Today a Bronxite found a message of hate in the 34th Street, Penn Station stop on the 1,2, and 3 subway lines which at a glance appears to be fallout from the Zimmerman trial verdict announced this past Saturday.
The message appears on a subway ad and says:
“Black people George Zimmerman is Fucking Puerto Rican. He changed his name to be accepted by white people. Black people, don’t trust Puerto Ricans they are our enemy.”
Ironically the message was scrawled on an ad asking, “Do you see something crooked in NYC?” for theNew York City Department of Investigation’s crackdown on corruption in the city.
This is precisely the type of ignorance we have to combat and not give into in the wake of the verdict. We need to, now more than ever, strengthen our ties for ultimately it is about all of us.
Have you seen this message? How did it make you feel when you saw it?
NYS Assemblyman Jose Rivera, D-Bronx, getting his camera ready. (Public Photo From His Facebook Profile)
According to Legislative Gazette, infamous New York State Assemblyman Jose Rivera D-Bronx, was excused from voting in the Assembly a whopping 250 times representing almost a quarter of all the votes that were taken during this Assembly session – more than double that of last year.
Furthermore, it is noted that Rivera has the distinction of being the ONLY lawmaker who didn’t introduce one piece of legislation this session making him the most unproductive member of the Assembly.
This is appalling because he definitely finds time to be on Facebook spamming pages with the videos he’s constantly making to make him look like he actually does something. The Bronx faces serious issues which need to be addressed yet he feels it’s more important to play with his camera than perhaps listen to his constituents and propose bills that would address these issues?
When Bronxites are left scratching their heads on why we are not improving in certain socioeconomic indicators like health and education, we can look to the corruption of our elected “leaders” whether they represent us on the state level or locally on the city level.
I cannot begin to count the number of times I have received complaints about Jose Rivera with folks asking what exactly does he do because all they see is what I see and that’s a legislator spending too much time making videos and posting them all over Facebook.
A Bronxite who also sent me the link from the Legislative Gazette said,
“…he spends all his time with those videos and now we know he has been excused 250 times. There is no one representing our needs in Albany, the Bronx could have been so far ahead if it wasn’t for wasteful people like Rivera”
The Bronx deserves better than this guy who sits there wasting our valuable time and money since it is we who pay his salary. Is it any wonder that his daughter, disgraced and former state assemblywoman Naomi Rivera lost reelection when it was found out she was just another corrupt politician padding a love interest’s bank account with a phony job?
We need to keep holding these clowns accountable without thinking of party loyalty at all. The only loyalty we should demand and give is to ourselves for as long as we continue to vote folks in based on party line loyalty, we are letting them know that this behavior is acceptable.
Trayvon Martin had his entire life ahead of him right until he crossed paths with the sociopath that is George Zimmerman who murdered Trayvon in cold blood.
The message that rippled from the court in Florida is that the lives of men of color are worth less in this nation. Living in a borough predominantly populated by people of color and being someone of color makes this pronouncement extremely disturbing.
The news came in just as we were wrapping up a screening of The House I Live In at the Bronx Documentary Center which is a powerful documentary film which explores the history of the War on Drugs which has disproportionately incarcerated men of color particularly African Americans.
The crowd tonight at the BDC was as diverse as this wonderful borough of ours yet the shock on folk’s faces and expression was the same. Disbelief. Disgust. Some even fought back tears or stepped out for a second because the combination of the film’s topic and the news of Zimmerman being found not guilty was too much to bear.
How do you feel about the verdict? Do you agree or disagree with it?
Cats. Come on let’s face it: They’re the real reason you walk into a bodega. It’s not because as a Bronxite, you might live in a food dessert nor is it for the small selection of produce that’s a little too ripe – by a month or two.
These furry creatures are a bodega owner’s best friend since it’s like having your own personal exterminator on call 24/7.
Today, BuzzFeed points out where you may find these cats next time you walk into your corner Bodega.
25. Mixed in with some bags of chips
Via: instagram.com
24. Protecting cookies that have been there for who knows how long
Via: instagram.com
23. Judging your late-night purchases
Via: instagram.com
22. On top of a box of Sour Patch Kids
Via: instagram.com
21. Staring at you from within a refrigerator
Via: instagram.com
Wanna see the rest of the list Of course you do. Who doesn’t get on the Internet to look at cute cat pictures? Head over to BuzzFeed
[NOTE: This post has been updated on 7/12 at 2:00PM to reflect that the Village Voice also found that the data reported doesn’t show the overall picture that is being presented by the Daily News or Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, along with NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli]
A new report came out yesterday which indicated that the Bronx outpaced every other borough in increase of non government employment.
