For the better part of the year, Crunch Fitness has been in negotiations with the Opera House Hotel in Melrose and have officially signed a lease for 18,000 Square Foot space in the landmark building.
According to the Opera House, Crunch is already paying rent and is expected to be up and running in the beginning of next year. No exact date in 2014 has been set.
Melrose, once home to mom and pop fitness centers and Lucille Roberts, received its first major gym when Planet Fitness – the popular no-frills national chain –opened in December 2011. Apparently this was the watershed moment for the fitness industry and 6 months later in June 2012, Blink Fitness opened up in St Ann’s Terrace on 156th Street.
The new locations proved so popular that Blink Fitness opened yet another location in the Melrose area on the opposite side of the neighborhood in Concourse Plaza to better serve that neighborhood.
18,000 square foot space which will be occupied by Crunch Fitness at the Opera House Hotel.
Now with Crunch coming to the neighborhood, Bronxites will have the option of higher tier of gyms as memberships typically run from $69 – $99 a month, however there is an unconfirmed rumor that this location may be offering a much more affordable membership competitive with those of Planet Fitness and Blink.
So, Bronxites, what do you think about this? For years, locals have been asking gyms like New York Sports Club to open up in our neighborhood since many of us would have to schlep to Manhattan for a good, full service gym – only to be told that the market could not sustain them.
Now, everyone seems to want a piece of the action as we continue to prove them wrong.
As Melrose and the surrounding areas continue to become more attractive to outsiders, will longtime residents be displaced or will we continue to make this neighborhood a successful story of a neighborhood with mixed incomes and socioeconomic backgrounds?
Stay tuned as we get more info! Oh and remember, you FIRST heard it from Welcome2TheBronx!
Smack dab in the heart of the South Bronx on one of its main streets and adjacent to one of the busiest subway stations in the city, The Opera House Hotel is open for business in Melrose on 149th Street between Brook and Bergen.
A work in progress for about 4 years now, the luxury hotel opened this past Sunday in the former Bronx Opera House and guests were already streaming in from across the country and even overseas.
According to the hotel’s management, on opening day they had 16 of the 60 luxury rooms booked and have been pleasantly surprised by bookings for the month of August – a notoriously slow month in the industry.
The Empire Hotel Group which owns and runs the Opera House Hotel is no stranger to the business as they own and operate 7 other hotels along Manhattan’s West Side stretching from the West 30s and we’ll into the Upper West Side in the West 80s.
The Opera House is their first venture outside of Manhattan and has the distinct honor of being the borough’s FIRST luxury boutique hotel. The rooms are all quite spacious and beautifully appointed with tall windows making them very bright and sunny.
Since it is a boutique hotel, the amenities are somewhat limited, however, guests who tend to lodge at such establishments are not typically noted to have a need for them. Nevertheless, the hotel features a conference room, complimentary continental breakfast for guests. A small fitness center and business center are being set up as well. The hotel's conference room which will be available for rent to non-guests as well.
Perfectly situated and located at 436 East 149th Street, the Opera House Hotel is just steps away from the 3rd Avenue / 149th Street subway, providing guests easy and quick access to Manhattan and Bronx attractions.
The subway station sits along the 2 and 5 express trains into Manhattan and you can reach the great museums such as the Guggenheim, El Museo del Barrio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art all along Museum Mile on 5th Avenue in the Upper East Side under 12 minutes.
Central Park and Upper West Side attractions are also accessible within the same time frame.
Even midtown Manhattan, again both East and West sides are within easy reach and under 20 minutes since the trains run express.
In the Bronx, adventurous tourists can walk to Yankee Stadium or along the architecturally important Grand Concourse both which are world renowned and the latter housing the largest collection of Art Deco buildings in the world.
Guests can also soak up the local and vibrant culture at one of our many great restaurants in Melrose or Mott Haven.
