had promised my parents three years. So I kept practicing. Every day it became more of a chore. Practice stopped being fun that first summer, but I was determined to keep my promise.
A few months into the third year, something unpredictable happened. Henrietta, by then nearing fifty, became pregnant. It was a difficult pregnancy. She was unable to teach for the last four months. It gave me the excuse I needed to break away and be with my friends. Practices became few and far between.
Henrietta gave birth to a son, Nicky. Two months later she began to teach again. I halfheartedly resumed lessons. I practiced for a month or so, then stopped, three years to the day after I’d begun. I’d kept my promise. And that was enough.
Besides, I was George Gershwin. I felt it in my bones. In my previous lifetime I had worked my butt off and died young. In my present lifetime I would have fun and live to a ripe old age.
About Bob Grand:
Bob Grand was born in the Bronx in 1938. He lived at 1348 Sheridan Avenue until 1959. For the outlandish rental of $ 65 per month they had a three bedroom one bath apartment in which, for the first ten years of his life, Bob lived with six other people – his Mom’s two sisters, his mom and dad, his older brother, and his widowed grandfather.
He went to P.S. 88, P.S. 90, JHS 22, Taft H.S., and then Hunter College in the Bronx (now Lehman). He mostly attended Hunter at night, graduating in 1966. When he started at Hunter, it cost $25 per semester.
In 1959 he and his family moved to 2325 Morris Avenue. It was an elevator building, something they had longed to live in for many years. It would have been a “step up” if not for the fact that, after all those years of waiting and longing, the apartment was on the ground floor of the elevator building.
He left the Bronx in 1967 to move to Manhattan, feeling very much at home in a 6th floor walkup (remember, he was younger then) studio apartment in the east 60’s for which he paid the huge sum of $ 135/month.
Bob now lives in Monticello, NY, but the Bronx will always be his home. He visits the Bronx often, and is thrilled to see a new generation of Bronxites enjoying living and raising their children there (he has five children and five grandchildren of his own). He wishes they were able to share the joy of neighborhood movie houses and candy stores and what they meant to the culture of his youth and his experience of growing up Bronx.
First the Opera House Hotel opened over a year ago in Melrose and now the Umbrella Hotel, also in Melrose is slated to open any day.
Comfort Inn is already rising at 135th and 3rd Ave as the steel beams are being driven into the ground. Plans have been filed and ground has been broken for a 12 story hotel on Exterior Street and E 146th Street making Melrose and Mott Haven the epicenter of new lodging in The Bronx.
All of these hotels, whether opened, planned, or under construction are 1 or 2 stops from Manhattan and even walking distance into culturally rich Harlem and El Barrio not to mention being surrounded by a neighborhood that is bursting at the seams with the arts.
All in close proximity to these lodging sites are places like the Bronx Art Space, the many artist galleries of Port Morris and Mott Haven, Longwood Gallery of the Arts, The Bronx Documentary Center, Pregones Theatre, Hostos Community College, Yankee Stadium, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the historic Andrew Freedman Home which in recent years has become a major hub of cultural activity.
And let’s not forget the recently purchased Bronx General Post Office which we’re waiting to hear from YoungWoo & Associates as to what their plans for the landmark building and landmarked lobby are.
335 Grand Concourse, the Comfort Inn, and 500 Exterior Street are all made possible die to the rezoning of the Lower Concourse back in 2009 of which the first residential development is slated to open shortly.
In a press release issued this morning, YoungWoo & Associates declared:
“While development plans are to be unveiled at a future date, YWA intends to build upon the property’s legacy as a trophy of the Bronx and an iconic gateway to the borough. “The site is extremely accessible with six immediate links to Manhattan and over four million annual riders using the 149th street subway. There are over thirteen thousand students and several thousand more professionals in the immediate vicinity due to the building’s prime location across from Hostos Community College and Lincoln Medical Center, in addition to other nearby institutions” said Adam Zucker, Director of Business Development at YWA.”
YoungWoo & Associates has partnered up with the San Francisco based Bristol Group, a real estate investment and development firm, to restore the Bronx General Post Office to its former glory.
Not only will the exterior once again shine gloriously but the firms will also preserve and restore the landmarked lobby, including the 13 Ben Shahn murals. “We are firmly committed to honoring the building’s historic legacy and working with the USPS to ensure that the interior landmarked lobby, including “Resources of America”—the 13 murals created by the great American artists, Ben Shahn and Bernarnda Bryson—are honored, restored to their original glory and preserved for all to enjoy” said Mr. Zucker.
