Fordham University has received a record-breaking donation from a Bronx native turned billionaire.
Mario J. Gabelli of Greenwich, Connecticut and graduate of Fordham University in 1965, donated $35 million to the university earlier this month exceeding his 2010 donation of $25 million its business school was named in his honor.
Regina Pitaro and Mario J. Gabelli Photo by Chris Taggart/Courtesy Fordham News
According to Fordham University, the latest donation will go towards, among other things, funding scholarships for students seeking a masters or PhD in business administration.
“Gabelli is a philanthropist, investor, and Chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors, Inc. A native of the Bronx, his mother was born in Italy, as was his sister. His father returned to Italy from Western Pennsylvania at the age of 2, following his own father’s death in a coal mining accident.
“In addition to his Fordham degree, he earned an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 1967. His wife, Regina M. Pitaro, is a 1976 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill and a trustee fellow of Fordham University. Pitaro also holds a master’s degree from Loyola University Chicago and earned her M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School in 1982.”
Hopefully many lucky Bronxites will benefit directly from this generous gift from Mr Gabelli.
This holiday season is supposed to be filled with joyous celebrations for many, however, this is unlike any other year.
4,164 Bronxites have been confirmed dead as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and another 939 are suspected to have perished from the virus.
That’s 5,103 lives lost thus far.
That’s 5,103 empty chairs at a family gathering during the holidays in The Bronx.
To those families and their extended network experiencing their first holidays without their loved ones, we extend our greatest sympathies during what is a difficult time.
Lydig Avenue
And then we have those needlessly suffering economically due to an incompetent government, from the President to Congress, that has done absolutely nothing to help its people.
Instead, during this time as Americans died and suffered and got poorer, billionaires and corporations got richer as they profited off the pandemic at the cost of small business owners.
While there is relief in sight with two coronavirus vaccines approved, it will be a long time before the country reaches 75% vaccination which is scientifically understood to be the minimum to develop herd immunity.
And it will be even longer for the economic crisis and suffering to abate.
But we’re from The Bronx, we’ve been to hell and back and we can and will survive this—together—as we always have done.
We know the journey ahead isn’t easy and will be filled with difficulties but we believe in that indomitable Bronx strong spirit that will carry us on whether through our own actions or that of our neighbors.
Affordable housing lottery for a brand new development in Soundview is now open and accepting applications.
Located at 1230 Metcalf Avenue, Metcalf Avenue Apartments is a 11 story development with 223 units ranging from studios to 3 bedroom units across 219,546 square feet and is just a few blocks away from the Morrison Avenue-Soundview station on the 6 line.
These units are available for a wide range of incomes offering deeply affordable units with rents as low as $354 for studios for those making 30% of the AMI ($14,640-$27,300 a year) to rents as high as $2,346 for three bedroom units for those making 110% of the Area Median Income ($85,098-$155,100 a year).
Oh and did we mention that each unit comes with its own dishwasher and air conditioning?
Unit breakdown, rents and income requirements are as follows:
The development also has a wide range of amenities like a playground, a party room, outdoor space, a children’s playroom, outdoor terrace, and a rooftop terrace. This development is also pet friendly which is not too common in these lotteries.
It’s also constructed under “Passive House” guidelines which is the highest environmental sustainability certification which provides for excellent indoor air quality and highly energy efficient heating and cooling.
In order to apply, go here and remember, do not contact us as we are NOT affiliated with this or any other real estate development as we are NOT a real estate company.
After months of wrangling in Congress over who should get how much in a new COVID-19 relief / stimulus package, once again the American working class got shafted but nowhere is the insult greater than places like The Bronx where a high cost of living is coupled with some of the highest income inequalities in the region.
After almost 9 months of fighting in Congress and the White House, we were told that our pain and suffering during the pandemic and resulting worst economic crisis in history is worth only a paltry $600 along with an extended weekly federal unemployment benefit of $300.
That’s it.
$600.
How is this supposed to help The Bronx where we have the some of the highest unemployment rates in the country not to mention since the Great Depression? Areas like West Farms have unemployment rates above 25%.