They can visit one of many art spaces such as Pregones, Longwood Gallery of the Arts, the BronxArtSpace or the Bronx Documentary Center which in a short time has become the premier destination for photographers, documentary journalists and filmmakers outside of Manhattan and attracting those in the industry from around the globe.
Better yet, guests can contact MCNY Tours which offers excellent historical tours of the Bronx and is a run by Bronx resident Alexandra Maruri.
In a community which has been on the rise for over a decade now and home of dozens of award winning developments such as Via Verde and the Eltona, a hotel – and one of such caliber as the Opera House – is one of the many types of businesses desperately needed in the neighborhood to provide a balance between our diverse residents. Hotel guests are greeted by the logo which is derived from elements of the Old Bronx Opera House.
Rates are moderately priced and are seasonal as well as according to major events such as the World Series. Rooms currently begin in the $120s to $180s per night and are subject to change.
Personally, I’m glad to have the hotel as a neighbor and welcome them with open arms and look forward to a long and prosperous relationship for them and the community at large.
They took a leap of faith in our neighborhood where others have told us no. Although we’ve had a steady stream of businesses coming in such as Planet Fitness and 2 Blink Fitness locations in the neighborhood, this type of establishment will indeed provide the confidence other retailers need to come in and provide desperately needed and wanted services.
It’s the video everyone’s talking about and it’s no wonder.
Broadway actress and impressionist, Christina Bianco is dazzling millions with her talent of singing well known songs in the voices of famous divas like Barbara Streisand, Adel, and Shakira to name a few.
Not only does she have a phenomenal voice but her stage presence is infectious as you can see in the video below to and her interview on PIX11 NEWS (link below).
This is the video which has gone viral with almost 2 million views.
But this video had me in TEARS with her impersonations – and not all of them are of singers!
She’s just one of many talented individuals from the Bronx!
Please come-out and join this community forum on the death of 14-yr. old Shaaliver Douse. Join us as we grapple with the realities of how we are failing our children. This death highlights: we adults are not caring for our children adequately, guns from out-of state are plaguing our community and our Police Officers do not practice any restrain when they interact with our community. If you believe it takes a village to raise a child, then join us tonight for this important community forum.
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2013
Location: Bronx Documentary Center 614 Courtlandt Ave., Bronx, NY 10451
Time: 7pm
Maria del Carmen Arroyo, left with her mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo
We have just learned that Maria del Carmen Arroyo has been denied public Funds for this election cycle.
For every dollar donated from NYC residents, the campaign finance board donates $6, however, this will not happen for Arroyo this time.
If you’ve been following the corrupt trail that the Arroyo clan has left then you shouldn’t be surprised to this latest development as she recently submitted over 3,000 fraudulent petition signatures for the upcoming primary in which 3,200 were thrown out leaving her with a little over 600 signatures.
Stay tuned for more as this is a developing story!
TONIGHT: 5:30-8:30pm. Bronx Documentary Center Founder Michael Kamber’s never-before exhibited documentation of his earlier years in the Bronx, and his compelling portraits from citizens in conflict zones.
Army football team, which already has played at the new Yankee Stadium is working on returning to the Bronx and play one game a year beginning in 2014.
In 2014, Army will play Connecticut followed by Rutgers in 2015 and are currently working on bringing Notre Dame in 2016.
Meanwhile, the National Hockey League is getting ready to bring outdoor hockey – a first ever – to Yankee Stadium in January.
The Rangers will play against the Devils on January 26, 2014 during a day game and then they’ll play against the Islanders during an evening game on January 29th, 2014.
The new stadium is really becoming a venue with year round events like boxing, soccer and concerts. The big question is how can we tap into the money generated during these games to benefit our community?
We need to create more reasons for folks to stick around and one of the best ways to do so is great restaurants.
Bronxite David Floyd, the named plaintiff against the NYPD’S practice of Stop & Frisk (Photo credit: A. P.)
A question first and only asked here 5 months ago has been answered.