As discussed, the Post Office WILL REMAIN within the building and continue serving the community uninterrupted according to YoungWoo. The community’s fear of the loss of postal service at the site have been assuaged. “The United States Post Office will remain in the building and service will be uninterrupted throughout the redevelopment process. “Key to our interest in purchasing the building was the United States Post Office desire to remain a tenant for the immediate future. We are most enthusiastic about their intention to be part of our redevelopment plans, providing continued services for the surrounding community.”
As for what precisely will be done with the rest of the property remains unknown but given the company’s track record of innovative developments such as the short-lived Dekalb Market (which was unfortunately forced to shut down for a Century 21), Chelsea’s Sky Garage, and The Superpier at Pier 57among others, it wouldn’t surprise us that they will probably create another market of sorts like the one we discussed. This, of course, is merely speculation but who knows? YoungWoo did after all mention in their press release that, “…bringing an innovative range of commercial uses to better serve the surrounding community is central to the developer’s plans.”
We’re excited to see what exactly YoungWoo & Associates has in store for us with this beautiful and beloved, landmarked Bronx treasure.
The Melrose, Grand Concourse and surrounding neighborhoods just got a little bit brighter than they already are.
Join Welcome2TheBronx and a roster of distinguished folks this Friday, September 12th to talk about the burning years of The Bronx. Event description is as follows:
A panel discussion about the tragic events and misguided policies that almost led to the complete destruction of a major U.S. city and the residents who decided to stay and fight to re-claim their neighborhoods and brought them back from the ashes of neglect, economic opportunism and political indifference. Panelists include:
* Edwin Pagán, director, Bronx Burning / Seis del Sur
Welcome2TheBronx has obtained EXCLUSIVE pictures of Monday’s filming of Orange Is The New Black.
Laura Prepon who’s name was made famous on ‘That 70’s Show’ and resurged to fame in the Emmy winning Netflix Original Series, ‘Orange Is The New Black‘ was in The Bronx today filming for Season 3 on City Island. Here’s an account from our dear friend and photographer, Elena ‘Mamarazzi’ Marrero of her day scouting the set:
“I got up early in the morning to shoot the filming of Season 3 of OITNB (I love this show) OK so now, Mamarazzi is in action. The only character in attendance was “Alex Vause” played by Laura Prepon.
The scenes they were filming were “Flashbacks” so they told me no other cast members would be there. I was disappointed. I wanted to see “Crazy Eyes!” I tried to get in through an open gate down the block but I was caught! OK so I had to shoot through the gate.
OK now off the next scene a couple of blocks away. It was going to be filmed inside a house, in the kitchen. I waited a while but then they started feeding the crew. I thought about it, haaaaa but decided to leave to have seafood instead so I went to Seafood City and had a delicious shrimp lunch.”
Take a Bronx Street Art Tour and visit the latest TAG Public Arts Project outdoor murals. This special Tour grants visitors an insider’s view of the sites and details of the artist, The process used and country of origin. We share the history and community/business that serves as a backdrop for this unique art form.
Tour the finest TAG Public Arts Project murals, A street gallery of artists from around the world.
Based in The Bronx, SinXero (SX) is the Founder & Creative Director of “TAG Public Arts Project. TAG specializes in maximizing the exposure of artists it represents by showcasing their Fine Upscale Urban Art in gallery, non-gallery spaces and urban communities that embrace TAG’s concept of live art productions for installation in legal public spaces. TAG’s vision is to encourage fine artists to work together while “Enhancing The Visual Landscape of Urban Communities with art.” Endorsed by The Bronx Council on The Arts, Brooklyn Street Art, Street Art NYC, Art & Fashion Salon, as well as, XCIA.
About MCNY Tours:
Our goal at MCNY Tours is to collaborate in partnership with Bronx Small Business, Cultural Houses, Historical Landmarks to promote team building positive results, providing unique products & customized personal services, our mission is to continuously meet and exceed customer expectations, to help improve and boost our Borough’s image and outdated past perceptions, we are determined in keeping our Company’s philosophy, strong business objectives of always maintaining respect, reliability, integrity, fairness and trustworthiness for our Clients.