The Daily News reports that roughly 40% of the job growth in the borough came in the healthcare field between 2001 and 2011. Salaries, however, remained flat with less than a 1% increase during that same period.
Other highlights from the News found:
-The average Bronx resident’s salary jumped 14% to $32,058 in 2011 from $27,743 in 2000. And the booming private sector pays better than average — roughly $43,000 on average — but those salaries only jumped .7% over the last decade, essentially flat.
-Office rents nearly tripled in the Bronx from $10.23 per square foot in 2000 to $28.26 per square foot in 2011 — the largest increase in the five boroughs over that time period.
– The Bronx’s homeownership rate of 20.7% is the lowest rate city wide.
– And the worst news? The Bronx still has the highest level of unemployment of any borough — 12.7%
This is excellent news for the Bronx as it shows that confidence in the borough has increased as crime has dramatically decreased, our prime location between Manhattan, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey but if we gained so many jobs then why did unemployment go up so dramatically?
Outpacing the rest of the city in private sector Jobs by a rate of 6 times over the rest of the city should have brought down our employment rate but it didn’t.
Is this indicative that Bronxites aren’t getting these jobs? By February 2012, just two months after the end of the 10 year study date of the report, unemployment in the Bronx had reached a staggering 14.2% from slightly over 9% in 2001.
During this time, over 50,000 jobs came to the borough. Roughly the same amount of residents that the population grew by in the 2010 census. So that shouldn’t be a major factor.
I’m no economist but when you take both parts of the equation, the picture doesn’t look all that rosy for Bronxites particularly when we’re told by elected officials that we should accept bad deals based on the jobs they are bringing for us.
More questions arise in my mind than our answered by the data. If residents are not getting these jobs, does that mean our population lacks the necessary skills and education? What about the poor quality of health of our residents plagued by some of the highest rates of asthma, diabetes and heart disease – how does this effect employability? How does it effect education?
Thoughts? Anyone care to provide insights on the issues presented?
Also check out the Village Voice where journalist Albert Samaha spoke about similar concerns.
The office of Community Board 1 became a cauldron of body heat and enflamed tempers, in the latest bitter clash between angry Mott Haven residents, board members and staff and lawyers and lobbyists for FreshDirect.
About 60 residents squeezed into the board’s tiny headquarters in Melrose on July 10 for the board’s vote on the online grocer’s plan to move to the Harlem River Rail Yards in Port Morris.
Many thought the board would vote on whether the plan violates a 20-year-old agreement between the state and the Galesi Group, which leases the rail yard from the State Department of Tranportation. That agreement calls for freight train service as a key features of any use of the property. It also says new businesses in the yards should not contribute to traffic problems.
Amid the pandemonium, Chairman George Rodriguez called for a vote — though board members weren’t sure what question was actually before them.“Fresh Direct!”
Rodriguez said, tossing away Roberts Rules of Order and holding an ad-hoc yes-or-no, thumbs up-thumbs down, for-’em-or-agin-’em roll call.
MOTT HAVEN — For the second time in two weeks, chanting protestors and shouting community board members nearly derailed a board meeting on FreshDirect’s planned move to The Bronx — but on Wednesday, the fractious session ended with a vote overwhelmingly in favor of the project.
The Washington Post just issued a news alert that theHouse has passed the Farm Bill without funding for the Food Stamp program otherwise known as SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
House Republicans have threatened to reduce funding for the program and it appears they are carrying through with their promises.
What does this mean to the Bronx which is home to the poorest congressional district in the nation?
It means that if and when the cuts are made, Bronxites who depend on the program to feed themselves and family, will have a greater difficulty in doing so. This is simply unacceptable for folks who suffer from food insecurity issues and children are already going hungry.
Congressman Jose Serrano D-NY who represents the Bronx said on twitter that, “Republicans…are turning their backs on the poor and the hungry.” While Senator Kristen Gillibrand D-NY thanked her colleagues in the House on twitter for, “…fighting against the GOP’s unprecedented step of splitting [the] #farmbill to remove #SNAP funding from bill.”
What does it say about a society when we treat our most vulnerable population with such disregard? How are families to make ends meet?
Just last week we spoke about this very issue and SoBro’s plan to save the building with Goldman Sachs who is interested in partnering to do so.
Now the Daily News reports that Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz Jr wants the city to strip the decaying yet beloved PS 31 of its landmark status and have it demolished.