On March 19th I asked our readership, “Will a Bronxite Bring Down Stop & Frisk?” and this morning judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled, in a 195 page decision, that the controversial policy violated the Fourth Amendment as well as 14th Amendment.
“…emphasized what she called the “human toll of unconstitutional stops,” noting that some of the plaintiffs testified that their encounters with the police left them feeling that they did not belong in certain areas of the cities. She characterized each stop as “a demeaning and humiliating experience.
”“No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life,” the judge wrote.”
The ruling also calls for a Federal monitor to oversee the NYPD’S practice and even goes as far to order that police officers are to participate in a pilot program where they will be required to wear cameras which will record their stops.
How do you feel about this ruling? Do you feel justice has been served and our rights are now protected? How do you think this will impact crime in the city? Will it increase, decrease or stay the same?
Unless you’re from the Bronx, many people don’t realize that our borough is home to a very large and vibrant Mexican community particularly in the Melrose and Mott Haven neighborhoods.
You have Dominican bodegas right beside Mexican bodegas as well as Mexican restaurants sharing the block with Puerto Rican or Dominican ones.
Here we have a story from the Daily News of an undocumented Bronx activist who risked it all to give a voice to the millions without one.
Welcome2TheBronx is happy to say that we are very proud of him and this heroic act not just for his Mexican community but all the other undocumented who are simply trying to achieve the Dream.
Read the entire story below and click on the link for more related stories from the Daily News.
by Erica Pearson, m.nydailynews.com
August 8th 2013 2:49 PM
Will Seberger/ZUMAPRESS.com
Marco Saavedra was allowed back into the U.S. after he went to Mexico to protest deportation policy.
An undocumented Bronx activist who crossed the border into Mexico to stage a controversial protest — and then asked the feds to let him back in — is soon heading home.
The feds freed Marco Saavedra, 23, and the other eight immigrant members of the “Dream 9” from an Arizona detention center on Wednesday night after they were cleared to go before a judge to argue for asylum.
“It’s been overwhelmingly positive for what we hoped to achieve,” Saavedra said Thursday.
RELATED: ‘DREAM 9’ PROTESTERS WIN RIGHT TO BID FOR ASYLUM
He said he hopes his unorthodox protest of U.S. deportation policy will lead a greater number of Mexican nationals to present themselves at the border and ask for asylum.
“More humane pathways have to exist. It’s unfortunate that people can’t see the urgency of the moment,” he said.
Saavedra, a Kenyon College graduate who came to the U.S. when he was three, and the other eight activists have not been granted permission to stay, but were released until future court dates. They could end up being sent back to Mexico if a judge denies their asylum bids.
RELATED: MEXICAN-BORN IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST FROM BRONX DETAINED IN ARIZONA
Saavedra plans to fly home later this week after trying to help free some of the fellow detainees he and other “Dream 9” members met during their weeks in immigration detention.
His mom, Natalia Mendez, 43, who became a big supporter despite her initial fears about his protest plan, is getting ready to celebrate his return.
“I was able to talk with him – he was out, he was free! He was able to achieve staying in the U.S.,” said the Mott Haven restaurant owner.
RELATED: ALBOR RUIZ: PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD ACT TO BRING DREAM 9 HOME
“I’m feeling really emotional. We’re going to do a party, we’re going to have free tacos in honor of him. ”
The protest began last month, when Saavedra and two other undocumented members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance flew to Mexico.
They then walked to the border at Nogales on July 22 along with six other young immigrants who were living in Mexico after being deported or returning on their own after years in the U.S.
The group asked to be let in for humanitarian reasons. Officials turned down that request but later cleared them to bid for asylum.
Many of our men in the Bronx end up incarcerated over “criminal” possession of marijuana and children are torn away from safe, nurturing environments when their mothers test positive for use of the substance.
All in the name of the War on Drugs. (Watch the documentary, The House I Live In on Netflix on the history of the war on drugs and how it’s destroying our communities.)
