Sheikh Musa Drammeh (right) sits with members of the Jewish synagogue that shares space with his Islamic mosque.
A few years ago we wrote about how The Bronx could teach the Middle East and even the world about coexistence, for you see, it is here in our borough at the Islamic Cultural Center of North America where a mosque, a synagogue, and a church worship under one roof.
Sounds like an impossibility but Sheikh Musa Drammeh provided space to a local synagogue so that they could continue to worship in peace after they Jewish house of worship loss their own space due to a dwindling population.
Drammeh said it was a no brainer to offer the space to coexist together because, “…we’re all children of God.”
Now everything is on hold because there is a delinquent tax debt on the property with a scheduled public auction this coming December 12th.
According to a segment on News12 The Bronx, a “benefactor” is offering $1 million already so fingers crossed that this worthy Bronx institution can survive and continue to doing the wonderful work they have been doing.
Over 400 apartments spread across three new “affordable” (yes they may seem affordable but to the community who truly needs affordable housing, they either make too much or too little to actually qualify for the apartments leaving thousands of local residents unable to benefit from these developments…but that’s another story) housing developments in Melrose and West Farms in The Bronx are now accepting applications via NYC Housing Connect.
The developments are as follows:
Elton Crossing Apartments – 899 Elton Avenue in Melrose
198 new construction apartments featuring studios to 3 bedroom units with rents ranging from $396/month to $1,740 depending on size of apartment and household income. The building features a half-time concierge, laundry, fitness room, and landscaped seating areas.
Income requirements:
294 E 162nd Street – Melrose
88 units ranging from studios to 3 bedroom units with rents from $864/month to $1,287/month depending on unit size and household income. The building features a 24 hour attended lobby, landscaped community courtyard, fitness room, community and computer room, and a laundry room.
Income requirements:
West Farms Apartments – 1939 West Farms Road & 1926 Longfellow Avenue
This development has 180 apartments ranging in size from 1 to 3 bedroom units with rents of $396/month to $1,898/month depending on size of unit and household income. The development features outdoor recreation space, laundry room, a bike room, and a community room.
Income requirements:
To apply for any of these units online, visit NYC Housing Connect and if you don’t have an account, you’ll have to create one in order to proceed with the application process.
Arthur Avenue, home of New York City’s REAL Little Italy.
My mouth is watering from watching this video and I think I know where I’m going this week when I head to Arthur Avenue in The Bronx, New York City’s REAL Little Italy (we can’t say that enough ‘cuz it’s true).
In a nation where one of the basic rights of its society is that its citizens are innocent until proven guilty, oftentimes individuals of lesser economic means, especially those of color, end up losing everything due to the inability to post bail.
Some can lose their jobs, apartments, and even their children.
And in some cases, even their own lives.
In The Bronx, they sit in jail for days, months, and even years like Kalief Browder who took his life after being a victim of the very system that says you’re innocent until proven guilty…unless you can’t make bail which he couldn’t.
The toll on him became too much and the system failed him. He hung himself.
Robin Steingberg, who founded and once ran The Bronx Defenders now heads The Bronx Freedom Fund which for the past 10 years has donated thousands of dollars to poor New Yorkers so that they can post bail and not spend a moment longer than they have to in jail.
The Bronx Freedom Fund offers these sobering statistics:
People who await trial in jail are 4x more likely to be sentenced to time in jail
Only 1 in 10 New Yorkers are able to pay bail at time of arraignment
Without The Bronx Freedom Fund, over 90% of people who stay in jail on bail will plead guilty, even if they did not commit the crime
Now, Steinberg is set to take this program which has liberated thousands from the burdens of the bail system and roll it out on a much larger scale across the country as the first of its kind in the nation.
According to The New York Times, the fund plans to post bail for over 150,000 economically disadvantaged defendants under a program known as the Bail Project opening offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma and St Louis by January 2018 and spread across over three dozens across the country within five years.
Ms Steinberg told The New York Times, “We are hoping to end the immediate human suffering of people sitting in cells because they are too poor to pay their bail.”
If you are a Bronx-based artist or know one, then this is for you so please tag or share with your artist friend! This Wednesday, November 15th at The Bronx Museum, please join The Bronx Children’s Museum for an Artist Info Session from 5PM-7PM.
The Bronx Children’s Museum (which is finally under construction) is looking for Bronx-based artists for design ideas for the new space at Mill Pond Park along the Harlem River Waterfront (across from Bronx Terminal Market in the old Power House building).
Be a part of history and learn more!
The Bronx Museum is located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street.
This mural in The Bronx at an auto shop shows the resiliency of the Puerto Rican community after Hurricane Maria/ Image Credit David Gonzalez/The New York Times
A mural in a Bronx auto body shop created by The Royal Kingbee and Per One of the FX Crew echoes the famous “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” but with utility workers raising an electric pole with a Puerto Rican flag attached to it in a landscape devastated by Hurricane Maria.
First reported by David Gonzalez in The New York Times, the mural in Mike Vargas’s auto body shop is a reminder to the crisis going on impacting not just the 3.5 million residents on the island of Puerto Rico but to the thousands of displaced refugees here on the mainland, including his mother and aunt.
It is a reminder that despite these 3.5 million United States citizens being abandoned by the United States government and the Trump administration, despite all the hardships they are facing, they will rise once again by their own means as they have always done.
E 149th Street registered 11 pedestrian collisions at three different intersections
Vision Zero is actually working.
Here’s a statistic The Bronx can be proud of: The borough is the second safest in NYC for pedestrians according to data collected by NYCrossWalk.
Of the 9,465 pedestrian collisions to date, The Bronx accounts for 12.8% of these accidents citywide (Staten Island comes as the safest).
East 149th Street in Melrose is the most dangerous with 11 pedestrian collisions at three different intersections.
Another notable tidbit of data is that pedestrian collisions dropped after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero campaign to lower pedestrian fatalities resulted in the city lowering the speed limit from 30MPH to 25MPH.
Per NYCrossWalk’s website, The following are the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in The Bronx with total number of collisions this year to date:
E 138th Street @Brook Avenue / 5 collisions
E 149th Street @ Grand Concourse / 4 collisions
Grand Concourse @ E 183rd St / 4 collisions
3rd Avenue @ E 149th Street / 4 collisions
White Plains Road @ E 224th Street / 3 collisions
3rd Avenue @ E 187th Street / 3 collisions
Bruckner Boulevard @ Hunts Point Avenue / 3 collisions
West Burnside Avenue @ Andrews Avenue / 3 collisions
E 149th Street @ Courtlandt Avenue / 3 collisions
East Tremont @ Park Avenue / 3 collisions
Check out the map below or head over to their website for more information.
Back then, the 3,156 square foot mansion was on the market for $3.65 million and despite being reduced a few times it still hasn’t sold.
Brick Underground reports that 4720 Grosvenor Ave, which features 30 Inc thick stone walls that were actually salvaged from the ruins of a real deal Croatian castle, had been on and off the market since 2009 both for sale and for rent.
So if you have a few shekels around know that you too can live in your very own castle.
Dracula, ghosts, and ghouls not included. Well, none that we know of.
The Bronx born and raised rapper, Cardi B (who’s of Dominican descent) just made Billboard history by having her first three hits on the charts enter the top ten simultaneously in the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
After 6 weeks in the number 1 spot, her “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” slid to #2 while debuting “Motorsport” at #5 ( a collaboration with Migos and Nicki Minaj) as her feature on G-Eazy’s “No Money” track moved into #10.
This isn’t the first time a woman has had three hit top ten songs simultaneously on the charts but Cardi is the first to see her first top ten at the same time on that coveted list.
Diabetes Relief Center Director of Clinical Operations, Jordis Smith, LPN, goes over the treatment with local Bronx residents at one of several information sessions held.
This coming Tuesday, November 14th on World Diabetes Day, New York City’s first Diabetes Relief Center will open its doors to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony open to the public beginning at 10:30AM.
Earlier this summer we reported that Diabetes Relief Center would provide a new type of treatment for people who suffer from the disease as the first of its kind center in the entire Northeast region.
The treatment, which according to Trina Diabetes Relief Centers, “…mimics effect that normal pancreas has on liver…”, is administered intravenously in their clinical centers and delivers micro pulses of insulin.
Unlike traditional insulin treatment which simply treats glucose, this treatment affects nerve endings, the brain, retinas, liver, kidneys and according to research has been shown to halt or even reverse serious complications from advanced diabetes according to Diabetes Relief Center.
To learn more about Diabetes Relief Center, check out their websiteor call 866-224-4662 to make an appointment.
Diabetes Relief Center is located at 2825 Third Avenue, Suite 200, at The Hub Medical Center between 148th and 149th Street and all are invited to the grand opening on Tuesday.
On Monday, November 27th, Bronx residents will have an opportunity to testify at a hearing and offer their own view on what should be done and in the direct line of fire are monuments to Christopher Columbus who is revered by many in the Italian American community seen as a hero and a visionary who “discovered” America.
But to millions of others across the Americas and indigenous peoples here he’s seen as a mass murderer who ushered in the world’s largest genocide which led to the decimation of hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples.
He’s not the only one causing ire among city residents.
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has called for the removal of a Central Park statue of James Marion Sims, a doctor who is considered the “father” of modern gynecology who experimented on enslaved women without using anesthesia and against their will.
The public hearings will be held at the Bronx Borough Hall Rotunda at 851 Grand Concourse from 10AM to 2PM.
Only 19% of 718,302 active Bronx voters came out to vote during this past Tuesday’s election.
Let that sink in.
19%.
Not that the rest of New York City fared much better with an overall average of 24% of active voters in the city coming out to the polls but, as per usual, The Bronx comes in dead last.
With all the issues facing our borough like gentrification, homelessness, poor educational outcomes, underemployment, and environmental issues, how are we going to solve them if we don’t participate in the democratic process and vote?
We cannot continue on this path allowing a small group of people dictate what goes on in our borough and city. We need a stronger turnout at the polls. This is why politicians get lazy and end up doing things that are not in our best interest but the interest of corporations and developers because there is no one out there holding them accountable at the polls.
They know that every 4 years all they have to do is hand out free turkeys and they have the votes they need to squeak into office or stay comfortably put until they decide to retire.
So how did the rest of the city do?
See for yourself:
Staten Island – 32%
Manhattan – 24%
Queens – 22%
Brooklyn – 22%
The Bronx 19%
We need to pretend that our lives are at stake each election and get to the polls and vote.
