The State of the Borough Address has been suspended due to the Nor’easter which has swept the region. No date has been set and we will let you know as soon as it has been rescheduled.
For those of you who don’t have to go to work and or school, ENJOY!!!! Send in your pics!
Shortly before 1pm Tuesday afternoon, a fire broke out inside Queen’s Nails Salon at 615-619 Melrose Avenue, destroying Family Barber Shop as well as Seck African Hair Branding stopping just short of PeaceLove Café. Owners of the nail salon who have been there for 12 years said that the fire started in the ceiling at the entrance to the store.
The damage also extended to the apartment above Queen’s Nails as firefighters broke through walls to contain the fire.
Employees of Family Barber Shop which has stood in the community for almost 20 years expressed concern for employment during these tough economic times.
According to officials of the FDNY, the fire was labeled an accident and not suspicious, however, firefighters on the scene blamed faulty wiring. A representative for Stellar Management who was on the scene to assess the damage refused to comment when questioned on the situation and the building’s superintendent became aggressive, shouted expletives and was confrontational. Commercial tenants have also expressed concerns with the layers of wirings that management has let accumulate over the years as businesses closed and opened. A representative from the NYFD told the building’s manager that, “now may be a good time to properly wire the commercial spaces to prevent something like this happening in the future.”
No injuries were reported by the fire department.
Reporting live from the Village of Melrose,
Ed García Conde
The “Mayor” of Melrose
917-532-7504http://www.welcome2melrose.com
Satnam Singh apparently went off the edge and beat his mother, Kaul Balbir, over the head with a frying pan. According to police reports they ordered Singh to drop the pan repeatedly but when he refused to cooperate, the officers shot him 5 times (according to the police) and was pronounced dead on the scene. Not sure how a man with a frying pan should have been killed by the cops…perhaps a shot to the leg to disable him would have been more appropriate? Is this another case of police brutality? According to NY1, the NYPD is currently investigating the incident but after an incident last year where police officers from the same 40th Precinct brutalized a man who was already subdued, an independent investigation might be a better route.
The City of New York and the New York Yankees gladly took away our parks to build their new stadium, with big promises of great new parks to replace those taken away but now, 18 months after the Old Yankee Stadium closed its doors to the public, we are left with an old relic which still stands in the way of what is the proposed Heritage Park which was reported by Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News in greater detail. New estimates are now talking about perhaps the park will be open in late 2011.
On Thursday, February 18th between 6pm and 8pm at 198 E 161st Street, 3rd Floor, we the people of Melrose, the Concourse and the communities that for almost a century have lived under the shadow of the famed New York Yankees have an opportunity to voice our anger, disappointment and concern over the lack of sympathy from city officials about the snail pace of construction of the new parks. At the center of this delay is a small yet vocal community group proposing to save Gate 2 of the original stadium. There are enough elements of the original stadium which will be preserved.
Below is a letter written to Adrian Benepe, Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation by local resident, William Casari to which a number of local residents, including myself attached our names for emphasis on this matter:
Adrian Benepe
Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation
The Arsenal, Central Park
830 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Dear Commissioner Benepe:
I’m writing to let you know that I don’t support the saving of Gate 2 as part of the Heritage Field design at the Old Yankee Stadium site. I have had many conversations with friends and neighbors who live near the stadium and on the Grand Concourse—I have added their names and addresses to this letter indicating that they are against saving Gate 2 as well. All of us who live in the community are anxious to have Heritage Field finished as soon as possible and will live with the design of the park forever, unlike the “Save Gate 2” folks who are all from outside the neighborhood. We don’t need a towering piece of concrete to remind us of the history of Yankee Stadium. Plenty of other reminders are already part of the new park’s design.
The arguments to save Gate 2 don’t make sense as many elements from the old stadium are being preserved. And the New Yankee Stadium with many architectural elements inspired by the old stadium is right across 161st Street!
From local resident Killian Jordan’s December 2009 letter to you: “Proponents [of Save Gate 2] say that we will lose the distinctive visual features of the old Stadium. Actually, community residents (many of whom are also fans) have been very pleased by the clear and distinctive features that will remain to celebrate the old stadium. Two huge multi-ton segments of the single most recogniza
ble feature—the frieze—of the old stadium will stand at the north side of the park. They’re an unmistakable visual emblem of the entire stadium, both the new one and the old one. Another visual emblem that will be preserved is “the bat”—the smokestack-like structure that can be seen from miles away. The enormous sections of the frieze, with its sentimental import and imposing physical presence, will be accessible to everyone—to see, to touch, to lean on. The main new ball field will maintain the geographic orientation of the old field, with clear markers of that relationship. A number of plaques in the neighboring walkway will call attention not only to Yankees history, but also to other significant events that took place here.