Make sure you click on the link below to head over to the original post on CNN for all the pertinent links and resources. Why I changed my mind on weed
By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
updated 9:47 AM EDT, Thu August 8, 2013
CNN
Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s groundbreaking documentary “WEED” at 8 p.m. ET August 11 on CNN.
(CNN) — Over the last year, I have been working on a new documentary called “Weed.” The title “Weed” may sound cavalier, but the content is not.
I traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. I spoke candidly to them, asking tough questions. What I found was stunning.
Long before I began this project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled “Why I would Vote No on Pot.”
Well, I am here to apologize.
I apologize because I didn’t look hard enough, until now. I didn’t look far enough. I didn’t review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.
Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have “no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse.”
They didn’t have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn’t have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works. Take the case of Charlotte Figi, who I met in Colorado. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300 a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month.
I have seen more patients like Charlotte first hand, spent time with them and come to the realization that it is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana.
We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
I hope this article and upcoming documentary will help set the record straight.
On August 14, 1970, the Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Roger O. Egeberg wrote a letter recommending the plant, marijuana, be classified as a schedule 1 substance, and it has remained that way for nearly 45 years.
My research started with a careful reading of that decades old letter. What I found was unsettling. Egeberg had carefully chosen his words:
“Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule 1 at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue.”
Not because of sound science, but because of its absence, marijuana was classified as a schedule 1 substance.
Again, the year was 1970. Egeberg mentions studies that are underway, but many were never completed. As my investigation continued, however, I realized Egeberg did in fact have important research already available to him, some of it from more than 25 years earlier.
High risk of abuse
In 1944, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia commissioned research to be performed by the New York Academy of Science. Among their conclusions: they found marijuana did not lead to significant addiction in the medical sense of the word. They also did not find any evidence marijuana led to morphine, heroin or cocaine addiction.
We now know that while estimates vary, marijuana leads to dependence in around 9 to 10% of its adult users. By comparison, cocaine, a schedule 2 substance “with less abuse potential than schedule 2 drugs” hooks 20% of those who use it. Around 25% of heroin users become addicted.
The worst is tobacco, where the number is closer to 30% of smokers, many of whom go on to die because of their addiction.
There is clear evidence that in some people marijuana use can lead to withdrawal symptoms, including insomnia, anxiety and nausea. Even considering this, it is hard to make a case that it has a high potential for abuse. The physical symptoms of marijuana addiction are nothing like those of the other drugs I’ve mentioned. I have seen the withdrawal from alcohol, and it can be life threatening.
I do want to mention a concern that I think about as a father. Young, developing brains are likely more susceptible to harm from marijuana than adult brains. Some recent studies suggest that regular use in teenage years leads to a permanent decrease in IQ. Other research hints at a possible heightened risk of developing psychosis.
Much in the same way I wouldn’t let my own children drink alcohol, I wouldn’t permit marijuana until they are adults. If they are adamant about trying marijuana, I will urge them to wait until they’re in their mid-20s when their brains are fully developed.
Medical benefit
While investigating, I realized something else quite important. Medical marijuana is not new, and the medical community has been writing about it for a long time. There were in fact hundreds of journal articles, mostly documenting the benefits. Most of those papers, however, were written between the years 1840 and 1930. The papers described the use of medical marijuana to treat “neuralgia, convulsive disorders, emaciation,” among other things.
A search through the U.S. National Library of Medicine this past year pulled up nearly 20,000 more recent papers. But the majority were research into the harm of marijuana, such as “Bad trip due to anticholinergic effect of cannabis,” or “Cannabis induced pancreatitits” and “Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer.”
In my quick running of the numbers, I calculated about 6% of the current U.S. marijuana studies investigate the benefits of medical marijuana. The rest are designed to investigate harm. That imbalance paints a highly distorted picture.
The challenges of marijuana research
To do studies on marijuana in the United States today, you need two important things.
