James F. Lyons, right, the Bronx borough president, and an assistant tried to retake Marble Hill from Manhattan on this date in 1939.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Here’s a little history lesson from the New York Times. Many of us assume that Marble Hill is part of the Bronx because it is physically connected to our borough but that wasn’t always the case — and it still is Manhattan. Legally, anyway. Read about when a former Bronx Borough President invaded Manhattan.
“Marble Hill residents identify so much with the Bronx that they often don’t realize they live in Manhattan until they’re summoned for jury duty,” said the borough’s current president, Rubén Diaz.
The Manhattan borough historian, Michael Miscione, will speak on the Marble Hill border war at 6:30 tonight at New York University.
Rendering of proposed waterfront development in Lower Concourse
New York State Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli released a report today which tells us what we already knew in the Bronx: That there is an affordable housing crisis in our borough.
According to the report, “Incomes and housing costs vary regionally statewide and are generally higher in the New York City metropolitan area, although housing affordability is a statewide challenge. Bronx County, for example, had the highest proportion of renters with housing costs of 30 percent or more of income in 2012, at nearly 58 percent.”
It’s no secret that Bronxites are struggling to make ends meet and even though the Bronx saw some of the highest numbers of new construction affordable housing units in the city, rising rents and stagnant income are keeping many of our residents in a perpetual cycle of poverty.
Just a few weeks ago Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr unveiled a $500 million plan to develop the waterfront I’m the Lower Concourse Rezoning District stretching from 138th Street to 149th Street.
Lower Concourse Rezoning District and Waterfront
While the South Bronx can use a more diverse income base, it is imperative that development in this zone and along the waterfront include a healthy combination of mixed low and middle income to address this crisis.
This is a perfect opportunity for Ruben Diaz Jr to come up with an innovative development plan that will address both sides of the issue. The need for affordable housing in the the Bronx has never been greater and the Lower Concourse Rezoning District is in a unique position to ameliorate the situation since it is a 30 block area with only a couple of residential buildings.
All that land can easily accommodate thousands of new units WITHOUT having the need to exclude the most vulnerable which are the low and middle class of our borough.
In DiNapoli’s press release today, it goes on to say:
“Regardless of where they live, more New Yorkers are feeling pinched by rising housing costs,”DiNapoli said. “When half your income goes to pay for a place to live, you are going to be stretched thin on other every day purchases. This unfortunate trend has troubling implications for our economic growth and for New Yorkers’quality of life.”
DiNapoli’s report evaluates New York state housing affordability trends from 2000 to 2012 using U.S. Census Bureau data. The federal government describes affordable housing costs as being below 30 percent of household income. Statewide, more than 3 million households are at or above the affordability threshold of 30 percent of household income.
The Sunrise Co-op signed a lease Friday on a 84,000-square-foot space in Hunts Point, at 1080 Leggett Ave.
Many of the group’s members have been without properties to conduct their business since the end of January when they accepted deals worth six months’ rent from the city to vacate their businesses. Some accepted payments worth 12 months’ rent to leave the Iron Triangle by the end of November.
Dozens of auto repair shops and junk yards that have populated the area for decades have been pushed out to make room for the first phase of a $3 billion redevelopment of the blighted area into a new neighborhood with a megamall.
Many of the business owners have been out on the street fixing cars, trying to make a living, as they wait to move into the new location, said Marco Neira, one of the group’s organizers.
“They’re on the streets trying to survive. Everybody has a family so they have to create an income,” he said. “With this, we can have the hope and in two or three months we can start doing business again.”
The group’s organizers have been closing in on signing a lease on the property for a couple months after negotiations with the landlord to fix the facility’s bathrooms slowed down the process.
The Sunrise Co-op will, however, have to wait a little longer before its members can start moving in.
Anna and Domenico Agovino at La Casa del Caffe in the Morris Park section of the Bronx.
SUZANNE DECHILLO / THE NEW YORK TIMES
I gave up coffee years ago due to hypertension issues but after reading this article and watching the video, it makes me want to jump on the 5 train and head to Morris Park to see what all the fuss is about.