Our company MCNY Tours was established in June 2011 and the concept of the Bronx Historical Tours ® was created after working various years in the Marketing, Hospitality, Advertising and Retail industries, I put my diversified business experience to good use. It took long extensive hours of planning to get the new concept on the road. I felt in order to get some experience in Business and attempting to stay afloat I started selling Tee-Shirts on-line and street fairs breaking into the Business world, we prepared the extensive Times Square and Grand Central Terminal Marketing campaign and Social Media strategy to introduce our Neighborhood Tours into the marketplace. It took a lot of hard work and we faced unforeseen challenges but in the long run with our finish product as we help support our local Bronx Businesses and Historical Landmarks I realized it was all worthwhile, we are reinforcing to improve our image worldwide, build important business partnerships, also promoting in bringing positive awareness to our Borough.
I sensed there was an immediate urgency and need to show our Borough to those who had a misleading and unfair opinion of us. I’m very grateful for being able to accomplish this great Historical Tour and being able to show the Bronx
through my eyes and personal experiences. I find great intellectual gratification in meeting people from all over the world, including locals, It’s amazing to learn about their unique stories, triumphs, hardships and backgrounds, after every Tour I realize one thing: We all have something in common with our Guests; their own personal version of a Bronx Tale in a completely different part of the world.
I’m a Bronx native grew up near Yankee Stadium, then Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and spent the greatest part of my life near Woodlawn Cemetery, This unique trajectory connects me to all the places and it holds a very special place to my
heart, I’m extremely proud of our Borough we have come a long way from where we were as individuals and our families and neighbors came to this Borough as Immigrants to find the American dream, we respect these families for their
modesty, integrity, strong spirit, contributions and hard work.
This special place is very important for us, my family and our friends, we have Bronx natives who are life long residents call the Bronx their home, some of the past perceptions needed to change and that is why we are re-educating our
Tourists and Locals through our Tours of how much this Borough means to us and for those who have faced loss or destruction from the past negative environments. We can connect you to see a different side of the Borough and learning about our important History in time. We want to place the Bronx back on the map as a unique extension of New York City where creativity, talent and hard work was born and bred with perseverance as some Bronxites went on to become exceptional productive members of society.
Our Bronx people are very proud individuals and will continue to strive to improve, stabilize our social economic fabric and continue to chase the American dream. We are fulfilling those unique talents through your support of our Borough’s Small Business, Literature, National Landmarks, Music, Arts and Culture. We are grateful for taking the time to visit and show support on the return of our Beautiful Bronx movement, Our talented team and local business partners appreciate your loyalty and patronage.
Hundreds of FreshDirect trucks destroyed by Superstorm Sandy were dumped on the South Bronx Waterfront before the company even had (and still doesn’t) an official lease.
New York State Empire State Development Corporation and FreshDirect tried to pull a fast one last week and have a meeting which gave FreshDirect weeks notice to gather supporters (only 8) and only gave the majority of residents who oppose the deal less than 24 hour notice to gather residents. This resulted in MANDATORY PUBLIC HEARING for which we must be given, at minimum, 10 days notice to prepare. Please read below on how to prepare your testimony and all necessary details regarding this process. This is a major opportunity to once and for all kill this deal which the vast majority of residents have been against since day 1.
Friends, One of the moments for which we have been preparing for over a year is here – the public hearing on State subsidies for FreshDirect – and we need you to show up and provide testimony!
Last Wednesday, the relevant State agency (Empire State Development Corporation) held a directors meeting in regard to State subsidies for FreshDirect. South Bronx Unite got less than 24 hours notice. FreshDirect got weeks of notice and lined up 8 speakers with statements of support – from their CFO to several employees to SOBRO to BOEDC and the Bronx Borough President’s office. While that directors’ meeting was obviously stacked against us, it triggered a future mandatory public hearing for which we must be given at least 10 days notice. We have confirmed that the public hearing will be announced some time after Labor Day and that it will take place on a weekday evening in September in the Bronx at either Borough Hall or Hostos.
Substantive negative testimony received at the public hearing can cause the board to reject State subsidies for FreshDirect (just as the Empowerment Zone Board did in December 2013). As such, we must organize a very forceful lineup of testimony for the public hearing, and we have little time to do so. Attached is draft testimony we have prepared for all South Bronx residents, friends and allies with the core issues.