Volunteers with Loving The Bronx have provided and or delivered needed food to well over 30,000 Bronx households since the beginning of the pandemic—and that’s just one group of people of many working across the borough during the crisis. (image courtesy Loving The Bronx)
How is the average Bronxite supposed to survive on that where the average rent is $1,658 a month according to RENTCafé? How is that supposed to cover months and months of back rent owed? What about homeowners who have mortgages significantly higher than that on top of property taxes they still have to pay?
How is a one shot $600 stimulus going to help a family cover their utilities like the internet so their kids can continue remote education or phones to stay connected to the rest of the world? Such utilities alone cost in excess of $200 a month for a typical family in the borough.
How will that help with transportation where a monthly unlimited metro card is $127?
What about childcare for our essential workers? How is $600 going to cover that?
People are starving in an already notoriously hungry borough and lining up at food pantries in numbers unseen in modern times.
Remember, not everyone qualifies for supplemental assistance so there are families that can’t access necessary help by way of food stamps and other aid.
No matter the weather, Bronx residents line up outdoors waiting hours for food donations at local pantries.
And will the $325 billion in small business relief including $284 billion which will be forgivable under the Payment Protection Program (PPP) actually be enough AND get to where it’s needed in The Bronx unlike the first time earlier this year where only 40% of eligible small businesses in The Bronx got the PPP according New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office who wrote:
Meanwhile, zeroing in on the 240,355 employee-based businesses in New York City, there are some notable disparities between the boroughs and between industries. For instance, while approximately 53 percent of employee-based small businesses in Brooklyn, 52 percent in Manhattan, 50 percent in Staten Island, and 48 percent in Queens received a PPP loan, only 40 percent in the Bronx were PPP recipients (see Chart 5).
At a MINIMUM, we deserve a monthly $1,200 ($2,000 preferably) stimulus check RETROACTIVE to the first and continued through at least 6 months PAST the end of the pandemic and economic crisis ALONG with an extension of the $600 weekly federal pandemic unemployment benefits not $300.
And this is just what’s owed to us as people.
Small businesses need to be bailed out with a huge focus on the restaurant industry in harder hit areas. The arts as well as mass transit in cities like NYC.
Now is also the time to invest in a Green New Deal too which will provide jobs for those who want them.
All of this could literally transform this country and uplift more folks out of poverty (along with FREE EDUCATION AND MEDICARE FOR ALL).
Instead of helping the country, Congress abandoned us by also dropping state aid in this bill.
We have the money we just don’t want to give it to the working class and instead give tax cuts and breaks to the rich and corporations and overly bloat police departments so that they can kill Black and BIPOC folks with impunity while congress still gets paid and pay their rents and mortgages.
And where does all this money come from? Who’s gonna pay for it? Us. We already paid for it and continue to pay through our taxes. No one ever asks who’s gonna pay for endless wars and over bloated defense budgets. No one ever asks who’s gonna pay for the tax cuts to the rich and powerful corporations (hint: It’s us, the working class).
Our country should be embarrassed for how we treat our people. If other countries can take care of their people, not just in times of need but always, why can’t the supposed greatest country in history?
Abubakar Ahmed Ali contemplates a miniature soccer game in his Yonkers apartment as his wife Patricia speaks with family via WhatsApp. /Michael de Vulpillieres
Abubakar Ahmed Ali shares an apartment in Yonkers, N.Y. with his wife of nearly 17 years, Patricia. Their home is a patchwork of memories, a window into a life and soccer career spanning nearly seven decades, three countries and two continents. From floor to ceiling, photos of African soccer legends, family members, imams, NYC public figures, and his former youth team players wallpaper their cramped living room.
On a small table at the center of the room sits a miniature soccer pitch with figurines deliberately placed. Patricia looks at the table and explains: “That’s where he works on his strategy.”
Patricia, Abubakar Ahmed Ali’s wife of 17 years./Michael de Vulpillieres
Since arriving in New York from Accra nearly 20 years ago, after a long career playing professionally in Ghana and Nigeria, Ali has overseen more than a dozen youth soccer teams in the Greater NY area, all as a volunteer. When he’s not coaching, he is training kids one-on-one. He speaks with great passion and emotion about his “youth,” as he calls them, young African immigrants aspiring for success here in the US.
