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.
Councilman Ritchie Torres who has represented the 15th City Council District in The Bronx for the past almost 6 years has been declared the winner of the 15th Congressional District in the South Bronx in yesterday’s election to replace outgoing Congressman José E Serrano.
Torres, who is Puerto Rican, will be the first openly gay Afro Latino member of congress along with Mondaire Jones who will be the first openly gay Black member of congress.
This is a historic event as Torres bested the homophobic Councilman Ruben Diaz Dr in the June primary in bid to represent the South Bronx.
The South Bronx’s vote to send an openly gay man to congress is monumental because despite the fact that it is one of the bluest districts in the nation, it is still a relatively socially conservative area.
As a gay youth growing up in the South Bronx and in the closet at the time the prospects of a Ritchie Torres representing our district wasn’t even a dream on the radar.
Despite the uncertainty of the presidential election results, at least there’s a glimmer of hope in all of this.
The most famous member of congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of The Bronx Has cruised to a landslide victory in her re-election bid.
No matter how hard Republicans tried to paint her as unfit to represent the district and out of touch with reality not to mention the horrific personal attacks laced with outright misogyny, the district spoke and decided to send AOC back to congress.
With 66% of precincts reporting, Ocasio-Cortez is in a comfortable lead with 68.6% of the vote versus Republican challenger John Cummings at 30.8% despite having raised $10 million to unseat her.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is at an embarrassing 0.7% of the vote.
This was the second most expensive race for congress in the country during the 2020 election cycle.
Last week Loving The Bronx launched a fundraiserto help keep their free community refrigerator in Parkchester stocked through the end of the year.
The goal was $6,000 and in less than a week, all you amazing people donated whatever was within your heart and capacity or helped spread the news.
This free community refrigerator in Parkchester will continue to be fully stocked through the end of the year thanks to generous readers like you.
Not only was the goal met but it has been surpassed by almost $2,000 as of this writing which only means Loving The Bronx can continue to feed hungry Bronxites past the new year.
This couldn’t have been done without the help and support of the following people who generously donated to the GoFundMe campaign:
Mike Gupta
Lynne Corry
Latanya DeVaughn (shout out to Bronx Bound Books for always supporting!)
Emily Walker
Kelston Bascom
Katia Portela
Bafemi Silver
Bronx Sole
Abbi Newfeld
Selena Ortega
Ariadna Phillips
Reece Coren
John Murray
Alex Roman
Ryan Chuchmach
Kelly White
Lina Bracero
Julian Monserrate
Jacob Nardone
Hiam Abbas
Chrys Napolitano
Susan Brenner
Maryann Karcich
Ben Wild
Royivia Ferguson
Jaylin Chalco
Jennifer Passoni
Ana Garcia
Adam Prato
Angela Tovar
Jose Galarza
Ivy Negron
Khamini Persaud
Amelia Zaino
Welcome2TheBronx
And all the donors who wished to remain anonymous.
We would especially like to thank a donor who wishes to remain anonymous who donated $5,000 to the fundraiser. Your generosity is greatly appreciated and will make a huge impact on the lives of our residents that are facing hunger.
We also want to remind you that it’s not too late to donate, since this is an ongoing effort started by Loving The Bronx and hungry families won’t disappear overnight so please consider making a donation.
Thanks again to everyone for showing how we take care of our community!
It’s been a while since we wrote about our borough’s rich history and fun facts so we figured we’d close out October with some fun tidbits of information on The Bronx.
The first thing you need to know, especially if you’re not from The Bronx is that we are, in fact, the best of the five boroughs of New York City. This isn’t an opinion but a historical fact.
Ok, so MAYBE it’s more of an opinion but allow us to show you why it’s more than a simple opinion.
So where do we begin?
Beautiful art deco on the Grand Concourse
For starters, we are the ONLY borough with the article “The” in its name as in The Bronx.
According to Bronx County historian Lloyd Ultan, “The” stuck as part of the name when the borough was named after the Bronx River which runs right through it (which was named after the first European settler in our borough, Jonas Broncks).
The Bronx River runs past the Snuff Mill in the Botanical Gardens
Just remember to put some respect on our name and ALWAYS capitalize that ‘T’ because it’s The Bronx and not the Bronx.
Now we can talk about the fact that we have beautiful City Island, one of New York City’s most unique communities that seems more like New England than NYC with its dozens of excellent seafood restaurants or we can talk about how New York City’s REAL Little Italy is, in fact, not on Mulberry Street in Manhattan but on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx.
Or we can talk about how our greatest resource is our people.
