A 17-year-old young man who died last Friday is the first vaping fatality in New York State and the youngest in the nation according to an article in The New York Times.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the unidentified young man is the 23rd vaping related fatality since the first one was reported in Illinois on August 23rd this past summer.
The mystery surrounding this illness, which so far has sickened 1,110 nationwide, still remains shrouded as there have been no one substance or specific product linking all these cases except various types of marijuana cartridges.
Reported symptoms are flu and pneumonia-like in nature and The New York Times reports that 110 cases have been reported in the state thus far.
Stay safe, folks and skip the vape for now until this clears up.
Yup, you read that right: $4,675,000 is the price tag for the most expensive apartment currently on the market in The Bronx.
And of course, it’s in Riverdale.
Formal dining room/Image via StreetEasy Listing
Located at the 640 West 237th Street, #20A, the penthouse unit has spectacular views of The Bronx, the Hudson River, the Palisades, and lush Van Cortlandt Park, the third largest park in New York City, and even the Manhattan skyline.
With 3,057 square feet of space this is basically a big old house in the sky with 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms not to mention two balconies and a nicely sized private rooftop terrace.
Private rooftop terrace: WANT/NEED / Image via StreetEasy Listing
Although it’s currently on the market for 6 days, the sponsor has been trying to unload this apartment since the building hit the market over 10 years ago.
As recently as last year, it was being sold together with unit 20B for a whopping $8,950,000 with a combined square footage 5,952 square feet and a massive 2,949 square foot terrace.
It’s all about the views/Image via StreetEasy listing
We’ll see how long it will stay on the market but something tells us that if they haven’t been able to unload this apartment in over a decade, they will continue to struggle to do so for that price.
Via StreetEasy Listing
The Solaria, where the unit is located, has a troubled past when they were unable to sell most of the units to the point that over 50 of the unsold units in the 65 unit building were auctioned off in 2009.
As temperatures begin to drop, residents of 1425 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in The Bronx say they’re not looking forward to winter.
They’re dreading the specter of cold showers and heat that shuts off on the most frigid days.
Peter Henry, a 57-year-old tenant of the Highbridge building, has to call 311 “all the time,” he told THE CITY.
He’s not alone: From September of 2018 to this past August, more than 221,000 heat and hot water complaints at roughly 32,000 non-public housing addresses were reported to 311.
And more than a third of the calls came from The Bronx, according to a new report by Localize.city, a home-search website that crunches housing data.
Further analysis by THE CITY showed that The Bronx logged the most frequent gripes about heat and hot water — a rate of 14.04 complaints per 100 households from October 2018 to May 2019, the months covering what’s known as the “heat season.”
Meanwhile, buildings in the borough also recorded the highest rate of actual heat and water-related violations during the same period, according to data from the Department of Housing and Preservation Development.
“Owners must provide adequate heat and hot water as is required by law during heat season,” said HPD Commissioner Louise Carroll said in an announcement earlier this week. “HPD will do everything within its power to hold owners accountable and ensure renters live in safe and habitable homes year-round.”
HPD investigates 311 complaints related to housing issues, which can be lodged by phone, online or through an app.
According to the Localize analysis, the more a household pays in rent, the less likely the chance of heat-related issues: One in five listings for studios ranging from $2,400 to $4,000 are located in a building with reported heating complaints. In the $1,400 and $1,600 price range, half of those studios are in buildings at risk of heat and hot water issues.
‘It’s Going to be Tough’
Henry’s building, his home for seven years, ranked in the top 10 in the city for heat and hot water-related complaints to 311, according to the new analysis.
He and his wife have found it difficult to report problems to their landlord, Chestnut Holdings, he said, and issues typically take a while to fix. The pair say they’ve been without cooking gas for three months.
“It’s going to be tough this year because we have a 3-month-old grandson,” Henry, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said as he stood in the kitchen of his first-floor apartment.
A representative for Chestnut Holdings couldn’t be reached for comment.
Nir Gonen, a data scientist with Localize, noted heat and hot water outages mark the “single-most frequent” housing complaint made to 311.
“Not having heat or hot water is not only a hardship, but also illegal,” Gonen said. “We’re seeing this all across the city.”
Brooklyn came in second in heat and hot water complaints over the past year — 67,554 — with Crown Heights counting the most addresses with issues, according to the Localize analysis.
Sualin Suazo said her Elmhurst building was often without heat during the coldest days of winter. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Although Queens accounted for 13% of the city’s of 311 complaints, a six-story apartment building in Elmhurst with more than 200 units, reported the greatest number of heating issues citywide.
Nearly 3,200 heat-related complaints came from residents at 89-21 Elmhurst Ave. — more than the total number of heat and hot water 311 complaints from all of Staten Island, according to Localize.
Several residents of the Elmhurst building said winter brings heat and water problems.
“On the coldest day, they won’t have heat. When it’s not cold, they’ll have it,” said Sualin Suazo, 29, adding she’s lived in the building nearly all of her life. “You come home from work and you’re like, ‘OK, no hot water.’ They won’t tell you in advance.”
