Bronx News Network

Bronx Events: A Lunchtime Concert April 14 at North Central Bronx Hospital

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Concert at NCBH Ad_Norwood News(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); })();Here’s the rest of our calendar of Bronx events …Editor’s note: What did we miss? Send details to bronxnewsnetwork[at]gmail.com.

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Bronx Hoops Star Kemba Walker Declares for NBA Draft

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Bronx boy Kemba Walker, the charismatic point guard who led the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team an an extraordinary run to Big East and NCAA Tournament titles, announced today he will skip his senior season and enter the NBA draft.The decision came as no surprise to many observers who watched Walker, who is on pace to graduate a year early in May, emerge this year as one of the most dynamic offensive players in college basketball. He averaged 23.5 points per game, good for fifth in the nation.”I just think it’s the right time for me to go to the NBA,” Walker said at a press conference Tuesday, according to USA Today. “It’s a happy day, but a sad day because I am leaving my brothers.”Walker, who grew up in Soundview and attended IS 174, wrote a diary during the tournament for the Daily News.

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Bronx Weekend News Roundup, Monday, April 11

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Weather: Dense fog in the Bronx today will give way to a partially cloudy, partially sunny afternoon with highs in the low 70s. Chance of thunderstorms later tonight.Story of the Day: Bronx’s MS 223 Embodies Public School ChallengesSpent a good chunk of this morning reading Jonathan Mahler’s extensive NY Times Magazine piece about MS 223, a South Bronx school opened during the early days of former Chancellor Joel Klein’s reform movement. Through his profile of 223 and its energetic and highly-optimistic principal, Ramon Gonzalez, Mahler, who wrote the fabulously entertaining “The Bronx is Burning,” deftly captures the challenges of not only running, but improving, public schools in the Bronx (and much of NYC, for that matter). If you don’t have time to read the piece (as I mentioned, it’s “extensive,” to the tune of 20 printed out pages), I’ll summarize the key take away points.-The charter school paradox: Gonzalez uses many ideas and strategies promoted by charters schools. MS 223 starts school early and entices kids to stay late.

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Vacca and Palma Sponsor Blizzard Bill

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It’s hard to think about snow right now, with the weather outside hitting a sunny 73 and the Mister Softee trucks finally making their rounds through the neighborhood, but try to remember that post-Christmas blizzard that dumped two feet of snow on the city, leaving a string of stranded MTA buses-and perturbed residents-in its unplowed wake.To avoid another snow fiasco like that one, Bronx City Council Members James Vacca and Annabel Palma sponsored a bill, passed last week, that requires the Department of Sanitation to prepare and publish snow-removal plans each winter for all five boroughs.”Last December’s blizzard revealed how woefully unprepared the City was to deal with these kinds of major storms,” Palma said in a press release. The required plans must include a list of primary, secondary and tertiary streets (the terms the Sanitation Department used to classify blocks in order of plowing-importance) to be published online, along with criteria for each ranking.”During the December blizzard, we heard a lot of talk about tertiary streets and how they were the lowest priority for snowplows. Well, tertiary streets are where taxpayers like you and I live, and many of us didn’t see plows until days after the blizzard was over,” Vacca said.”That’s unacceptable. This bill will put the City’s feet to the fire so that they are forced not only to have a plan but also to explain why they chose to have the plan they chose to have.”During this winter’s blizzard, some outer borough streets and neighborhoods went unplowed and snowed-in for several days, to the frustration of those who lived there.The new law also requires the Sanitation Department to provide detailed plans for removing snow from bus stops, an

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Webster Rezoning Okayed, Setting Up Makeover

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(Editor’s Note: this article was first published in the Norwood News, out now)A plan to rezone Webster Avenue between East Gun Hill and Fordham roads was officially approved by the City Council at the end of March, the culmination of years of planning by local leaders and elected officials to help transform the 1.75-mile corridor.“We worked very diligently over a five-year period to craft this proposal,” said Community Board 7 member Ozzie Brown, who said the plan lays the groundwork for a more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly Webster Avenue.“We were able to set the context for what might happen in this region for the next 10, 15 years or so,” Brown said.The new zoning allows a mix of residential and commercial spaces, with incentives to encourage the development of affordable housing. Webster Avenue’s previous zoning prohibited residential properties, and the gritty stretch of road is now comprised largely of auto-related and industrial businesses.“Webster Avenue has been underdeveloped and underutilized,” said Bronx Council Member Oliver Koppell, who voted in favor of the plan at a hearing on March 23, where the rest of the Council approved it unanimously. “I am pleased that the Council has approved this rezoning, which is essential to transforming Webster Avenue into a vibrant, inviting and walkable area.”Brown said Community Board 7 will work with the public and the Bronx’s major institutions over the next few months to draft a “Vision for Development,” a plan of what the community would like to see the neighborhood look like, which can then be presented to potential developers and investors.“The potential there is really great,” he said. “We’d like to see bookstores — where can you go to buy a book in this area? We’d like to see some galleries there.

