Besides access to over 55 million books and items across 88 neighborhood branches and four scholarly research libraries, your New York Public Library card now grants you access to 30,000 films via Kanopy streaming service. 

NYPL writes:
Kanopy offers a broad selection of more than 30,000 feature films, documentaries, foreign language, and training videos. Additionally, as part of a Kanopy subscription, cardholders gain access to The Criterion Collection, which focuses on licensing “important classic and contemporary films.”

Now, for the first time, NYPL cardholders can stream these cinematic masterpieces and more anywhere, anytime, on smartphones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs.

Kanopy subscribers can view up to 10 films a month; once a film is started, patrons have three days to watch it. Videos are also accessible with captions, transcripts, and compatibility with assistive technologies.

Don’t have a library card yet? Then what are you waiting for and head on over to get yours online! But remember to actually stop by your local branch and upgrade your card for full benefits! 

Happy streaming! 

The Bronx’s own culinary ambassador Baron Ambrosia, aka Justin Fornal wrote a brilliant piece in ‘Anthony Bourdain’s Explore Parts Unknown’ documenting a perfect day in The Bronx hopping from restaurant to restaurant from eight in the morning straight until 3AM as Bronx born and bred photographer David “Dee” Delgado documented the journey shooting some beautiful photographs.

One of the most beautiful things about our borough is our diversity which affords residents the opportunity to sample cuisines from across the world right here in our own backyard, something which The Baron has been chronicling for well over a decade quite well.

Baron takes us on his most intimate account of 16 distinct eateries and temples to libations yet in this article from the kitchen of a “…High Priestess of Garifuna culture…”, in the South Bronx to Pelham Parkway for some Albanian meat bread, aka burek.

But it’s the end where he nails it and talks about what makes this borough so special, for you see, The Bronx is a borough of immigrants and it’s something worth protecting here for they all work to make us a better place.

Fornal writes about his culinary journey:

“This is just one of a hundred different combinations of ways to spend a day in the Bronx that does not include the Yankees, the Zoo, or even the beautiful Botanical Gardens. These are the people and flavors that make it my favorite city in the known world.

For many immigrants who are moving to America, the Bronx is the first place they call home. It is an affordable haven where diverse old world cultures and groundbreaking creativity can co-exist side by side. This unique blending of languages, style, art, music, food, and attitude have given the Bronx a unique cultural heritage unto itself.

This culture needs to be protected, and it will be. So I say unto every opportunistic real estate vulture and fair weather investor who is out to bulldoze the Boogie Down and “rebrand” it as a watered down homogenized strip mall of gentrification:

Watch your f***ing back.”

Watch your friggin’ back indeed. Don’t mess with us.

Check out the list of restaurants here: The Perfect Day in The Bronx – Explore Parts Unknown

“We have heard Bronx and Staten Island residents loud and clear―they want Citi Bike in their neighborhoods,” said Jay Walder, President & CEO of Motivate, Citi Bike’s operator in a press release issued today.

Throughout August and September, Citi Bike will come to The Bronx as a ‘pop-up’ event so residents can get FREE day passes, test ride the bikes, and see demonstrations as well as learn more about the popular bike sharing program.

Walder added, “We look forward to introducing ourselves in these boroughs over the course of the next several weeks and bringing some of the fun of Citi Bike while we also educate residents about how Citi Bike works and the benefits of bike share.”

Welcome2TheBronx has been a strong advocate of this program expanding into our borough as an alternative for low-income residents to MTA subways (which is crumbling before our very eyes during the “Summer of Hell”).

With tens of thousands of residents living in public housing at NYCHA, the $5 dollar a month membership for those residents is cheaper than a roundtrip on the subway, I mean for an entire MONTH residents can get around on a bike to their errands and destinations for just 5 bucks.

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Not to mention the fact that we can help combat the obesity epidemic in our borough with more access to such infrastructure.

Schedule of events for The Bronx are as follows:

Bronx

• Citi Bike demonstration and test rides at Boogie on the Boulevard, Grand Concourse from 162^nd to 170^th Street, August 20 & September 10, 12:00pm-4:00pm
• Citi Bike Ride with Bronxworks departing from Second Saturdays at St. Mary’s Park, September 9, 11:00am-2:00pm
• Citi Bike demonstration and test rides at Bronx Summer Fest, Walton Ave between 167th and 168th St, September 22^nd, 2:00pm-6:00pm

Hope to see you at one of these events and make sure to bring your family and friends along! Bronxites deserve access to the same resources and amenities as the rest of the city!

The Bronx is a place steeped in history. Every corner you turn, there’s something waiting for you to be discovered which makes The Bronx so special to us (shocking, huh?). Here are some fun Bronx facts you probably didn’t know about The Bronx unless you’re a die-hard lover of all things Bronx.

1. Although Lewis Morris’ 1790 proposal of making Morrisania the nation’s capital didn’t quite pan out, for a few weeks in 1797, President John Adams governed the nascent nation for several weeks from the Northeast Bronx. President Adams stayed at a farm in Eastchester near the present day intersection of Boston Road and Conner Street as they waited for a yellow fever epidemic to subside.

2. Batman is a Bronxite. Yep, the Dark Knight was born right here in The Bronx by cartoonist Bob Kane who worked out of his bedroom in his parents’ apartment in The Bronx. He had fellow Bronxite Bill Finger create Batman’s background story. Both Kane and Finger are DeWitt Clinton High School grads.

Speaking of comic book heroes, probably the most iconic name in this genre is Stan Lee who, although born on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was raised in The Bronx. Lee is the genius and co-creator behind iconic names like the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, Iron Man, and of course Spider-Man. Lee is also a graduate of, you guessed it, DeWitt Clinton.

4. The Thain Family Forest at The New York Botanical Garden is THOUSANDS of years old…in fact, it’s NYC’s largest remaining track of the original forest that once covered the city. (This fact shouldn’t be too surprising considering that The Bronx is the GREENEST borough in NYC with 25% of our land as dedicated parkland.)

5. Coming in at merely 382 square feet, Barnhill Square across from the Kingsbridge Armory is the smallest park in The Bronx.

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6. Van Cortlandt House, at 269 years, is The Bronx’s oldest house located in…Van Cortlandt Park! The mansion is full of history including George Washington leaving it in the final act of the American Revolution on his way to Manhattan to capture New York.

6. 100 years later, the city’s oldest surviving bridge opened. Connecting Westchester County to Manhattan, The High Bridge was constructed to quench the thirst of a growing New York City bringing in water from the Croton Aqueduct.

7. The Bronx is a borough of colleges with 13 colleges and universities which is the ultimate irony considering that, sadly, our borough has the least amount of people with college degrees in NYC.

8. The Third Avenue Business Improvement District at The Hub in Melrose is The Bronx’s oldest shopping district AND the busiest intersection outside of Times Square with over 200,000 pedestrians walking through each day!

9. The Village of Westchester (present day Westchester Square-and shout out to the wonderful folks at The Westchester Square BID!) was the first established colonial village in The Bronx and was also the county seat of Westchester County for a brief period. Oh and by the way, you may have noticed we mentioned Westchester quite a bit when talking about Bronx history and for those of you who don’t know, The Bronx was once part of Westchester County. The West Bronx (west of The Bronx River) was annexed by New York City (then only Manhattan) in 1874 and the rest of what is today’s Bronx came aboard in 1895 a FULL three years before the great consolidation annexed and created today’s modern NYC comprised of 5 boroughs. So yeah, you can say The Bronx was the FIRST borough. In fact, we were a borough before it was cool.

10. But what was The Bronx called after being annexed in 1874? The Annexed District aka the 23rd and 24th wards.

11. According to The Bronx County Historical Society, the Third Avenue El arrived in The Bronx in 1888 connecting us to Manhattan via mass transit.

12. The subway arrived in The Bronx on July 10th, 1905 as the 149th Street and Grand Concourse (then Mott Street Station) and 3rd Avenue and 149th Street station opened connecting it with the IRT White Plains Road Line (now the 2 line) which opened on November 26, 1904.

That’s it for this edition of Bronx Facts and History! Hope you enjoyed it and learned something!

Shrine Church of St Ann on Bainbridge Avenue in Norwood and Church of The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kingsbridge across from Van Cortlandt Park were officially deconsecrated by the Archdiocese of New York paving their way for their eventual sale.

Although no deals have been announced nor are the churches up for sale, the Archdiocese of New York’s deconsecration of these houses of worship opens up for this very possibility―something which they do not hesitate in mentioning in the official decrees issued by Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan of the New York.

Sadly, these houses of worship do not have landmark status that would protect them from being demolished like St Augustine Church in Morrisania (or at the very least make it difficult).

The Catholic Church, in an effort to make money by selling off these properties, is pretty adamant against landmark status which would make it more difficult to sell down the road.

In its decree for the deconsecration of Visitation, Cardinal Dolan writes:

“Wheras the Church is not an archaeological museum but rather the old well of the village that gives water to the generations of today as it did to those of the past (Cf. Pope Saint John XXIII, Homily during the solemn liturgy in Byzantine-Slavic rite in honor of Saint John Chrysostom, November 13, 1960: AAS 52 [1960] 963)”

This line is often quoted and cited when the church moves against landmarking status of their properties as was in the case of Immaculate Conception Church in Melrose last year.

It is truly sad that the church has no regard for these places as being central to so many people beyond just their faiths and yes, they ARE archaeological museums beyond their main purpose as a house of worship.