What is going in here? We reported how eager the city was at last month’s Community Board 1 meeting to pressure the board to accept to have the building demolished saying that it was beyond rescue. This was in direct opposition to SoBro’s finding when they hired an engineer who’s report says that the building, although badly damaged, is not in danger of collapsing and can be salvaged but will be costly. That’s where Goldman Sachs comes in.
The building sits smack in the middle of a 30 block area that was rezoned from commercial and manufacturing into residential. This rezoning exponentially increases the value of the land for any developer interested in the site which is one block from the 2, 4 and 5 subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse – 15 minutes to midtown.
Sounds like Ruben Diaz Jr, once again, has no voice of his own and is allowing Bloomberg’s administration to dictate what happens in our borough in direct opposition to community wants and wishes.
I wonder which, if any, developer is greasing our elected officials’ palms?
Gregory Tsougranis, bottom left, appears to get cozy with Desiree Joy Frias, who he transferred ownership of the BoogieDowner to, as she sits next to her mother, Marlene Cintron, Executive Director of Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.
Two weeks ago, 16 months after FreshDirect’s sweetheart deal was announced as a done deal, the company came to the community for the first time.
The meeting with Community Board 1 was not only announced at the last minute but on the very day of the meeting the location was surreptitiously changed not once but twice in a clear attempt to stifle those opposed to the deal.
In that meeting, Bronxites came out in numbers that overwhelmingly spoke they are against FreshDirect’s plan to move to our borough. Only a handful of supporters of the sweetheart deal showed up.
Yesterday evening was no different at the second meeting which this time was held in the cramped quarters of CB1.
About 5 minutes before the start of the meeting, a police officer announced that we had reached capacity and as per Cedric Loftin, District Manager, no one else was to be admitted. This all happened as there were still dozens of local community members coming into the office. Shortly thereafter, Mr Loftin marches into the conference room with 5 or 6 uniformed FreshDirect employees to which community members, including myself, challenged him because the crowd was just told that no one else could come in.
This was but one of many incidents of the evening where we were blatantly lied to and misinformed. When roll call began, community residents who were forced to wait outside the conference room demanded to know what was going on and asked for the second door to be opened so that they could all hear.
The room broke out into shouting match with board members yelling at the residents to be quiet but eventually over 90% of the room began chanting to, “Open the door! Open the door!” until they had no choice but to open the door. It was a simple and legitimate request from citizens of the neighborhood, yet Cedric Loftin was staunchly opposed to budging.
During the first half of the meeting, only 2 individuals testified in support of FreshDirect. One lives in Queens but owns a successful bakery business in Port Morris which FreshDirect buys from and another was a Bronx resident, although his home neighborhood wasn’t discussed.
3 community residents spoke out against the deal including Corrine Kohut, a resident of the immediate affected area and a member of the opposition group South Bronx Unite (of which I am proudly a member of as well) addressed the board and told them that she is very aware that calls have been made to individual board members and pressuring them to vote in favor of FreshDirect.
Julio Pabon address members of Community Board 1
Julio Pabon also spoke but not as a candidate for City Council District 17 In CB1 but as a concerned resident. He spoke when one of the FreshDirect supporters was running late. He approached the board and immediately said he wasn’t the other individual, he introduced himself and said he’d speak since the other individual hadn’t arrived.
After telling the board that this is an unacceptable project for the community based on previous projects where promises made to the community were never kept, that we deserve waterfront access like any other waterfront neighborhood across the city, Cedric Loftin then proceeded to tell the room that Julio Pabon had lied and said he was the other individual.
This was a flat out lie from Loftin which the crowd immediately began yelling and correcting him that that wasn’t the case.
The meeting proceeded with many interruptions from residents whenever a FreshDirect representative misinformed the board with skewed data.
FreshDirect mentioned the 1,000 new jobs they promise to bring in addition to the over 2,400 they already employ which is the ONLY argument from their camp as to why we should accept them. As he spoke about the jobs, the reality of the “promise” is revealed: the jobs won’t be new ones at first but would most likely be replacing staff who cannot relocate. What is the time line you ask? Mid to late 2016.
I don’t know but Bronxites need jobs now, not 3-4 years from now. Furthermore, they are caught in their own web of lies because the thousand jobs will not begin until much later than 2016 if ever.
Board members questioned them about the trucks, traffic and pollution and once again they misrepresented the data. They claim that in the beginning, they will only be slightly over 100 trucks in the area and eventually just under 300 and that they wouldn’t interfere with traffic because their peak hours are 5AM to 6AM and 3PM to 4PM.
