One of the most iconic sounds of summer in NYC is the Mr Softee jingle luring kids and grownups alike to their trucks for some frozen treats.
But across The Bronx and the rest of New York City, people are complaining about the constant jingle coming from the ice cream trucks.
So which Bronx neighborhoods hate Mr Softee the most as per a new report by Localize.city?
Folks over in Kingsbridge by Bailey Playground as well Fort Independence Playground and around Van Cortlandt Park are the biggest whiners in The Bronx and actually placed 3rd in the city for most complaints filed in the past 12 months against the “incessant” jingle.
One woman in Kingsbride lost her cool, pun intended and went on rant on Facebook.
Many complainers, however, remain. As one rapidly unraveling Kingsbridge woman wrote on Facebook in April: “YOUR A***** DRIVER IS STILL PARKED ON VAN CORTLANDT PARK SOUTH AND BLASTING NOISE. YOU, MISTER SOFTEE, HAVE BEEN THERE FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. DO NOT COME TO MY NEIGHBORHOOD.”
Second up in the curmudgeon category in The Bronx is Norwood around Whalen Park followed by Soundview in 3rd place in our borough around Soundview Park.
Seriously though, are we that bored that we’re complaining about Mr Softee?
In our borough, 1 out of every 8 Bronxite is a senior and a new in CityLimits by the Cuny Street News Team takes a look into the lives of these residents.
These stories come from every corner of our borough from all walks of life like that of Luca Monferato of Kingsbridge.
Outside the nearby University Avenue Assisted Living apartments, Enid Spruell, 80, was enjoying an afternoon cigarette, talking about how she and her late husband ran two Manhattan restaurants – and about her mother.
“When he died I found myself a little more lonely,” she said, “but when my mother died last year – she was 104 – I lost my best friend. I used to talk to her every day.”
Spruell said her two sons are usually too busy to visit, and her grandson has stopped coming to see her. “Now it’s just me and the good Lord here,” she said. “I still talk to my mother every day. Just today, I told her ‘Why’d you leave me, Mama?’”
New York City Department of Health is currently investigating two residents at Fort Independence Houses, a NYCHA development, who were diagnosed with Legionnaires.
The Bronx, sadly, isn’t a stranger to such infections as our borough saw the largest outbreak in 2015 of the disease in New York City history when dozens of individuals died in the South Bronx.
During that outbreak health officials insisted that the culprit were cooling towers and not the drinking water supply despite evidence showing that some of the victims homes faucets tested positive for the deadly bacteria.
It’s important to know that legionnaires is not transmitted from person to person.
The Bronx has some of the highest rates of asthma in the country but now there seems to be hope for some asthma sufferers thanks to a new treatment at St Barnabas Hospital.
Every three weeks, the patient gets a series of injections which has improved the quality of life for one particular Bronx kid.
9 year old Alannah Garcia’s asthma was so bad she would miss school dozens of times a year nor could she participate in athletic activities.
Now thanks to the injections, she’s thriving like never before.
A new “affordable” housing development in gentrifying Mott Haven is now accepting applications for 133 of 165 units which come with their own dishwashers (they’re not even disguising that this is gentrification).
Located at 869 East 147th Street just a couple of blocks away from the 149th Street Station on the 6 line, the block long 12-story building is just the latest in the “affordable” housing entry in the area.
869 E 147th Street
Sadly, as is usual with most of these developments, the units are out of reach for the area residents who need it the most and are rent burdened which, according to city data, almost 50% of area residents fall into that category.
869 E 147th Street takes up an entire block.
Even with apartments set aside for those at 40% of the area median income at $17,795, that required minimum income is under the true median income of the area of $18,219.
Outdoor terraces for resident use at 869 E 147th Street
That leaves very little wiggle room for most residents.
And that’s just for studio units. Everything else is out of reach for the majority in the area.
The development itself is pretty nice looking and has some cool amenities like outdoor terraces, a library, computer room and more available to residents.
You can now apply for an apartment at a new “affordable” housing development in Longwood.
