Bronx News Network

Other Bronx Week Events This Weekend

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Lots going on this first weekend of Bronx Week(s). In Bronx Foodie, we mentioned the urban farm tour on Saturday and in the Roundup we discussed Sunday’s Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade (set for a 1 p.m. start time), as well as The Rev’s anti-gay marriage rally. But there’s more!Today, the Borough President will host a Veteran’s Appreciation Day event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Maestro’s restaurant (1703 Bronxdale Ave.). The guest speaker will be William Kraus, acting executive director at the New York State Division of Veteran’s Affairs. And on Sunday, at about the same time of the PR Day parade (always a huge draw), the BP is putting on a star-studded hip hop block party at the Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Here’s the long list of music acts expected to show up: Prodigy (Mobb Deep/G-Unit), Wu Tang, Lord Finesse, Large Professor, Neek The Exotic, Cuban Link, Grand Daddy IU, Grafh, Ma Barker, GrandWizard Theodore, Pebble Poo, Zulu Nation, Reggae Star Ravon, Wordsmith, Busy B, T-Ski Valley, D Chamberz, NYB, M.cia The Artist, Lynn Carter, Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams, and Chip Fu aka Jungle Rock Jr.(On a side note: The block party is being billed as a “family-friendly event featuring interactive activities to inspire creativity in youth through the power of music.”

Bronx News Network

A Tremont Tribune Editorial: Sen. Diaz's Misguided March

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Editor’s Note: This editorial first appeared in the most recent issue of the Tremont Tribune, out now. We’re experiencing some technical difficulties right now with the paper’s website, but we’re hoping to have them worked out soon.On Sunday, May 15, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., who represents the 32nd District, will lead an organized march down the borough’s tree-lined Grand Concourse. That very same day, less than five miles south, thousands of other New Yorkers will also be walking, through Central Park—part of the city’s annual AIDS Walk New York.But Diaz and his allies won’t be marching to raise money to fight a life-threatening disease, or in the name of cultural celebration, or to protest a gross violation of civil rights—quite the opposite, in fact. The senator is rallying against the idea of legalizing same sex marriage in New York, an idea that’s set to be considered by the legislature in Albany this spring and has the strong support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, not to mention a growing coalition of residents and gay-rights groups. In his actions, Diaz (not to be confused with his son, the borough president, who is a gary marriage supporter) is asserting that his personal religious beliefs are enough to justify denying an entire group of New Yorkers the multitude of benefits that come with legal marriage—the right to visit your partner in the hospital should they get sick, the right to access your spouse’s health insurance coverage, to name just a couple.“I have never preached hatred toward anyone, and I denounce those who do,” Diaz said in statement he sent out recently, defending his decision to host the anti-gay marriage parade.

Bronx News Network

Bronxites Love Those Rain Barrels! DEP Runs Out Real Quick

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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.

Bronx News Network

Bronx Foodie: Bronx Urban Farm Tour Tomorrow

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To mark the one-year-ish anniversary of the Bronx Food Summit (which took place on May 1, 2010) several Bronx groups are organizing a Bronx Urban Farm Tour and stopping at several locations in the Bronx. The day will include workshops on seeding and composting and live music. The tour starts in Manhattan (part of an effort to drum up tourism from other boroughs), but if you live in the Bronx, you can go straight to the farms. Below is a schedule of events. The Bronx Tourism Council is the main organizer, and along with the Bronx Food and Sustainability Coalition, Bronx Green Up and the Botanical Garden, are planning monthly farm tours through out the summer, so stay tuned for more details. You can also visit www.ilovethebronx.com for updates.

Bronx

Kids, Parents Take Action: Bring Budget Message to Foster, Mayor

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PS 64 parents and students, who are members of the New Settlement Parent Action Committee in Mt. Eden, delivered a giant dollar sign yesterday to Council Member Helen Foster’s office. Written on the sign, according to the group, were a list of things they don’t want cut from their school as outlined in the mayor’s budget. Foster’s chief-of-staff Jim Fairbanks said that Foster would deliver the statements on the dollar sign to the mayor.(Photo courtesy New Settlement Parent Action Committee)

Bronx News Network

Bronx News Roundup, Friday, May 13

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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.

Bronx News Network

Bronx News Roundup, Thursday, May 12

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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.

Bronx News Network

BP Diaz Testifies at Living Wage Hearing

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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); })();