As we reported yesterday, the Garabedian home in Pelham Parkway, otherwise known as “The Bronx Christmas House”, has gone dark for the first time in 46 years due to the homeowners ongoing health issues.
People all across social media, upon hearing the news that this iconic home would not be lit for the holidays, offered to gather the troops and volunteer to help them.
According to News12 The Bronx, even Amazon had reached out and offered to help but the Garabedians declined saying, “…we don’t feel like it’s us doing it, you know?” he says. “So it’s a tradition that we did 46 years and we want to keep it like a family thing.”
They’re hoping that next year they’ll come back bigger and better than ever but in the meantime, they do want to have, at the very least, the nativity scene up and running due to their religious beliefs.
The Bronx Christmas House in years past was a spectacle to behold/Image Copyright Debby Deb
To the Garabedians we thank you for almost half a century of delights and we hope that you return to good health and remember that your health is more important.
For the first time in 46 years, the Garabedian house in Pelham Parkway will not be lit this Christmas season.
According to CBS, the family was unable to get the house and dozens of statues ready due to health reasons.
All images copyright @Debby Deb
If you recall, last year we reported that the home was uncharacteristically dark for most of the season as they got a late start also due to health reasons.
As much as we want to see the house lit, we wish them first and foremost health.
The lights are secondary but if they need volunteers to help, I’m sure there are plenty of Bronxites that will jump at the chance to help!
StreetEasy has released their yearly list of the ’10 NYC Neighborhoods to Watch in 2020′ and the West Bronx neighborhood of Highbridge, home of the Yankees, made the cut.
According to StreetEasy, they looked at four indicators to come up with the top ten neighborhoods: annual change in median asking rent, annual change in median sales price, annual change in search for a particular neighborhood, and amount of new construction in an area.
Automotive businesses soon to be demolished to make way for residential development in Highbridge thanks to the massive Jerome Avenue Rezoning which was passed last year.
In Highbridge, asking rents have increased by 3% over the past year and interest in the neighborhood has increased with searches jumping up 55% over the previous year making it the second biggest increase in searches on the list (maybe it’s because of the “Joker” Stairs?).
The median sales price has also increased considerably at 8% to $180,000 (mostly co-op units) which is inline with a neighborhood experiencing gentrification as Highbridge is currently undergoing.
“Those who have been to Yankee Stadium know that Highbridge in the Bronx is just a short subway ride from Manhattan via the 4, B, and D lines. Interestingly, Highbridge saw one of the largest spikes in search activity among our 10 neighborhoods, with 55 percent more StreetEasy users searching in the area in 2019 than in 2018.“
Community Board 4, where Highbridge is located, has one of the highest rates of poverty in the city. In fact, according to a study by the NYU Furman Center, as of 2017, Highbridge was an area with more than double the poverty rate of New York City hovering at 36.4% and the 5th poorest neighborhood in the city.
It’s for these reasons why we cringe when real estate sites list some Bronx neighborhoods in their watch lists. It gives landlords more reason to try to evict people and raise rents, apply pressures on local businesses because of sheer greed.
And now that the Jerome Avenue Rezoning has been in effect since last year, several developments have been proposed and plans filed that will further change the character of the area.
What kinds of increased pressures will this lead to for local residents facing displacement?
Previously mentioned on the list was Mott Haven for 2019 and Norwood in 2018. You may recall that last year Norwood was predicted to be New York City’s hottest neighborhood — in 2068.
A bodega in Chinatown advertises accepting SNAP benefits, Dec. 5, 2019. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
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A Trump administration rule to toughen work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could deal an especially sharp blow to New York veterans seeking food stamps, anti-hunger experts and veterans’ groups predict.
This story was originally published on December 9, 2019 by THE CITY.
A new rule finalized by the United States Department of Agriculture last week will require employment for “able-bodied adults” between 18 and 49 who don’t claim dependents — a demographic that describes many veterans attempting to re-enter civilian life.