9 of 29 units at 915 Dawson Street are available for households making 130% of the area median income with one-bedroom rents going for $1,404 for families of 1-3 people making anywhere from $48,138 to $122,070 and two-bedroom rents at $1,575 for families of 2-5 people making anywhere from $54,000 to $146,510.
915 Dawson Street
For reference, the median income in the area is just above $18,000.
The first baby mandrill to be born at The Bronx Zoo in five years has made her debut!
Mandrills are one of the largest monkey species and also one of the most colorful according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
WCS writes:
“Mandrills are one of the largest monkey species and among the most colorful. The dominance status of males can be determined by the relative brightness of their coloration – dominant males are brightly colored while subordinate males are paler. Females are smaller and less colorful, and normally breed with the most dominant males. The species has a gestation period of 6 to 7 months.
The baby is a female and was born to female, Sandy, and male, Nigel. Nigel came to the Bronx Zoo in 2016 to breed with the zoo’s females as part of the AZA’s Species Survival Plan, a cooperative breeding program to maintain genetic diversity in zoo populations.
The Bronx Zoo’s troop is comprised of one adult male, several females, and their offspring. The female nurses and cares for the baby, which was born July 3, while the male’s primary role is to protect all troop members.”
Check out the adorable video below! Slideshow after the video below!
Plans have officially been filed for The Peninsula, the development which will replace the old Spofford jail despite having lost two major tenants.
The Commercial Observer reports that Hunts Point Brewing and Lightbox NY Film Studio have pulled out of the deal leaving the city in a race to get tenants for 25,600 square feet both would have occupied.
The jail has been closed since 2011 and the 5 acre site and is undergoing various phases of demolition.
Once the development is complete, it will yield 740 affordable residential units spread across four buildings and will include one industrial building.
The Peninsula is slated for completion in 2022 provided there are no delays.
A lot has changed in Morris Park as new faces and families have moved in over the past decades yet much has also remained the same.
The New York Times explores Morris Park in their “Living In…” fluff pieces and takes a look at what makes the neighborhood tick.
Sadly (and predictably) the article misses the heart of Morris Park because, well, after all, The New York Times Real Estate section is notorious for simply advertising neighborhoods as commodities rather than a place you live.
The article reports:
“An older Italian-American man across the street welcomed him with coffee and cake. “There is no barrier here to where you come from or who you are,” said Mr. Marrero, who was born in the Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, and had previously lived on Pelham Parkway, just north of the neighborhood. Referring to his new block, he said, “I think I’m the only Hispanic here, and I’ve been very well received.”
Morris Park is a place where village-like congeniality continues to flourish among urban asphalt and flux.
First the site of a racetrack and airfield, then an Italian-American stronghold with pizza and calamari to rival that of Arthur Avenue, Morris Park presents changing faces in a largely unvarying streetscape.”
Morris Park has done quite well for itself without so much outside attention. It’s what makes it charming despite some of its own older residents who aren’t too keen on the “new” faces that have moved in (i.e. non-Italian people of color).
It is a true, blue working middle class Bronx neighborhood.
Will Morris Park survive the new York Times created onslaught that may ensue like usually happens after one of their neighborhood profiles?
The following is syndicated with permission from Forgotten NY.
By SERGEY KADINSKY Forgotten NY correspondent
At the southern tip of Soundview Avenue in the Bronx is the newest NYCFerry dock, providing a one-seat ride from this corner of the borough to Wall Street. I haven’t been to Soundview since high school, when my classmate Karen hosted friends at her home and there was Dominican music in the background. Soundview Avenue is the odd one here, cutting through the street grid on its two-mile route.
Having previously chronicled other prominent points of land in the city, I followed Soundview Avenue to its tip. Along the way, the triangular intersections are designated as Greenstreets parks, with more than a dozen on the route. At the end is Clason Point, historically pronounced as Clawson.
The most notable of these triangular parklets is Woodrow Wilson Triangle, bound by Underhill, Patterson, and Soundview Avenues. Its World War One monument was dedicated in 1928 on the decade anniversary since the end of the war.