Oscar Zargoza, the superintendent, said that while he couldn’t confirm that the building has heat and hot water every day, he dismissed the bulk of complaints as disingenuous.
“Most of the complaints are from one person,” Zargoza said. “They have heat, they have everything.”
There are not currently any open heat-related complaints at 89-21 Elmhurst Ave. The building’s owners didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Have you had repeated problems getting your heat and hot water working? We’d like to hear from you. Email tips@thecity.nyc or call, text, Signal, WhatsApp: 718-866-8674.
This story was originally published by THE CITY, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
Late Sunday night, the long-awaited monument to the late Puerto Rican humanitarian and baseball player, Roberto Clemente, was installed at Roberto Clemente Plaza at The Hub in the South Bronx.
The monument, called Para Roberto, was designed by Bronx born and raised artist Melissa Calderón who said that it was, “…dedicated to Clemente’s ‘would have been’ future and honors his remarkable life, his humanitarian legacy, his perseverance, and his dedication to working with kids to help realize their own dreams.”
The entire sculpture is cast in bronze with twelve sugar cane stalks (representing Clemente’s 12 Golden Glove wins) surround a chair made of baseball bats, baseballs, and stickballs with the Puerto Rican flag as the back of the chair.
Not only is Para Roberto New York City’s newest permanent monument but it is also the newest in The Bronx in decades and is also one of the first if not the first designed by a Latina.
Calderón further writes in her statement:
The sculpture features an empty ‘Abuelo’ chair- the type a grandfather might use in Puerto Rico, reminiscing and telling stories filled with history and wisdom which represents Clemente in his retirement, had he lived. I’m grateful for the City’s support of this commission and thrilled to see it installed in the heart of the South Bronx where it can become a part of the neighborhood fabric and inspire future generations with Clemente’s example.”
The sculpture is cast bronze with vibrant colors give the work a surreal feeling of being in Puerto Rico. An oversized chair made from bronzed stickball and baseball bats and balls sitting underneath a 12.5 foot tall canopy of sugarcane. The chair represents Roberto in his retirement, built upon his history, perseverance, and humanitarian spirit. 12 sugar cane stalks surround the chair. Quiet sententals, the sugarcane represent the hardships Roberto and his family faced working in the sugarcane fields, a reality shared throughout the colonial history of the Caribbean. But in this work, the sugarcane act as not only a numerical tribute to Clemente’s golden glove wins (12), but also provides shade and respite for the patron sitting in his chair, reminding the viewer that our history makes us who we are and gives us the foundation to move forward and achieve success.
What makes this monument important for not just the people of The Bronx but for New York City is that it is dedicated to a person of color from a community that has been often underrepresented when it comes to monuments, statues and artistic tributes across the city.
And its impact on the community was immediately apparent once it was fully unveiled this past Wednesday as local community residents began to interact with the monument by sitting in the chair and posing for photographs (by the way, you can follow the monument on Instagram at: @ParaRobertoBx).
We are so excited to have this monument in The Bronx and it couldn’t have come at a better moment in our borough’s history especially as gentrification is taking a foothold in the South Bronx. It is important to send out the message that our communities will not be erased.
This past Sunday, workers from the city came out to install the monument overnight.
Para Roberto was commissioned by The City of New York Department of Design and Construction, Percent for Art, Department of Cultural Affairs, and Department of Transportation and is on permanent display at Roberto Clemente Plaza located at Third Avenue between 148th and 149th Streets.
Although we don’t get to La Morada in Mott Haven as often as we’d like to, it’s still one of our favorite Mexican restaurants not just in The Bronx but in New York City.
But this isn’t your typical restaurant; It’s also a gathering place for the community, local activists, and is a safe haven for undocumented immigrants.
Because of their status, many opportunities weren’t available to them so they ended up opening up an authentic, indigenous Oaxacan Mexican restaurant known as La Morada.
According to the family, The Bronx was really the only place where they felt welcome and was available to them to be able to start their business.
Civilization stopped in its track by nature at Van Cortlandt Park
This wonderful video by CBS Sports traces the history of the renowned golf course from the beginning to the present time where Van Cortlandt Golf Course is undergoing a multi-million dollar restoration to its former glory.
Watch this amazing video below and let us know what you think!
This past weekend, a woman thought it would be a good idea to climb into the lion exhibit at The Bronx Zoo and taunt the king of the jungle.
We still don’t have answers as to why she jumped in in the first place as The Bronx Zoo hasn’t responded to questions from the media but she miraculously survived.
Still shot from the video posted on Instagram of the encounter this past weekend.
We’ve seen people do crazy things but this is one that kind of takes the cake but at least she wasn’t hurt and the poor lion didn’t end up like Harambe (may he rest in peace).
Check out the video below and let us know what you think!
A new report issued by the New York City Economic Development Corporation shows that the city’s ferry system is, “… primarily used by white, upper-middle class people.”
But thanks to The Bronx’s diversity, this isn’t true for the Soundview Route which was launched last year.
Commuters from The Bronx on the first day of service on the Soundview Ferry route.