Use some, all or none of the draft, but please:
1) Prepare testimony against FreshDirect receiving State subsidies
2) Show up to the public hearing (date, time, location to be announced)
3) Publically read and submit your and/or your organization’s testimony
Over the next week, someone from South Bronx Unite will be following up with you to answer any questions you may have, to confirm whether you will be able to attend the public hearing and to collect a copy of your organization’s testimony. (EMAIL southbronxunite@gmail.com to confirm your attendance!)
We are winning, but we need everyone to cross the finish line!
South Bronx Unite
p.s. This has always been a David vs. Goliath struggle, but the facts are on our side, and this movement continues to grow. Mayor de Blasio and his team have received more than 400 phone calls and emails asking him to stop the deal. Litigation is ongoing (with appeals to the Court of Appeals and the Appellate Division). South Bronx Unite’s Mychal Johnson was selected as one of 38 global civil society delegates to the UN Climate Summit, bringing international attention to SBX environmental justice and the issue of FreshDirect, SBU is working with political theater group Papel Machete for a dynamic performance in the South Bronx and organizations from across the Bronx are working together on a unified presence during the historic People’s Climate March on September 21. Ask us about how you can get involved with any of this! Below is a draft of a sample letter of testimony against the FreshDirect deal which you can either use in its entirety, edit and add your own comments or simply use it as a template to write your own:
DRAFTStatement of [Name]On behalf of [name of org]Before the Empire State Development Corporation Public Hearing on the Proposed Subsidies to FreshDirect and FreshDirect’s Application for a Zoning Override
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Empire State Development’s (ESD) proposal to subsidize FreshDirect’s move from Long Island City, Queens to the Harlem River Yard (HRY) in the South Bronx.
[Insert appropriate description (e.g. As a South Bronx organization/resident, City Council Member representing Mott Haven residents]/, [I/we] oppose the subsidy for this project because information made available by this and other agencies reveals that the FreshDirect project: (1) runs counter to the needs, desires and well-established development plans of the local community, (2) will have devastating environmental and health impacts on a community where one in five children has asthma, (3) would pay low wages with no guarantee of jobs to local residents (4) violates the constitutional requirement that HRY, as state-owned property, 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) fails to justify the excessive subsidies being sought by FreshDirect and should be denied as a matter of public policy.
(1) FreshDirect’s Business Model Directly Conflicts with the Needs, Desires and Well-established Development Plans of the Local Community
In considering this project, under Section 16 of the Urban Development Corporation Act, this board must give primary consideration to the needs and desires of the local community and must foster local initiative and participation in connection with its planning and development.
The industrial and heavy manufacturing uses on Harlem River Yard are no longer consistent with the actual and contemplated use of the surrounding area, which has been repeatedly rezoned over the last 15 years to foster residential development, develop community access to the waterfront, and turn the area into a true pedestrian-friendly “Gateway to the Bronx.” FreshDirect’s truck-intensive business seriously conflicts with these local desires and plans and, as such, this board must reject the proposal.
In 1997, for example, a five-block area next to Harlem River Yards was rezoned as a mixed-use, residential district. The new zoning was a catalyst for strengthening the area’s antique businesses, along “Antique Row,” and for revitalizing the residential character of this historically mixed-use neighborhood. As a result of the rezoning, approximately 42 row and houses were rehabilitated, 36 new residential units were created or reactivated on upper floors of buildings, upwards of 100 lofts in a former piano factory were converted and new ground floor retail and exhibit spaces were opened. In 2005, under the Bloomberg Administration, the City rezoned an additional 11 blocks adjoining the Harlem River Yard and a section of the Yard itself from manufacturing to mixed use residential, permitting additional residential development. The zoning changed this area from M3-1 (heavy industry), M2-1 (medium industry) and M1-2 (light industry) to a new area zoned M1-5/R8A, M1-2/R6A and M1-3/R8. Developers and residents have taken advantage of the rezoning and have added at least 559 new residential units within the rezoned area.
Numerous small businesses have opened along Bruckner Blvd., including restaurants, gardening centers and cafes/bars, building on the residential character of the neighborhood. Our community has also dramatically increased its recreational use of the Harlem River and Bronx Kill waterways which run along the banks of the Harlem River Yard, and the community looks forward to the opening of the South Bronx Greenway/Randall’s Island pedestrian/bike connector linking the South Bronx to Randall’s Island – a link that runs directly through the Harlem River Yard.
