Amazon’s rival, Jet.com which is owned by Wal-Mart, has leased the former ABC Carpet & Home on Bruckner Boulevard and Bronx River Road in Soundview, a property which Amazon was considering.
ABC Carpet & Home sold the 200,000 square foot property to Prologis last year for $17,500,000 who then made multi-million dollar upgrades to the property.
Neither Amazon nor Jet.com have confirmed the transaction according to Crain’s but the publication said a source familiar with the transaction said that Amazon had been considering it but was “one-uped” by Jet.
Crain’s reports that that Prologis does not confirm the tenants but that it was leased for last-mile deliveries for a large e-commerce company.
Last-mile warehouses are becoming a hot commodity in NYC where companies like Amazon and Jet want to be able to make same-day deliveries.
Thanks to 6sqftfor letting us syndicate this wonderful historical piece on Arthur Avenue. Make sure to follow 6sqft for more great pieces on real estate and history in NYC!
This post is part of a series by the Historic Districts Council, exploring the groups selected for their Six to Celebrate program, New York’s only targeted citywide list of preservation priorities.
The Bronx’s Belmont community can date its history all the way back to 1792, when French tobacconist Pierre Abraham Lorillard opened the Lorillard Snuff Mill as the first tobacco firm in the country, and possibly the world. European influences continued to proliferate in the area, and at the turn of the 19th century, flocks of Italian immigrants moved to Belmont to take jobs in the newly opened Botanical Gardens and Bronx Zoo. By 1913, the neighborhood was referred to as the Italian “colonies” in the Bronx.
Today, Belmont’s main artery, Arthur Avenue, still thrives as a bustling Italian center, with countless restaurants, pastry shops, butchers, and more. But there’s a lot more to Belmont than just spaghetti and cannoli. From the origins of a pasta shop’s sign that’s now featured on Broadway to a Neapolitan restaurant that was born in Cairo, Egypt, the Belmont BID shares six secrets of this saucy neighborhood.
1. The storefront sign of Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles, a long-time business on East 187th Street, is now featured on the set of the Broadway musical “A Bronx Tale.”
Thanks to their upbringing, Lindo and Maria Borgatti were both skilled pasta makers, and in November of 1935, they pooled less than $300 (all the money they had) and rented a storefront on East 187th Street. They gathered pastry boards, rolling pins, wooden benches, and knives from their home and started making egg noodles. Lindo, Maria, and their six sons took turns making the noodles from 6:00am to 8:00pm, and their first pound of egg noodles was sold for 15 cents. Business was slow at first, but eventually, they saved enough money to buy a hand-operated dough press and noodle cutter. Their now famous ravioli was created after their son George made a wooden ravioli board, and six months later they were able to purchase an electric pasta machine, which resulted in increased noodle production.
This enabled them to move to a different (and their current) storefront, and in 1949 they expanded into the adjacent store because business was flourishing. Borgatti’s has been written and raved about in highly accredited publications, but Mario remained humble and shared that it is most rewarding to see many of his customers return year after year. Today, egg noodles and ravioli from Borgatti’s have traveled across the globe, and Mario’s son, Chris, shares that a recent special moment occurred when Chazz Palminteri visited the store. Chris thought that he might want some ravioli for his restaurant, however it turned out the actor wanted to know if the Borgatti’s Ravioli sign could be used in his Broadway musical “A Bronx Tale.” Chris, of course said yes, and the sign can now be seen on stage at the Longacre Theatre in New York City.
2. Even though the neighborhood is known as an Italian community, one of the oldest businesses on the world-famous block of Arthur Avenue is owned by a Jewish family.
Upon entering Teitel Brothers you will see the Star of David in the tile work placed there by Jacob Teitel in the 1930s. Jacob and Morris Teitel settled in the Belmont area from Austria around 1913. The brothers were tailors in their homeland, but opted to make a living in the deli business and opened Teitel Brothers in April of 1915. Their strategy was to provide their customers with a variety of the finest products at the lowest prices. For over 30 years, they’ve been starting their 18-hour days by constructing a variety of their products on the sidewalk surrounding their store, which is still done to this day.
Before determining the daily cost of the merchandise, they sent a worker to research the competition and adjusted their prices accordingly (this was a common practice). Their families lived in the upstairs apartment, and if the store was ever too busy, Jacob would bang on the pipes signaling for his wife, Esther, to come down and help. Before there was refrigeration, the deli stayed open late (until at least midnight on Fridays and Saturdays) to satisfy their customers’ after-dinner shopping needs. Slowly but surely, Jacob recruited his sons, Louis, Ben and Gilbert to work on Sundays, however they all started by first learning how to push a broom through the store. Once that was mastered, the boys were allowed to sell nuts, figs and dates outside during the holidays, and they worked their way up to balancing school and deli work, full time. With the changing times, business had to keep up, as well, and electronic scales and slicers were introduced. Today the family and team, currently in their third generation, still provide a variety of the finest products at the lowest prices.
3. Mario’s Restaurant was one of the first restaurants on Arthur Avenue and has been serving first-rate Neapolitan fare since 1919, but did you know that the restaurant has roots in Cairo, Egypt?
Joe Migliucci’s great-grandfather and grandfather left Naples in the early 1900s and opened the first-ever Italian restaurant in Cairo. The restaurant was a success, but his grandfather became restless and decided to come to America. Mario’s Restaurant was opened on Arthur Avenue by Joe’s father, grandfather, and grandmother nearly 100 years ago, and while it is much bigger today, it still operates on the same site. Over the years, many well-known people have dined here, including Governor Rockefeller, Anna Moffo, Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher. The restaurant is even mentioned in the film “The Godfather.” In fact, the filmmakers reportedly wanted to shoot scenes in the restaurant, but the Migliucci family refused, fearing bad publicity.
Watch our video on Little Italy
Google Street View of Madonia Bakery
4. Peter Madonia, Sr., of Madonia Brothers Bakery, was literally born into the family business!
Mario Madonia arrived in the United States in the early 1900s from Monreale, Sicily, and settled in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood in the pursuit of a better life for his family. He started baking bread as part of a co-op known as the Reliable Bronx Italian Bakers. The building, located at 2385 Arthur Avenue, still bears the name. His son Peter’s entry into the neighborhood, however, is a bit more unique.
During Prohibition, the streets of the neighborhood were made one-way because the police wanted to make it harder for bootleggers to escape. During a car chase on May 15, 1924, a local bootlegger’s car crashed through the window of Madonia Brothers Bakery. While Mario was in the back baking, his wife Rose, who was seven months pregnant, was working in the front and the shock from the crash sent her into premature labor and she delivered her son in the bakery. The baby’s survival was doubtful, however, his parents persevered. They lined a shoe box with cotton and placed the baby in it by the oven for warmth, which effectively acted like an incubator. Each day he grew stronger and 11 days later, on May 26th, Mario and Rose finally registered their child with the Department of Health. Peter went on to run the family business, which is still family-owned and operated today.
Pushcart vendors on Arthur Avenue in 1940, courtesy of the Library of Congress
5. The Arthur Avenue Retail Market at 2344 Arthur Avenue was the first enclosed retail market in the Bronx.
Joseph Liberatore was born in Connecticut in 1919 but spent his formative years in Italy. Upon his return to the United States in 1936, he chose the Bronx’s Little Italy as his home, establishing himself as a neighborhood pushcart vendor of fruits and vegetables. His days began at 2:00am when he would take the train to the South Street Seaport to order the day’s merchandise. Once everything was gathered, he would return to Arthur Avenue where he retrieved his cart from a basement warehouse.
This six-day-a-week routine continued until 1940, when the Arthur Avenue Retail Market was established, enabling Joseph and more than 100 other street vendors to rent indoor stands to sell their products for a fee. Some vendors were afraid of the change and thought customers wouldn’t want to come inside to shop, but Joseph always had pride in the quality of his products, which kept his customers coming. At the age of 80, Joseph decided it was time to pursue a less strenuous business and began selling plants, flowers and vegetable seeds from Italy in the Market instead. Because of his 75 years of working in the neighborhood, Joseph was aptly named the “Mayor of Arthur Avenue” and he continued his plant business until his death in 2011. Today, the business is run by one of his five children.
The Bronx Beer Hall, courtesy of the Belmont BID
6. The Bronx Beer Hall, located in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, celebrates Bronx heritage; its tables are even made from reclaimed wood from a farmhouse upstate owned by Jonas Bronck himself.
When Anthony Ramirez II and Paul Ramirez started promoting the Bronx over a decade ago with the launch of their borough-branded apparel and accessories business, FromTheBronx.com, they never thought it would lead them to open a bar in the heart of Little Italy. After a particularly long day, the brothers were in search of a place to relax and enjoy a beer, but couldn’t find such a place. They then set out to establish a bar that would showcase their love of the Bronx while fostering a sense of community pride within the historic Arthur Avenue Retail Market.
An instant classic when it opened in 2013, the Bronx Beer Hall features new age beer and an original menu sourced from their Arthur Avenue neighbors, many of whom were initially skeptical of the idea. Yet, two years later, in 2015, the Bronx Beer Hall was voted as the Readers’ Choice Best Bar in NYC by Time Out New York. Patrons appreciate how the bar celebrates and honors the Bronx in its many details, including tables made of reclaimed wood from a farmhouse that Jonas Bronck owned upstate and a logo that includes a deconstruction of the Bronck Family crest and the colors of the Bronx County flag.
About this Six to Celebrate group:
The Belmont Business Improvement District (BID) is committed to promoting and expanding the economic well being of the business community, and the community at large, by promotion of the “Little Italy in the Bronx” brand, the area’s strong ethnic heritage and leadership in the culinary marketplace, and by leveraging the mercantile, social, political and cultural assets within and around the community.
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This post comes from the Historic Districts Council. Founded in 1970 as a coalition of community groups from the city’s designated historic districts, HDC has grown to become one of the foremost citywide voices for historic preservation. Serving a network of over 500 neighborhood-based community groups in all five boroughs, HDC strives to protect, preserve and enhance New York City’s historic buildings and neighborhoods through ongoing advocacy, community development, and education programs.
Now in its eighth year, Six to Celebrate is New York’s only citywide list of preservation priorities. The purpose of the program is to provide strategic resources to neighborhood groups at a critical moment to reach their preservation goals. The six selected groups receive HDC’s hands-on help on all aspects of their efforts over the course of the year and continued support in the years to come. Learn more about this year’s groups, the Six to Celebrate app, and related events here >>
Starting this month, Boogie Down at the Zoo will celebrate Bronx culture at the zoo with a series of events each weekend straight through June and for the occasion, Hip Hop legends Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, The Sugarhill Gang, and Scorpio ‘Furious Five’ have recorded an anthem for The Bronx Zoo.
The sounds of Hip Hop, Salsa, and Doo Wop, all musical genres from The Bronx, can be heard at the zoo this year as part of the celebrations along with Bomba dancing and Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Italian cuisine.
According to a press release from The Bronx Zoo:
For more than 120 years, the Bronx has been the birthplace of culture that has changed history and created movements. From humble beginnings, the Bronx is the home of global legends and leaders that have had a profound influence on the world through hip hop, breakdancing, doo wop, street art, salsa, AND wildlife conservation. The Bronx has it all!
Boogie Down at the Bronx Zoo presents a variety of many cultural contributions that have resonated from the Bronx. Starting on Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22, and continuing weekends from May 5 through June 3, artists and performers from a diverse representation of Bronx cultures will be on-site to celebrate the Bronx Zoo, Bronx culture, and wildlife.
Artwork from graffiti legends like Crash and Tats Cru will be on display as well along with that of Andre Trenier some of whom had help from some of the animals who “painted” on some surfaces which the artists then used to finish their own pieces.
