Happy Friday folks and welcome to our Friday edition of the Bronx News Roundup. Let’s get to the news!
Weather: Cooler, periodic bouts of rainfall, high in the upper 70s. Should be nice most of the day Saturday, then rain is expected to return Saturday night and into Sunday.
Story of the Day: So, Who Owns The Land Near Lehman HS?
The Bronx is on the front page of today’ edition of the NY Times (and it has nothing to do with Pedro Espada or hate crimes!) with a story about the protracted football field at Herbert H. Lehman High School. The field is 80 yards long, too short for regulation football, soccer or lacrosse games. It forces the school to struggle with scheduling all of its home games in these sports on other schools’ fields. The DOE’s School Construction Authority is in the middle of a $5 million renovation of the field, but is not planning on expanding it so Lehman’s celebrated football squad, one of the best in the city, can play home games on campus. The DOE says they couldn’t expand the field because the land would need to be acquired from the Army Corps of Engineers and the agency had no interest (or resources, they say) to purchase it. But the Army Corps says it doesn’t own the land and has no clue how that idea was implanted as fact in the collective minds of the DOE. So, again, we ask, who owns the land? And why didn’t the city take the time to give Lehman an extra 20 yards of field?
Quick Hits (click Read More for the rest of the Roundup):
A Bronx narcotics detective pleaded not guilty yesterday to 64 counts of perjury and other charges for allegedly lying about witnessing drug activity that led to arrests and convictions. Here’s video surveillance that shows the detective couldn’t have witnessed a drug transaction at building on Bronxwood Ave.:
A new city program that sends automated calls from celebrities (Magic Johnson, among others) telling them to show up for classes is apparently working. Although absenteeism is down, it’s still a big problem.
A 50-year-old speech therapy program at the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula in Bedford Park continues to help low-income families get help for youngsters with speech impairments.
There are privacy concerns about a new city database that holds social services records for four million city residents.
Police say a Bronx man and his wife ran a $1 million a year cocaine distribution ring out of their Parkchester apartment.
Eight of the 25 Bronx Recognizes It’s Own (BRIO) award winners are from the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area.
At a rally against domestic violence, Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera said, “We’re making a declaration. Real men are peaceful men.” The Council recently passed legislation that stiffens penalties for domestic violence offenses.