(2) FreshDirect’s Truck-Intensive Business Will Cause Additional, Irreparable Harm to South Bronx Residents’ Health
There is an asthma crisis in the South Bronx. Dubbed “Asthma Alley,” one in five children in our community has asthma, and asthma hospitalization rates in the South Bronx are 21 times higher than more affluent parts of New York City. These staggering facts were documented by a study entitled “South Bronx Environmental Health and Policy Study,” which was commissioned by Congressman Serrano and conducted by the New York University School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Public Service together with local South Bronx Organizations. The study found that the levels of asthma in the South Bronx were caused by diesel truck emissions from the area’s highway and industrial facility saturation, and that the solution was to reduce the already overburdened rates of truck traffic in the community and to provide for more open space.
FreshDirect is a trucking business. In its own application to the New York City Industrial Development Agency (IDA), the company disclosed that it would bring 938 diesel truck trips every day in and through the Mott Haven/Port Morris neighborhood. This number does not account for the additional car trips or company-expected rates of growth, which would bring the number of additional vehicle trips to upwards of 3,000 per day. Introducing into our neighborhood, and at taxpayer expense, the level of truck and other vehicle traffic that FreshDirect will bring is unconscionable.
To make matters worse, the lead agency for this project, the IDA, declined to fully assess the environmental impacts of the proposed relocation of FreshDirect’s truck-intensive business, instead relying upon a 20-year old environmental impact statement that was incapable of assessing the impacts that this project would have. For example, the 20-year old EIS does not analyze fine particular matter (P.M. 2.5), a leading cause of asthma and a host of other pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. Twenty years ago, PM 2.5 was not a well-known public health issue; now, however, PM 2.5 must be studied as part of any environmental impact analysis. At nearly every turn, the IDA and FreshDirect underestimated impacts and ignored key changes to the community and the original project plan in order to avoid their obligation to perform a full envioronmental impact analysis. In addition to completely ignoring the rezoning from industrial to mixed-use residential, the IDA failed to conduct the requisite traffic, air quality, noise, zoning, greenhouse gas, NYC Waterfront Revitalization Plan Consistency Assessment analyses mandated by the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
FreshDirect claims that it will develop a “green fleet” at some point in the future, but it fails to explain why, when the company lost more than half its fleet in Hurricane Sandy last year, it chose to replace the damaged trucks with a complete set of new diesel trucks.
Moreover, Congressman Serrano, State Senator Serrano and New York City Council Members Mark-Viverito and Arroyo have asked the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) for a moratorium on all new development at the Harlem River Yard until DOT audits its lease with Harlem River Yard Ventures and undertakes an investigation of the health and environmental impacts of the current and proposed uses taking place at the Yard, including with respect to FreshDirect.
Citing “deep misgivings about this [FreshDirect] project because of its impact on the health of Bronx residents,” Congressman José E. Serrano went on the stop $3.5 million in additional subsidies being sought by the company from the New York Empowerment Zone Board in December 2013.
(3) Low-Wage Jobs Despite an Enormous Subsidy, an Alarming Record of Discrimination/Unfair Labor Practices and No Enforceable Commitment to Local Hiring
This board has an obligation to ensure that subsidies go to good employers paying decent wages. That clearly is not the case for FreshDirect, a company which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to be excluded from the living wage requirements of the city and which has a deeply concerning record of discrimination and unfair labor claims.
Last year, New York City Council overwhelmingly passed the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, which requires any private development project directly accepting $1 million or more in taxpayer subsidies to pay employees a living wage of $10/hour with supplemental health benefits or $11.50/hour without benefits. FreshDirect, however, angled to receive a pass on this “living wage” requirement despite seeking a subsidy more than 100 times the threshold. FreshDirect spent more than $300,000 lobbying to undermine this monumental legislation. Even Mayor Bloomberg criticized the speaker of city council for delaying the living wage legislation vote to exclude FreshDirect.
Moreover, in the past four years, FreshDirect has faced at least 27 discrimination complaints and has had nine unfair labor claims filed with city, state and federal agencies. As disclosed in its subsidy application, these include claims of unfair labor practices and claims of discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, age, disability, religion, and gender. The company is also currently being sued by current and former employees in a class action for violating federal and state law by withholding more than $23 million in overtime wages and tips per year from drivers.