On the plaque are quotations from Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Wilson. An odd pair as Lincoln emancipated the slaves while Wilson was a staunch segregationist.
Your old Hagstrom map won’t help you here as many of the streets on the grid were never completed, end midblock, and others appear partially completed. Turning right from Soundview Avenue, one enters Harding Park, a cluster of bungalows built organically in the 1920s by Thomas Higgs and named after then-President Warren G. Harding.
City planner Robert Moses attempted to condemn this community in the name of slum clearance but the residents won and in 1982 the Harding Park Homeowners Association succeeded in gaining title to their homes and land. Kevin Walsh was here in 2006, telling the story of Harding Park in detail.
Beyond the bushes there is a lagoon in Harding Park separated from the East River by a rocky breakwater. This is where the Bronx River widens into the East River. In the background are the Hunts Point Marketand the skyline of Manhattan.
As mentioned, Harding Park developed organically without regard to the borough-wide street grid. Some streets here are interrupted midblock by properties, and others do not appear on any official maps.
One of the great unfinished waterfront roads here is Bronx River Road, which was intended to run continuously from East Tremont Avenue along the east bank of Bronx River down to the tip of Clason Point. Today it runs in five segments that are kept separate by Soundview Park, Harding Park properties, and the Shorehaven development.
Speaking of unfinished plans, further inland at Story Avenue, the Bronx River Parkway abruptly ends. Usually when a highway ends, it does so by merging into another highway. Destination signs along the southbound parkway show Soundview Park as its terminus.
A 1960s hand-drawn Hagstrom map shows the parkway continuing into the park with an interchange at Randall Avenue, Lafayette Avenue crossing the Bronx River, and Bronx River Avenue curving along the shoreline. Hagstrom often tried to keep their maps up to date by depicting planned highways and paper streets as reality, because in most cases when Robert Moses proposed something, it became reality.
On the other hand, the massive superblock interrupting White Plains Road at the time was the wetland source of Pugsley’s Creek. Most of it would end up developed.
Another unusual map of what Clason Point could have been is the 1941 Barkan Street Directory map that shows the grid in its entirety mashed with the natural courses of Bronx River, Pugsley’s Creek and Westchester Creek. A trolley line runs down Soundview Avenue, but Bronx River Parkway has not yet been extended to this corner of the Bronx. The section between Pelham Parkway and Soundview opened in 1951.
I would like to see every major street have a monument and plaza at its terminus, but the southern tip of White Plains Road is marked by a fence that keeps it a few yards short of the East River. This road runs north for 7.2 miles to the city line at Wakefield. It continues north under other names. Its namesake city is 10 miles north of the city line.
Returning to Soundview Avenue, there is a gated community with its own set of nautical theme streets: Admiral Court, Beacon Lane, Surf Drive, etc. This is the 57-acre Shorehaven community, set apart from the rest of southern Bronx by its wall and security guards.
Between 1949 and 1986, this property was the Shore Haven Beach Club, a member-only resort for working-class Bronxites.
In 1949, Mal Deitch and Joseph Goodstein transformed the defunct Clason Point Bathing and Amusement Park, into a private resort with a swimming pool, cabanas, playground, and a stage. Most of its clientele were working class and middle class Jews who resided in surrounding neighborhoods.
Like a Catskills resort or a Miami Beach hotel, Shore Haven had a unique cultural feel of secular Jewish life that included stand-up comedians, singers, mah-jongg, and cocktails. By the 1980s the Bronx was more Hispanic than Jewish, and new residents did not join the club in large enough numbers.
Along with rising liability costs, Shorehaven’s expenses forced it to close. Memories of Shorehaven survive online, with former member Marc Miller compiling a collage of old photos for the Shorehaven Beach Club Facebook group.
The park has a tragic history with 6 deaths and 22 injured on June 11, 1922, when a storm blew down an operating ferris wheel. The amusement park closed in 1935.
