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!
This past Sunday, Pregones held it’s annual block party as the theater celebrated its 34th anniversary. Legendary poets performed, and then there were was the Garifuna band along with dancers entertaining the crowd.
The Garifuna people are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry of Carib, Arawak, and African people and hail from the countries of Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Bronx and the rest of the New York City area is home to the largest Garifuna diaspora outside of Central America.
They closed the wonderful performance by getting folks off their seats and inviting them up front to dance!
It was quite the show and I was able to capture it so check out the videos below!
Garifuna group’s opening act:
We were then treated to this lively number:
This song is called Pachamama which is mother earth or mother world. The singer wrote this song in honor of the earth.
Finally the performance ends with Bronxites getting up and dancing!
Bronx music sensation Leslie Grace continues to wow fans, old and new alike, with her unique blend of Doo-wop and bachata – the music from her parents’ homeland of Dominican Republic.
Known as La Princesa de la Bachata (the Princess of Bachata), Leslie Grace is yet another one of the many success stories to come out from the Bronx all the while doing it as a positive role model for our youth.
“The three best bachata acts from the States have come from the Bronx. Aventura, Prince Royce, and Leslie Grace”, Vargas, who managed one of the largest Bachata Facebook pages, went on to say about the singer.
Fans on YouTube also dished out some praises. One gentleman said, ”
I CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO THIS SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it…I love the throw back feel…! Great use of a great classic!”
Another one spoke about her appearance by saying, “She presents herself like a lady. I like it!”
This was something that really struck a cord with me since it is a relief to see that since the mainstream media is saturated with the sexualization of women and in particular Latinas (one of the many topics which the folks at UPLIFTT cover)
So with that being said, remember to “UPLIFTT“ our locally, home grown talent!
Published on August 2nd, 2013
Written by: Federica Longo
Leslie Grace has come to be known as the “Princess of Bachata.”
This young girl from the Bronx puts a different twist on things, mixing classic hits from the ’60s with bachata in both English and Spanish.
The daughter of Dominican parents, Grace’s move from her birth city of Davie, Fla., to the Bronx in New York City could explain the uniqueness of her sound. Since the age of two, Grace has been entertaining her five siblings along with her parents, who could only see the inevitable talent she was bound to share with the world.
Leslie Grace sings to the top
The bilingual artist has been hard at work since last year’s Premios Juventud when she released her first single, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” With the release of her new hit album, “Leslie Grace,” this Dominicana is living the dream.
Her modern-day version of “Be My Baby” includes Spanglish lyrics along with the Dominican rhythms for which Grace is becoming so well known. Her musical style continues to top the charts, allowing people to fall in love with her music one song at a time. The song is currently a top 10 single, taking over the radio and climbing up the charts in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Recently having performed her new hit “Be My Baby” at the 2013 Premios Juventud award show, the 18-year-old was able to capture the audience with her voice and performance.
Along with the new song’s success, the album “Leslie Grace” remains in the No. 5 position on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart in its third week of being released. The album includes 11 songs sure to satisfy the ear of people with different tastes. There is a mix of pop and bachata throughout the entire album, along with her famous Spanglish lyrics.
The Dominicana makes history
Back in 2012, the then 17-year-old made Billboard chart history, becoming the youngest female singer to reach a Latin radio No. 1 spot, as “Will U Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
So young and doing so well, the young artist is sure to stay around and shine while giving us all a little of her Dominican flavor.
The new album “Leslie Grace” is available on iTunes. Keep up with “La Princesa de la Bachata” by following herFacebook and Twitter accounts.
From the Daily News: Siegel. Jefferson
Councilwoman Maria Del Carmen Arroyo threw her campaign staff under the bus.
Bronxites should be proud that we are no longer tolerating corrupt politicians and are slowly but surely kicking them out of office.
One of the strongest and corrupt political dynasties of the Bronx, the Arroyo clan, has met its strongest challenge to date, this time as she has been slapped with a lawsuit by challenger Julio Pabón for submitting forged signatures of thousands of individuals.
If she’s found guilty, she will be removed from the ballot come this September 10th for the Democratic primaries for city council in New York City.