Abubakar Ahmed Ali trains a teenager on the sidelines of a weekly pickup game near Yankee Stadium./Michael de Vulpillieres
“I put everything to help the kids in the community,” reflects Ali with pride. “This is my passion.”
Every Saturday morning, the 69-year-old travels 20 miles south to Macombs Dam Park in the shadow of Yankee stadium to train African teenagers on the sidelines of a weekly soccer match where dozens of Ghanaian, Algerian, Liberian, Guinean and Nigerian players meet up for pickup games.
Abubakar Ahmed Ali stands outside his Yonkers, NY apartment wearing a USA-Ghana scarf./Michael de Vulpillieres
The quality of play on the field is high. Current and former professionals, college players, aspiring pros and even a former boxing world champ from Ghana come out regularly.
Ali seems to know everyone on and off the pitch, switching with ease from English to Hausa to Twi.
A weekly pickup soccer game near Yankee Stadium. Players from Ghana, South Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Nigeria come out regularly/Michael de Vulpillieres
One of several links in the Bronx to his life back in West Africa is his best friend Ahmed Yakubu Mohamed, whom Ali has known since the 1960s when they played together in Accra. Mohamed drives to the Bronx from his home in New Jersey every weekend and brings his teenage grandson Mubashir, an aspiring college player, so Ali can train him. Running drills with Mubashir, Ali’s slow gait up and down the sidelines reveals the wear on his legs of a long career played at the highest level.
Ali was born in Accra, Ghana in 1950. He proudly mentions a couple distinctions within his lineage: his grandfather was a respected local imam and his father was a professional cyclist. As a man of deep faith and a gifted athlete, Ali carried on both legacies.
Abubakar Ahmed Ali (L) and his best friend Ahmed Yakubu Mohamed (R) watch Mohamed’s teenage grandson Mubashir run training drills./Michael de Vulpillieres
Since a young age Ali demonstrated considerable soccer skill, rising in the ranks from youth to adult at Accra Hearts of Oak, one of the most popular and successful Ghanaian clubs.
In the mid-70s, when Ali was in his 20s, he was recruited to play in Nigeria, ultimately with the newly-established and well-financed Raccah Rovers in Kano State.
“Playing in Ghana we were amateurs,” he recalls, justifying the move. “They would only pay us a few dollars a match with a bonus of $200-300 a year.”
Abubakar Ahmed Ali holds a photo of himself as a young boy alongside his Ghanaian grandmother/Michael de Vulpillieres
Ali’s transfer was part of a broader trend in the 60s and 70s in which Ghanaian soccer players joined the more lucrative and professional Nigerian League en masse.
Author Anzu Aneke wrote about this phenomenon in an essay about Nigeria soccer in the 1970s entitled, In Search of Nigeria’s Golden Age: “The vibrancy and liquidity of the Nigerian game attracted players from across the region. It was even known for some players to change nationality to ensure that they gained extra kudos in the Nigerian League.” This was the case with Ali who was selected to play several matches with the Nigerian national soccer team.
17-year old Mubashir is the grandson of Ahmed Yakubu Mohamed, Abubakar Ahmed Ali’s best friend, going back more than 50 years/Michael de Vulpillieres
After a historic win in 1978 that saw his Raccah Rovers win their first Nigerian League title, the team was selected as one of the opponents for an African exhibition tour later that year featuring Pele. Ali was matched up against the Brazilian, then 37 years old, for one half in front of a capacity crowd in Kaduna on April 28, 1978. He remembers Pele complementing him after the game.
Abubakar Ahmed Ali stops by the deli/car wash at the foot of his apartment building and speaks with fellow Ghanaian and former coworker Sam. The car wash is where Ali first started working in the US in 2000./Michael de Vulpillieres
“He [Pele] told me I reminded him of Luís Pereira,” said Ali with a smile, referring to the legendary Brazilian defender who played alongside Pele.
After retiring as a pro, Ali shifted his focus to coaching kids and spent most of the 90s managing youth teams in Ghana.
