Crown Diner has been serving the South Bronx community under the shadow of Yankee Stadium (both old and new) for the past 35 years.

Now, thanks to greed, the 24 hour spot closed on Sunday after the landlord refused to renew the lease.

Back in 2013, JP Morgan Chase purchased the building for $17,500,000 and according to the owner, the bank wanted the to leave them but they stood put and figured they’d negotiate a lease once it expired.

But that never happened. 

According to one of the owners at Crown Diner, they weren’t given an option to renew because the bank has intentions to expand their existing branch just two stores down in the same building.

Many longtime residents on social media expressed their sadness at their beloved institution’s abrupt departure but sadly we noticed some recent transplants (read: gentrifiers) rejoicing that the space was closing and hoping that a Trader Joes or, “…something more nice”, would open up.

We can’t begin to state how gross those sentiments are. So Crown Diner may not have been the best establishment around when it came to food but it was a place that was pretty busy employing dozens of workers. 

It was still a place where many in the local community would go for a meal and affordable for many in the area. 

These comments are a perfect example why gentrifiers are so toxic to communities, especially those of color because they generally want to white wash everything out of existence and turn it into their own vision regardless of what’s been there for decades.

The owners will continue to operate Court Diner across the street but who knows how long they have there as well as rents continue to rise in the area. 

In the meantime, keep enjoying your favorite local small businesses while they last. 

We don’t know how long they’ll survive.

Former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represented the South Bronx, is running for New York City Public Advocate and today launched a 4-point plan, called Weed for Rails, which calls for the legalization of marijuana and utilize no less than 50% of the tax revenue from its sale to fund much needed improvements to our transit infrastructure.

Based on a report issued by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer earlier this year, there is a potential of $1.3 billion of such tax revenues from marijuana sales on the city and state level.

If Mark-Viverito’s plan were to succeed, this would mean that if this potential is reached, it would provide $650 million to the cash-strapped MTA.

This is a revenue stream that wouldn’t require raising taxes.

At a press conference this morning, as part of Weeds for Rails, Mark-Viverito also called for righting the historical wrongs that communities of color have suffered under the criminalization of marijuana use.

“And it’s far past time to legalize marijuana—because for years, white New Yorkers have smoked marijuana with no repercussions, while black and brown New Yorkers have been arrested.” said Mark-Viverito at today’s press conference.

During the first half of 2018, 93% of all arrests for marijuana possessing were people of color according to The Police Reform Organization Project.

And indeed Mark-Viverito has a strong record on correcting these wrongs. In 2014 as City Council Speaker, she was one of the first elected officials in New York State to publicly call for the legalization of marijuana and also championed and passed the Criminal Justice Reform Act which reduced the number of summonses issued for low-level offenses, yet another system that once impacted communities of color disproportionately.

With the upcoming special election this February for New York City Public Advocate, we strongly believe this is yet another reason why Melissa Mark-Viverito would make the perfect Public Advocate not just for The Bronx but for all of New York City.

You can read the entire 4-point plan here (PDF document).

With $50 million pledged to restore the landmarked Orchard Beach Pavilion the next phase in bringing this beauty back to its former glory is happening tomorrow, Tuesday December 4 at Lehman High School.

Please be a part of the conversation of what you think the 200,000 square foot historic building should be utilized for at tomorrow’s meeting starting at 6:30PM until 8PM.

Most of the pavilion has been off limits for years due to safety issues as the art deco masterpiece continues to deteriorate due to decay and neglect but those days are coming to an end as we reclaim one of our borough’s most iconic structures.

That being said, be there tomorrow and speak up!

Welcome to the end of the South Bronx as we know it.

The first market-rate luxury high rises have begun construction along the South Bronx waterfront in Port Morris.

But in a surprise twist to many, they’re not the ones originally proposed by Somerset Partners and the Chetrit Group who planned a 1,300 unit development across 7 high rising towers along the waterfront and attempted to rebrand the area as the Piano District.

This is a completely different developer.

It’s located at 198 and 200 East 135th Street directly in front of the Major Deegan Expressway (like practically on top) and the site is on the same mega block where Brookfield acquired the old Somerset and Chetrit’s development site earlier this year.

Once complete, the two 25 story buildings will have 465 apartments spread across both buildings with a total of 346,632 square feet.

According to a department of building sign at the construction site, scheduled completion date for these monstrosities is in 2021.

They will join the Joinery Condominiums on the other side of the highway on 138th Street where apartments are going for as high as in $890,000+ range as more and more market rate continues to rise in the Lower Concourse Rezoning area of Mott Haven and Port Morris which was rezoned under the Bloomberg administration in 2009.

The foundation for one building is already under construction and the second building’s foundation is being excavated when we stopped by to check in on the progress.

Although these market-rate luxury buildings are coming, we keep asking ourselves, who is going to want to live on top of a highway let alone having to go across dangerous intersections just to get to the nearest subway?

Cars and trucks are speeding by the construction site as there are no traffic lights for several blocks on which leads to vehicles racing by just to make it to Third Avenue before the light changes.

If the nearby Crescendo, the luxury addition to the Clocktower is any indication, it will take a long time to fill these units up. That building has taken over 18 months to fill and it’s still not fully occupied.

At any rate, we are witnessing the end of the South Bronx as we know it. Luxury market-rate housing is being built in the country’s poorest congressional district creating a tale of two cities right within our own borough.

The world’s most famous Christmas tree lighting event at Rockefeller Center is tonight and although the tree isn’t from The Bronx, one of its donors is.

Shirley Figueroa, who grew up in the Bronx the Mott Haven section of the borough purchased a home last year in upstate New York with her wife Lissette Gutierrez where the tree came from.

According to The New York Times, this is the first  tree in Rockefeller Center’s history that is donated by a Latina couple (both are Puerto Rican) as well as a same-sex couple.

As always, folks from The Bronx continue to shake things up in the world.