Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentlemen. To the Bronx news!
Weather: Hot, with a high around 93 and rain possible after 4 p.m. Higher chance of rain and thunderstorms overnight. The rest of the week is expected to be similarly blazing, without as much possibility for rain.
Story of the Day: Bronx Students to Help Build School in Mali
This summer, students at the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, which has a heavy focus on community service, are exporting their manpower and $74,000 to build a school in the West African country of Mali. After spending the year fundraising, a dozen students from the school left for Mali yesterday to get construction off the ground. They will stay for 13 days as part of an international school building program run by the nonprofit group builOn. The scariest part for one student: “The only part that’s making me nervous is the flight. I’m afraid of heights,” said sophomore Raychell Velez.
Quick Hits:
Congressman Eliot Engel is taking some flak for his part ownership of a small building on Metcalf Avenue with an illegal apartment.
Members of Community Board 8, long based in Riverdale, are discussing the possibility of opening a satellite office down the hill in Kingsbridge or moving to a more centrally located part of the district entirely.
A Fordham-area white man says he was the victim of a hate crime after being assaulted by a group of black men on an uptown-bound 4 train.
Residents at Parkway Towers say their middle-class haven has fallen into disrepair after their landlord started renting out units to nonprofits who use the apartments to house the mentally ill.
The owners of Yolanda’s restaurant on 140th Street say the Health Department is gouging city eateries with fines and penalties.
A new merchant’s association is hoping to make Southern Boulevard the place to shop in the Bronx. [link fixed]
One of the suspects charged in the infamous anti-gay kidnapping and assault in Morris Heights last fall is suing the city after suffering injuries in a prison bus crash.
The body of a dead woman was found amongst the ashes of a fire that torched a Mt. Hope house last night. Police and fire officials are investigating.
Cops busted a father in the Bronx on Saturday for allegedly driving while stoned and endangering the lives of his three kids, who were taken into custody.
The Daily News takes a look at Mott Haven: “The bordertown’s personality is tricky to pin down — abandoned factories and projects butt against landmark brownstones and an emerging art community — but the South Bronx houses many hidden treasures,” writes Nicole Lyn Pesce
The Times takes a look at Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point: “Sunbathing at the end of a gritty industrial stretch in the South Bronx, with a head-on view of the city’s jail complex at Rikers Island, may sound like a last resort — in the last place anyone would expect a resort. But it is just one of many attractions that have made Barretto Point Park a summer getaway that fans strive to keep secret,” writes David Gonzalez.