Read the full story by Denis Slatery of the Daily News and watch the NY1 segment on the same issue. We’ve consolidated all pieces here for your convenience.
A Bronx Councilwoman whose campaign was rocked by the discovery of obviously forged signatures on her nominating petitions now admits the John Hancocks were fakes — but says she can’t be blamed because it was her campaign staff that committed the fraud!
In a hearing with a court-appointed referee Thursday, Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo admitted the forgeries — and then filed a formal complaint against her own workers.
“We have concluded that they falsified these documents,” Arroyo said, adding that the only thing she thought she was guilty of was “trusting people too much.”
In essence, Arroyo confirmed what her opponent Julio Pabon already alleged, namely that her petition signatures — which included fakes of Derek Jeter, model Kate Moss and other celebs — are fraudulent.
Pabon says so many of the 3,300 petition signatures filed by Arroyo’s team are forgeries that she should be tossed from the ballot. Eighteen hundred signatures have already been invalidated by the Board of Elections, leaving Arroyo still far above the 450 she needs.
Volunteers working for Pabon first noticed the fraud after finding the celeb signers — who was said to live in a walk-up building in the South Bronx.
But on Thursday, Arroyo claimed she and her mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, actually first noticed page after page of forgeries in the petitions after they submitted them to the Board of Elections.
The pol, who represents the South Bronx, says she and her staff had nothing to do with the forgeries, but merely trusted a team of people, some of whom have worked for Arroyo in the past, to collect the petitions.
The Councilwoman claims the District Attorney’s office has opened an investigation into the campaign staffers Elbin Lopez, Luis Vargas, and Betty Julien, all of whom were paid to collect the signatures.
“I couldn’t pick them out of a line up,” Arroyo said, even though Julien has worked for the Councilwoman for more than a decade and Lopez said Arroyo personally handed him his paycheck.
Pabon’s team wasn’t buying Arroyo’s effort to throw her staffers under the campaign bandwagon.
“She should be held responsible for the people working for her campaign,” said Donald Dunn, an attorney working for Pabon.
During the same proceedings, Arroyo said that no one person was in charge of her petition drive, but later admitted that her nephew, Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, was a key part of the process.
Signatures from Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s petitions. Among the names are famous celebrities such as Derek Jeter and Joe Buck.
Signatures from Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s petitions. Among the names are famous celebrities such as Derek Jeter and Joe Buck.
He’d likely be a poor character witness: Izquierdo Arroyo was busted two years ago for skimming $200,000 from a taxpayer-funded Bronx nonprofit run by the Arroyos.
He served 10 months in jail.
It is unclear how many signatures Arroyo has left; the hearing ended with Arroyo’s lawyer offering to strike 500 more signatures — which would be too few to knock Arroyo off the ballot. Pabon’s team wants more time.
In any event, the Councilwoman is adamant that she will be on the ballot for the Sept. 10 primary.
“I expect to be reelected,” a confident Arroyo said after the proceedings.
The District Attorney’s office confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation.
“There was a complaint made,” said Steven Reed, a spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson. “We are aware of it and we are looking into it.”
The Gothamist reports today that a bombed train slipped by the MTA and came into service pretty tagged up which is rare that they do. Since the train operator and conductor are supposed check the train before bringing it into service from the yard.
What’s could possibly be better for local residents than to stumble upon a farmer’s stand smack dab in the middle of the HUB? It was definitely a nice surprise for me just two blocks from my home!
According to the farmers, today was their first day and will be there on Wednesdays between 9am and 6pm.
They are located on E 152nd Street between Third and Bergen Avenues on a small unused block. If the city is smart enough, they’d fill that entire block with stands from corner to corner.
If you’ve been following the shady dealings of Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo and the equally shady Arroyo clan, you already know that thousands of signatures were reported to the BOE as forgeries a couple of weeks ago.
Now the Board of Elections has tossed out over 1,800 of the bogus petition signatures leaving the “…ethically challenged…” as the Daily News likes to refer to her as, del Carmen Arroyo at the mercy of the judge when he rules on charges of fraud brought about the Julio Pabon campaign as well as dozens of local residents who’s signatures were forged.
