AOC, as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is affectionately known by her constituents and millions of followers on social media, delivered her first House floor speech yesterday.
She opened her speech by telling the story of one of her constituents in Morris Park who was born in Yemen and is now living the “American Dream” with a home and working as an air traffic controller.
But that dream is in danger as the government shutdown continues and he still has to work despite not getting paid as an air traffic controller.
Ocasio-Cortez talks further about how stressed air traffic controllers are as they haven’t received their paychecks and many may miss payments on their mortgages.
Watch the entire speech below and let us know what you think:
First House Floor speech from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC): “The truth of this shutdown is that it’s actually not about a wall…The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.” pic.twitter.com/r8tmsGSNtT
Since 2011, The Historic District Council has put out a yearly list of six neighborhoods across New York City that are not only historically and architecturally significant but are threatened by encroaching development that may erase these gems forever.
This year three of the ‘Six to Celebrate‘ are in The Bronx where HDC will provide assistance in preservation efforts along with local organizations in the Hunts Point, Kingsbridge, and Bedford Park.
According to ‘Six to Celebrate’: “The six, chosen from applications submitted by community organizations, are selected on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area, the level of threat, the strength and willingness of local advocates, and potential for HDC’s preservation support to be meaningful.”
Much more than massive wholesale markets, this south Bronx neighborhood possesses historic and cultural richness that Dondi Mckellar of Bronx Community Board 2 is working to celebrate and preserve. The 1912 Feldco Building was a center for generations of popular music styles from jazz to salsa to hip-hop, and the area is home to a burial ground for enslaved Africans, vibrant local businesses, architectural gems, and a rich musical and artistic heritage. The group is working to ensure that both long-time residents and newcomers are aware of the neighborhood’s cultural wealth, and that new development is respectful of the area’s architecture and scale.
This northwestern Bronx community is home to architectural gems from multiple eras and in various styles, from the imposing Kingsbridge Armory, to 19th century farmhouses to stunning 1930’s Art-Deco apartment buildings. The Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition has been working since 1974 with residents and small businesses in the Bronx to prevent displacement, foster equitable economic development, protect housing and maintain strong and stable communities. The NWBCCC is now seeking to identify historic resources in order to better protect and stabilize community character, and foster pride in the area’s architecture and history.
The 52nd Precinct in Bedford Park on Webster Avenue
Bedford Park is an elegant and diverse residential community characterized by well-maintained pre-war apartment buildings and free-standing homes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The adjoining Moshulu Parkway and the New York Botanical Garden give the neighborhood a bucolic character. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is facing significant development pressures, so the Bedford Moshulu Community Association has mobilized to safeguard the community’s history and character, and protect the neighborhood from out-of-scale development. The group intends to raise awareness of the area’s historic quality and to submit a proposal for historic district status from the LPC.
We at Welcome2TheBronx are incredibly excited and proud that three of the six neighborhoods chosen for 2019 in our beautiful borough of The Bronx.
Now, more than ever, The Bronx is facing rapid development and changes both from developers and top down forced upon us rezonings that are changing our landscape and in the process losing our history.
Development won’t stop but we must pay attention to the details that make our neighborhoods the places we love so deeply and make sure they aren’t gone forever.
Although some neighborhoods might look similar, when we look deeply into each block there are distinguishing characteristics that make each one unique.
Let’s stop erasing our history and preserve it for future generations to enjoy.
Welcome2TheBronx was the recipient of the 2015 Historic District Council’s Grassroots Preservation Award for Friend in the Media for our work in highlighting preservation issues across The Bronx.
Amazon won’t settle for taking over Long Island City or an almost million square foot fulfillment center on Staten Island.
Now, the online shopping behemoth has signed a lease for a 117,00 square foot warehouse at 1300 Viele Avenue in Hunts Point.
Amazon is the latest company to enter the ‘last mile’ trend of snatching up warehouse space in The Bronx. Last year, Walmart’s Jet online retailer snatched up 200,000 square feet at the former ABC Carpet warehouse along the Bronx River and Bruckner Boulevard.
The former Whitestone Movie Theater site is being turned into a two-level 840,000 square foot ‘last mile’ warehouse as well and is being billed as one of the first of its kind in the country and the first in the East Coast.