Bronx News Network

Bronx News Roundup, April 8

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Weather: Cloudy with a high of 54, and a slight chance of rain this afternoon.Story of the Day: Black Steps DownAs we mentioned yesterday, Cathleen Black, the former magazine executive and controversial Schools Chancellor, stepped down from the post yesterday after only three months on the job. Black was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg last fall, a move that drew criticism across the board (and from a number of Bronx electeds) because of Black’s scant education experience.Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., sent out a press release yesterday in response to Black’s announcement saying he “wishes her well” and praising her replacement, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. Here’s some background on the new Chancellor.

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Bronx Living Wage Campaign Heats Up

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Text and Videos By JORDAN MOSSUntitled from Bronx News Network on Vimeo.The campaign that would require developers of retail projects receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay a living wage – $10 with benefits and $11.50 without – is heating up as advocates press for an April City Council hearing. Council Speaker Christine Quinn has said she would allow hearings on the bill, which has 29 supporters, including every Bronx member of the City Council except for James Vacca of the east Bronx. Vacca was very much on the minds and tongues of numerous speakers at a Living Wage NYC rally last week at the Bronx Pentecostal Deliverance Center on the anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. The legislation was introduced by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., (see the video above) who led the effort to defeat the city’s effort to build a mall at the Armory, mainly because the developer would not guarantee that retail workers be paid a living wage. Council Members Oliver Koppell (speaking in the video below) and Annabel Palma are leading the charge in the Council.

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Discovery High School Scores Wellness Award

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Discovery High School students and science teacher Steve Ritz (right) serve home-grown vegetables at a luncheon last spring. (Photo by G. Ciliberto)Congrats to students and teachers at Discovery High School, in Kingsbridge Heights, for scoring an “Excellence in School Wellness Award” from the Strategic Alliance for Health-the first public school in New York City to win the prize.Students at Discovery have spent the past several years, under the guidance of gardening guru and science teacher Steve Ritz, cultivating their own on-premise organic herb and vegetable gardens. The students have hosted green cafeteria luncheons and farmer’s markets and donated their homegrown produce to local soup kitchens. Last fall, the group built garden installations-complete with their own irrigation systems-for the NBC Experience Store, on 49th Street in Manhattan.According to a press release, the NYC Strategic Alliance for Health chose Discovery “because it offers schools an innovative and successful model for breaking the cycle of poor eating habits by providing instant access to healthy produce.”An awards ceremony will be hosted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. on Tuesday April 12, at the Main Rotunda of Bronx Borough Hall starting at 11 a.m.

Bronx News Network

Frustration Bubbles Over at Reservoir Access Meeting

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(Editor’s Note: this article was first published in the latest edition of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.) By JORDAN MOSSAfter a long-delayed report that essentially denies the community greater access to the Jerome Park Reservoir was issued last week, activists and officials are feeling powerless, particularly because a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) official assigned to report to the community on its findings refused to answer any questions.The Facility Monitoring Committee (FMC), an advisory body that meets monthly at the DEP’s community office on Jerome Avenue to keep tabs on the Croton water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park and related projects, includes the chairs of the three surrounding community boards, Councilman Oliver Koppell, and representatives of the Parks Department and the borough president’s office.But despite all that civic firepower, Fr. Richard Gorman, the committee chair, says it has “no juice” in getting the answers it needs. He argued for a higher-level hearing, organized by the borough president’s office.The last straws appear to be the continued lack of progress in hiring Bronxites to work on the project and the report which, citing security concerns, essentially closes the door on community hopes to have greater access to the path inside the two chain-link fences that ring the reservoir.(To pave the way for placing the plant in Van Cortlandt Park, the city offered state legislators, whose approval was needed, $200 million in the park improvement funds financed through the sale of water bonds. That influx of cash has fueled many park projects around the borough and was supposed to include $5 million for an enhanced path around the Jerome Park Reservoir.)At last week’s FMC meeting, DEP representative Mark Lanaghan refused to reply to residents’ questions and concerns about the report they said was riddled with inaccuracies.“I’m not going to respond to anybody tonight,” Lanaghan said. “I don’t want to indulge in that kind of debate.”The report, he conceded, “concludes with a suggestion that is most unwelcome here.” That conclusion calls for a few days of access after the plant is completed in 2013.Anne Marie Garti, a founder of the Jerome Park Conservancy and longtime advocate of public access, said the DEP is going back on its word.