As we reported last month, iconic Parkchester statues adorning the tops of buildings have been disappearing.
Parkchester Condominium management has yet to return any calls and now John Bannon Dias of CBS News reports on this ongoing issue.
Watch below:
When we took the inaugural ferry ride out of Soundview last month, the first thing we noticed was the lack of parking in the area.
Now residents are complaining that they’re having a rough time finding parking.
The problem stems from the fact that the ferry was designed for people who live in the immediate area in Clason Point and Soundview with the assumption that people would walk or take the BX 27 Bus which was extended earlier this year to drop off commuters at the landing.
But the city should have invested in creating a parking lot for those commuters who would be driving in rather than biking or taking the bus.
Let’s face it: With the subway system in less than desirable conditions and poor transit options in the East Bronx, this was bound to happen due to demand.
Right now the New York City Ecominic Development Corporation will be investing in bike racks and while that thought is noble and does address the needs of one segment of the commuting population, it neglects those with cars.
On the second day of ferry service last month, Welcome2TheBronx received complaints that people had to drive back home after unsuccessfully circling for parking.
Those that do find it take away the few spaces available for local area residents.
“It’s not the ferry, its the heavy construction happening around there that have eliminated many parking spaces.” said one individual on News 12 The Bronx’s Facebook page.
Another commenter by the name of HR Ortiz added, “The Ferry has nothing to do with the parking problems in Clason Point. The parking situation has been terrible for a very long time before the Ferry arrived.”
Ortiz went on to say that, “It might of added a little more problems to the parking situation but that’s all it did. The parking spaces are actually being rotated a lot more than before. The residents in the neighborhood are a little upset that they can’t hog up the spaces.”
Whatever the situation is, the solutions offered aren’t what the people want.
Watch the story over at News12BX.
The controversial planned 1,300 luxury development along the Harlem River Waterfront in the South Bronx’s Port Morris neighborhood is now slated to include “affordable” housing.
But affordable for who?
Spread across seven buildings at the foot of the Third Avenue Bridge at 2401 Third Avenue and 101 Lincoln Avenue, the development has still yet to make progress but now it seems that construction is imminent as Brookfield Properties purchased the development site from Somerset Partners and The Chetrit Group, the original masterminds behind the “Piano District” failed rebranding.
According to the Real Deal, construction is set to begin next year by the second quarter of 2019.
It will be interesting to see how quickly they can fill up these units considering that 25 Bruckner has been on the market for over a year now and it is still not near 100% occupancy.
Getting renters to pay thousands of dollars and having to walk over 5 blocks to the nearest subway and cross under a highway may be a tough sell for many.
As for the affordable component we already know that it’s not affordable to the overwhelming majority of existing residents but to make matters even worse, developers have the option to offer the “affordable” portion of units up to 130% of the inflated Area Median Income (AMI) which will most certainly push them out of the realm for pretty much everyone in the South Bronx.
Welcome to Gentrification, folks!
An empty lot sitting on the Grand Concourse at the corner of E Burnside in Mount Hope may soon give way to a new 13-story affordable housing development.
The problem is that if approved, it will ruin the beautiful character of the Grand Concourse.
Plans for 2050 Grand Concourse show an 86,060 square foot building rising 13 stories above the famed boulevard and will have 93 units.
According to YIMBY, 23 of those units will go to low-income families with the balance of the 55 units set aside for supportive housing.
This is one of the many reasons why we need the entire Grand Concourse designated as a landmark so that we may protect its architectural heritage.
Of course we can’t stop development happening but at the very least, architects should design buildings that blend in harmoniously with its surroundings.
This is not one of them.
No timeline has been set for construction.
The Bronx’s favorite pariah, Majora Carter, is back in the spotlight selling out the very community she claims to be helping.
First it was through her deal with FreshDirect to push this dirty truck dependent industry into the South Bronx where residents suffer from some of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.
Then it was through an asinine and self-serving attempt coin the phrase “self-gentrification” as she tried to whitewash her push for displacement via gentrification.
Now Carter is co-opting community land trusts (CLTs) and is distorting their meaning ad well as misleading the community into what it means.
South Bronx Unite writes:
South Bronx Unite stands in support of our activists sisters and brothers from Take Back the Bronx in denouncing efforts to displace long time residents from the South Bronx. Specifically, we take issue with strategies on behalf of for profit developers trying to act and serve as a Community Land Trust (CLT).
We recognize CLTs as a community lead grassroots effort to oppose the forces of real estate speculation. The fundamentals of Community Land Trusts fights to preserve the right of low-income people to live in the city by supporting Community Land Trusts and other community-led housing and neighborhood development efforts.