First of all, the roads are already busy in the area from folks commuting from Westchester and Connecticut as they head in during the morning hours using Buckner Boulevard as a shortcut into Manhattan to avoid the tolls on the highway. Also, the afternoon hours that are their busiest are the BEGINNING of our afternoon / evening commute rush hour. The streets are choked with traffic and exhaust and school buses. How are hundreds of trucks going to help?
They also neglect to speak about the fact that trucks will be coming in and out round the clock as their goods are delivered from various vendors.
On changing their vehicles to electric, we were told that that wouldn’t probably happen until 2021. Let that date sink in along with the word “probably”. They claimed that the technology just doesn’t exist for them to do it sooner and they anticipate the technology to be ready around then. Notice the pattern? Already two of their promises on the memorandum of agreement are not definite but probabilities.
Bronxites are promised jobs and clean trucks but when questioned directly by the community board and residents, they could not and would not provide a definite answer and commit to their promises which aren’t legally binding.
After FreshDirect was done with their misinformation session, Cedric Loftin announced that he was going to go around the table in seat order so the board could comment or ask questions to FreshDirect.
Linda Ortiz, a new board member immediately asked to be recognized and Mike Brady, also a new member acknowledged her which according to parliamentary procedures in the city charter of New York, she was in the right to speak regardless of what Cedric Loftin or Chairman George Rodriguez ordered.
Just like the previous meeting which the New York Daily News said the board bungled the forum, the process was railroaded by the District Manager and chair. The room erupted in support of Ms. Ortiz but she sat down and allowed Loftin to proceed in spite of his being in direct violation of city charter.
After several board members declined to comment, Linda Ortiz stood up and began to speak. She was once a supporter of the move but after the debacle of the last meeting she didn’t hesitate to switch against the deal based on how she saw the chair and District Manager trying to force them to vote in favor of FreshDirect. Once she was done, she handed over the floor to Mike Brady, as per protocol which allows her to do so and again Loftin and Rodriguez refused to do so.
The crowd’s response was as expected with more shouting at Loftin and Rodriguez to follow procedures rather than making up their own rules.
When it got to Brady’s turn to speak, after 3 members spoke before him (both pressed FreshDirect hard on their promises and demanded more concrete and binding word from them), he proposed to the board to vote yes on the resolution he began to pass along to the board to turn down FreshDirect’s request for a variance on the proposed site – a variance that is in direct violation to restrictive covenants placed on the land. Once again Loftin and Rodriguez usurped Brady and any city charter procedures by ignoring a motion that was seconded. Not only that but they refused to circulate Brady’s motion to the rest of the board.
Chaos ensued amongst confused board members and eventually the meeting was once again derailed. Residents asked George Rodriguez to disclose his loyalties and accused him of receiving considerable compensation for his organizations for having steered the board to the will of the Borough President’s office.
It was another evening spotlighting our incompetent leaders and the rampant corruption in Bronx politics. Marlene Cintron, who was appointed the head of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation by Ruben Diaz Jr was on hand and at one point was mouthing instructions to Loftin and Rodriguez. I immediately told her to stop it because this wasn’t her meeting nor the Ruben Diaz Jr’s and it belonged to the people.
Gregory Tsougranis, former owner of the BoogieDowner immediately defended Marlene, who has close ties with Tsougranis and told me that I will, “…Never amount to anywhere near Marlene’s accomplishments.” I wasn’t aware that I was aspiring to be like Marlene and although she has been successful in her own right, I simply responded that I don’t want, “to be a sellout like her.”
Gregory Tsougranis gets uncomfortably close to Monxo Lopez (Courtesy of News12 the Bronx)
Tsougranis at one point jumped up from his chair and got directly in the face of Monxo Lopez who indicated that Gregory is also a sellout and doesn’t even live in the community (watch News12 the Bronx’s footage) . The stationed police officer made his way across the room and ordered Tsougranis to sit down immediately.
Before the meeting began, he asked who I was and he introduced himself and immediately began accusing me of slandering him because I said Ruben Diaz Jr made him head film location scout of the borough. In that entry he was referring to I never said that. I simply said that his loyalty was rewarded by Diaz and Cintron when they approached him to put together a film festival.
After the meeting was over and the crowd was ordered to exit the building, I was speaking to a local resident who attended the meeting who said it was the worst meeting she ever attended and far worse than she could imagine I was approached by Tsougranis and he immediately began to harass me asking me to apologize. I had no reason to apologize and the police officer was standing near us. I asked the officer to remove him from my presence due to the fact that he was harassing me and the officer immediately asked Gregory to move away.