On the sidelines of a weekly pickup soccer game near Yankee Stadium where players from Ghana, South Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Nigeria come out regularly to compete./Michael de Vulpillieres
He first arrived in the US around the time of his 50th birthday in 2000. Ali does not speak much of the circumstances that brought him here, except that it was initially to help his friend, and former teammate, coach a youth team in Upstate NY. But he ended up staying and quickly put down roots.
Within a few weeks he found an apartment in Yonkers, where he still lives in today; he found employment at a local car wash, where he worked for nearly a decade; and he met Patricia, a 44-year old woman originally from North Carolina, who would become his wife three years later. Patricia, who Ali calls his “backbone,” has been actively involved in each of his coaching endeavors since they met, namely filming youth matches and practices.
Abubakar Ahmed Ali was a member of the Nigerian national soccer team that won the silver medal at the 1978 All Africa Games/Michael de Vulpillieres
Back at their home in Yonkers, a worn medal bearing the outline of the African continent sits discretely on one of the shelves. He received it after his Nigerian national soccer team made it to the final of the 1978 All-African Games, an Olympic-style, multi-sport tournament on the continent. His team lost in the final to the host Algerian team 3-2.
“I played in the semifinal, but they did not play me in the final,” he says with a mix of validation and regret. He adds: “You know, I never lost a game that I played with the Nigerian national team.”
Abubakar Ahmed Ali on the sidelines of a weekly pickup soccer game near Yankee Stadium, where players from Ghana, South Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Nigeria come out regularly to compete/Michael de Vulpillieres
As Ali scans the awards and photos that line the walls of his living room, his gaze stops at a huge youth league trophy won for a major tournament win in 2015 sitting atop an old TV.
“I’ve achieved a lot in my career,” he reflects. “If I had money for all my trophies, I’d be a rich man,” he adds. “But it’s not about money, football is love. And that love has a lot of meaning.”
Michael de Vulpillieres is pursuing a master’s degree at the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School in Manhattan. As part of an international photojournalism class last fall at the New School, Michael documented how African immigrant communities in NYC come together through soccer.
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Taste of The Bronx, the popular subscription box and pop-up market celebrating the best of the borough is getting a brick and mortar cafe in the South Bronx at La Central, the new massive affordable housing development in Melrose at The Hub.
The physical space, located on Westchester Avenue and Brook, will be a collaboration between Bronx brothers Anthony Ramirez II and Paul Ramirez of From The Bronx and the Bronx Beer Hall, who together have been running Bronx-based businesses for the past 15 years, and Rebecca Scott, founder of Bronx-based Sustainable Snacks which promotes public health through better snacking and makes their products available and a lower price point for The Bronx.
Future home of Taste of The Bronx at the newly constructed La Central development
According to Scott, the cafe will have a healthy menu influenced by the borough and have a healthy twist. She also added that they will be holding cooking and nutrition classes as well as part of their mission.
But it won’t just be Taste of The Bronx providing the food.
“Where actually going to have a rotating food vendor that shares the food space with us 3 months at a time”, said Rebecca Scott in an interview with Welcome2TheBronx.
The Taste of The Bronx Team, from left to right, Anthony Ramirez II, Rebecca Scott, and Paul Ramirez
She added, “In that regard we can help budding Bronx chefs launch their food brand rather openining their own brick and mortar.”
Anthony emphasized that it’s a way for budding small food businesses to test out their concepts to see if it would work without having to commit to an actual physical space which is not only costly but also difficult to get traditional funding as Paul Ramirez noted that lenders often want to see a model that is gonna prove successful.
“If It works then they have the opportunity to move onto bigger and greener pastures and if it doesn’t, they can at least have the opportunity to retool their concept.” said Anthony.
The space will also serve as a brick and mortar shop for the Bronx vendors Taste of The Bronx features in their subscription boxes and pop-up markets.
Taste of The Bronx will also be a space for events like live music, and yes, open- mic poetry too and if folks aren’t in the mood for coffee or tea they can always order some alcohol as they will be obtaining a liquor license to serve beer and wine.
The team also acknowledged the challenges of signing a lease in the middle of a pandemic and to an uncertain future due to the crisis. Although they are aiming to open by late Spring, there is no way to tell what that will look like if restrictions are still in place for businesses then.
Anthony also jokingly admitted they’re crazy for embarking on this journey at this time but they’re also confident in their brand and experience of brand-building for almost two decades.
In a statement to Welcome2TheBronx, Anthony Ramirez II said, “Taste of The Bronx Cafe is a community focused cafe that will offer an assortment of healthy food options in a safe and inclusive environment.”
It’s through that community focus that their past and current ventures have been successful in creating spaces for the community and by BEING from the community, unlike a random national chain that may decide to open a generically stale space with zero input from the neighborhoods they infiltrate.
And the space aims to truly celebrate the best of our borough as he added, “As with all things Taste of The Bronx, the goal of the cafe is to celebrate and elevate The Bronx! The Taste of The Bronx Cafe will represent the best the borough has to offer while filling a gap in The South Bronx’s food landscape.”
The cafe will be joining BronxNet, a massive 50,000 square foot YMCA, an organic food market, and a Mexican restaurant at La Central, all which are scheduled to open sometime next year along with almost 500 apartments filled with new residents and families that will be moving into the development.
It is a rare feat for a new construction development of this size to have most of its commercial spaces leased and let alone in the middle of a pandemic before construction is completed. Hudson Companies, who’s developing La Central, recently announced that almost 90% of its retail spaces in this phase are leased.
Many new construction development in The Bronx have vacant spaces for months and even years long after construction is complete and residents have moved in.
Once completed, La Central will have almost 1,000 apartments spread across 5 buildings making it one of the largest affordable housing developments in the South Bronx and is conveniently located at The Hub and 1 block away from the 2 and 5 train at the 3rd Avenue and 149th Street Station and is served by multiple bus lines.
When Taste of The Bronx is finally up and running, it will be easily accessible to many parts of the borough and not just the immediate area.
The area deserves a good, decent cafe that understands the area and The Bronx and it’s been something many residents have asked for and it looks like they’ll finally get their wish.
MELROSE—As infection rates for COVID-19 continue to rise across the city, state, The Bronx is once again becoming a hot spot for newly infected people.
According to data obtained from the New York City Department of Health’s website on the coronavirus pandemic, the 10455 zip code in The Bronx has the highest 7-day percent positive rate for the deadly virus at 7.61%.
Only the 11223 zip code in Brooklyn’s Gravesend/Homecrest neighborhoods with a 8.10% rate and 11697 covering Breezy Point in Queens at 7.98% are higher as per data from November 20th to the 26th.
The 10455 zip code covers parts of Melrose and Mott Haven including The Hub, the borough’s busiest shopping district and the commercial heart of the South Bronx, areas which have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic including economically where unemployment rates are at levels unseen since the Great Depression.
Long lines outside CityMD at The Hub for COVID-19 testing.
It is also one of the areas under the governor’s yellow zones of focus due to rapidly rising rates of the coronavirus that are under watch and may go to the more dire orange code which would once again shut down and limit many businesses.
A woman sells masks at The Hub where the recent percent positive rate for COVID-19 is the highest in The Bronx and third highest in New York City.
Even more glaring is the continuation of how the pandemic is disproportionately impacting lower income communities of color where the rate of percent positive in 10455 is over five times that of the nearby and mostly white, affluent Upper East Side zip code of 10128 in Manhattan which registered a 7-day percent positive rate of 1.42% during the same time period.
This is roughly the same percent positive rate difference below 96th street with the exception of the Financial District, Battery Park, and Tribeca zip codes which all registered under 1% or 7 times less than that of Melrose and Mott Haven.
The Hub, the epicenter of commerce in the South Bronx is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
And it’s not just 10455 that is problematic but 10457 covering Belmont/Claremont/Mount Hope/Tremont has a rate of 7.01% making it the 5th highest in the city followed by 10454 covering Mott Haven/Port Morris in 9th place with a rate of 6.63%.
Only Co-op City and Edenwald’s 10475 zip code has a low rate under 2% at 1.58% percent positive.
The Bronx as a whole continues to fair poorly as it still has the highest death and hospitalization rate in the city and only recently did Staten Island’s rate of infection surpass that of The Bronx but only by a miniscule margin.
Now after the Thanksgiving holiday, these numbers are only expected to rise as many families ignored social distancing mandates and guidelines.
While it’s difficult to practice social distancing in many Bronx households with multiple generations under one roof, while we’re out running our daily lives we should limit our exposure by wearing masks and wearing them properly by covering your NOSE too ESPECIALLY when you’re indoors whether at work, shopping, or at the gym.
We can only get through this if we protect each other.
See how your neighborhood rates as of November 20-26 below:
MORRIS PARK—La Masa, one of our favorite restaurants in The Bronx, is sharing the love this Thanksgiving by providing free meals for 300 families in need.
The popular Colombian restaurant is seeking contacts to families in need in our borough so that they can deliver the meals on November 25th and now, more than ever as the pandemic has economically ravaged The Bronx, this will be a welcome relief to families that have been impacted by the crisis.
But in order to do that they need your help!
Follow La Masa on Instagram and send them a DM to nominate a family along with their contact information.
The folks at La Masa will then take it from there and contact the families to make arrangements for delivery.
This is what makes The Bronx so special, our small businesses also take care of those in need living in our borough.
So head on over to Instagram, follow @lamasa_restaurant and send them a message with info of a family you’d like to nominate!
We’ve been looking at several maps comparing election results from 2016 to 2020 and it is quite clear that more people voted for Donald Trump in this election than before.
Areas that were red in 2016 just got deeper red or expanded in 2020 showing higher turnout for Trump this year.
Although the city was overwhelmingly blue, all across the five boroughs there were tens of thousands of more votes for the Trump.
And the South Bronx showed the highest jump with one district covering Hunts Point, Mott Haven, and Melrose showing 2,500 more votes this year for the president than in 2016.
The South Bronx went from a deep blue in 2016 to most districts showing a higher vote for Trump in 2020.
And over in one particular district which covers the Clocktower expansion luxury apartments where rents go as high as well above $4,000 a month, Trump went from 15 votes in 2016 accounting for 3% of the total to 60 votes accounting for 11% of the total.
While we can’t say for sure that it was the gentrifiers in that particular district that voted for Trump, the only change since 2016 in that area are the gentrifiers who have moved into several new luxury developments including 190 luxury units at The Crescendoand several dozen more nearby.
You might remember that The Crescendo tried to use the attempted rebranding of the area as the Piano District but we quickly shut that down.
Furthermore, many more areas that aren’t heavily gentrified or gentrified at all showed an even greater increase for Trump so the answers aren’t all that clear as to why the shift.
The district where the Crescendo is located saw an 8% increase for Trump.
Bronx voters offered a variety of explanations for Mr. Trump’s gains, including his support for religious communities and small-business owners. The Rev. Oswald Denis, a 48-year-old Evangelical minister in the South Bronx said he and other pastors attend weekly meetings to discuss politics and city affairs.
Many members of his congregation—and other pastors—were attracted to the president because of his support for Israel and his antiabortion stance.
They further reported:
Francisco Marte Sr., who immigrated to the South Bronx from the Dominican Republic and now runs the Bodega and Small Business Association of New York, said he knew many entrepreneurs supported Mr. Trump.
“Most of them were against the leftist policies,” he said. Mr. Trump’s support for law-and-order also resonated, he said.
And it wasn’t just in the South Bronx but across the borough that saw an increase for Trump but it still was a drop in the bucket as Biden won New York by a landslide.
East Bronx neighborhoods like Morris Park, Country Club, and Throggs Neck solidified their support for Trump with some more adjacent districts going red.
The Bronx from 2016 to the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, back in the South and West Bronx, it’s interesting to see Latinos voting for the most racist president in modern American history but it still wasn’t enough here or across the country to give Trump a win who Biden crushed in a landslide election.
And with Biden’s popular vote nearing 80 million, he will have received more votes than any president in American history.
As for The Bronx, our borough is still overwhelmingly a blue county but it’s worth a discussion as to why such a shift this year after all we’ve seen this administration is capable of against marginalized groups.
Alarms are being sounded across New York City and State as the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 a day are reaching numbers we haven’t seen since May.