Did you know that The Bronx was declared the most diverse county in America? According to the Census Bureau, if you take two random Bronxites, there’s an 89.7% chance that they will be of a different race and ethnicity. Sorry Queens.
Mexican folkloric dancing during a block party
Speaking of diversity, The Bronx is still home to the largest population of ethnic Albanians outside of Albania. It’s also home to the largest Garifuna population and it’s still home to the largest Puerto Rican population in the country of any county.
We are also home to one of the largest African populations in the country and even the Mexican population is one of NYC’s largest if not the largest. In fact, the first cultural center for Mexican studies East of the Mississippi was established right here in The Bronx at Lehman College.
Other groups that call The Bronx home in large numbers are Dominicans, Bangladeshi, Italians, and we’re still home to the largest Puerto Rican population of any county in America.
Let’s not forget the Irish of which Woodlawn is considered to be the Irish capital and center of life in New York City.
Puerto Rican Bomba dancing at Rincón Criollo ala Casa de Chema Community Garden
At one point The Bronx was the most Jewish borough of New York City during the first half of the 20th century with up to 57% of the borough identifying as such and the majority were centered in and around the South Bronx.
No other borough has ever reached anywhere near that percentage to this day.
All of this diversity of people living together has led to The Bronx simply being one of the most beautiful places in the world when it comes to all types of people living side by side.
It’s no wonder that’s why Hip Hop and Salsa were born in The Bronx with all these influences constantly bombarding us.
Even the borough itself is as diverse as its people from the packed urban streets of the South Bronx to suburban Throggs Neck, Country Club and nautical City Island to the quietness of the estates of Fieldston, some of the largest such properties in New York City.
Salsa dancing at “El Polvorín” in Port Morris
It’s not just the only borough on the mainland continental United States but it’s the GREENEST borough with the highest percentage of its land as dedicated parkland and home of the largest park in New York City and the third largest park, Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt respectively.
If you know, you know…
We are a borough of artists and creators like the Piccirilli Brothers who carved the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in DC as well as the lions Patience and Fortitude at the New York Public Library’s main branch on 5th Avenue.
Did you know that the frame for the capital dome in DC was made right here in The Bronx in Mott Haven?
You’ll also find New York City’s only freshwater river, The Bronx River where on its banks in the New York Botanical Garden you’ll find the largest track of the original forest that covered the city before the colonizers invaded.
An old Jewish synagogue in the Grand Concourse is a Christian church.
This is where you’ll find the Grand Concourse, one of the most famous streets in Bronx and city which is home to one of the largest collections of art deco buildings in the world.
We are the home of Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, names revered in the fashion world across the globe.
We are the place where Stan Lee was raised and eventually began the greatest super hero franchise of all time and where even Batman was born.
This is where Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was born and raised molding her into one of the greatest legal minds of our nation.
Parkchester, the world’s largest condo development and once a restricted white-only community is now a thriving multicultural home of people from all corners of the world.
Where one of the most famous astrophysicists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, was raised first in Castle Hill before moving to Riverdale (and yes it’s still The Bronx even if they don’t write it on their mail).
Cultural icons like Cardi B and J Lo lived here in the Boogie Down Bronx, names and faces known around the world.
This is where AOC, perhaps the most popular elected official in congress in history that we don’t need to remind you of her full name, was born and eventually came back as a young adult and took down one of the biggest political bosses in New York City.
Beautiful Van Cortlandt Park, NYC’s third largest park.
Who knows? She might just be the first Latina president in America.
The Bronx is the borough that is known for having burned; the poorest borough, and the unhealthiest county of New York State and while those are are harsh realities, it doesn’t define us nor is it our end all and be all.
Bronx Victory Memorial at Pelham Bay Park
We are a borough of dreams and hopes where people face some of the toughest odds in the city and perhaps the nation but yet we somehow manage to survive and excel like no other when we excel.
Survival is written in our DNA and we too, shall get through this pandemic and subsequent economic crisis.
So whenever anyone wants to talk bad about The Bronx, remind them of who we really are, what we did from nothing except our minds, ingenuity, and drive.
Stay strong and proud, my Bronx!
This is why we will always defend The Bronx against gentrification and those who want to erase our wonderful history good or bad.
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in The Bronx, our borough was already in a crisis.
From the highest rates of poverty to the highest rates of families either homeless or teetering on homelessness with just one check away from being evicted, our residents were already on the edge.
And then there is there is the fact that we are considered the hungriest borough of New York City, an issue which has only been greatly exacerbated by the coronavirus economic crisis.
This was only made worse as The Bronx had the highest rates of closures of food pantries during this time.
But while we may have the highest rates of hunger, one thing we don’t do in The Bronx is let our residents go without access to food to help combat this hunger crisis.
Bronx folks like Marjorie Velazquez who has helped get food to thousands of families during the pandemic that otherwise would have gone hungry, stepped up to the plate during this crisis often teaming up with Nilka Martell the founder of Loving The Bronx, a grassroots organization that spreads Bronx pride through community service and Parks programing, and distributed food out of the historic Huntington Free Library in Westchester Square.
Food pantry lines now stretch around blocks in The Bronx since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
When the pandemic hit, Nilka Martell through Loving The Bronx and an army of volunteers, helped distribute 30,000 boxes of dry food, nearly 4000 fresh produce boxes and over 4000 prepared meals to families in need in the East Bronx, an area often overlooked and ignored during times of crisis.
Then in September Loving The Bronx installed a community refrigerator filled with free food for the taking in the Parkchester area of the borough thanks to the generosity of Brewski’s Bar and Grill who purchased a brand new double glass door commercial refrigerator for the effort.
Located inside Circle Green Farms deli and grocery at 80 Hugh Grant Circle, the refrigerator is accessible to anyone in need, no questions asked (all is asked that one be mindful that there are others in need as well) and is available 7 days a week between 7AM and 7PM.
But we need your help in keeping the refrigerator stocked through the end of 2020.
Loving The Bronx and its Board of Directors (of which I am a member in the spirit of full disclosure) are asking to help us raise $6,000.
There is no amount too big or small for this endeavor and if you know Nilka Martell and Loving The Bronx then you know that since 2012, she and her organization has mostly operated out of pocket with the occasional grant here and there.
But this isn’t an endeavor we can do on our own and together we can truly make a difference in not letting a child, a senior, or a parent in need go hungry.
The Loving The Bronx Community Fridge was decorated by Bronx artist Lovie Pignata.
Please consider donating today and help Us to Bronx resident from going hungry.
Site of 355 Exterior Street just south of the 145th Street Bridge.
Once completed, the tower will be the tallest building in the South Bronx with 710 residential apartments across 692,749 square feet which will also include commercial space along the ground-floor.
Last year the developer, The Lightstone Group, announced that the massive development site will be converted into 2,000 residential units of housing with 1,400 (70%) of those units to be rented out at market rate and 600 units (30%) set aside for “affordable” housing.
355 Exterior Street along the Harlem River Waterfront
Although now with the economy in a turmoil, luxury housing in the South Bronx may be a tough sell considering existing luxury markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are offering concessions and reduced rents so it remains to be seen exactly how this development will play out.
But one thing is for sure is that yet another massive development such as this one will undoubtedly add further strain to an area already suffering from rising rents because of gentrification.
Just around the corner you have The Arches and its 465 luxury rental units almost completed and right behind that you have Brookfield’s Bankside, a 1,300 unit luxury development across 7 towers already rising as well.
But it isn’t the rich, for whom these buildings are being constructed for, that is hurting. Low income families and the middle class of the South Bronx desperately need truly affordable housing and all of this isn’t the solution but will only exacerbate the problem.
Oftentimes we hear and read people say if we build an excess of housing that prices will eventually come down and help those in need but that has never panned out in the modern history of New York City.
Did rents become more affordable for low income families in Williamsburg? Harlem? Chelsea? Hell’s Kitchen? Long Island City?
No, they got displaced just like our friends, families, neighbors, and perhaps even ourselves will eventually be pushed out.
Our Lady of Pity Church, which was deconsecrated by the Archdiocese of New York in November of 2017, is almost gone as its being demolished to make way for affordable housing.
The rectory and school building are already gone and all that remains are just three walls and the roof of this structure from the neighborhood’s past.
All that’s left of Our Lady of Pity
The parish of Madonna del Suffragio (Our Lady of Pity) was founded in 1908 by Italian immigrants from Ponza, an island off the coast of Italy halfway between Rome and Naples.
Before… …and after.
In 1929, the current church was built to serve the fast-growing community of Ponzese living in the neighborhood.
Now, all that will soon remain is rubble as the last, visible mark of the Italian community from Ponza in Melrose is erased forever.
And for this Puerto Rican kid who grew up across the street from OLP and attended Sunday mass as a child, a piece of my past is also gone but will never be forgotten.
Below are pictures I took two years ago when they began the slow process of removing anything of significant value as well as hauling away whatever was left behind.