From the New York Times:
You can travel to La Casa del Caffe, on Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx, and try to coax Anna Agovino into spilling some of the secrets behind making a perfect cup of coffee. She will shoot you that Fellini-worthy smile of hers, and she’ll be patient with your questions. For a minute or two.
But eventually she’ll throw a simple question back: “You want espresso?”
And you do. That espresso, after all, is the reason you’ve walked into this stark little room with Neapolitan soccer paraphernalia on the walls and zany Italian game shows on the TV. It’s why there tends to be an afternoon line of customers snaking along the counter. If you hover in that line next to Fabio Saglimbeni, a hairdresser who lives in Rockland County and makes a regular pilgrimage to stand and wait for Mrs. Agovino’s careful ministrations, he might turn to you and say, “So you came to have the best coffee in New York City?”
Read the rest of the story to find out how to get to LA Casa Del Caffè and don’t forget to watch the video of Anna!
What the above article does not address is whether the #5 at night be an express or local. I feel that it should be an express. There are 36 stations between Bowling Green and Baychester Avenue and 37 stations between Bowling Green and Gun Hill Road (White Plains Road) plus a transfer to the #2. This makes for a miserable ride especially if an additional transfer to a bus is included. With both the #4 and #6 running as night-time locals, the #5 should be an express. It would cut the ride by 14 stations.
More can be done for the #5 during the daytime:
—The #5 to East 238th Street/Nereid Avenue should be given its own number and run all day as an express in the direction of heavy travel i.e. to Manhattan AM and from Manhattan PM with a reversal time of 12:30 PM. This would provide White Plains Road riders a faster one seat ride to the East Side. This new line could terminate at New Lots Avenue giving those riders direct East Side service as well.
—The #5 express (6:00-9:00 AM & 4:00-7:00 PM) on both branches should be extended until 9 PM. Likewise, during mid-days, some #5’s from Dyre could run express. Some should continue to run local so riders between East 180th Street and 3rd Avenue would not be deprived of an existing service.
Enhancements for Other Bronx Lines
—D Bronx Express (6:30-9:00 AM & 3:30-6:30 PM). The PM run should be extended until 9:00 PM.
In addition, there is enough capacity on the D to add a new line which would run, along with the D to 59th Street. At this point, it would continue via the A line to Port Authority Bus Terminal, Penn Station and downtown Manhattan. No longer would Bronx riders have to switch to the A or C and the dwelling time of trains at the transfer stations would be reduced. This line would run directly to Rockaway Park relieving some transfers there.
—#1 Broadway. There are 16 stops between 242nd Street and 96th Street. 5 stations downtown and 6 stations uptown can be skipped thanks to a middle track while 157th Street and 145th Street (downtown) can be bypassed on the local track to establish an express from 96th St. to the heavily used 168th Street and 181st Street stations.
The MTA recognized the problem and tried to deal with it with the #1/#9 skip-stop service, north of 137th St. (1989-2005). The time saved was minimal with trains having to slow down almost to a stop at bypassed stations for safety reasons. The far bigger problem was that the skip/stop destroyed the connectivity between stations. For example, no one could travel from West 225th Street (#9) to Dyckman Street station (#1) without first diverting to West 242nd Street to switch trains. The express service outlined above and preferred to the skip-stop by residents would not create connectivity problems, would be faster and more effective.
—#4 Jerome. This line is jammed at all hours and cries for all-day express service in the direction of heavy travel. The express should run from Burnside Avenue to 149th St. Since the #4 is at capacity during peak hours, headways at the bypassed stations can be increased by one minute from four to five minutes. Three express trains would be created at twenty minute intervals. The number of expresses could rise after the peak.
This line had two Bronx express pilot programs in 2009. Absolutely obsessed with demonstrating time-savings, the pilots had express trains by-pass the very busy Kingsbridge Road and Fordham Road stations. By running express from Burnside Avenue, the train would have more riders and provide emptier locals for those boarding south of Burnside Avenue.
Let’s Not Forget the Buses
A prime mass transit mobility problem in the Bronx is traveling crosstown. Today only the SBS12 does this in a timely fashion. On other lines, the ride is agonizingly and unnecessarily slow. What’s needed is not more SBS (Select Bus Service) which is costly and disrupts traffic but more Limited Bus Service. The following lines need it desperately (proceeding south to north):
All-day Limited Stop service on just these four bus lines plus the 12SBS would go a long way to solve the Bronx crosstown problem.
Only You Can Make It Happen
It is often said, with considerable merit, that the MTA favors Manhattan and wealthy neighborhoods. One thing must be said about the residents of those wealthy neighborhoods: they tenaciously fight for their interests. Residents, primarily from the Upper East Side banded together under the C. Virginia Fields Second Avenue Subway Task Force and relentlessly campaigned for the 2nd Avenue subway for almost a decade.
Recently, the people of the Rockaways fought for and won a Ferry Service from Rockaway Park to Downtown Manhattan and are organizing under the Queens Public Transit Committee to campaign for mass transit service improvements in Queens.
In the Bronx, we must do the same thing. I was very gratified that so many of you voted affirmatively in the poll requesting that Bronx Borough President Diaz call together a Task Force on Bronx Mass Transit. One major consequence of the Task Force is that it would bring civic activists with an interest in mass transit together from all over the Bronx. This group would have the authority to speak for the entire borough in advocating mass transit improvements.
Notes
1 The article requests a resumption of the #5 train at night. In fact, the #5 never ran at night from its inception on August 1, 1918, when it was called the Lexington Avenue/White Plains Road Express. (The number system was introduced in 1948). At night in 2008, the MTA extended it to 149th St. Grand Concourse on cold winter days. As an intermediate step, this should be done year-round as it would spare #5 riders a transfer at East 180th St.
Originally, the #5 ran to White Plains Road with both express and local services while the #2 ran to East 180th St. and then to Dyre Avenue. The switch was made on April 18, 1965. The #5 from East 238th Street/Nereid Avenue is a remnant of this service and does an excellent job in reducing the number of transfers from the #2 to the #5 at East 180th Street.
About John Rozankowski, PhD
Although born in Brooklyn, John Rozankowski, PhD spent most of his life in the Bronx and received his Ph.D. in history from Fordham University at Rose Hill.
After selling his rental property, John became a community activist fighting against the new Yankee Stadium, the term limit extension, the Kingsbridge Armory Shops-in-the-Armory proposal and for Bronx Borough President Reuben Diaz’s living wage campaign. Last year, he was a volunteer in the Letitia James for Public Advocate campaign and continues to campaign in Queens for the reactivation of the Rockaway line.
John has a very strong interest in mass transit issues especially relating to the subways and buses. The outer boroughs have always been shafted and it’s high time that Bronxites did something about it.
In addition, he is a writer and blogger on New York City issues.”
Dr Rozankowski has lived in the Bronx for 58 years and currently resides in the Bedford Park neighborhood of the Bronx.
Disclaimer:
Comments, views, and opinions are that solely of the author and should never be misconstrued as that of Welcome2TheBronx or any other authors of this site. Welcome2TheBronx only edits articles submitted by readers for grammar and spelling leaving fact checking up to the author.
Welcome2TheBronx encourages reader submissions for consideration for publication on our site. It is our mission to be able to provide a platform where Bronx residents can have their voices broadcasted to a wider audience.
To submit an article, email us at submissions@welcome2thebronx.com
Artist Natalie Collette Wood works on an installation in the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, part of a virtually round-the-clock tag team art challenge. See more photos in our slideshow. See more photos in our slideshow. Agaton Strom for The Wall Street Journal
At 2 a.m. Thursday, a weary Aaron Lazansky-Olivas spray-painted pastel yellows and greens onto wooden panels that would become an art installation at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx.
“I’m fading,” he admitted with a laugh.
The abstract graffiti artist is part of a duo working virtually round-the-clock in a tag team art challenge. Inspired by adrenaline-driven shows like “the Amazing Race,” the Artist Chain Reaction competition pits five teams against each other to create art installations. The winners, to be named March 10, will share the $1,000 prize.
Artists Andre Trenier, left, and Justin Hicks working on an installation. Agaton Strom for The Wall Street Journal
Of all the eclectic exhibitions here in the last two years, Artist Chain Reaction is the most ambitious, Ms. Alfieri said. She encouraged viewers to visit repeatedly throughout the weekend to be “part of the art making process.”
For abstract painter and sculptor Natalie Collette Wood, that voyeuristic element adds an intriguing dimension to the challenge.
“Having people watch you create energizes the work,” said Ms. Wood, who spent Wednesday night using small strips of black tape to fashion galaxies on the gallery wall. “I think it will help the artists make something new and exciting, something they probably wouldn’t make alone.”
Nearby, artists Andre Trenier and Justin Hicks were in the throes of an animated conversation comparing personal styles. Mr. Trenier is a painter known for using sneakers as his canvas. Mr. Hicks infuses music, text and video into his creations.
“We’ve been discussing why we make art and what art means to us,” said Mr. Trenier, who noted they both share a love of hip hop culture. “Hopefully in the end, people will get a sense of our commonality.”
Japanese-Bronx Poetry Exchange: Connecting Young Poets Across The Globe
On February 23, 2014, two classrooms on opposite sides of the globe were connected for an exciting first step into an on-going international poetry exchange project. The Japanese-Bronx Poetry Exchange is the first program of its kind, bridging the cultural divide between students in the Bronx and Japan through the use of poetry and video conferencing.
As DreamYard students and their families arrived around dinnertime and rehearsed their poems at our Art Center in the Bronx, fifteen students at Joshi Seigakuin Junior and Senior High School assembled in an auditorium in Tokyo after their first morning class. Using a teleconferenced video connection, the two groups were introduced to each other in real time at 7pm EST; students clapped and waved, eager to see where the night (or morning, in Tokyo) would take them.
Led by long time DreamYard supporter, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, students in the Bronx and Tokyo took turns reciting poetry and sharing their stories with one another. The DreamYard students, most of whom had recently placed in a borough-wide poetry slam competition, performed award-winning slam poems while the students in Tokyo recited traditional Japanese poems. Afterward, participants were given a chance to ask each other questions about why they chose to read or write certain things, what inspires them, and of course, what it’s like to be a teenager in the Bronx or Japan!
This dialogue was an important first step towards creating a new poetry exchange program here at DreamYard. It was moving to see young people expound upon their shared experiences transcending culture or place; feeling alone, feeling loved, feeling loss, fitting in. Prior to the exchange, Ambassador Kennedy shared why she felt this night was so significant: “Poetry is so unique. It gives us a chance to put our thoughts and emotions into words and share them across time and space. Its more important than ever now that the whole world can communicate instantly.”
Why Poetry: A Brief Background on DreamYard’s Poetry Project
Since 1998, DreamYard, in partnership with BronxWrites, has impacted more than 20,000 students in 75 schools both within and outside of the New York City school system. Our poetry programming combines literacy with performance instruction serving as a catalyst for creativity, learning motivation, and offering a pathway to academic success.
Through these programs, our students can access opportunities that will prepare them for higher education and a meaningful career. We believe that all youth, regardless of their background, deserve the opportunity to become engaged citizens, life-long learners and the leaders and innovators of tomorrow.
– See more at: http://dreamyard.com/japanese-bronx-poetry-exchange-connecting-young-poets-across-the-world/#sthash.6sNHG402.dpuf
A student on a scavenger hunt at Gabriele Stabile's "Refugee Hotel" exhibition / Bronx Documentary Center
The Bronx Documentary Center, in the short time that it’s been in existence, has become one of the most important cultural institutions of not just the South Bronx but the entire borough.
In just over two years, the BDC has had 5 major exhibitions not only bringing the world to the Bronx but the Bronx to the world. There have been over 80 screenings followed by in depth panel discussions providing an unparalleled educational experience.
The BDC has become a second home to many of us, a place where we meet other like-minded, creative individuals not only in documentary journalism and photography and other disciplines, but Bronxites and people who want to make the world a better place.
The Bronx Documentary Center provides access to one of the most underserved communities in the city and has significantly provided opportunities to people of color in the industry who otherwise would not have them.
Check out their Kickstarter video:
After you’re done with the video, head over to the Kickstarter page and check out the wonderful perks you can get for your contribution in keeping this amazing space running.
Just even donating a $1 will help. If you cannot donate, the next best thing you can do is share the links with your networks!
About the Bronx Documentary Center
Located in the heart of the South Bronx, the Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) is an accessible, community-oriented gallery for documentary film, photography and photojournalism. In an age where newspapers are cutting staff and magazines are closing, the BDC provides a much needed public space in which to interact with journalism and photography–live and in person.
Founded in 2011 in a formerly abandoned building, the BDC is a unique and exciting crossroads where local students, artists, activists and neighbors mix with leading photographers, journalists and filmmakers. As one neighbor told us, “We bring the world to the Bronx and the Bronx to the world.”
Join us in creating quality programs for all ages.
The next year of programs includes:
—Thought-provoking exhibitions including Stephanie Sinclair’s Too Young to Wed; Benedict J. Fernandez’s historic work on the American civil rights movement; work by emerging Mexican photographers; and Carlos Javier Ortiz’s project on gun violence, We All We Got;
—30 film screenings and post-film panel discussions;
—A repeat of our summer outdoor movie screening in local housing projects;
—The continuation of our pilot after-school photography program with Bronx youth.
What We Believe In
We believe in the documentary tradition and in the power of photography and film to help build community, expose injustices and create positive social change.
Your gift can change a life and change a community.
The BDC has become a much needed and much loved meeting place for local and international photographers, writers, and filmmakers seeking to learn, grow, and share their ideas. In the words of a Bronx participant in our free Friday night photo class: “Since coming to the BDC my life has changed for the better–and I am so grateful that it has.”
The Bronx River / Image Credit: Bronx Council on Environmental Equality
An article in Takepart.com has singled out the Bronx and the Bronx River Alliance, giving us global recognition on our conversation efforts, particularly in relation to reintroducing wildlife into the Bronx ecosystem.
We are also the ONLY American city on the list!
Below is an excerpt from the article:
“…it may seem contradictory to suggest that cities can also be part of the solution. But conservationists, who used to focus on protecting landscapes that were pristine and full of wildlife, now often work instead to improve the margins—to make roadsides, backyards, idle fields, and working waterfronts wildlife-friendly. They argue that with a little effort, cities can provide habitat for birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other creatures great and small. According to this line of thinking, re-wilding the cities will be better not just for wildlife but for the cities. The idea is that the metropolis is a far richer place to live—more magical even—to the extent that it is also a zoopolis.”
#6. My favorite case study is New York City’s Bronx River, for very personal reasons. My father grew up on the banks of the river in the 1920s, and the stories he told were all about going out on the water with his Italian-immigrant grandfather to gather botanicals and to hunt. It was still a wild river then. (In the magical stories my father passed down to his children and grandchildren, it was inhabited not just by a variety of wildlife but also by a menagerie of imaginary creatures, led by a walking, talking green melon ball named the Growly.)
For much of the rest of the 20th century, the Bronx River became a ruin of rusting bedsprings and junked cars, along with sewage and industrial pollution. But an extensive cleanup effort by the Bronx River Alliance and other groups has restored the eight-mile-long lower river, with turtles, alewives, glass eels, great blue herons, and other species back at home there. Beavers returned in 2007—after an absence of several hundred years. City programs now focus on making the river a source of green pleasure for neighboring residents, many of them, like my great-grandfather, immigrants.
The restored habitat is providing homes for wildlife—but it’s no doubt also producing new stories to entertain children, and to be passed down for generations. That makes the city a much richer and more magical place for everyone.”
This week, Mayor De Blasio’s ambitious plan to reduce pedestrian fatalities, Vision Zero, began in the Bronx with Operation Move Along on 138th Street (between Third and Jackson Avenues) by cracking down on double parking. Officers from the 40th precinct slapped educational flyers on double parked cars but on March 16th they will begin issuing summonses for illegally parked vehicles.
The East 138th Street corridor is one of the South Bronx’s busiest roads with trucks and traffic already roaring across it to get from one end of the borough to the other.
Now imagine thousands of more trucks running through those very streets, adding to the chaos in a residential neighborhood, if FreshDirect were allowed its way to take up our waterfront. An area that already has suffered from pedestrian fatalities due to the existing traffic on these overburdened streets.