Read what Denis Slatery of the Daily News has to say:
Board of Elections tosses 1,800 signatures collected by Maria Del Carmen Arroyo
SMITH, BRYAN,, FREELANCE/Daily News:
Maria del Carmen Arroyo will need to recreate this pose later this week when a Bronx judge rules on whether she committed election fraud to get on the ballot.
Candidate had collected 3,800 signatures to get on the ballot. Bronx judge could toss hundreds more, kicking her off.
The road to re-election just got extremely bumpy for a beleaguered Bronx City Councilwoman.
The Board of Elections has nullified more than 1,800 of the 3,863 signatures collected by Maria del Carmen Arroyo and her team in Arroyo’s bid to maintain her South Bronx seat.
And now, with almost half of her petition signatures ruled invalid, the ethically challenged Arroyo will face a Bronx judge who could strike a majority of the remaining scripts.
Arroyo must maintain at least 450 signed petitions to remain on the ballot for the Sept. 10 primary.
There is little chance of that happening if the judge rules that the remaining signatures — which include likely fabrications such as Derek Jeter, supermodel Kate Moss and other celebs — are tossed.
“We are pleasantly surprised by the number of signatures that the Board struck down,” said Julio Pabon, Arroyo’s elated opponent in the race.
Pabon offered one explanation for why Arroyo would have filed thousands of allegedly fake signatures: “I don’t think she expected anyone to challenge.”
But volunteers working for Pabon did just that, poring over the signatures and finding more than 3,400 that appeared to be fakes.
The signatures invalidated by the Board of Elections were limited to signatures belonging to non-registered Democrats or non-residents of the district, which includes Hunts Point, Morrisania and parts of Highbridge.
Pabon’s campaign has a subsequent suit in Bronx Civil Court claiming that Arroyo knowingly violated election laws by submitting the fraudulent petitions. That court will offer a ruling Wednesday.
“If Ms. Arroyo is complicit with the actions of her petitioners, then all of these fraudulent names will be invalidated,” said Donald Dunn, the attorney who filed the suit.
ScoutingNY has featured several places in the Bronx as he (they? She?) journeys throughout the city cataloging various locations for film and television but recently he came across Harding Park and seemed rather fond of this tight knit bungalow community tucked away by the Long Island Sound, East and Bronx Rivers.
Live in Harding Park or been there? We’d love to hear your thoughts about the neighborhood!
Our readers already know that I’ve been keeping a close eye on Bronx politicians and Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo in particular in order to better inform our readership. This latest scandal is but one of many to taint the Arroyo crime family political dynasty.
Many readers of Welcome2TheBronx have often asked why are these corrupt pols still in office. Some have even blamed Bronxites for voting them in and keeping on doing so after their shady dealings are revealed.
But that’s not actually the full story.
Enter Stanley Schlein, Esquire (often referred to as Stanley Slime), the attorney of choice of incumbents and the Bronx political machine and perhaps the most corrupt of them all.
When politicians in the Bronx are caught in some sort of scandal, or their thrones are being threatened because the people want to vote them out, they run to Papa Schlein for defense. He’s represented the Arroyos, the indicted Espada to name just a few.
Just google Stanley Schlein and all you read are scandals after scandals, corrupt dealings, and protecting the very power structure he has helped to put into place in the Bronx.
Infographic created and compiled by Morning Glory Garden in Mott Haven.
Many refer to him as a judge picker and it has been said that, “He is so revered in the courthouses on 161st Street that when he walks into court, the judges stand up for him—instead of the other way around. He earned this love and respect by being the leading point man for the Bronx Democratic organization, which picks most of the borough’s jurists.”
Now he’s representing Maria del Carmen Arroyo – again – and we’ll see how he’s going to defend the blatant forgeries and fraud in her petitions for the September Democratic Primaries. The problem is that Schlein wrote some of the very laws which govern the Board of Elections so he’ll be like a fox loose in a hen house.
Knowledge is Power; More Links to Stanley Slime’s Schlein’s shady dealings:
