World famous food show host Anthony Bourdain has his eyes on the Bronx according to an interview with the Gothamist.
In the interview he acknowledges that the Bronx is generally overlooked (other than our beloved and real Little Italy Arthur Avenue):
The final episode of No Reservations featured Brooklyn. Could you ever picture a Parts Unknown episode that centers on New York City? I’m looking at the Bronx now. There’s been very little attention paid there. Other than Arthur Avenue there’s been very little attention paid to the Bronx as a borough. Queens is already pretty well acknowledged, at least, as a foodie paradise because of all the great Chinese and Korean places. That alone is enough to make it a kind of powerhouse of gastronomy.
And Brooklyn, you know, arguably we’re looking at the Brooklynization of the world at this point. Everywhere you go, whether you’re in Australia or England or Paris even, they’re referencing Brooklyn in some way. But the Bronx, I think that would be a really interesting challenge. A full hour in the Bronx really appeals to me.
Should Bourdain come to the Bronx then it is only logical that he teams up with our own, world famous and Emmy winning culinary ambassador – Baron Ambrosia.
For years the Baron has been showcasing not only the wonderful food that can be had in our borough but the culture that goes along with it. It is only fitting that Bourdain and the Baron go on a zany adventure through our borough.
What do you think? Do you like that Anthony Bourdain is interested in coming to the Bronx? Should he team up with Baron Ambrosia?
Crunch Fitness is opening up in Norwood on Webster Avenue and 205th Street according to its website.
This is the 2nd Bronx location for the popular and full service gym. This past summer, Crunch Fitness signed a lease for a massive 18,000 square foot space at the recently opened luxury boutique Opera House Hotel in Melrose on 149th Street.
After being neglected for so many years by national fitness chains, the Bronx has seen an explosion of interest in bringing such franchises to the borough. Melrose alone saw 1 Planet Fitness and 2 Blink Fitness locations opening up within an 18 month period.
These same no frills affordable chains have propagated across the borough as well. Several years ago New York Sports Club was the first full service gym to open, however, it’s Morris Park location made it inaccessible to most Bronxites without a car as it is not easily reached by subway.
The Crunch Fitness at the Opera House Hotel will be the borough’s FIRST full service high end gym that’s accessible subway as it will be located 1.5 blocks from the 2 and 5 trains at 3rd Ave and 149th Street.
The confidence that such chains have in the Bronx is proof that we are a diverse enough borough to support all ranges of services.
Make sure you sign up to be notified on the opening of Crunch Norwood!
Time is running out on signing up for an early bird $9.95/month special!
New York City is filled with many edifices that are as much a part of the fabric which makes up this city as are the people who walk their corridors.
Just a few short blocks from where the Grand Concourse begins, that boulevard of dreams, sits PS 31.
Affectionately known as the Castle on the Concourse by local residents and the thousands who walked its halls, the school sits decaying as if in mockery at all the urban renewal that has sprung up from the rubble in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The landmarked building has sat vacant since it was deemed unsafe in 1997. As the years passed it by and the neighborhood began a strong revival, the building deteriorated.
It is almost criminal that the city has sat on its hands for 17 years letting such an important building waste away to the point that now it has been recommended to be demolished.
There are many questions that need to be answered and officials need to be held accountable. Why was this building neglected for so long? Had it perhaps been in Brooklyn or Manhattan then maybe it would have been salvaged immediately.
It is very interesting that the building sits in the middle of a 30 block district known as the Lower Concourse Rezoning where underutilized buildings were rezoned from commercial and manufacturing to residential to encourage the continual revitalization of the neighborhood. It is strategically located one stop from Manhattan and 15 minutes from midtown making that swath of land – including the waterfront – quite a catch for someone.
Even more interesting is that once Goldman Sachs showed interest in restoring the landmark building to its former glory and converting it into apartments and artist space the city began pushing very hard for HPD and Department of Buildings to declare the property unsafe.
During a community board 1 meeting over the summer, a representative from Sobro presented to the Board that engineers found the building badly deteriorated but to be salvageable.
Landmarks Preservation Commission has the final say in the building this coming December 17th where the city will make their case to strip PS 31 of its landmark status so that can begin demolishing the structure.
That is why we are asking all of you who are fond of this building to the and want to see it saved and restored to sign this and share with your network and everyone you know.
We cannot let our city and politicians to get away with neglect of our landmarked treasures.
Just last night, dozens of community members gathered at the offices of Bronx Legal Services to discuss the deals that were being made without any community input in relation to the proposed Major League Soccer stadium for the New York City Football Club.