It is almost 3AM as I sit here and write this and I can’t believe these events actually happened. Aren’t elected officials supposed to work for us and not the other way around. A good solid 95% of Bronxites who attended are against FreshDirect’s plan. Those in attendance who favored were FreshDirect employees, a lobbyist and representatives of the Borough President’s office.
What does that tell you? Over 40 organizations have signed on to South Bronx Unite’s platform against this plan and only 6 organizations are for it.
Clearly, the people have spoken. If we are a a vocal minority as FreshDirect and Ruben Diaz Jr call us then why is it the community supporters are dwarfed at each meeting? Why does FreshDirect have to bring in employees to show support?
16 months after the battle for our community began it is far from over.
As a contemporary fellow Bronxite of Jennifer Lopez, I grew up looking at her and admiring her many accomplishments.
She made it out of the Bronx. But was her life really as hard as she claims?
J. Lo lived in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx which was and is worlds apart from the burning South Bronx of our youth. Castle Hill has been a hard working middle class community since I could remember and more suburban in nature than urban. The only burning you saw there were of the grills on a hot summer day in the backyards of the thousands of houses that make up the community.
Lopez attended private, Catholic schools for 12 years including the all girls Preston High School – a rather idyllic school directly on the waterfront on the Long Island Sound.
This is far from that horrible Bronx image that she conjures up whenever speaking of making it from the Bronx. Ms. Lopez makes it seem as if she grew up in the projects in the middle of burnt out buildings with nothing but rubble strewn lots as a playground. Although she doesn’t actually say that, for millions of fans around the world that don’t know the Bronx, that is what is assumed. And she never corrects them.
She constantly uses our beloved borough in the narrative of her life but she’s often too busy to come to us and help the borough that she claims helped shape who she is and responsible for her impetus to achieve success.
Yes, J. Lo donates millions to charities, particularly dealing with women and children’s issues but what about the Bronx? Sure it’s her money and yes she can decide what to do with it but at some point isn’t it almost a responsibility to give something back to the community who’s name you invoke all the time and essentially use?
This is a topic that has been on Bronxites minds for quite some time. If Jenny from the block is reading this, I’d love to sit down and chit chat with her, invite her back home and talk about the issues that ail her fans at her home base and what we can do to partner up.
Folks in the Bronx have a rather negative view of Lopez and I would like for her to rectify it. Perhaps donate the ill-gotten money she received for performing (as Mother Jones puts it) at the, “… birthday bash of Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the 56-year-old president—and human-rights-quashing, personality-cult-driven dictator—of Turkmenistan.”
I know at least of a dozen organizations that money can go to to make a real positive impact.
As I always, I turn the conversation back to you folks. Thoughts?
Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis, Co-directors of Measure of America had an entry published in the Huffington Post today which not only discusses the great divide of inequality which plagues our borough and leads to environmental racism but uses the Bronx as a case of what happens to economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the shadows of their more prosperous siblings.
We know the story all too well. We have a borough president willing to fight for the views of affluent Riverdale (note: I love Riverdale as do many of us with its rich, colorful history, gorgeous architecture and unique community) and then push to destroy the environment and waterfront of Mott Haven and Port Morris – a neighborhood that is in the poorest congressional district in the nation. A neighborhood that suffers some of the highest rates of asthma in the country and Ruben Diaz Jr pushes for thousands of more polluting truck trips on our streets.
The report goes on to mention that Manhattan, with less than a 5th of the city’s population, goes on to produce over half of the city’s waste yet has not one waste disposal site but the Bronx is saddled with an unimaginable 19 of these sites. One of them directly adjacent to where FreshDirect wants to overtake our waterfront and pollute our air.
There is absolutely no way to ethically and morally justify such inequalities which produces dire consequences for the population. Health, safety, education, employment are all at risk when confronted with these ills.
If you are tired of such inequalities then speak up! Act! Current political establishment (with a handful of exceptions) does not care about our borough for they are the very ones selling our borough to the highest bidder.
Tomorrow you have one such opportunity to mobilize against injustice at Community Board 1 meeting as FreshDirect representatives return to plea their case for wanting to harm our communities.
PLEASE MAKE EVERY ATTEMPT TO ATTEND THIS MEETING!!!
Where: Community Board 1 Office – 3024 3rd Avenue, Bronx
From The Huffington Post:
Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis, Co-directors of Measure of America of the Social Science Research Council. Their most recent report, Measure of America 2013-2014, is now available at www.measureofamerica.com.