1300 Viele Avenue in Hunts Point will be the site of a new Amazon “last mile” facility in The Bronx.
There’s a big demand for industrial spaces now, especially in The Bronx where these sites were dormant for years.
But thanks to rezonings of industrial areas to residential, many industrial buildings have been lost thus the push for snatching up these properties often at a premium.
According to Jason Gold, an investment sales agent for Ariel Property Group, who works within the Bronx, the heightened demand for industrial properties is only part of the picture.
“It’s not a surprise that there’s demand, whatʼs surprising is the amount of competition,” said Gold. Industrial properties – many of which have sat idle for years on end – are now fetching a premium, in some cases, according to Gold, selling at a 10 to 20 percent more.
“The demand for this type of tenancy is going up, and up, and up, and up,” said Gold. “The reason why is that all these areas [in the Bronx] were rezoned for residential it took areas away from industrial.” The rise of e-commerce, and the logistical demands therein, play a large role in that rise, said Gold. “You’re seeing a lot more of these private equity companies and institutional players acquire large parcels and build for the needs of an e-commerce tenant.”
The property at 1300 Viele Avenue was purchased by the current owners, MRP Realty, and AEW Capital Management for $26.5 million.
While many will be excited at the prospect of having more jobs in The Bronx, we have to ask what will the impact be on already overly congested roadways and how will it impact the environment?
Hunts Point has already suffered enough and with a large company like Amazon, we know these trucks will be coming and going all day long.
What about the health of our local residents who already suffer some of the highest rates of asthma in the nation? What about traffic fatalities caused by the constant stream of trucks through our streets?
What guarantees do we have that Amazon will be a good neighbor?
These are just some of the important questions we must always ask ourselves.
Seven years ago we responded to an “article” in The New York Times that asked the question, “Why can’t The Bronx be more like Brooklyn?”
Still to this day there are many that want our beautiful borough to be more like that other “B” borough and often call Mott Haven and Port Morris, “The Next Williamsburg”.
Coming soon: Bushwick if you let it
Stop the nonsense.
What good has Brooklyn’s transformation by way of gentrification actually done for the residents that were displaced and no longer live there? People throw around statistics that median incomes have risen for Brooklyn but what they forget to tell you is that it hasn’t really risen for the existing residents but that comes from the influx of gentrifiers who really didn’t and still don’t care for the culture that once existed there.
A friendly game of dominoes…but is it really ever friendly?
Do we want a prosperous Bronx with less crime, and higher incomes?
Absolutely.
But we want that for our EXISTING residents and not a new wave of colonizers that will displace those who have been here and rebuilt our borough after everyone else abandoned it.
Ferragosto in Little Italy
Give me bodega chopped cheese sandwich over artisanal vegan cheese shop any day.
Salsa, bachata, and merengue and dancing on Bronx summer streets any day.
Street fair in the South Bronx
Besides being the most Latino borough of NYC (fitting since we’re El Condado de la Salsa), we’re also home to the largest population of Albanians in the country, we’re the home of Little Ireland in the Northwest Bronx neighborhood of Woodlawn.
We’re also the home of Arthur Avenue in Belmont, NYC’s real Little Italy.
You see, gentrification and turning into Brooklyn will destroy all that we hold dear. We are a diverse borough and one of the most diverse counties in the country.
Are we really ready to give that up?
Boogie on The Boulevard
Again, to think that being anti-gentrification means that one is anti-progress and pro everyone being stuck in poverty or crime is ridiculous.
One can strive for the betterment of their community and economic outcomes of their fellow residents without calling for the destruction of the very fabric and cultures that make our borough so great.
We’re perfect in our own imperfections and let’s continue to improve our communities for us and not greedy developers.
So the next time you say or think that The Bronx should be more like Brooklyn, think again.
Although the last synagogue in the South Bronx closed over a decade ago, the area is seeing a slow resurgence of a more visible Jewish population.
Clearly it’s nowhere near the over 600,000 Jews that called The Bronx home during the first half of the 20th century which made our borough the most Jewish borough ever, but a menorah here and a menorah there can be seen popping up where there were none for decades.