Only a handful of Bronx organizations have come forth in support of giving the company over $130 million in tax breaks and subsidies to take over our waterfront and pollute our air. That very corridor targeted by Operation Move Along already suffers from over 8x the national asthma rates for children.
Regardless of whether or not FreshDirect converts its fleet to electric, it will still add thousands of trucks to the area creating more traffic and more idling of cars spewing pollutants into the air.
In Ruben Diaz Jr’s State of the Borough address in 2012 and 2013, he proudly talked about how his administration was working to bring FreshDirect to the Bronx providing needed jobs for Bronx residents (always forgetting to disclose that these are low wage jobs and oftentimes many of their workers still qualify for government assistance).
Absent from his 2014 State of the Borough address was any mention of FreshDirect whatsoever. Perhaps it’s because we as residents have kept FreshDirect in court and delayed its move until a new administration took over in City Hall — an administration which has been vocal against such corporate subsidies.
Instead, we got a wonderful plan to create a waterfront district in the Lower Concourse from 149th Street down to 138th Street. I applaud the borough president for actually listening to the community’s plea for access to the waterfront but it does fall a little short.
It ends just a few blocks from where FreshDirect wants to plop down along the waterfront.
The South Bronx suffers from the ultimate irony in terms of open, green space and parks: Our borough has the highest percentage of parkland and one of the greenest urban counties in the nation, yet the South Bronx has amongst the least amount of park space per resident than most of the city.
The battle against FreshDirect, our waterfront, and pedestrian safety is far from over. We must continue to rally against irresponsible corporate subsidies, access to our waterfront just like any other borough enjoys, and for pedestrian safety — something which will imperil the lives of our residents if we let this deal go through.
Join South Bronx residents, faith leaders, local organizations and city-wide friends and allies for a community action on Harlem
River Yards against the proposed relocation of FreshDirect to the South Bronx.
Gather at Brook Park at noon to join in a
neighborhood march to Harlem River Yards for an interfaith reflection on the oversaturation of industrial facilities, waste transfer stations and trucking operations in the South Bronx causing asthma rates eight times the national average. Participants will then have the option to plant sunflowers, renowned for detoxifying soil, along the brownfield waterfront.
Brook Park | 12-1 pm
12:00 – Meet at Brook Park | 141st Street and Brook Avenue | Assemble and march to Harlem River Yards
Harlem River Yards | 1-2 pm
1:00 – Interfaith reflection on environmental injustice in the South Bronx and option to plant sunflowers to detoxify soil.
Join us and bring friends!
In recent years the Bronx Museum of the Arts has become more aggressive in bringing the arts to the community and also bringing the Bronx art scene to the world.
Meanwhile, the Bronx Museum of Arts held its Spring Gala across the street from Goldman’s headquarters, guaranteeing proximity to a hall of titans, if not a party full of them. The location at the Conrad Hotel was also close to City Hall, making it easy for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to drop by (she spoke of painting a mural in the Bronx with the museum), as well as Council member Vanessa L. Gibson.
The event was the museum’s largest, grossing more than $650,000, said its executive director, Holly Block. The lowest-priced “Bruckner Boulevard Tickets” were $650; the highest-priced “Grand Concourse” seats were $4167.
Education Focus Royal Bank of Canada (RY)’s Marybeth Mandanas, who heads the corporate banking group in power and utilities, is entering her third year as a board member for the museum.
“As a woman trying to get more experience professionally, I was looking to join a board,” Mandanas said. She met Block at an event at her former firm, Citigroup Inc. With three children, she was drawn to the museum’s focus on education.
The Bronx museum’s reach in the art world is also impressive: last year the museum oversaw the U.S. pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
“Our job is to make sure the museum’s thesis is broad enough,” Mandanas said. “We can’t serve just the Bronx, because there’s not enough means there to do that.”
Congratulations to the Bronx Museum of the Arts on such a successful event and for their commitment to provide free access to the Arts as well as the wonderful educational programing they provide our youth.
Welcome2TheBronx encourages reader submissions for consideration for publication on our site. It is our mission to be able to provide a platform where Bronx residents can have their voices broadcasted to a wider audience.
To submit an article, email us at submissions@welcome2thebronx.com