Painted by a low-land gorilla at The Bronx Zoo, Bronx Graffiti artist Crash then finished the piece./Image via The Bronx ZooCrash’s finishing touches on the lowland Gorilla’s piece/Image via The Bronx Zoo
Bronx artists Kay Love will be leading a workshop for children with another Bronx artist, Lovie Pignata where they will learn a brief history of graffiti and will learn, “…how to create an animal tag incorporating simple graffiti lettering and animal characters they can take home.”
A few weeks ago we posted about a new condo development coming to City Island on the eastern end of Marine Street and we since have learned that it’s actually double in size with 32 units not 16 as previously reported.
According to the marketing website, all units at 41°N will have 2 parking spots for cars and a private slip for your watercraft too (this is City Island, after all and what would any new development be without having your own private dock for your boat?).
Units range from 859 square foot 1 bedrooms estimated at $488,000 to 1,571 square foot three-bedroom duplex units for $888,000.
All units will have at least one private terrace as well as access to a rooftop pool and private common areas.
No set date has been listed for groundbreaking.
I’m not gonna lie, I’d live here if the quality of the development is actually good AND if City Island had its own ferry service.
Who wouldn’t want a nice rooftop pool AND their own boat slip?
It’s that time again for New York City Council’s Participatory Budgeting where you get to vote on which projects should get funding in your City Council District.
From now through April 15th, make your voices heard on what projects should receive up to $1 million in funding in your district.
Once again, all Councilmembers in the East Bronx have opted out of providing this truly democratic service to their constituents (shame on Councilmen Mark Gjonaj, Ruben Diaz Sr, and Andy King) as well as Councilman Fernando Cabrera in the West Bronx.
Residents of Districts 8 (Councilwoman Diana Ayala), 13 (Councilman Andy Cohen), 15 (Councilman Ritchie Torres) 16, (Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, and 17 (Councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr) are eligible to vote on a variety of projects like upgrades to playgrounds in Riverdale to upgrades for a local school auditorium in Longwood.
So how do you find out and see which projects you can vote on and how do you vote?
It’s simple.
Head over to the Participatory Budgeting website and you can do it straight from the comfort of your own home or wherever you are with your mobile device.
You will be asked to enter your address so that you can be directed to your district’s page where you will see a list of projects up for PB voting of which you can select up to five.
This year you can also use the LinkNYC kiosks to vote on participatory budgeting too.
According to a statement from LinkNYC:
“LinkNYC once again demonstrates that technology is a powerful tool for public good,” said Samir Saini, Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. “We’re honored to work with the Council to put democracy at New Yorkers’ fingertips. This year, more than 1,500 Link kiosks present that many more opportunities for residents to vote for the neighborhood projects that matter the most to them. I look forward to introducing New Yorkers to even more ways the Link platform can be used to foster civic innovation within our great city.”
“With Participatory Budgeting, Link is helping to bring the democratic process to the streets,” said Jen Hensley, President of Link. “We always envisioned Link as a platform for civic engagement and are thrilled to support the City Council’s Participatory Budgeting efforts this year, providing another way for New Yorkers to vote for projects that will directly improve their quality of life.”
Anyone who lives in a participating district can approach a Link in any neighborhood and vote directly on the Link tablet. The vote will be submitted to Participatory Budgeting, and then the information will be deleted from the Link tablet after every session. There is also advertising on the 55-inch digital displays on the sides of each Link to alert New Yorkers to this partnership and direct them to vote on the tablet.
Of course, if you prefer the old fashioned method or know someone who doesn’t have access to the internet, you can head over to a number of voting sites throughout the districts.
In New York City’s REAL Little Italy is Casa Della Mozzarella where many have claimed that the BEST mozzarella in all of the city is made.
Watching this video just makes me want to head on over and get some right now!
Now that you’re craving it, make sure to head over to Little Italy and support our amazing small businesses and afterwards, grab a drink at The Bronx Beer Hall at the Arthur Avenue Market!