A lot of it clearly has to do with gentrification and relative affordability as the rest of NYC continues to get costlier and the fact that the South Bronx is more desirable than it has seen in half a century.
A menorah near the Third Avenue Bridge in Port Morris.
Chabad.org writes about this Jewish renaissance in the South Bronx and how Chabad of the South Bronx has begun to reconnect local Jews to their roots.
Some are stranger to The Bronx and others have family who began their journeys in America in the South Bronx generations ago and their moving to the borough is basically a home coming for them.
The young couple faced an uphill struggle in an area with little in the way of a crystallized Jewish community. “I called a local Jew and he told me, ‘I’m the only Jew here,’ ” says Choli Mishulovin. “He came to our program and was pleasantly surprised to meet other Jewish Bronxites.”
Rabbi Choli and Chana Mushka say they were inspired by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. “The Rebbe taught that there is no city that doesn’t have Jews who could be uplifted,” said Mishulovin. “It has to be true of the South Bronx, too.”
He added that “just a few years ago, nobody in their wildest dreams would have thought that anything Jewish would open here. Chabad is breaking new ground; people can’t believe it.”
Although theJewish community in many Bronx neighborhoods underwent a decades-long hiatus, it had been home in its heyday to numerous Chassidic communities, including a thriving Chabad community. “My wife Sarah actually lived in the Bronx as a child and attended a Chabad school here in the ’70s,” he said. “It’s been some time since the golden days of Bronx’s Jewish community, when yeshivahs, JCCs, kosher butchers, bakeries and delis dotted the neighborhood, but it’s on the rise again, and the future is bright.”
Since the Mishulovins moved to the neighborhood, a steady stream of local Jews have come out of the woodwork, glad to once again be afforded opportunities to be part of a proud Jewish community. Weekly Friday-nightdinners draw longtime residents and newcomers to the neighborhood alike. Semi-monthly Torah classes, monthly women’s circles and lunch-and-learns serve young professionals attracted to the South Bronx by its affordable housing and proximity to their jobs in Manhattan.
“People are proud to be from the South Bronx,” says Chana Mushka Mishulovin. “It’s got personality; there is so much music, culture and art. There has been an influx of immigrants from around the world; the South Bronx is truly a melting pot of so many cultures and peoples. The Jewish community has always been a key component of life in the South Bronx, and so many people who grew up here or have parents or grandparents from here are excited that the Bronx is coming back in a Jewish way.”
In what is now the longest ever government shutdown in American history, thousands of Bronx residents are at risk of eviction as HUD Project-Based Rental Assistance contracts have expired.
During the government shutdown these contracts, which help pay the differences in rents for thousands of very low, low and low income residents as well as seniors and people with disabilities, cannot be renewed.
118 units at 243 Echo Place were impacted by the government shutdown as HUD Project-Based Rental Assistance Program contracts expired in December and haven’t been renewed due to the government shutdown.
By the end of the week, almost 900 units across 10 buildings throughout The Bronx will be impacted as contracts expired in December and January for these buildings.
If the shutdown doesn’t end by February that number will be 944 in 11 buildings.
HUD has already sent letters to property owners urging landlords to dip into their reserves to prevent entering tenants into eviction proceedings but this is not enforceable nor guaranteed.
“Funding these contracts is necessary to keep about 150, 000 deeply poor, mostly seniors and people with disabilities safely and affordably housed,” said Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Yentel worries that, with President Trump and Congressional Democrats at an impasse over border wall funding, the government will not reopen anytime soon. And that may force property owners to make business decisions that could adversely impact tenants.
“Eventually these owners will have to resort to either significant rent hikes or evictions of these lowest-income renters,” Yentel said.
So as Trump continues to have his child-like tantrums, our country continues to suffer and sink deeper into despair with 800,000 federal workers unpaid since December 22nd and the millions more impacted by the government shutdown.
We can only hope that this ends quickly and swiftly so that the most vulnerable are saved from worst-case scenarios like homelessness and evictions.
After being closed for five months for renovations, the 167th Street and Grand Concourse Station on the B and D line has finally reopened.
