Eery start to this Friday the 13th at Bronx News Network. As you can tell, we’ve experienced some technical difficulties of late. Our website administrator went down last night and all posts from Tuesday on were removed. We’re told the posts will be restored soon. We just received access to the site at about 12:30 p.m. In any case, we’re back.
So at the direction of my lovely wife, who is our household’s environmentalist-in-chief, I went to the rain Bronx rain barrel giveaway in Pelham Bay Park with a neighbor last Saturday. The giveaway is organized by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.Rain barrels capture storm water from your roof that you can store for garden and lawn use. It helps homeowners save on their water bills and keeps the water from flooding the city’s already burdened combined sewer overflow system.When we arrived at 9 a.m. – the start time – we saw a long line of dejected, aspiring rain savers (some of whom had been there since 6:30 a.m.), and we were quickly informed that there were no more left and the dozen or so that we could see still waiting for an owner had been reserved by those disappointed last year. As we went back to my car I saw Council Member Jimmy Vacca (Pelham Bay Park is in his district) talking to people still waiting in line just in the hopes that some of those reserved barrels would go unclaimed or to put their name on the waiting list for next year. He had his cell phone out, hoping to find someone in the vast city bureaucracy who could rain down some more barrels on his constituents.
And we’re back with our regularly scheduled programming here on the first day of Bronx Week. Here’s video from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.’s Monday kick-off press conference, which featured several announcements, the biggest being that, on Saturday night, the Empire State Building will be lit with the Bronx flag colors to let everyone know, “something special is going on the Bronx,” Diaz aid. Weather: Should be just about perfect today – sunny, high of around 72, slight breeze from the east. Repeat expected for tomorrow. Story of the Day: Belmont Fire Revives Nightmare of Black SundaySix years ago, firefighter Eugene Stolowski jumped from the fourth story of a burning East Tremont apartment building.
According to several
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr, just posted his testimony from this afternoon’s hearing on the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, or ‘living wage’ bill; you can read it in its entirely in the embedded document below.Diaz led the living wage battle at the Kingsbridge Armory a few years ago, and he’s made passing this current legislation one of his top priorities.In his speech, Diaz calls the bill “a matter of economic justice.””When billionaire developers beg for taxpayer handouts to make their projects work, they must do better by the people they hire,” his written statement reads.”It is the responsibility of elected officials to use taxpayer dollars in a manner that leads to the best return on investment for those same taxpayers.”According to some Twitter posts (you can check out the hashtag #LivingWageNYC to see what people were tweeting), Mayor Bloomberg ended the hearing after about two and a half hours.(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
Late speed roundup here today. Weather: Sunshine will give way to some clouds and temperatures in the 50s tonight. Tomorrow should be similar to today, but warmer. Quick Hits:A 2-year-old boy is in intensive care at St. Barnabas Hospital after falling from a fourth floor apartment window in Morris Heights last night.
Weather: Another clear and sunny day, with temperatures hovering around the mid-60s. Enjoy.Story of the Day: 46 Arrested in Tour Bus CrackdownYesterday, 46 people were arrested on felony charges after two months of investigation into the state’s tour bus industry, following a March 12 bus crash in the Bronx that killed 15 passengers. Those arrested are drivers of tour buses, MTA city buses and taxis busted for holding commercial licenses while they had other suspended driving licenses under different names, found by running their photos with facial recognition technology.Quick Hits:The growing count of bodies found along a stretch of beaches on the south shore of Long Island may be the work of multiple killers, authorities said yesterday. Among the identified remains was Bronx resident Melissa Barthelmy, 24.Relive your childhood by taking this tree-climbing class at the Botanical Garden. I totally want to sign up for this; video below.A Bronx man pleaded guilty yesterday of pimping out underage girls who were staying at a homeless shelter.
In March, Picture The Homeless members Arvernetta Henry (far right) and Jeremy Saunders (second from right) were among protesters at a rally at the Albany Capitol Building. (Photo by Sam J. Miller)
By David GreeneDetectives are busy trying to identify a killer who shot his victim multiple times in Tremont last night.According to authorities, police were called at 6:49 p.m., on Monday, May 9, to a building at 446 E. 176th St., and discovered the victim in the stairway between the third and fourth floors.A police source said the male victim was shot four times-twice in the back, once in the head and once in the shoulder. He was
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand checks out a display on healthy snack foods at Montefiore Medical Center. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand made a stop in the Bronx this morning to attend a “healthy eating” fair at Montefiore Children’s
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