The Manhattan skyline is prominently visible from the South Bronx
This post was written by Syed Ali and originally appeared on CoLab Radio, a publication of the MIT Community Innovators Lab. CoLab Radio has graciously allowed us to reprint this important piece.
The Bronx is burning. It has been decades since the infamous line branded the borough, but this is an image countless individuals have conjured up when I have told them where I am from. Municipal disinvestment made the Bronx the poster place of planned shrinkage, but concerted efforts by public, private, and nonprofit sectors—including residents themselves—have allowed our resilient community to flourish in its wake. Those I grew up around continue to struggle with health and wealth, but targeted efforts push ever more forcefully against the levers of urban inequality. Community development resists a narrow definition everywhere, but examining the food systems of the Bronx begs one to open it up further.
Groups advancing community development in the Bronx do not all operate with the same definition. Highbridge CDC places itself in real estate development, aspiring to provide “housing that is affordable, well-designed, secure, and professionally managed.” The Point CDC uses the term to describe its work on “environmental justice, youth development and arts and culture…to create a more livable community and generate economic opportunity.” WHEDco talks of “small business development [as] an effective pathway toward financial security.” MIT CoLab’s own Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative (BCDI), meanwhile, reaches for economic democracy by linking the cooperative model to the purchasing power of anchor institutions. There appears, on the surface, to be no consensus even within this single borough. Yet there are others: local, state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations of neighborhood and national scope, all with varying missions that are making place-based interventions to improve the quality of life in our borough.
Food is one critical dimension for understanding inequality and community development concerns in the Bronx. The borough is home to one of the largest wholesale food distribution centers in the world, yet one in three of its children lives in a food insecure household. As with sewage, waste, and energy, we bear a disproportionate infrastructural burden for the city without reaping the rewards. While the food traveling through the highways Robert Moses carved in carry fresh fare to the Michelin star restaurants of Manhattan and the hipster havens of Brooklyn, the Bronx has the distinction of being the unhealthiest county in New York State year after year. It ranks #62 of 62 in the annual County Health Rankings from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, compared to #3 Westchester County to the north and #11 Manhattan to the south. Before one can even discuss the affordability crisis, one has to acknowledge that there are entire neighborhoods in the Bronx without full service supermarkets. Bodegas are a cornerstone of our community but many of them fail to meet basic standards, selling fewer than two vegetables and three fruits.
A civic infrastructure has emerged to tackle the food injustice baked into the Bronx. Bronx Health REACH, a coalition of over 70 community organizations, uses its signature #Not62 campaign to defy the determinism of the county health ranking. They have brought in resources like FoodCorps, my former employer, a national service organization connecting kids to healthy food in school. FoodCorps has, in turn, sought to recruit service members from the local community. FoodCorps—and Bronx Health Reach—understand that change is most palpable when it is lead from within. There are even the street vendors of the NYC Green Carts program, surviving sweltering summers and bone chilling winters to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in food insecure communities. The immigrants who accept this work tend to represent the communities they serve better than the average good food evangelist, breaking through barriers of language and culture. Foundation-funded health coalitions, national food nonprofits, and immigrant street vendors are not always considered key players in community development, but they serve on the frontlines of community concern here in the Bronx.
While it comes with its own historical baggage, the Bronx is not unique in its endeavor to overcome inequality through coalition building. While working for FoodCorps at the national level, I encountered countless examples of people working to address inequality in their own communities. There was Rosanne with Bronx Health Reach in New York, who thought she could change the world through food. There was Christopher with Mill City Grows in Lowell, Massachusetts, who went from volunteer to intern to educator to farmer in his hometown, all in the name of food justice. There was Katie with Cherokee Choices in Cherokee, North Carolina, who helped revive healthy food traditions slipping away to the integration and exploitation of the native population. Food is just a single dimension, but food is foundational, demonstrating the breadth and depth of community development in the Bronx and beyond.
Photo credit: FoodCorps
To me, community development is not an industry or a type of corporation. It is a philosophical approach to work and a dynamic movement coalesced around that approach. Community development means actively listening for a local groups’ hopes and concerns. It means embracing challenging collaborations and allowing leadership to rise from within a community. The global legacies of uneven and exploitative development demand scalable solutions, but a community development approach inherently means that even the most promising solutions must be malleable enough to adapt to local contexts.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos are credit to Syed Ali.
Syed Ali is a Master in Urban Planning candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, studying interventions in the socio-spatial determinants of health and wealth. Syed was raised in the Bronx and is a graduate of New York City public schools.
Foreclosures went up in The Bronx during the first quarter of the year by 33% compared to the same period last year but dropped by 41% compared to the previous quarter.
The Bronx was also the only borough to show an increase in first time foreclosures which went up by 2% according to PropertySharkwho published the report.
Foreclosures were highest in the 10462 zip code of the borough which covers parts of Parkchester, Van Nest, and Morris Park, registering 22 in Q1 2018.
The Chetrit Group and Somerset Partners, the developers behind the Piano District and Port Morris waterfront development to bring thousands of market-rate luxury housing to the South Bronx, have sold their development for $165 million to Brookfield Properties according to The New York Post.
This is the single most expensive transaction for a development site in Bronx history according to a search we performed on public records.
The sites were purchased a little over 3 years ago for a combined price of $60 million by the Chetrit Group and Somerset Partners (101 Lincoln sold for $32 million and 2401 Third Avenue sold for $28 million) netting them a 57% profit in such a short time.
According to Keith Rubenstein of Somerset Partners, they will continue to be involved with the development, however, groundbreaking has yet to be scheduled.
For the past several years the developers have been struggling to get at least $500 million in financing for the risky project in a relatively untested luxury market of that scale in the South Bronx which happens to be located in America’s poorest congressional district.
It isn’t surprising to us, however, that obtaining financing for such a project has been difficult due to that very fact.
Oh and let’s not forget they were behind the tasteless and tone deaf “Bronx is Burning” partyto rebrand the area as the Piano District.
Over at the Clocktower’s expansion buildings at the Crescendo, the luxury building has been struggling to lease its new units which are going from the low $2,000s to upwards of $4,000 for three-bedroom units.
These apartments have been on the market for 9 months now but vacancy in the building remains high with roughly only 40% occupancy according to their marketing department.
As you can see, people aren’t quite flocking to the South Bronx to snatch up luxury residential rentals at Brooklyn and Manhattan prices especially at these locations which is quite a walk to the nearest subway and the fact that you have to go under a major highway to get there isn’t all that attractive.
So how will a much larger project like 101 Lincoln and 2401 Third Avenue will attract potential residents remains a mystery if other developments can’t do it.
Although gentrification is in full swing in the South Bronx perhaps the market isn’t biting as strongly as these developers had hoped and maybe that’s why they unloaded their assets.
Only time will tell if this project will actually happen but Brookfield is a bigger company with deeper pockets than the others and are one of the most active developers in NYC.
City Limits reports that New York City is potentially losing hundreds of thousands of square feet of industrial space including automotive related spaces thanks to rezonings.
Thanks to the Jerome Avenue Rezoning, The Bronx, in a “reasonable worse case scenario”, is poised to lose 126,802 square feet of auto-related spaces alone.
According to the analysis, an additional 36,295 square feet of industrial space can be lost in the same scenario.
The loss of these spaces will decimate Bronx wages further despite the promises by our elected officials that this is “good for The Bronx” it is the exact opposite.
The following is from the South Bronx Coalition , please sign the petition and have your voices heard!
We, the residents of the South Bronx, call on all people of conscience to stand with us in strong opposition to the mayor’s proposal to build a new jail in the Mott Haven neighborhood at a site vital to implementing the community-driven Diego Beekman Neighborhood Development Plan.