What was once a dark and dreary station is now bright and modern with beautiful artwork by Rico Gatson who created eight wonderful mosaic portraits of notable individuals either born in The Bronx or with roots in our borough.
All entrances to 167th Street have also been modernized.
The artist chose to memorialize United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Celia Cruz, Gil Scott-Heron, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Tito Puente, Reggie Jackson, and Audre Lorde.
All either had connections to The Bronx or were born here in our borough.
Audre Lorde described herself as, “…black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”
I was particularly surprised and inspired by seeing two Black and Queer icons such as James Baldwin and Audre Lorde forever memorialized in a Bronx subway station in the South Bronx.
James Baldwin, one of America’s most impactful authors who was also gay.
The powerful message here does not escape me that this is in South Bronx and not The Village or Chelsea.
Other station improvements include bright new lighting throughout the entire station, new digital maps and signage throughout, new seating, and new turnstile entrances as well.
Anyway, have you seen it yet? Let us know what you think!
After two years of outreach and community engagement, local Bronx artists are finally moving into the borough’s first Spaceworks art work space designed to provide subsidized studios at affordable prices to the creative community.
Located at 240 East 153rd Street in Melrose at the new Park Avenue Green affordable housing development by OMNI NY LLC, the space offers 15 artist studios, office, community project space, and an exhibition space spread across 4,597 square feet on the ground floor of the building.
Park Avenue Green at 240 East 153rd Street in Melrose will be the new home of Spaceworks
Started in 2011 with its first studios opening in 2013 and 2014 in Long Island City and Gowanus, Brooklyn, Spaceworks has steadily been expanding across the city with a mission to provide desperately needed spaces for emerging artists.
As any artist knows first hand, it is virtually impossible for many to rent the necessary spaces for their disciplines due to ever increasing rents and gentrification.
Studio at Spaceworks at Park Avenue Green/Image by Jonathan Freeland for Spaceworks
One such organization is BxArts Factory which began in 2014 with a mission to make art accessible to all Bronxites.
Since their start five years ago, they have been searching for needed space in our borough but now, after a long journey, they are able to have a space to call their own thanks to Spaceworks.
Meeting Room/Image by Jonathan Freeland for Spaceworks
“We are very excited to grow deep roots in the Melrose community,” said Yolanda L. Rodriguez, Co-Founder, and Executive Director of BxArts Factory to Welcome2TheBronx.
“We are also very grateful for all the partnerships we have developed during the past four years without a space. We are excited to start this new stage in our journey and continue nurturing the Bronx’s legacy” added Rodriguez.
For the past two years, Bronx resident Raul R. Rivera has worked as Spaceworks’ Community and Engagement Manager to better understand the need of our borough’s artist community.
Entrance / Image by Jonathan Freeland for Spaceworks
In a press release, Rivera said, “It’s been an exciting two years. As a community organizer, my aim has been to engage and work with folks on every level of the development process, from the beginning onward—always centering community voices in decision making processes.”
Rivera added, “It’s rewarding to see relationships grow, from artists working hard to find space, to building space, to working with artists operating their own studios in their own communities.”
BxArts Factory announces their new home at Spaceworks
According to the press release other Bronx artists who are at the new Bronx Spaceworks in Melrose are:
“Milteri Tucker Concepcion’s non-profit drum and dance company Bombazo Dance Co, Inc., which preserves, showcases, and educates people about Afro Puerto Rican Bomba and Afro Caribbean and traditional folkloric elements; Seyi Adebanjo, a media artist who raises awareness around social issues through digital video, multimedia photography, and writings; Natasha Johnson, founder of Globalizing Gender, an organization working to create a more Gender Just world through education in order to prevent and reform gender based violence; interdisciplinary artist, playwright, and professor Nina Angela Mercer; filmmaker Ndlela Nkobi; artist and cultural worker Sage Rivera, who runs the independent visual arts and event production company Concepscion Productions, focusing on creating projects for the underserved and underrepresented; and two-time International Latino Book Award winning writer and elementary school educator Peggy Robles-Alvarado.”
Programming will begin at the new Spaceworks in March according to the organization.
As gentrification continues to take ahold of neighborhoods like Melrose, Mott Haven and the South Bronx, we need more organizations like Spaceworks that can help soften the blow of rising rents and will hopefully allow local artists to further cement their roots in our neighborhoods.