According to Joyce Hogi, resident of the neighborhood for 35 years and who attended the meeting last night, a community board member was in attendance and claimed that Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr had not met with the board on the issue.
“When the boro president has not brought it to the community board…deals were being done.” said Hogi. She went on to say, “We don’t need to support another monolith structure in our community without some significant benefits to the communities. These should come from the communities, not the politicians!”
William Casari, who has lived on the Concourse since 2005 and is just a few short blocks from the proposed site said, “We don’t need another “fortress” in the neighborhood that is only going to be open on game days and is not going to include the community unless we buy tickets. I am not in favor of the stadium unless a specific community benefits agreement is worked out where the immediate community will benefit. This entire proposal needs to be reviewed.”
This morning residents woke up to what many considered terrible news: Another deal made behind their backs. A soccer stadium deal with a reported price tag of anywhere from $300 million to $400 million as reported by the New York Post and the Daily News.
The location in question is saddled between the Gateway Mall at the Bronx Terminal Market and Heritage Field which is the location of the old Yankee Stadium. Also on proposed footprint of the new stadium is GAL
Manufacturing, which currently employs several hundred individuals, a parking garage for Yankee Stadium which has since defaulted on its loans and of course East 153rd Street which would need to be de-mapped to build the stadium.
NYCFC is currently seeking space to relocate GAL Manufacturing and according to the Daily News, as well as paying the bondholders of the defaulted parking garage up to $25 million.
This is a residential area that suffers from massive traffic congestion problems for residents as the population has risen in the area along with developments like the Gateway Center Mall at the Bronx Terminal Market.
When a Yankee game or event is on at the stadium, you can forget about finding parking or driving in your own neighborhood.
If E 153rd Street is de-mapped then you are only adding a logistical disaster in terms of vehicular traffic in the area. Instead of 3 access points on and off the Major Deegan Expressway /I87 we will end up with 2 severely bottlenecking traffic.
Julio Pabon, president of the South Bronx Community Association – a coalition of residents and homeowners in the immediate area says, “The South Bronx Community Association is concerned with the additional traffic & parking problems this will add to our already congested situation. Residential Parking permits is something we have been trying to get for years. There is no way our Association, who’s members all live in the immediate area, will agree to this project unless we see how our problems are addressed.”
What of the economic impact? Moving GAL Manufacturing will cause the area to lose over 300 real jobs vs the shoddy, seasonal minimum wage jobs a sports complex will bring in.
Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News sums up his article and pretty much says what needs to be said:
“Now the garage company is bankrupt and the city is owed nearly $50 million in back rent and taxes that it will never recover.
So why are city officials considering yet more subsidies to a new sports franchise controlled by the Yankees and a sheik whose family oversees more than $400 billion in oil wealth?
GIFT GOAL
28,000 seating capacity
$300 million in tax-free bonds
38 years of free rent
$25 million in payout to parking lot owners
$400 billion in oil wealth controlled by Abu Dhabi Sheik Mansour”
Is it any wonder why residents are fed up of backroom deals costing taxpayers billions of dollars for little return on their investment?
Do you understand why many residents, myself included, fight against dirty deals like FreshDirect where our own elected officials have thrown us under the bus in exchange for just bragging rights?
I am not anti development and nor are the vast majority of individuals who oppose these deals. What we oppose is giving away billions of our dollars without our approval or input.
Saturday’s 1st Annual Bronx Gentrification Conference was successful in starting the conversation about the issues surrounding the turbulent topic and it is one that we, as well as the Bronx Documentary Center will be keeping tabs on.
Screen capture from Vanessa Gibson's Facebook page.
I’M SO BLESSED!
According to our sources, the Bronx Board of Elections was in quite the rush to verify the 16th City Council District election last week.
Our source tells us that Democratic Party appointees at the Board of Elections were scurrying about to ensure that the election was verified so that council-woman-elect Vanessa Gibson could be officially sworn into office later that evening.
The answer given by Councilwoman Gibson’s office when called was: “Well, Helen Foster left the seat to become New York State Commissioner of the Division of Human Rights, so no one was serving the council district.”
Of course I followed that up with, “That’s fine, but now Assembly District 77 is vacant, so why is the council more important than the assembly?”
That was met with, “Someone will have to get back to you, sir. Where are you calling from?”
So I am left with speculation: could Gibson, a drone-like loyalist to the Bronx Democratic Party Machine, be a pivotal vote in the Council Speaker race? Maybe it has something to do with the Kingsbridge Armory Ice Rink development project? Is it even legal to expedite the swearing-in of a councilmember at the expense of leaving an assembly district unrepresented?
Who knows? All we can know for certain is that Vanessa Gibson is just so blessed! And the 77th Assembly District is now represented by no one.
Gentrification is a very controversial topic which brings out a lot of passionate opinions both in favor and against gentrification.
The question of whether the South Bronx, particularly Melrose, Mott Haven, Port Morris, and the Lower Concourse, will ever gentrify is no longer the correct one. The question is when.
Recently the Gothamist took it upon themselves to answer a reader submitted question on the topic and as usual of journalists who don’t walk the beat and simply research the topic by using Google, they got it all wrong in essentially saying no.
The signs are already there in the aforementioned neighborhoods.
Places like Bruckner Bar and Grill, Ceetay, and the Clock Bar cater to the denizens living in the various loft buildings of Port Morris and Mott Haven.
Former Manhattanites have snatched up Co-op apartments along the lower Concourse below 167th Street for a 3rd or even a 4th of what they would pay for one across the river.
Meanwhile in Melrose, which was one of the fastest growing neighborhoods as most of the rubble strewn lots were developed, you have developments such as the Northrose with middle income units going from $1,146 to $1,900 for a studio. Market rate condominiums opened up in several developments for the first time as well. The old YMCA Center on 161st recently sold for $6.6 million – a clear indicator of how hot the market has become.
Planet Fitness opened up the first national chain gym in the neighborhood which was immediately followed by not one but two Blink Fitness locations which is a no frills fitness center owned by the more exclusive Equinox gym.
The Opera House Hotel, the first luxury boutique hotel in the Bronx also opened in Melrose and with it, Crunch Fitness – a full service and high-end gym will be opening sometime in 2014.
With the 2 and 5 express trains at 3rd Ave and 149th Street where you can get to midtown in 15 minutes as well as the Melrose Metro-North station which gets you in as fast, it is not a question of if we will experience it but when we will begin experiencing it head on.
To that end, the Bronx Documentary Center will host the First Annual Bronx Gentrification Conference where we will go over the documented changes in the neighborhood in an effort to keep an eye on developers.
Many folks welcome new developments and changes as well as new retailers, however we must be ever vigilant in making sure that the Bronx remains for everyone. The South Bronx is home to many of New York’s working class and immigrants painting a beautiful tapestry across our neighborhoods. We cannot let a wave of gentrification wipe it all clean and leaving behind the very people who stayed here to struggle while we were abandoned.
Bruckner Bar was flooded with patrons this past Monday as it reopened its doors after being shut down for over a year due to major damage from Superstorm Sandy.
Upon walking in, it was great to see the place so packed as well as seeing so many familiar faces and friends.
The food and drinks were great as always but don’t just take my word for it, head on down and see for yourself!
People often question why I do what I do and why I am so vocal in helping others.
My simple answer is because someone has to do it and I really and truly believe that we can help bring about change.
Last Friday morning when I found out that our beloved alma mater, Cardinal Spellman High School, was going to host a controversial Anti-Gay speaker at the school I was heartbroken.
I came to Cardinal Spellman High School as a freshman in September of 1989 from a relatively small parochial grade school in the South Bronx.
St Anselm’s, on Tinton Avenue, was all I knew from Head Start straight through 8th grade graduation. You can imagine the culture shock I faced on that day when I went from a class of about 50 in two 8th grade home rooms to a freshman class of over 600 – the largest entering freshman class in Spellman’s history at that point.
As a student in Spellman, I was suddenly different. Where in St Anselm’s we were pretty much all students of color, here I was in sea of multiculturalism. Different. Being gay compounded that fact even further.
But even with a student body that numbered over 2,000 students, the faculty knew us personally and throughout my four years, I felt nothing but compassion and understanding from these mentors. This is why I was disturbed upon hearing that a representative of an organization that lacks this compassion was going to speak at our school.
What contradictory messages were the LGBTQ students to receive if this speaker were to address the Spellman family when being told that they “suffer from an affliction”?
Haven’t we had enough teen suicides from LGBTQ youth because they felt ostracized? This coupled with the fact that Spellman is one of the most academically challenging and demanding schools in the region was not a good combination.
Rather than doing nothing, I immediately wrote a plea to my fellow Spellman graduates to email or call the school and tell them that they would withhold any donations to the school if this meeting took place.
And they did.
I am so proud of our classmates and especially Carlos Solano who was the first one I contacted. He immediately spread the word like fire, wrote an impassioned open letter to the principal, got everyone organized and almost immediately our voice grew to hundreds and hundreds.
The media took note and it culminated in an excellent and balanced article in the New York Times late last night.
And guess what? All you naysayers who thought we were fighting a hopeless battle against one of the oldest institutions were proven wrong this morning as Cardinal Spellman High School has CANCELED tonight’s meeting.
Cardinal Spellman provided us with an unparalleled education, including its religious program which taught us of the compassion of Christ and his acceptance of others, particularly the most marginalized.
We are the result of over 50 years excellence the school has provided. We are the leaders they have produced across the world.
In the ultimate moment of irony, we the students came together and became the teachers using the very skills we were taught by our alma mater.
I have always been fiercely proud of being a Spellman alumn but never prouder than this very moment.
Thank you for all of your support. We truly couldn’t have done it without you.
To our fellow Spellman LGBTQ students: You are not alone and we are here for you. Always.
Statistics overwhelmingly show that white males are more likely to use marijuana yet over 80% of such arrests in NYC are African American or Latino males.
In this article from the New York Times by Jim Dwyer, read about the harsh realities of just one aspect of what a divided city Bloomberg will be leaving us. Perhaps it’s simply because men of color are the new cash crop?
From The New York Times:
A Marijuana Stash That Carried Little Risk
While scores of people are arrested on marijuana charges every day in the city, the laws apparently don’t apply to middle-aged white guys.
Got $8.6 million to spare? This is bedroom, 7 bathroom beauty with 2 swimming pools and 7 fireplaces can be yours. (photos from Trebach Realty)
Many forget that Riverdale is indeed the Bronx and more forget that it is home to some of the most expensive homes outside of the island of Manhattan within New York City.
During the last several weeks, a listing in the Fieldston section of Riverdale caused a raucous on the Internet because finally a castle (of sorts) could be purchased for the price of a New York City apartment – in NYC! Can't quite afford $8.6 million? You're in luck. 4720 Grosvenor Avenue is for sale for only a mere $3.65 million. (photos from Stribling & Associates)
4941 Arlington Avenue is on the market for a whopping $8.6 million and features both an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, 7 full bathrooms and 7 fireplaces and 7 bedrooms (lucky 7 anyone?). The home is beautifully situated on 1.6 acres (unheard of in NYC but quite common in Riverdale) in the Estate Section which is west of the Henry Hudson Parkway.
This past Monday as I was running my errands in the neighborhood, I ran across this new exhibit at the College of New Rochelle’s Gordon Parks Gallery.
Although it was closed when I walked by, I was pleased that Jeffrey Guard at the Bronx Art Exchange had just written about it so allow me to share with you a little more on the exhibit honoring the gallery’s namesake.
“…Gordon Parks was many things, a photographer, composer, filmmaker, writer and activist. His life-journey was filled with extraordinary challenges including losing his mother at 14 and shortly thereafter having to fend for himself on the streets. During the early and mid 20th century he had to fight against the ugly specter of racism that would often deny him one career-making opportunity after another.
Yet, despite these obstacles his talent found its way to the light and, gratefully, all of us can enjoy some of his work; a series of portraits that he took during the 1940’s-1960’s. Most of them are ORIGINAL black and white portraits, composite images of various African Americans ranging from an ordinary husband and wife on their way to church, to the famous and all-powerful Muhammad Ali (after destroying Henry Cooper in the famous 1966 Heavy Weight World Champion Fight held in London.)
His technique and innate mastery of composition, light and the use of negative and positive space all seem effortless. Each of these portraits has a depth to them that could fill a novel. His portrait American Gothic illustrates this most effectively. A slender African-American woman is photographed standing in front of an American flag hold in one hand a broom and in the other a mop. It’s a powerful statement for so many who were relegated to the back-breaking, physically demanding positions of labor without any hope for other career prospects.
All of these images, some might say, ordinary pictures of folk would most likely never have been captured, were it not for Gordon Parks. In dealing with institutionalized racism he captured everyone else who had also been swept to the sidelines of opportunity. But he did not do so from the perspective of victimhood—in fact, if you did not know the history of the US they would otherwise seem like ordinary people just going through things. It’s precisely this aspect that gives the work its longevity.
For any photographer or visual art lover, visiting the Gordon Parks Gallery will truly be a revelation if you have never seen his work or are becoming acquainted with him for the first time.”