We believe that land is a common good, and that housing is a human right. Housing should be for people, not profit. Decisions about land and housing should include all community members, and prioritize people with extremely low incomes, who are homeless or otherwise in dire need of housing or in threat of displacement, and not served by the private market or for profit developers.
+++++++
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Ortega, Take Back the Bronx (646) 260 -6575
bxsocialcenter@gmail.com
Bronx Residents Denounce Majora Carter ‘s Displacement Efforts
BRONX, NY.
LOCATION: 866 Hunts Point avenue TIME: Thursday September 6th at 6:30pm,
Bronx residents will protest Majora Carter, who will be hosting an event to advance her role in the displacement of the Hunts Point/Longwood section of the Bronx.
Community members will call attention to Carter’s opportunistic attempts to position herself as a lobbyist in the borough, serving as a local go-between for greedy developers and venture capitalists who seek to profit from the displacement of the area’s poor and working class residents.
Bronxites have long criticized Carter’s Startup Box firm, which helps game companies exploit local teenagers for low pay, as well as her service as a consultant for Fresh Direct, which helped the company bring more warehouses and trucks to an area already suffering from extreme asthma rates.
“Majora tries to intimidate people when they expose her for exploiting the Hunts Point section of the Bronx by drawing in predatory speculation for her financial gain,” says Shellyne Rodriguez, an artist and educator from the Bronx. “But it’s not working anymore. The community is turning against her.”
“Majora wants to sell us out, and is a bully. But she can’t bully or sell us out anymore. The whole community is aware and up in arms about her new efforts to convince her neighbors to move out so that private developers can take over our communities.” – Monxo Lopez, member of South Bronx Unite.
Local residents also take issue with Carter’s statements in a recent CityLab article, in which she claims Bronxites are attached to a “culture of poverty” which keeps them poor. Carter’s statement echoes the infamous 1965 “Moynihan Report,” which claimed black familial culture was a cause of poverty, and whose arguments were ultimately taken up to justify cutbacks on social spending.
Research has shown that the structure of the economy and systemic racism shape inequality far more than one’s cultural norms.
“In reality, Bronx culture is about fighting poverty creatively and collectively,” argues Elliott Liu, a CUNY doctoral candidate studying New York politics.
“Since the 1970s, residents have turned vacant lots into community gardens, and burned-out buildings into clubhouses, cooperatives and community land trusts. That culture is our best resource to fight and displacement.”
In place of Carter’s displacement schemes, activists will call for community control of land and housing in New York City. Interviews available upon request.
###
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/nyregion/a-hero-of-the-bronx-majora-carter-is-now- accused-of-betraying-it.html
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/08/the-bronx-dont-call-it-a- comeback/567413/?utm_source=fbb
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317960376_The_Rebuilding_of_the_South_Bronx_after_th e_Fiscal_Crisis
Welcome2TheBronx stands with South Bronx Unite and Take Back The Bronx and the people of The Bronx against Majora Carter’s deplorable actions.
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.
Gothamist writes:
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?
No ice cream for you!
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.
The feature reports:
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?’”
Take the time to read the entire feature over at CityLimits: Work, Drama, Love and Struggle: A Day in the Life of the Aging Bronx
Header image by Aaron Mayorga/CityLimits
New York City Department of Health is currently investigating two residents at Fort Independence Houses, a NYCHA development, who were diagnosed with Legionnaires.
One of the residents tested positive recently while the other was within the past 12 months.
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.
Earlier this year it was reported that 3 individuals in Co-op City also contracted legionnaires leaving one dead and over at Jacobi Hospital, its drinking water supply tested positive for it.
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.
Watch the News12 The Bronx segment below:
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.
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.
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.
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.
To apply, just go over to the NYC Housing Connect. Check out their pdf for full details.
Good luck! You have until October 31st to apply!
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.
For reference, the median income in the area is just above $18,000.
Should you want to apply just head over to their website and submit your digital application. It’s that easy.
Check out their pdf for full details on income requirements, etc.
Good luck!
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!
Since 2009, Welcome2TheBronx has been a popular online platform dedicated to highlighting the vibrant culture, history, and ongoing developments within New York City’s northernmost borough. Founded by life-long resident and community advocate Ed García Conde, the site features local news, personal stories, and in-depth coverage of issues such as gentrification, community empowerment, art, and real estate. Through its engaging content and active social media presence, Welcome2TheBronx has become a trusted resource for residents and visitors alike, shining a spotlight on the unique identity and rich heritage of the Bronx.
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