This project was made possible in part by a grant by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation.
According to NYC Ferry which made the announcement on Twitter earlier, the trip from Throggs Neck will take 51 minutes to Wall Street, a journey that now takes residents well over an hour via subways and buses.
This is part of an expansion of the ferry system which will begin in 2020 and include the following new routes and stops:
Staten Island from St George to Battery Park City and Midtown West at 39th Street
Coney Island will connect to Bay Ridge and Wall Street
The Astoria route will add a new stop at Brooklyn Navy Yard
Now the city needs to continue to expand throughout the Bronx coastal communities to truly make this an equitable system that can be accessed by as many people as possible.
We’re so excited! NYC Ferry will now serve all five boroughs! ⛴ Staten Island route will launch in 2020
Our public transit system is collapsing and we desperately need alternatives and ferry service is just one of the many needed systems to help keep us moving.
In October, Welcome2TheBronx broke the story that the Bronx General Post Office was up for sale again, now, it has been confirmed that the beloved landmark building is under contract for sale in the high $70 millions.
It’s been less than 5 years since YoungWoo and Associates purchased the property from the United States Postal Service for $19 million yet they were able to fetch a hefty profit in sales price at almost 4x the original purchase price.
It has also been confirmed that the owners of Inwood’s popular La Marina are currently building out the rooftop bar and restaurant at the Bronx General Post office which will be known as Zona de Cuba.
The New York Post also confirmed that construction and conversion of the old Bronx General Post Office will be complete by the end of the first quarter this year before the closing of the sale.
Once complete, this will be yet another record setting property in Melrose which was recently listed as one of NYC’s hottest neighborhoods.
Gentrification is showing no signs of slowing down. Question now is, will this be sustainable for developers?
Just days after Melrose was declared one of NYC’s hottest neighborhoods for 2019, a developer has confirmed that they’re bringing market-rate rentals to the area where Yolanda’s Restaurant currently stands on 149th Street.
After we did some further research, it appears that the bulk of the building will be constructed at 148th Street on what is currently a parking lot also owned by the owners of Yolanda’s Restaurant and the building will have an address on the other side of the block at 149th Street.
Rendering of 290 E 149th Street
The owners of Yolanda’s have been very tight-lipped and have not disclosed whether or not they are in the process of selling the properties or simply partnering with Omnibuild, the developer on public records and as reported by The Real Deal.
A few more details have also been revealed besides the fact that the 124 units will be market-rate, there will be roughly 21,000 square feet of retail, greens paces, some units will have terraces, a couple of lounges for tenants, and 20,000 square feet of outdoor space also for tenant use.
The development will go from 149th Street to 148th Street with the bulk of the construction along 148th Street which is currently occupied by a parking lot owned by the owners of Yolanda’s Restaurant.
The property is located half a block from Lincoln Hospital and sits between 149th Street and Grand Concourse on the 2/4/5 lines and 3rd Avenue/149th Street on the 2/5 line both two blocks away and a five minute walk.
If the owners of Yolanda’s still control the property there is a chance that they may return to the new building but none of this has been confirmed or even mentioned.
No set date as to when the buildings will be demolished to make way for the 8-story market-rate development.
So while the restaurant isn’t being displaced because of a greedy landlord, it’s still gentrification when they want to bring market-rate housing into an area where there is a far greater need for truly affordable housing.
With 1,902 residential apartments under construction spread across 19 developments and a median 1 bedroom asking rent of $1,595 a month, Localize.city has listed Melrose in the South Bronx as one of NYC’s hottest neighborhoods for 2019.
This isn’t even including the over 6,000 units of housing that has been constructed in the area since 2000.
Old and New exist side by side in Melrose, a neighborhood that rebuilt itself after the fires thanks to Nos Quedamos/We Stay
Localize.city highlights several projects which Welcome2TheBronx has been following very closely throughout the years, including the mega project La Central which will transform The Hub and Melrose as we know it once complete.
This year the first building in the 5 building, 992 unit development will open and by next year we should be seeing several more buildings opening up at La Central including a new YMCA and BronxNet Television Studios.