In addition, FreshDirect signed an MOU with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. in which it merely commits to “make its best efforts” to hire Bronx residents for 30% of all new jobs. This is not a commitment to actually hiring Bronx residents, only an unenforceable commitment to try to hire them. There is no job commitment specifically for residents of the South Bronx.
The South Bronx needs employers who pay living wages and are committed to hiring South Bronx residents. (4) Siting FreshDirect at Harlem River Yard Would Further Frustrate the Lack of Public Benefit that Forms the Basis of DOT’s Lease of the Yard to Harlem River Yard Ventures The New York State Constitution requires that leases of public land first and foremost provide a public benefit. The land on which FreshDirect proposes to build is part of a 90+ acre waterfront lot owned by DOT and leased to a private developer that has been the subject of two prior audits by City and State Comptrollers and has subleased the land in a manner that has been exacerbating the health crisis in the South Bronx.
In 1991, the NYSDOT and Harlem River Yard Ventures entered a lease for the Harlem River Yard whereby Harlem River Yard Ventures agreed to provide the public benefit of an intermodal terminal at the Yard to reduce regional truck traffic through increased rail use. As part of this arranged public benefit, in 1994 ESD approved a $3.5 million loan to Harlem River Yard Ventures to develop the intermodal terminal, yet to-date, not one intermodal lift has occurred at the Yard. Harlem River Yard Ventures has instead, for the last 20 years, subleased the waterfront property to diesel-intensive, heavy industry applications, including a FedEx hub making over 1,400 daily truck trips through the neighborhood, the New York Post printing and distribution center, and a 5,000 ton per day waste transfer station, one of four waste transfer stations located within a 1/8 mile radius.
Harlem River Yard Ventures is now proposing to lease to FreshDirect, which plans to build one of its facilities (as part of its plan for a 500,000 square foot warehouse and truck parking lot and fueling station) directly within the 28 acres reserved for the intermodal terminal – amounting to a complete abandonment of the public benefit required by the lease and previously funded by this agency.
Adding insult to injury, Harlem River Yard Ventures has profited to the tune of $61 million since the lease commenced. It collects approximately $500,000 per month in rent from its subleases, while paying only $43,000 per month in rent to DOT for the entire 94 acres.
(5) Subsidizing FreshDirect’s Relocation to a South Bronx Waterfront Flood Zone is a Misuse of Taxpayer Money, Particularly in the Wake of Superstorm Sandy, Where Exisitng Open Spaces are now being Preserved to Absorb Inevitable Storm Surges
In February, 2012, the IDA contemplated FreshDirect’s application for more than $80 million in subsidies to move to a South Bronx waterfront flood zone. Nine months later, Superstorm Sandy hit, taking the lives of 43 New Yorkers and wreaking unprecedented damage to homes, businesses, and communities along the coast, in the tune of $19 billion worth of damage.
FreshDirect now appears before this agency seeking tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to build a 500,000+ square foot warehouse, parking garage and fueling station in a South Bronx flood zone that sustained significant damage during Superstorm Sandy. Upwards of three and half feet of water swelled Harlem River Yards at Lincoln Avenue, leaving a trail of destroyed businesses and a concerning toxic-appearing residue along the streets. The foundation of the former East 132nd Street pier, which abuts the Long Island Sound and is adjacent to a fossil fuel power plant, was forcefully ripped out of the ground from the pressure of the storm. FreshDirect’s proposed site is on the other side of that power plant. In fact, most of the borough’s electrical grid infrastructure is in and around the site on which FreshDirect proposes to build, which lines the Bronx Kill waterway feeding into the Lond Island Sound.
In response to the devastation of the storm, Mayor Bloomberg laid out a high priority plan for “A Stronger, More Resilient New York” to protect New York City from the threat of rising sea levels and powerful storm surges in the future. A central component throughout the plan is to study how natural areas and open space can be used to protect adjacent neighborhoods. Indeed, the plan calls for a study, to be completed by 2014, of waterfront open spaces and natural areas to direct and store excess floodwaters.
Already, the New York City – Region 2 Advisory Committee (RAC) for the New York State Open Space Conservation Plan recommended for priority status a community developed and driven Mott Haven-Port Morris Waterfront Plan that would preserve as open space seven inter-connected waterfront projects lining the South Bronx shoreline, including the site on which FreshDirect proposes to build its warehouse. The recommendation came in May 2013 following a series of meetings led by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation together with the New York City Departments of Parks and Recreation, Environmental Protection and City Planning and representatives from all five New York City borough presidents’ offices.