“Right now, we have an increase of the amount of veterans, reservists and National Guard members that are dying by suicide. This is not the time to take one of the few benefits that was widely utilized by the veteran community away from them,” said James Fitzgerald, deputy director of the NYC Veterans Alliance.
The USDA predicted the rule would cut nearly 700,000 people from SNAP benefits nationwide. New York City officials estimate that one in 10 of those — about 70,000 people — live in the five boroughs.
The SNAP slashing scheduled to take effect April 1 also could hit The Bronx, Upper Manhattan and southeast Queens particularly hard, providers of food aid to the needy said. That’s because the new rule would cancel federal waivers exempting recipients from work mandates in those areas.
“SNAP helps people. It helps lift people out of poverty and it gives them a certain stability in their lives that can help them,” said Judy Secon, senior director of programs and operations for the New York Common Pantry, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing hunger.
“So without that, it’s very difficult to get by,” she added. “And so if they’re in an area where unemployment is historically high and they’re in a group that historically has problems getting positions, it’s going to hurt them even more.”
City Vows to ‘Fight Back’
Able-bodied adults without dependents currently are limited to receiving SNAP benefits for three months during a three-year period, unless they work at least 20 hours a week. But many states, including New York, have waived that requirement in areas that “lack sufficient jobs” or have an unemployment rate above 10%.
Such waivers exist for The Bronx, and parts of Upper Manhattan and Southeast Queens.
City Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks vowed New York would “fight back” against the Trump administration plan. Photo: Rachel Holliday Smith/THE CITY
The new rule, which the Trump administration says would save the federal government $5.5 billion over five years, will make the waivers harder to get by requiring that areas have an average 6% unemployment rate over a two-year period.
The Bronx had an unemployment rate of 5.6% in October, above the state average, according to state Department of Labor data, and after a years-long decline has fluctuated around 6% for the past two years.
City Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks said in a statement that the city would “use every tool at our disposal to fight back so that New Yorkers have the resources they need to make ends meet, including putting essential food on the table.”
Hurting Vets
Because the new rule would affect adults who don’t care for children or elderly relatives, veterans could be disproportionately hit by the benefit cuts, anti-hunger advocates said.
Fitzgerald noted that veterans often need retraining to find civilian employment after their military service.
“Taking into account some of the barriers that are already stopping our servicemen and women from getting the benefits and services — like adequate employment, housing, things of that nature — we have to take into account are we making it easier or harder for our veterans to access these benefits?” Fitzgerald said.
Those who receive disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are exempt from work requirements. But waiting for the VA to process a case and assign disability compensation can take months or even years, Fitzgerald said, recalling his own experience after being injured in Afghanistan in 2010.
Burden on Food Pantries
Cutting SNAP benefits could increase the reliance on food pantries and food banks, which would shoulder the “brunt force” of the fallout, Fitzgerald said.
Charity organizations shouldn’t “take the place of strong public-sector programs” said Gregory Silverman, executive director of the nonprofit West Side Campaign Against Hunger.
“It would be much better if all these people could actually be able to go to the grocery store,” Silverman said. “Why do I have to set up a parallel structure because the safety net in this city and this country is completely lacking? Each time we make one of these cuts, it’s kind of like cutting another loop in the safety net to make it fray more.”
Food pantries operators already have found themselves responding to a surge in demand from undocumented immigrants as some unenroll from government benefits over concerns that using them could hurt their prospects for permanent legal status, Silverman added.
Last November, 192 new households sought the West Side Campaign Against Hunger’s services, he said. That figure has risen to 247 this November, which means more fundraising and staff getting “stretched thinner,” Silverman said.
“What we are seeking to do is to build self-sufficiency in people and help them to not really need our services anymore — to be able to get themselves into a place where they don’t have to rely on us,” said Secon. “But we’re here as the safety net and SNAP is all part of that, so cutting it is shortsighted.”
Are you an “able-bodied adult” between 18 and 49 — without dependents — who receives SNAP benefits? Are you a veteran who fits the above description? Are worried about losing your benefits? We want to hear from you. Email THE CITY’s Josefa Velasquez: JVelasquez@TheCity.NYC
CORRECTION (Dec. 10, 2019, 12:21 p.m.): An earlier version of this story stated the number of new households that sought the West Side Campaign Against Hunger’s services as per year, but the numbers are for the month of November.
We’re pretty sure that most of our readers will not find this shocking: The Bronx is the coldest borough in NYC.
According to a new report by Renthop, not only is The Bronx the reigning champ five years running as the coldest borough, but the top six New York City neighborhoods with the most heat related complaints are in our borough.
And the coldest neighborhood?
That unfortunate distinction goes to Mount Hope which registered 751 complaints so far during the 2019-2020 heating season which began on October 1st.
The top ten buildings with the most heat related complaints in The Bronx so far this season are:
It’s that time of the year again when Titi Maria is making her amazing coquito and abuela is making her pasteles from recipes passed down over the generations from Puerto Rico to The Bronx and across the globe.
Apartment buildings throughout our borough smell of pernil, the delicious roast pork seasoned with tons of garlic that’s a staple for the Christmas season throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora.
In 2017, a local senior housing development was treated to a stop by the Melrose Parranda
And of course, it’s time for the Puerto Rican answer to Christmas Caroling, the parranda.
Join the Bronx Music Heritage Center and the local community in their annual Melrose Parranda on Saturday, December 21st at 6pm which winds its way through the neighborhood before ending at Rincon Criollo aka Casa de Chema community garden on St Ann’s and E 157th Street.
This year the parranda will start at Bronx Commons at 443 E 162nd Street, the future home of the Bronx Music Hall at 6PM and meander around with stops at local community gardens along the way.
So mark your calendars and get ready to have some holiday fun, Puerto Rican style with a Bronx twist!
This event is separate from the Melrose Parranda and will happen this Saturday, the 14th!
The Endangered Language Alliance recently released a map of the approximately 800 languages spoken in the New York Metropolitan Area and with 637 languages and dialects spoken in NYC alone, it makes us the most linguistically diverse city in the world and maybe even in history.
This linguistic diversity is ever present in The Bronx and shouldn’t be a surprise as our borough was declared as the most diverse county in the country by the Census stating that there is over an 80% chance that two random people in The Bronx speak different languages other than English.
Looking at this map, you’ll notice some things that aren’t surprising Italian English in Morris Park, Albanian along Pelham Parkway, Puerto Rican Spanish across Melrose, Hunts Point, and Longwood, and of course, Italian, specifically the Barese, Calabrese, and Sicilian dialects in Belmont.
But what may surprise you, as it did us, is the rich diversity of indigenous languages of Latin America, particularly Mexico, like Tlapanec, Mixtec, and Zapotec throughout Mott Haven, or that Yiddish is still spoken in The Bronx up in Norwood.
Anywho, take a look at the map on their website where you can zoom in and if you want a copy, you can contribute to this important body of work and get one delivered to you!
This article was originally published on May 1, 2015 and we are republishing to note that sadly, Florinda “Fiore” Conte passed away on Sunday, December 1, 2019 and is now at rest with her late husband Vincenzo Mazzella.
Aniello Conte in his younger years.
On May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building opened to the public after 2 years of construction of the landmark, Art Deco building which remained the world’s tallest structure for almost 40 years.
But this isn’t about the building but about one of the men who helped build this monument to American ingenuity—Aniello Conte, an Italian, undocumented immigrant to America.
Aniello Conte, grandfather of Melrose native Civita Mazzella who now resides in Morris Park, was born in 1883 on the Italian island of Ponza, a rustic island who’s main industries back then were farming and fishing.
Mr Conte came to the United States and settled in the Melrose neighborhood of The Bronx, an area where many Ponzese had settled in the tenements that dotted the area. He lived where Christopher Court and Maria Lopez Plaza apartments currently stand on Morris Avenue between 150th and 152nd Streets.
Morris Avenue at 149th Street looking north into Melrose. The top picture was taken circa 1903 (credit unknown) and the bottom image was taken by Welcome2TheBronx in 2015. As you can see, all the buildings on the right-hand side still exist up until 152nd Street. Beyond that now is Alfred E. Smith HS’s athletic field, Melrose Houses and Andrew Jackson Houses of NYCHA. On the left hand side you see the tenements where Aniello Conte once lived and below they have been replaced with Michelangelo Apartments, Christopher Court Apartments, and Maria Lopez Plaza with Concourse Plaza Apartments looming in the distance.
As a young man, recently married and with children, there was little to no opportunities in his native Ponza to make a decent living so took his chance on America to make money to send back to his family.
You have to remember, this was during the Great Depression so you did what you could to survive. He took on odd jobs, whatever he could take, including as a junkman collecting scraps and taking them to junkyards to make a penny much like you see many undocumented residents doing today.
Eventually, between his trips from The Bronx to Ponza and back, he began work as a day laborer at the Empire State Building as a bricklayer, cement worker or whatever needed to be done just to get whatever wages he could for the day.
Aniello Conte, nonno di Civita Mazzella, in età adulta
All these trips and working in constructing the Empire State Building allowed Mr Aniello Conte to build his family a home on a plot of land he owned in Ponza, Italy. Four years after the completion of the Empire State Building, Conte made his last trip to America in 1935.
Da sinistra a destra: Aniello Conte e due dei suoi figli, Lucia e Silverio.
After hearing about a pending raid at the gambling dens where he lived on Morris Avenue, Aniello, an undocumented, “illegal” Italian immigrant, decided to pack his bags and head back home to Ponza where his wife convinced him to stay and settle down now that they had built their home.
Aniello Conte lived out his life as a fisherman until his wife passed away in 1963 and he continued farming straight until his later years and passed away just shy of his 100th birthday in 1983 recalled his granddaughter Civita Mazzella.
Pictured above is Aniello Conte sitting on his porch. Below is the view from the same porch decades later.
In the 1970s, Florinda Conte, one of Aniello and Rosa’s 4 surviving children of 7, came to the United States after marrying her sweetheart, the late Vincenzo Mazzella in their hometown of Ponza and settled in Melrose, around the corner from where her father, more than 40 years earlier, had lived for a few short years to give her family a better life back home.
It was a time of turmoil and many of the Italians who lived in the neighborhood were leaving for other parts of The Bronx, like Morris Park or outside The Bronx altogether but Vincenzo, Florinda, and their daughter Civita Mazzella stayed right where they were on 149th Street between Morris and Courtlandt Avenues. They weren’t the only ones to stay but were in fact one of the last of the Italian immigrant families in the area until 1999 when they achieved the American Dream and purchased a house in Morris Park.
This is a story of Aniello Conte and all the undocumented “illegal” immigrants who shaped this country along with all the other immigrants. Immigrants, regardless of their status, made many sacrifices for their families and this country who are unappreciated in many parts of our nation and society.
Next time you encounter an immigrant to this country, say thank you and remember where we all came from. This country was built on the backs of enslaved people and immigrants and immigrants continue to do so today.
As you can see, The Bronx has always been a borough of immigrants. Let’s continue to welcome them with open arms and appreciate the hard work they do.
Best known for her role as Rosario, Karen Walker’s maid on Will & Grace, Bronx born and raised actress, Shelley Morrison died on Sunday at the age of 83.
Born Rachel Mitrani to Sephardic Jewish parents from Spain, she lived the first decade of her life in the South Bronx before moving to California in 1946 with her family.
Shelley Morrison at The Emmy’s in 2003/Kevin Winter/Getty Images
In 1967 she rose to fame as Sister Sixto in Sally Field’s ‘The Flying Nun’, a role that she played until the show was canned in 1970.
But her big rise to fame came when she played Rosario on Will & Grace for 7 years until the show ended in 2006 and then in a special episode of the show in 2016.
“Shelley’s greatest pride as an actress was in playing the indomitable Rosario in a comedy series that furthered the cause of social equity and fairness for L.G.B.T.Q. people,” Mr. Dominguez said in a statement. “She also took pride in portraying a strong, loving yet feisty Latina character.”
He added: “She believed that the best way to change hearts and minds was through comedy.”
The daughter of Spanish immigrants, Ms. Morrison was born and raised in the Bronx, where a street sign carries her name at 159th Street and Grand Concourse Boulevard as part of the Bronx Walk of Fame. After moving to Los Angeles, she attended Los Angeles City College and began her stage career, becoming one of the city’s first female stage producers.
Thanks for the laughs, Shelley, you’ll always be our Rosie.
A version of this article was originally published on December 15, 2015 when Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened up.
Yes, you read that correctly. According to an interview in The New Yorker with Anthony Daniels, the British actor who plays the iconic C-3PO in the Star Wars franchise, was supposed to have a “Bronx” accent as George Lucas had imagined he would.
C-3P0 /Image via starwars.com
As opening day for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is soon upon us on December 20th, we thought we’d reshare this article from two years ago when Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened up.
“C-3PO’s lines were muffled by his elaborate headgear on set. So in 1976, Daniels traveled to the U.S. for the first time to rerecord them. “I walked into the sound producer’s stage on Highland,” he remembers, “and the engineer said, ‘Huh, interesting. We spent a couple of months trying to find a voice for your part because George really hates it.’” Lucas had imagined the droid as a used-car dealer from the Bronx. “He’d never thought of him being a British butler. But he had the generosity of spirit to change his mind. Had it not been for that, I wouldn’t have been in Episode V.”
Although it clearly never came to fruition, we did get a bit close with Joan Rivers as Dot Matrix in the Mel Brooks Star Wars spoof, “Spaceballs”
Can you imagine if this had really happened? LOL
At least we now have the “Joker Stairs” to claim as our own though… 😏
Construction recently began at 2401 Third Avenue for Bankside, a new 1,350 unit market-rate luxury waterfront development in the South Bronx.
Renderings courtesy ArX Solutions
Originally owned by Somerset Partners and The Chetrit Group who attempted and failed to rebrand the area as “The Piano District” (through a tone deaf ‘The Bronx is Burning’ themed party) the development site was sold to Brookfield for $165 million who is spearheading the $950 million development across over 4 acres along the Harlem River Waterfront.
Renderings courtesy ArX Solutions
According to the Real Deal, construction should be completed towards the end of 2021 for the first phase of the development and will contain 450 units.
As part of the development, there will also be a waterfront park which is actually mandated by the 2009 rezoning of the area and the creation of the Special Harlem River Waterfront District (known as SHRWD).
Renderings courtesy ArX Solutions
30% of the units will be “affordable” but in a massive development of this size, it will change the face of the South Bronx forever as thousands of new higher economic residents move into the area.
Renderings courtesy ArX Solutions
Bankside will straddle either side of the Third Avenue Bridge with 7 interconnected towers and ground floor retail and commercial space.
The big question remains if people will actually flock here.
While foreclosures are down in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, that is not the case in The Bronx where they are still on the rise according to a new report issued by NYU’s Furman Center.
Not only that, but in 2017 (which is the most recent year used in the report) of the 176,590 evictions that were filed in New York City by private landlords, 68,935 were in The Bronx accounting for 39% of all filings in the city.
According to the report, between 2010-2017, all boroughs experienced a similar decline in eviction filings but that wasn’t the case in The Bronx where they continued to increase.
It is important to note that for this study NYCHA initiated evictions were not taken into account but will be in a future brief.
While the root causes as to why this is happening in our borough are not examined, one can safely point to the fact that we have a significantly lower average household income than the rest of the city comes into play coupled with the fact that more households in The Bronx are rent burdened paying a greater portion of their salaries towards rent than others are contributing factors.
The Bronx needs true, affordable housing and it needs it NOW!