During the first few dark months of the coronavirus pandemic in America, The Bronx was the epicenter of the deadly virus not just with infection rates but mortality as well.
Positivity rate across the 5 boroughs according to NYS Department of Health
Now numbers are climbing as more and more people head indoors with the colder weather upon us and the return of gyms and indoor dining.
And lines are forming outside testing sites once again.
As of yesterday, according to data from New York State Department of Health, The Bronx had a 2.7% positive rate from Sunday through Tuesday from all testing performed during that period.
Data from NYC Department of Health
According to NYC’s Department of Health, four Bronx zip codes are in the top 15 with the highest percent positive rate in New York City and are as follows:
10452 covering Concourse and Highbridge with a 4.23% positive rate and 66 new people positive
10459 covering Charlotte Gardens and Hunts Point with a 4.19% positive rate and 41 people positive
10460 covering Charlotte Gardens/Tremont/Van Nest/West Farms with a 3.99% positive rate and 46 new people positive
10457 covering Belmont/Claremont/Mount Hope/Tremont with a 3.96% positive rate and 59 new people positive
Through my travels throughout The Bronx I’ve seen people not wearing their masks as much as they used to and I no longer personally go to gyms in The Bronx because many are either not wearing masks or wearing them incorrectly with their noses exposed.
This isn’t just my personal observation but what has been reported back to me from several individuals across the borough.
A few months of relative calm from the anxiety-inducing months from March through May has resulted in too much apathy from residents. Trust me I get it, it’s exhausting but until we have a vaccine, we’re in this for the long haul.
Today marks 8 months that Welcome2TheBronx moved out of our offices in what we hoped would be a brief period but here we are doing what we have to do to keep fighting this pandemic.
While many don’t have the luxury working from home, we do have it within our hands to wear masks and ensure everyone is wearing one on the buses and trains and indoors when in mixed company, at the gym, shopping, etc.
Do we really want to go back to a total shutdown again? No, but that’s where we are headed if we don’t stave this off.
To date, there are 4,082 confirmed deaths due to coronavirus and another 932 probable deaths due to the virus. That’s 5,014 Bronxites gone just like that.
Please do your part. Do it for abuela. Do it for your kids, friends, family, and loved ones.
Two years ago a blaze broke out in a 16 story apartment building in the Belmont area of The Bronx that left a dozen injured and two dead.
One of the victims was 19 year old Lucas Silverio Mendoza who had already rescued his grandmother from the burning building when he ran back in to rescue a little three year old girl named Yasleen McDonald who died a day later.
Lucas was beloved by his community and called by his friends and family a kind soul.
Now he will be remembered with a street renamed in his honor at the corner of Crotona Avenue and Grote Street where he lived and ultimately perished.
Friday, the day of the street renaming, would have been his 21st birthday.
After defeating Congressman Eliot L. Engel, the 16-term 31 year democratic incumbent in the June primaries, Bronx middle school principal Jamaal Bowman cruised to an easy landslide last night garnering over 80% of the votes tallied thus far in the 16th congressional district.
And with this win, The Squad is growing.
Come this January, Bowman will join the infamous “Squad” which is comprised of Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of The Bronx, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a true progressive, small but vocal wing of the Democratic party all of whom were re-elected to their 2nd term in office.
Congressman-elect, Jamaal Bowman/Photo via Facebook
Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush in Missouri won her race becoming the state’s first Black member of Congress s will also be joining The Squad and Marie Newman in Illinois is expected to win hers as well which would bringing the group up from 4 to 7.
But what you can see here is that there is only one member of this true progressive group of Democrats per state with the exception of New York which will now have two.
And those two, AOC and Bowman, represent districts that cover The Bronx.
Add Ritchie Torres winning in the South Bronx as America’s first openly gay Afro Latino member of Congress, although nowhere nearly as progressive as the squad, this really seems to paint the picture and build the case that The Bronx is the most progressive county in America.
Where else do you have two members of the squad and an openly gay Congressman?
Nowhere.
It’s refreshing to see that happening in the country’s bluest county, a county of immigrants from all over which makes The Bronx the most diverse county in America.
The world still sees The Bronx through a negative lense. Let them see us give them a new one: America’s most progressive county in history.
