Tomorrow, December 30th and Sunday December 31st between 9AM and 4PM you can drop of coats and clothing at Church of St Martin of Tours for the survivors of the horrific fire in Belmont.

Yesterday, just before 7PM a fast moving fire ripped through 2363 Prospect Avenue claiming 12 lives including four children on one of the coldest nights of the year.



Officials say the fire was caused by a boy playing with a stove on the first floor causing the worst fire in New York City history in 27 years.

If you can donate, please drop off new, lightly used and clean coats and clothing at Church of St Martin of Tours at 2239 Crotona Avenue at E 182nd St and Garden Street.

Anything will help these families in their darkest of hours but we are THE BRONX and we take care of our own.

These people are part of our extended families so let’s show them the love and compassion they need right now. 

This drive is made possible by the Mayor’s office in partnership with the NYPD, FDNY,  OEM, The Bronx Borough President’s office and other elected officials. 

UPDATE: You can also drop off canned food and toiletries, body wash, feminine hygiene products, baby wipes at Councilman Ritchie Torres’s office tomorrow December 30th from 11AM to 2PM or during the week from 9AM to 5PM at 573 Fordham Road at Hoffman.

A five alarm fire broke out at 2363 Prospect Avenue in Belmont aka Little Italy, just a block from the Bronx Zoo, claiming the lives of at least 12 people, including a baby, according to Pix11 News.

The first emergency call came in at 6:51PM and the blaze, in just an hour, had grown into a four alarm fire with over 160 firefighters on the scene and eventually escalated to a five alarm blaze.

We took a look at building records and found no open violations or complaints in the building. Cause of fire has yet to be determined.

Once more details are made available, we will post them.

When the controversial and racially discriminatory NYPD practice of stop and frisk ended in 2014, many residents were concerned that NYC and The Bronx would be plunged back into the nightmare years of the 80s and 90s when murders were at all an time high but a look at statistics showed a dramatic 30% drop in murders in The Bronx this year compared to last year.

In the closing days of 2017 there have been 68 murders in our borough versus 97 last year.

The New York Times call this drop to levels not seen and would have been unbelievable in 1990 when 2,245 murders were recorded in NYC.



According to NYPD stats, in 1990 there were 653 recorded murders in The Bronx and if we maintain at 68 we’re looking at a 90% drop in murder from 27 years ago.

Overall crime rates are down 4.89% for 2017 versus last year and down 71% compared to 1993.

Only grand larceny showed an increase in major crimes going up 3.8% from 2016. Grand larceny in The Bronx has increased by 12.6% since 2014 bucking a citywide overall decline.

Citywide, rapes are statistically even with 2016 but misdemeanor sex crimes are up by 9.3%. In The Bronx, however, such crimes are down 4% along with rape which is down 5.2% in our borough.

Some highlights from the NYPD’s CompStat’s statistics for The Bronx we found were:

• The 41st Precinct covering Hunts Point and Longwood showed the biggest drop in murders with a 75% decrease in 2017 vs 2016.
• The 41st, 45th, 49th, 52nd precincts all tied with the lowest murders in The Bronx registering 2 murders in each precinct for 2017
• With 10 murders reported for 2017, the 43rd Precinct covering Parkchester, Castle Hill, Soundview had the highest increase in murders with a 25% increase from 2016.
• The 48th Precinct covering Belmont, Fordham, Tremont also registered an increase in murders with a 14% increase from 2016.

So how did your precinct and neighborhood do?

40th Precinct (Melrose, Port Morris, Mott Haven)

41st Precinct (Longwood, Hunts Point)

42nd Precinct (Morrisania, Claremont, Crotona Park East, Crotona Park)

43rd Precinct (Parkchester, Soundview, Castle Hill)

44th Precinct (Concourse Village, Highbridge, Mount Eden, Concourse East, Concourse West, Yankee Stadium)

45th Precinct (Co-op City, Throggs Neck, Country Club, City Island, Country Club, Westchester Square, Schuylerville)

46th Precinct (Fordham, University Heights, Mount Hope, Morris Heights)

47th Precinct (Wakefield, Woodlawn, Williamsbridge, Baychester, Edenwald, Olinville)

48th Precinct (Belmont, Fordham, East Tremont, West Farms, Bathgate)

49th Precinct (Allerton, Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Van Nest, Eastchester Gardens, Pelham Gardens)

50th Precinct (Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvil, Marble Hill)

52nd Precinct (Norwood, University Heights, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights)

Construction starts are set to exceed $2 billion for the second year in a row with 2017 possibly coming in a little higher than last year according to New York Building Congress.

The report indicates that approximately $2.3 billion in construction both public and private will have started construction this year the most expensive of which is the $232 million for the replacement of the Unionport Bridge and the $133 million Bronx Commons, the mixed-use residential and commercial development in Melrose featuring The Bronx Music Hall, the future home of The Bronx Music Heritage Center.



Over 4,200 units of housing are expected have begun construction this year surpassing 2015’s 4,240 units of housing which according to the Commercial Observer was the most in the last decade.

New developments are no stranger to The Bronx which has seen a dramatic increase of market rate housing particularly in the South Bronx ranging from condos selling as high as $995,000 to luxury rentals where studios start at $2,100 and 3 bedroom units as high as $4,400.

Although most of the residential units under construction are “affordable” housing, they are not all permanently affordable and can go to market once those protections expire which is generally 15 years after construction.

Meanwhile, just a couple of weeks ago The Bronx recorded a record-breaking sale for a single building with the sale of the old Melrose Building on 161st Street for $115 million.

But according to many folks, gentrification isn’t happening in our borough.

Let’s see what 2018 has in store for Bronx real estate news.

44 year old Fabulous Flournoy, a player-coach for the Newcastle Eagles in the UK, is considered to be the most celebrated figure in the history of British Basketball was born and raised in the great borough of The Bronx.

Now of course you might be asking, “they play basketball in the UK?” and sure as the original article in the New York Times says that the sport is naturally behind soccer and might even be behind darts even but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s probably the biggest name and persona in the sport across the great pond.



Nor does it change the fact that he’s the first BBL coach to reach 500 wins.

Flournoy went to Jane Addams High School in Morrisania before heading to college where soon after headed to England where eventually he began his professional basketball career in 1996 with the now defunct Birmingham Bullets.



This past March, he became a Member of the Order of the British Empire in Buckingham Palace by Prince William according to the article in The New York Times.

The article is a fascinating look into the life of Flournoy who’s passion for living a healthy life borders on obsession. Perhaps this obsession with perfection comes from his early life.

Scott Cacciola of The New York Times writes:

“His speeches — to students, to law firms, to car dealers — are events.

“If you’re in a room of 500 people, I guarantee there’s someone in there that lost a loved one,” he said. “I guarantee there’s someone that got bullied. I guarantee there’s someone that got mistreated. I guarantee there’s someone that wants to be more than what they are. I guarantee there’s someone that’s just like me.”

Flournoy delivers his speeches without notes. He laughs. He cries. He might mention how his father abused his mother when he was drunk and how she eventually left him, working to provide for her four children while shuffling them from one ragged building in New York to the next, where Flournoy and his siblings would cram into one bed”

Read the full story: The Fantastical Adventures of Fabulous Flournoy

It’s always wonderful to read stories of Bronxites beyond our borders making a difference in the world.