The Bronx News Network was a daily news blog launched in 2008 by the Norwood News. In 2012, City Limits acquired the network and relaunched it as The Bronx Bureau.
Next month brings Bronx Week, the 10-day annual festival to celebrate all things Boogie Down-related. Here’s a video promoting the event, which will run from May 12-22, from Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. For a list of Bronx Week features and event, visit www.ilovethebronx.com.
Bronx City Councilman James Vacca sent out a statement this week blasting Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman-turned-reality TV star-turned-presidential hopeful, for comments he made recently that knocked the Big Apple.Trump, a native New Yorker, went on CNN this week and referred to LaGaurdia Airport in Queens as a “Third World airport.” “Donald Trump’s comments were at best a cheap shot at New York City and at worst an insensitive knock on the diversity that makes our city great,” Vacca said in statement sent out Sunday. “Donald Trump has lived in New York his whole life. He has done very well in New York. If he thinks he’s going to ride to the White House by picking on New York, he has another thing coming.”Trump also called the United States a “laughingstock” to the rest of the world for its lack of investment in infrastructure, erroneously saying no one can remember the last time the U.S. built a bridge.”Mr. Trump is free to come to my borough and look at the new Willis Avenue Bridge, completed just last year,” Vacca countered.
New York City public schools are closed for spring recess this week through next Wednesday, April 27th. Here’s our pick of Bronx, family-friendly events taking place until then.
Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentleman of the Bronx and beyond. Just a reminder, today is the official deadline to file your taxes. So, get it done or risk the wrath of the IRS.Weather: High of around 60 today with clouds obscuring the sun as the day goes on. A strong chance of rain tonight through Wednesday. Story of the Day: Bronx Cops on the Hot SeatYesterday, the Post unveiled its “exclusive” look into the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal that apparently is almost exclusively focused on Bronx police officers.
I know it’s been a while, but Crime Watch is back today with a couple of Bronx murder reports.Neighbor of Dead Grandmother Indicted for MurderLast week, Tyrone Ragland reportedly confessed to murdering 82-year-old grandmother Ethel Parish while high on crack. Today, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson announced Ragland’s indictment on three murder counts that would put him away for life. Earlier in his life, Ragland spent 15 years in prison for murder. On January 5, according to the Daily News, Ragland smoked crack before going over to Parish’s apartment on the 15th floor of the Murphy Houses on Crotona Avenue. Ragland said an argument erupted over $80 that Parish supposedly owed him for house work and that she attacked him first and then he retaliated.
Well, not yet anyway.But the wording on the pop-up that comes up when you go to his Senate page makes his departure seem only temporary.
Happy Tax Day! If you’re freaking out because you haven’t gotten your, um, stuff together, then freak not, you still have three more days to file! The deadline to file has been extended this year to Monday, April 18, so you have the entire weekend to continue procrastinating. Weekend weather: It should stay nice and sunny today, though a little cooler than yesterday. Rain and wind will rule Saturday, with the sun supposedly breaking through on Sunday afternoon.
A couple months ago, I noticed that my local diner (Bedford Park Cafe) had a SeamlessWeb logo on the door. I was pretty excited, since I didn’t realize that the online delivery conduit was working its way into the Bronx. For anyone not familiar with SeamlessWeb, it’s a website that allows you to order food online from multiple restaurants. (You don’t even have to talk to anyone on the phone!) It works best in Manhattan, where most restaurants and fast food chains are using it. When I used to work near Wall Street, I would have days that were so busy, that it was great to be able to go online and order food quickly.
[Enjoy your own personal concert by clicking on the video above.] Yesterday at noon, Baroque music could be heard pouring out of the cafeteria on the 17th floor of North Central Bronx Hospital in Norwood.In that lofty location, hospital employees, volunteers, patients and other local residents sat down to enjoy a half hour concert. It’s part of a new program that Carnegie Hall created, called Musical Connections. “This new program offers world-class performances by various artists free of charge to audiences who may not normally have the opportunity to enjoy such performances,” said Barabra DeIorio, the director of marketing and public affairs for Jacobi Medical Center. Musical Connections holds concerts at other community-based locations as well, including homeless shelters, senior centers and prisons.“I don’t really get to go to many concerts, so this was something very special,” hospital volunteer Shirley Dunbar said.DeIorio said several concerts have already been held at Jacobi Medical Center, however today is the first concert held at NCBH.”I use to go to the concerts at Jacobi,” said Janice Phillips, a patient at NCBH. “I’m so glad they brought it over here.”The concert featured the musical talents of Bridget Kibbey on harp and Joseph Brent on mandolin.
The Bronx Children’s Museum’s new tricked-out mobile home.Although the Bronx Children’s Museum does not plan on opening their building until 2013, Bronxities can expect to see a mobile museum cruising down their street much sooner.That’s right, the Bronx Children’s Museum now has wheels after receiving a donated school bus, which is literally a vehicle of hope.A couple from Potomac, Md., donated the bus, which now sits in the Bronx Atlantic Express bus yard, in memory of their late daughter, Sarah Malawista. (The mobile museum will make its debut at the Bronx Day Parade on May 22.)Her parents said it was Sarah who first had the idea of creating an “art bus,” which would expose inner-city kids to arts, mainly because budget cuts have led many inner-city schools to cut their creative arts programs. Donating the bus to the Bronx Children’s Museum was a way of honoring Sarah, who suffered from bipolar disorder and committed suicide in 2006 at the age of 18. “My husband and I thought, what a perfect way to continue her dream,” said Sarah’s mother, Kerry Malawista.”The brilliantly colored bus will be a visible symbol to the borough that a children’s museum is finally coming to the Bronx,” said Carla Precht, founding executive director of the museum, in a press release.The Bronx is the only borough in New York City without a children’s museum. A permanent home for the Bronx Children’s Museum will open in 2013 at Building J in Mill Pond Park near Yankee StadiumPrecht said the “art bus” will travel to schools, community organization, parks and neighborhoods in the Bronx with exhibits and hands-on programs.”Sarah dreamed big, and through the bus her dream lives on,” Precht said.Click here for more info.
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