The 1927 G. W. Bromley map of Clason Point shows the bungalow colony, amusement park, and the tip labeled as “Public Place.” It was a crowded district in contrast to today’s gated community.
Between 1906 and 1939, a ferry operated between Clason Point and College Point. The completion of the nearby Whitestone Bridge put the ferry out of business.
On the above 1940 photo from the Municipal Archives, the ferry gantries stood unused in place for a few more years. Following the demise of the ferry, the tip of Clason Point reverted to parkland and was given its present landscape in the early 1990s.
This includes a scenic traffic circle as a terminus for Soundview Avenue with vistas of the East River and Whitestone Bridge.
Here you can also take the NYCFerry at the cost of a subway ride down to the Upper East Side, 34thStreet, and Wall Street. At some point, we should do a Forgotten-NY cheapskate’s cruise aboard this ferry. We’ve haven’t yet had a floating ForgottenTour. My previous examples of exploring tips of land in the city include Throg(g)’s Neck, Breezy Point, and Kingsborough Community College.
Sergey Kadinsky is the author of Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs (2016, Countryman Press) and the webmaster of Hidden Waters Blog.
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, joined by Councilman Rafael Salamanca, Jr, NYS Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, and local business owners and residents, held a press conference in front of the unfinished Roberto Clemente Plaza which has yet to be completed after years of delays.
To echo the politicians who spoke at the rally, this is not just neglect, not just incompetence but just a continuation of a tale of two cities.
This would not happen in Manhattan.
If the constant delays doesn’t make you angry then this will.
The costs of the plaza have soared from originally costing $300,000 to a hefty price tag of $13 million now.
Feast on tuo zaafi (a mash of pounded maize or millet) with a stew of mutton and dried fish, thickened with the crushed melon seeds known as egusi. A great cow foot soup is also available, along with the usual peanut and okra stews.
2. Papaye
2300 Grand Concourse
…Papaye is one of the most mainstream West African restaurants in town…Try the mashed rice called omo tuo, along with a stew of goat in peanut butter sauce.
3. Bognan
590 E 169th St
A colorful menu posted on the wall offers abe nkwan (a palm nut sauce with goat), okra sauce with fish, and a very light peanut sauce, in addition to the stray dish from the Ivory Coast or Ghana. All sauces can be matched with kneaded starches like banku (fermented cornmeal) or fufu (a mixture of white yam and plantain).
4. Grin
454 E 168th St
This small rustic establishment features the cooking of Cote D’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast), including the national dish of attieke (pronounced “ah-check-ay”), which is a coarsely textured manioc stodge with a delightfully sour flavor. It’s served with a relish or two and a cube of salty Maggi.
5. Fouta
1762 Westchester Ave
The interior has a clubhouse feel, and men sit around in robes and skullcaps eating bowls of fluffy white polished rice and sauce de feuilles made with sweet potato leaf, or lamb mafe decorated with a single scotch bonnet pepper.
Make sure you head over to Eaterand check out the other 9 West African restaurants across NYC they recommend!!
The development itself is pretty nice looking and has some cool amenities like outdoor terraces, a library, computer room and more available to residents.
Should you want to apply just head over to their 
The jail has been closed since 2011 and the 5 acre site and is undergoing various phases of demolition.
Your old Hagstrom map won’t help you here as many of the streets on the grid were never completed, end midblock, and others appear partially completed. Turning right from Soundview Avenue, 
Undeveloped waterfront parcels were 
Beyond the bushes there is a lagoon in Harding Park separated from the East River by a rocky breakwater. This is where the Bronx River widens into the East River. In the background are the 
As mentioned, Harding Park developed organically without regard to the borough-wide street grid. Some streets here are interrupted midblock by properties, and others do not appear on any official maps.
One of the great unfinished waterfront roads here is Bronx River Road, which was intended to run continuously from East Tremont Avenue along the east bank of Bronx River down to the tip of Clason Point. Today it runs in five segments that are kept separate by Soundview Park, Harding Park properties, and the Shorehaven development.