Subsidizing FreshDirect’s plan for the South Bronx waterfront would be a severe misuse of taxpayer money and would thwart city- and state-wide efforts toward coastal protection in light of climate change.
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Finally, and importantly, there has been no analysis as to why FreshDirect is unable to remain in its existing, city-subsidized location. In fact, documents submitted to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority from FreshDirect, show that the company has the ability to expand in its current Long Island City facility. Moreover, there has not been a cost-benefit analysis to consider the impact that this subsidy would have upon existing brick-and-mortar grocery stores – a tremendous oversight. There has also been no analysis on the impact this move would have on FreshDirect’s current employees in Long Island City. Could taxpayers be subsidizing the loss of jobs for Queens residents? Given the needs of the South Bronx, allocating tremendous resources to one company is irresponsible. This is particularly the case when subsidizing FreshDirect so heavily will harm other grocery stores in the city, and in the South Bronx in particular, and when the food offered by FreshDirect is priced at levels beyond the means of most South Bronx residents. For these reasons, as well as the reasons elaborated above, including that the FreshDirect project runs counter to the needs, desires and well-established development plans of the local community, would exacerbate the health crisis in the South Bronx caused by oversaturation of diesel trucks, would reward circumvention of living wage requirements and back track records of unfiar labor claims, would further subvert the public benefit legally required of state land, and is inconsistent with efforts to protect the South Bronx waterfront flood zone in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, we ask that ESD deny FreshDirect’s application for subsidies and for a Zoning Override. Respectfully submitted,
Located on 152nd Street and Wales Avenue just beyond Melrose and Mott Haven you will find Piraña’s delightful truck. For years my friends and I have frequented this place and it definitely one of our favorites so we’re surprised that Gothamist actually even included a Bronx food truck!
Here’s what they had to say:
Via Foursquare
LECHONERA LA PIRAÑA: As the name suggests, this Mott Haven food truck serves some fierce lechon asado, a Puerto Rican-style roast suckling pig dish. Proprietor and chef Angel only blesses The Bronx with this dish on Saturdays and Sundays, but when he does, it makes for a sumptuous $8 feast—he slices the slow-roasted pork with a machete and sticks the dry-rubbed meat, skin still intact, on a bed of rice and peas. Pork aside, you can sample Angel’s pastelillos, or fried empanadas, along with some super-cheap alcapurrias, plantain-based dumplings stuffed with meats.
Lechonera La Piraña is located at East 152nd St. near Wales Ave in The Bronx on Saturdays and Sundays.
Gabe Pressman, A senior correspondent for NBC came to The Bronx, the borough of his birth and where he was raised, to do a segment on Port Morris. The 90 year old award winning journalist took a tour of the area an local businesses such as Port Morris Distillery, Charlie’s Kitchen, and Jamie Jones’ The Shoppe Bx.
Check out the video below and tell us what you think? This journalistic segment further solidifies why FreshDirect does NOT belong in a residential neighborhood like Port Morris with over 3,000 truck trips daily plus extra vehicular traffic.
“Community activists and residents alike, along with politicians, were (and still remain) upset at the sale of a landmarked building which is a heart and pride of the South Bronx and the borough overall.
Young Woo & Associates was one of the bidding firms for the Kingsbridge armory who lost out to the ice-skating rink proposal and who had an idea to turn the Bronx General Post office into a market just like their original idea for the armory. Welcome2TheBronx proposed that the market could be a Chelsea Market / Eataly style market with a Bronx twist that would celebrate the many ethnic groups which call the Bronx home making us the most diverse borough in New York City (read all about what a Bronx Chelsea Market/Eataly Hybrid would be like).
According to the Daily News the post office will remain operating in the building:
“The Postal Service will maintain a retail presence at the site along with responsibility for the murals’ preservation regardless of what Youngwoo & Associates plans for the site, the spokeswoman said.
The actual sales price of the post office has yet to be confirmed and we now await from official word from Young Woo & Associates as to what will be developed at the building.
Meanwhile, check out a segment on BronxTalk with host Gary Axelbank where Young Woo & Associates discussed their original market concept for the Kingsbridge Armory (which aired in August 2012) and may very well end up being their plan for the post office:
