Bronx News Network

Creston Ave. Crew Busted in Drug Raid

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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 Alex KratzOver the past several years, the area around Creston Avenue, just north of St. James Park, has built a reputation as a hot spot for the drug trade. Periodic violence highlighted the turf wars that accompanied it. Earlier this month, however, local and federal authorities made a big dent in curbing Creston’s infamous image. Culminating a year-long investigation by the FBI and NYPD with an early morning raid on the so-called “Creston Avenue Crew,” police arrested eight people in the Bronx and three in Puerto Rico.

Bronx News Network

Riverdale Press Echoes Our Call for Release of Neighborhood Crime Stats

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When we first sought neighborhood crime stats from the 52nd Precinct a few years ago, I seem to recall it was because we saw that the Riverdale Press has published just such data for the 50th Precinct. In fact, the Five-O is still providing that information to the Press, which they should be commended for. But somehow the NYPD feels that the 52nd Precinct (Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights) and the rest of the Bronx, for that matter, no longer deserves this most basic of public information that is routinely gathered using their taxpayer money. We’ve been waiting 420 days for the NYPD to respond to our Freedom of Information Law Request, adhere to state law, and release this very public information.Our journalist pals at The Riverdale Press also found this rather disturbing and published this editorial echoing our call for the release of so-called sector data. Their headline says it all: “All Crime Stats Should Be Public.”If you missed News Channel 4’s coverage earlier this week of our campaign you can see it here.We’ll keep marking the minutes until the NYPD does its duty.

Bronx News Network

Huge Water Main Break Floods Jerome Ave.

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A massive water main break in Mount Hope this morning has flooded a portion of Jerome Avenue and surrounding side streets, around 177th Street, NBC is reporting.Check out the video at the link-we’re not talking about a little leak here-the streets are completely washed out and water is practically covering some parked cars.Because of the break, the MTA says riders should expect delays on the 4 line, and there will be no service in both directions between the 167th Street Station and the Bedford Park Boulevard-Lehman College Station. Delays are also posted for the BX1, BX2, BX3, BX18, BX32, BX36, BX40, BX42 and BXM4 buses.We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.

Bronx

Bronx News Roundup, July 27

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Story of the Day: Jerome Avenue Flood UpdateThe AP reports that the floods from this morning’s massive water main break on Jerome Avenue have started to recede. And though the MTA website says No. 4 train service is suspended between 167th Street and Bedford Park Blvd., there were no trains going to Mosholu Parkway or Woodlawn, either, at least not during my morning commute. An MTA service update now says there are shuttle buses running.Some video footage:A BxNN reader says she had no running water at her home on E. 162nd and Grand Concourse; another woman I chatted with this morning said the water was waist-deep on 176th Street, and she put plastic bags over her legs to walk up the road.

Bronx

Gay Bronx Couples Waste No Time in Making History

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Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the latest Norwood News, on the streets and online now.Karen Cofield and Gwendolyn Williams, who met 5 years ago, were married at the Bronx County Courthouse on Sunday. (Photo by Jordan Moss)By Jordan Moss The signs of a highly unusual Sunday at the Bronx County Courthouse, where profound new rights were being conferred on a large group of New Yorkers, were hard to miss. Staff of the mayor’s office, sporting orange baseball caps, warmly greeted anyone who came within 50 yards of the courthouse’s Concourse entrance. There was no crammed line-up leading to the metal detectors. Cameras, forbidden from courtrooms and confiscated for the duration of one’s visit if found, were waved on through.

Bronx

Bronx Events: Classical Guitar Concert, Blood Drive and more

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The Bronx Council on the Art’s ‘Bronx Beat Concert’ series continues tonight from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Wave Hill. Renown Classical Guitarist Andrew Geddis, who has played for former Mayor David Dinkins, will perform. You’ll have to pay $8 admission to the grounds for adults, $4 for students and seniors 65 or older, and $2 for children over six, but the concert is free. For more information, head to www.bronxarts.org. In other local events: Twin Park Kids and Aquinas Housing is holding a blood drive tomorrow

Bronx News Network

Hotel Site on Webster Still Stalled, Now Housing a Boat?

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Remember that controversial plan for a Comfort Inn motel on Webster Avenue that made headlines a few years back? That was when hotel mogul Sam Chang, of the McSam Hotel Group-the man the New York Observer called “the inexhaustible builder of small, limited-service hotels”-was working on a 48-room, six-story project at Webster as long ago as 2006.

Bronx

Bronx News Roundup, July 26

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Weather: Sunny and in the mid-80s today. Story of the Day: Are Bronx Subway Stations the Ickiest?A new report out of the MTA found that the Bronx’s many subway stations are the dirtiest

Bronx News Network

Joe Liberatore, Longtime Arthur Avenue Vendor, Has Died

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A plaque on display at the Arthur Avenue Market calls Liberatore “Little Italy’s Mayor.”(File photo by Fausto Giovanny Pinto)Joe Liberatore, one of the original vendors at the Arthur Avenue Retail Market in Belmont, passed away Monday night at the age of 93, according to a post yesterday on the “Arthur Avenue, the Real Italy of New York” Facebook page.Liberatore had been a staple at the Italian indoor bazaar since its opening in 1940, and more recently had been peddling plants and seedlings (like basil, olives and bay leaves) at his Liberatore Joe’s Garden of Plenty.Residents are sharing their condolences and memories of Liberatore on Facebook, here.