First of all, you need marijuana. And marijuana is illegal. You see the problem. Scientists can get research marijuana from a special farm in Mississippi, which is astonishingly located in the middle of the Ole Miss campus, but it is challenging. When I visited this year, there was no marijuana being grown.
The second thing you need is approval, and the scientists I interviewed kept reminding me how tedious that can be. While a cancer study may first be evaluated by the National Cancer Institute, or a pain study may go through the National Institute for Neurological Disorders, there is one more approval required for marijuana: NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is an organization that has a core mission of studying drug abuse, as opposed to benefit.
Stuck in the middle are the legitimate patients who depend on marijuana as a medicine, oftentimes as their only good option.
Keep in mind that up until 1943, marijuana was part of the United States drug pharmacopeia. One of the conditions for which it was prescribed was neuropathic pain. It is a miserable pain that’s tough to treat. My own patients have described it as “lancinating, burning and a barrage of pins and needles.” While marijuana has long been documented to be effective for this awful pain, the most common medications prescribed today come from the poppy plant, including morphine, oxycodone and dilaudid.
Here is the problem. Most of these medications don’t work very well for this kind of pain, and tolerance is a real problem.
Most frightening to me is that someone dies in the United States every 19 minutes from a prescription drug overdose, mostly accidental. Every 19 minutes. It is a horrifying statistic. As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from marijuana overdose.
It is perhaps no surprise then that 76% of physicians recently surveyed said they would approve the use of marijuana to help ease a woman’s pain from breast cancer.
When marijuana became a schedule 1 substance, there was a request to fill a “void in our knowledge.” In the United States, that has been challenging because of the infrastructure surrounding the study of an illegal substance, with a drug abuse organization at the heart of the approval process. And yet, despite the hurdles, we have made considerable progress that continues today.
Looking forward, I am especially intrigued by studies like those in Spain and Israel looking at the anti-cancer effects of marijuana and its components. I’m intrigued by the neuro-protective study by Lev Meschoulam in Israel, and research in Israel and the United States on whether the drug might help alleviate symptoms of PTSD.
I promise to do my part to help, genuinely and honestly, fill the remaining void in our knowledge.
Citizens in 20 states and the District of Columbia have now voted to approve marijuana for medical applications, and more states will be making that choice soon. As for Dr. Roger Egeberg, who wrote that letter in 1970, he passed away 16 years ago.
I wonder what he would think if he were alive today.
Today the Daily News posted an important article on how Bronxites are fed up with the lack of staff and coverage for our parks.
Our borough is the greenest of the 5 counties which make up this beautiful city of ours. We are home to the largest and 3rd largest park in the city yet as many residents can attest, our parks are severely understaffed compared to Manhattan counterparts.
St Mary’s, which serves Mott Haven and Melrose residents alike is one of the few full service parks in the system with a swimming pool among its many amenities but it is a dirty and poorly maintained park.
Each an every single time I’ve walked through the park, the trash cans are overflowing with garbage and I have yet to see park staff around the grounds emptying trash. Worse of all is the lack of trash cans around so residents end up just piling it on – and don’t get me started on the fact that we have the solution to this problem right here in the Bronx with the Big Belly Trash Compactors.
Below is the article from the Daily News and let us know your thoughts in the comments section, we really want to know!
Leaders from the Bronx Park East Community Association, Community Boards 10 and 11 fired off letters to Parks Commissioner Veronica White seeking infusion of maintenance workers, enforcement officers.
BY DENIS SLATTERY / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2013, 3:55 PM
The Bronx may not be getting its fair share of workers to maintain the borough’s vast network of city-operated parks, or enforcement officers to police them.
So say residents of several leafy neighborhoods, who are up in arms over what they are calling a dangerous slight on the part of the city.
Leaders from the Bronx Park East Community Association, Community Boards 10 and 11 all fired off letters to Parks Commissioner Veronica White over the past month demanding that the city ramp up staffing levels at parks throughout the Bronx.