These structures stand to the histories of the neighborhoods where they stand in; They provide a record of an evolution of a neighborhood bearing witness to the ages.

They are more than just a place where people go to worship but often a focal point for community activism.

The “infallible” church is incorrect in trying to diminish the meanings of these structures and sadly is blinded by its own greed to fill its coffers.

Rather than selling them off if they are no longer deemed worthy for worship, then why not turn them over back to the communities which they serve? Isn’t that what Jesus would have done?

The Clocktower’s luxury expansion in Port Morris has been revealed as The Crescendo (comprised of two buildings, one called The Staccato and the other The Legato) proclaiming that they are in New York City’s “Piano District” with rents starting at $2,200 and going well over the $2,800 monthly rental for 2 bedroom 2 bathroom units.

Wait what? The Piano District? What Piano District? Where exactly is The Piano District? Did these people not learn about what a disaster that was for Somerset Partners and The Chetrit Group when they attempted to rebrand the neighborhood and host a tasteless Bronx is Burning party?

Although at one point the Port Morris area was known as the piano manufacturing epicenter of the country, it was never called that. This is simply an attempt to whitewash the history of the neighborhood and more importantly the washing away of a name synonymous with people of color in the South Bronx.

The “genius” behind this marketing effort for 25 Bruckner Boulevard (the physical address for “The Crescendo”) is the Manhattan based Mdrn. Residential who writes on their website in a listing,

“…A residential complex built to commemorate the history of an area once familiarized as, “The Piano District.” The complex is composed of two residential buildings, “The Staccato” and “The Legato.” To create unity between the buildings both are named after piano rhythms and feature shareable community amenities, providing an all-new rhythmic living experience specific to the South Bronx”

Gentrifiers would MUCH rather look into the deepest past and overlook the current history and culture of people of color in the neighborhoods they are invading and displacing people.

Forget the well over half a century of history, culture, good and bad that is synonymous with the South Bronx for the almighty dollar.

This is what they have to say about “culture” in Mott Haven:

Hope these folks paying top dollar won’t mind the smell of garbage that permeates the air which we’ve had to endure all our lives along with some of the worst air quality in the city which plagues our communities creating one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.

More renderings below:

It’s been three and a half years since the Bloomberg administration, on its way out the door in December 2013, announced that a 992 unit development was coming to the last large assemblage of vacant lots in Melrose at The Hub.

Last year, the development was finally approved by the New York City Council and was one of the first to have Mandatory Inclusionary Housing where a set number of units must be set aside for permanent affordability.

The first building under construction will be for 160 units of supportive housing set aside for older adults living with HIV/AIDS and veterans with mental health issues with support provided on site.

Designed by MHG Architects, F/XFOWLE, Future Green Studio, the 1.1 million square foot development will be constructed across 2 phases and include a state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot YMCA, 10,000 square foot expansion for BronxNet, 45,000 square feet of retail space, and even a rooftop astronomy lab on a 25 story building run by Bronx High School of Science.

For all its bells and whistles, though, the development is a failure in that it does not provide a home ownership component, something we were asking for since this project was unveiled.

In order to protect against gentrification, area residents need more opportunities to purchase affordable housing not just rent them and let’s not even talk about how these units are ever rarely remotely affordable for the area residents where they are constructed.

With this groundbreaking, there are no longer any lots left of significant size in Melrose, an area once mostly vacant after the burnings where the population dropped from 25,000 to just over 3,000 between 1970 and 1980.

Let’s just hope that the folks in the neighborhood who rebuilt it can find stay and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

A new report from the Center for an Urban Future indicates that the artist population in The Bronx has nearly doubled since 2000 from just 1,524 to 2,920 in 2015.

Community Board 10 in the East Bronx, comprising of Throggs Neck, Co-op City, City Island to name a few, saw a 286% increase―by far the largest in The Bronx―from 165 in 2000 to 637 artists in 2015.

Although all talk has been on the South Bronx as being the “hot bed” of artists moving in as developers attempt to use artists as pawns in the gentrification scene, the area only saw a modest increase of 43% from 201 artists in 2000 to 288 in 2015 living in community boards 1 and 2 which cover Mott Haven, Melrose, Port Morris, and Hunts Point.

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Only Community Board 11, encompassing the Bronx neighborhoods of Morris Park, Van Nest, and Pelham Parkway, indicated a decrease in artists with a 10% drop during the same time period.

Overall, this growth in artist population in The Bronx follows the citywide trend which showed a 17.4% increase since 2000.

As prices continue to chase artists away from areas like Manhattan and Brooklyn, we can expect this number to continue to rise in The Bronx for those looking for more affordable housing.

As for any mentions of a “burgeoning” art scene in The Bronx, let’s not forget that artists have always lived here and the artistic community has been very active before the fires, during, and after-we never stopped creating.

You can read the full report here.