On February 14, 2018, Mayor De Blasio revealed a plan to speed up the closing of Rikers Island by transferring those incarcerated into existing (retrofitted) facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, bypassing Staten Island altogether, and building a new jail in a South Bronx community still reeling from decades of disinvestment, destabilization and the resulting fallout, and where two other jails already exist. The proposed site at 320 Concord Avenue – steps from three schools, homeowners, and the 38-building Diego Beekman housing complex – has already been earmarked for years by the community as the central piece of its Neighborhood Development Plan for affordable housing, community centers and living wage jobs. Building on 22 years of community organizing, the Neighborhood Plan was developed in consultation with residents, organizations, agencies and elected officials, none of whom were consulted about the mayor’s new jail proposal. The area already has one of the highest and most unequal concentrations of homeless shelters, methadone clinics, power plants and waste transfer stations in the city. With some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment nationwide, the Mott Haven community is in crisis, and any tax dollar investments must be in (long-ignored) social, educational and economic opportunities for the community – not a jail.
Sign The Petition:
We applaud the city’s plan to close Rikers Island, but the answer is not to expand the criminal justice footprint – not in the South Bronx, not anywhere – when over the last 25 years, the city’s jail population has fallen from a high of 21,674 in 1991 to under 9,000 earlier this year through a combination of falling crime rates and criminal justice reforms. Our opposition to a new jail is in no way a rejection of the people caught up in the system. We desire fairer, swifter, and more humane forms of justice for incarcerated families. We challenge the city to further reduce the number of people in jail through a combination of bail reform, decriminalization of minor offenses, and more restorative ways to deal with crime that would make the construction of a new facility unnecessary. With more than 2.3 million people imprisoned across the US, mass incarceration is the greatest moral and racial injustice of our time. We need bold investments in people, not prisons.
Now therefore, please join us in our fight, stand in solidarity with us and demand that our Mott Haven community receives the revitalization plan it designed, developed and deserves.
For more information about this campaign, send us an email at southbronxcoalition@gmail.com.
As NYC’s new City Council Land Committee chair, Councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr. has vowed to block Mayor de Blasio’s plan to plop a new jail in Mott Haven as part of closing down Rikers Island.
Back in February, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office foolishly announced that a new jail was coming to 320 Concord Avenue in Mott Haven which is currently being used by the NYPD as a tow pound and was once the site of the old historic Lincoln Hospital.
The announcement was made without consulting residents or local elected officials including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, Congressman Jose E Serrano, NYS Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo or any other.
Absent state intervention, the jails plan has to go through the City Council’s Land Use Committee, and its chairman, Rafael Salamanca Jr., said he would stop it because it would put three jails within two miles of each other in the South Bronx.
Mr. Salamanca, whose district borders the one where the new jail will be built, said the city needed to make closing the Vernon C. Bain Center, a medium-security barge on the shore of Hunts Point, and the Horizon Juvenile Center in Mott Haven part of its plan.
“Without something in writing, it’s a non-starter,” he said. “My community in the South Bronx has done more than its fair share.”
Some have suggested that the Yankee Stadium parking lots which are barely used and went bankrupt be torn down and place the jail there or place it directly behind the Bronx County Hall of Justice.
Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who represents Council District 8 where the location for the proposed jail sits tells the New York Times that project could provide leverage for residents to demand more investments in the area with infrastructure and programs.
So what does this mean? Will we get a new jail?
We’ll probably end up getting a new jail but it won’t happen without the city meeting the demands of the community. Will it happen at this location? As it stands, it will not if Councilman Salamanca follows through and blocks it.
One thing is for sure is that we are over-saturated and overburdened and have done more than our fair share for the borough and the city.
It’s time that we get what we want and put our community first above all.
Photo via 
Inside Teitel Brothers, photo by 
Mario’s via 
Google Street View of Madonia Bakery
Pushcart vendors on Arthur Avenue in 1940, courtesy of the 
Arthur Avenue Retail Market via 
The Bronx Beer Hall, courtesy of the Belmont BID
A civic infrastructure has emerged to tackle the food injustice baked into the Bronx. 