Melrose
The development’s final building is slated to begin construction sometime late this year and will rise 25 stories at Bergen and 153rd Street with an astronomy lab on the rooftop that will be run by Bronx High School of Science.
One building up, 4 more to go at La Central
Once completed, La Central will bring thousands of residents along a stretch of Bergen Avenue that was vacant for decades.
Further up north at 161st Street construction is well underway at Bronx Commons which will be home to a 300 seat Bronx Music Hall and the official home of The Bronx Music Heritage Center which has been chronicling the musical history and heritage of our borough.
Bronx Commons (right), with the Bronx Music Hall, rises next to another separate development which was recently completed on 161st Street.
While for some people such a recognition may be a source of pride, for others, ourselves included, it’s much more of a nail in the coffin as we slide deeper into the gentrification of our beloved Bronx.
Third Avenue and 149th Street at the Third Avenue BID aka The Hub is the busiest intersection outside of Times Square with over 200,000 pedestrians walking through each day.
Many residents we spoke to weren’t surprised that Melrose made the list given the fact that the area is the unofficial “Downtown”.
Just last year, Melrose received a $10 million grant under the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative that provides monies to solidify “downtown” areas.
Via Verde will soon have thousands of new neighbors once La Central is completed across the street to the south.
With the borough’s court system on one corner and The Bronx’s oldest shopping district in the other where the highest concentration of banks in The Bronx is located at the Third Avenue Business Improvement District at The Hub, it’s no wonder why many have thought of Melrose as the “de facto” downtown.
Now with this latest recognition, the neighborhood is maybe a victim of its own success.
In 1980, due to the widespread arson that engulfed the South Bronx, Melrose’s population went from 25,000 to just over 3,000.
The Hub aka “La Tercera”, The Bronx’s oldest shopping district at the Third Avenue Business Improvement District.
Many swaths of blocks were abandoned or razed after the fires and shortly thereafter, the city thought it could finish what the fires didn’t by recreating a “new” neighborhood mostly for middle income families.
Thanks to the late Yolanda Garcia, who founded Nos Quedamos/We Stay, local residents who didn’t flee the fires were able to take control of the development and turn it into a true community vision versus what the city and developers wanted.
The Old Bronx Courthouse currently being converted into a charter school.
Thousands of residential units later, including condominiums, town homes, and affordable housing, the population surged so much that in the 2010 census Melrose was listed as the third fastest growing neighborhood in NYC.
The neighborhood is also home to the landmark Bronx General Post Office which is currently being transformed into a mixed-use development of retail, offices, and a rooftop restaurant (although the project seems to have stalled and the building is reportedly up for sale again).
The Bronx General Post Office was sold to developers Young Woo a few years ago and is now for sale again. It is currently being converted into a mixed-use commercial project similar to Chelsea Market.
It’s also home to the landmark Old Bronx Courthouse which was the birthplace of The Bronx where we became the 62nd and last county in New York State in 1914. The building, after being vacant for almost 40 years, will soon be home to a new Success Charter School.
Melrose also has the best public transportation with the 2/4/5 trains at 149th Street and Grand Concourse or 2/5 at 3rd Avenue and 149th Street getting you to midtown within 15-20 minutes depending whether you’re heading to the East or West side of Manhattan (and if the trains are actually working).
Boricua College across the street from Bronx Commons was one of the first large scale developments in the area almost a decade ago with over 700 units of housing and a 14 story glass tower which is home to Boricua College.
There’s also a Melrose Metro North Station at 162nd Street which can get you to Grand Central Station in just two stops and 16 minutes.
Now while all of that sounds good on paper, what the list forgets to mention is that Melrose is also the epicenter of the opioid epidemic in the borough with people literally shooting up on 149th Street and Third Avenue in broad daylight in front of thousands of pedestrians, including children, walking through the area.
It also neglects to state that despite being the “hottest” neighborhood, thousands of residents in NYCHA development like Melrose Houses and Morrisania Air Rights are living in squalid and dangerous conditions, sometimes without heat or hot water not to mention toxic mold and lead paint.
So Melrose may have saved itself from gentrification 30 years ago but now will it survive the next coming wave that will come as a result of this list?