RICHARD HARBUS/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Civic associations have been complaing that the city doesn't have enough enforcement officers to patrol Pelham Parkway, which is frequently strewn with litter thanks to the illegal barbecues that are commonplace.
“The way I feel is that we are being short-changed,” said Anthony Vitaliano, the Chairman of Community Board 11. “This is potentially a very dangerous situation.”
The Bronx contains more parkland than any other borough, roughly 25% of the city’s greenspace.
District manager Kenneth Kearns of Community Board 10 in the east Bronx said he was told that only 30 to 40 new hires would be assigned to the borough.
“With the amount of parkland in our neighborhoods, the community board believes they should be taken care of and adequately staffed,” Kearns said.
A Parks Department spokesman said that of 414 recent hires, 207 were general parks workers, 81 Parks Enforcement Police officers, 96 maintenance workers and 30 climbers and pruners. The spokesman would not say how many of those would be assigned to the Bronx.
When aging trees are not properly maintained, it increases the chances of a costly and potentially hazardous accident.
“Staffing for each community board is determined by park usage and adjusted frequently according to park conditions,” the spokesman said.
Vitaliano cited the recent death of a Queens woman in Kissena Park as an example of what can happen when parks aren’t properly maintained.
“They don’t take care of the trees. They don’t trim them, and when it rains the branches are likely to come down,” the retired NYPD lieutenant said.
Pelham Parkway, a tree-covered thoroughfare that stretches across the neighborhoods, has been a frequent barbecue spot on weekends this summer, angering many residents that say the city has done nothing to curb the illegal cookouts.
A Parks Department representative dismissed the claims that Bronx parks are dangerously understaffed.
“Any assertion that Bronx parks receive less than their fair share of staffing, maintenance or funding is simply untrue,” the spokesman said.
Parks in both Community Board 10 and 11 passed more than 94% of agency inspections performed this year, according to the city.
“I think that they’ve been responsive,” a hopeful Kearns said of the city. “There are so many parks here, we just want them to be safe.”
Vitaliano said he wasn’t as convinced that the Bronx would be adequately staffed.
“Maybe Manhattan gets the priority,” he said. “But we should be getting more than what we are.”
Composting station is available at the Bronx Borough Hall Farmers Market every Tuesday and will gladly take your food scraps for composting in an effort to recycle as much as possible! Literature is available in both English and Spanish on how to compost to create your own, rich soil!
As is my Tuesday ritual, I took a walk over to the Grand Concourse and 161st Street so that I could stock up on a week’s worth of vegetables and let me tell you $25 gets you a lot!
I was able to walk away with 9 ears of corn, 2 bags of Bok Choy, 2 bunches of delicious, purple carrots, a bunch of rainbow swiss chard, a bunch of kale, 5 beautiful and plump tomatoes, a bunch of white onions, a bunch of red onions, two eggplants and a bunch of celery.
All that for $25 bucks and for those of you who are part of the SNAP/EBT/Food Stamps program you would have received $2 in Health Bucks per $5 spent and could have walked away with $35 worth of produce for $25.
The Health Bucks is an excellent program to encourage the most at risk population to purchase healthy food options in a community plagued with high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
The market today was packed with folks and by 1pm, a number of stands were running low on some of their items as residents snatched up the yummy, local and freshly picked produce.
Residents gather around to observe the weekly cooking demonstration.
The cooking demonstration stand was crowded as the demonstrators gave healthy cooking demos in English and Spanish, handing out samples and along with recipes which you can collect each week.
Composting guidelines
Also at the market you can find a composting station where you can bring your food scraps and dump it in the bin. The bins are then in turn taken to Governor’s Island and dumped where a team of about 3 dozen chickens do the rest by eating the scraps which in turn, well, makes the fertilizer and compost!
One of the many composting bins available!
The Bronx Borough Hall Farmers Market is open each Tuesday from about 8:30AM – 5:30PM and runs through the end of November.
Shop local and support local farmers, the lifeblood of our communities!