According to the New York Daily News, “The new Soundview route, which offers a connection from a transit desert in the Bronx to lower Manhattan in 46 minutes, is the ferry’s most diverse. Two-thirds of its riders are people of color. “
When you think about it, the results aren’t too surprising given the demographics of where most of the ferry routes are.
We’ll see how those numbers change or don’t when Throggs Neck is added in 2021.
When most people think about Dominican food, the last thing they think about is vegan.
But thanks to Bronxite Blenlly Mena, she’s changing that perception through her restaurant, Next Stop Vegan.
The Parkchester based business is actually more of a catering and meal prep service with a couple of days a week open as a restaurant according to this video from WABC.
Check it out and don’t forget to visit their link for the recipe to the Vegan Chimi Patacon!
Did you know that The Bronx’s only distillery is also the only one on the continental United States that makes Puerto Rican moonshine also known as pitorro?
Port Morris Distillery in the South Bronx has been making the best pitorro outside of Puerto Rico for years now and we’re glad that amNY is shining a spotlight on them.
Scheduled to be completed July 2020, the two buildings will provide 496 units of “affordable” housing and will be the home of a new 50,000 square foot YMCA and also another television studio for BronxNet.
There are still two more buildings which have yet two break ground including a 25 story residential tower which will feature an astronomy lab on the rooftop.
626 Bergen (left) is the first of 5 buildings at La Central to be completed and occupancy is scheduled to begin next month.
Once complete, the entire development will provide 992 residential units of housing making it the largest residential development in Melrose to date in recent in decades and will also set aside a percentage of unit as permanently affordable under the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) rezoning.
La Central has already altered the face of The Hub especially as you come down the 2 and 5 train downtown.
Construction of the entire development is still years away with a scheduled date of 2023.
How will this impact The Hub which is already rapidly changing with even a Starbucks coming in?
If the city has money for a Brooklyn/Queens light rail then The Bronx MUST demand that we get a similar public transportation option that would connect the East and West Bronx and all its subway routes which run North and South into Manhattan.
Call it the CrossX.
Using Brand New Subway, created by Jason Wright, we designed what the CrossX could potentially look like.
The CrossX, as we envision it.
Such a system could potentially run over or along the Cross Bronx Expressway much like the Airtrain in Queens linking to JFK and would dramatically ease the burden of intraborough travel in The Bronx. I mean we all know that it’s a task that’s virtually impossible to do without major inconvenience and wasting of time as it is right now.
Our Manhattan-centric subway routes are no longer efficient for a borough who’s population has rebounded from the exodus between 1970 and 1980 and in order to continue to progress into the the future, we need reliable public transportation. It shouldn’t have to be so hard to get from point A to B.
The CrossX would begin in Manhattan connecting the A and 1 train before crossing into The Bronx. This would give Bronxites direct access to Riverdale and Kingsbridge by subway
The way we envision it, it would start at 181st Street in Manhattan and connect with the A train and the 1 line before entering The Bronx snaking its way more or less along the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Once in The Bronx, it would connect with all the lines running into Manhattan as well as creating several stops along the way to provide more transit options in areas where reliable options are lacking.
The CrossX can connect to various, existing subway lines in The Bronx while at the same time creating new stops along the way, particularly in areas with very limited transit options.
It can either end at Parkchester, the easternmost subway line in The Bronx or continue for several stops along the Bruckner stopping at East Tremont and ending near Country Club providing a closer option for those residents who may want to board a subway instead.
While we’re on the topic, we also need the TriboroRx to provide a direct connection between Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx.
East 180th Street on the 2 and 5 line would allow residents on this line to easily get to the other side of the borough without having to travel to 149th Street and Grand Concourse and then catching the 4 to go back uptown.
Rather than spend money on just the Brooklyn-Queens Light Rail, why not spend it on the TriboroRx that would connect THREE boroughs and figure out funding for the CrossX.
While we’re no experts on the subject, we firmly believe this would be a transformative endeavor for residents of The Bronx providing not just better access to existing employment opportunities but opening doors to others.
The line can end at Parkchester on the 6 line, the easternmost subway line in The Bronx, or continue for several more stops along the Bruckner to East Tremont and maybe even up toward Country Club.
We need to be able to travel across The Bronx in a much easier fashion and connect our communities for the greater good of our residents.
At the very least, our local elected officials should push for funding to study the possibility of making the CrossX a reality.
So, should The Bronx get a light rail too?
The CrossX, as we envision it.
The CrossX would begin in Manhattan connecting the A and 1 train before crossing into The Bronx. This would give Bronxites direct access to Riverdale and Kingsbridge by subway
The first stop in The Bronx could be in Highbridge providing tens of thousands of residents in that area with an easier way to get around.
East 180th Street on the 2 and 5 line would allow residents on this line to easily get to the other side of the borough without having to travel to 149th Street and Grand Concourse and then catching the 4 to go back uptown.
The line can end at Parkchester on the 6 line, the easternmost subway line in The Bronx, or continue for several more stops along the Bruckner to East Tremont and maybe even up toward Country Club.
The line could also perhaps extend beyond Parkchester and end at East Tremont or a little further north.