I believe that you yourself have wondered aloud why we can’t “create a great new park that acknowledges” the proud history of the stadium. Local residents would like to note that the frieze and plaques and bat and the field’s footprint will all do that—there is absolutely NO danger of the site’s origins disappearing into history.” [Killian Jordan letter to Adrian Benepe, December 18, 2009].
I am concerned about the attention being paid to the “Save Gate 2” and the meetings supporters have had with local officials including yourself. What the community needs now is for the Old Yankee Stadium to be demolished ASAP and construction of Heritage Field to begin without Gate 2.
I would appreciate your feedback on the status of the demolition of the Old Yankee Stadium and the start of construction of Heritage Field. I will be in attendance at the February 18th Community Meeting. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
William Casari, et al.
Everyone interested should try their best to come to this meeting because there is strength in numbers. To RSVP, or for more information please contact Michele Lignore-Diaz at 718-430-4617 or Michele.Lignore-Diaz@parks.nyc.gov
Welcome2Melrose has partnered up with Google AdSense and has also become an Amazon Associate to provide you with ads as least intrusive as possible. By clicking on these ads and searching amazon.com through our custom search interface and purchasing your products you can help build a foundation which we are working hard to get off the ground.
The goal of the Welcome2Melrose Foundation will be to provide scholarships each year to a young boy and a young girl from within Melrose to attend Cardinal Spellman High School – a leader in parochial schools for over 50 years now. Some other goals are to start a tree guardianship program for the hundreds of new trees planted in Melrose over the last year and also a paid internship program for local Melrose high school honor roll students where they can work at local businesses and gain experience in the many fields represented in our wonderful neighborhood – we are home to dozens and dozens of law firms, family owned restaurants, medical and dental offices – all of which our bright young kids can gain priceless experience from and get ahead in the world before they even graduate high school.
So please, feel free to visit our Google AdSense sponsors if there is anything that interests you – and YOU DON’T HAVE TO PURCHASE ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN! We get paid a small fee for every Google AdSense link you click on, not by purchasing our sponsors products. As for Amazon ads, we get a small percentage of anything you purchase through us whether it be a link to a particular book or by searching Amazon’s vast selection of products including millions of books.
A big Melrose THANK YOU for your continued support through your daily readership and comments!
David Gonzalez of the New York Times wrote a most excellent piece on graffiti yesterday, “Graffiti’s Story, From Vandalism to Art to Nostalgia,” slide show included. The publishing of the article is rather timely for Welcome2Melrose since we are currently archiving all local works under the Melrose Murals Project.
Don’t forget to get your tickets as they are quickly selling out and space is limited! Last month’s show on January 6, 2010 was sold out and over 150 people were turned away at the door for a chance to be a part of history at NYY Steak for the first EVER comedy show at the legendary stadium.
This month’s show will feature such great talents like Rich Vos from Comedy Central and NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Sara Contreras of Latin Divas of Comedy and Gerald Kelly of BET Comic View and HBO Def Comedy Jam. The show is hosted by none other than Davian Velez, a Bronx native and a 10 year veteran of the comedy circuit around the country featured on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and Mun2.
So what are you waiting for? Call Davian Velez at 646-271-1595 or NYY Steak at 646-97-STEAK (78325) and get your tickets and make sure you tell them you heard about the show here on Welcome2Melrose!
Check out this amazing video montage of Melrose and the surrounding neighborhoods during the 1970’s and 1980’s. It is a really powerful video especially for those of us who, like myself, lived through these times. We lived in a war zone amongst rubble, rats, drug infested streets, garbage everywhere with no one caring for us except ourselves and our families. So many politicians forgot about us as did the landlords…the later who just cared about receiving their monthly rent and could care less that the residents lived in squalor and third world conditions. Buildings that collapsed with the arsonist fires that were set by gang members paid by landlords to torch them just lay where they fell. 
Please take the time to see this video. How could an entire geographic section of New York City be left to decay like that? This almost 10 minute video is a rather personal and emotional journey for myself because having lived through this and the stigma that one felt for living there because the rest of the city and the world treated us like some sort of freaks of nature for living there but what they always forgot is that it was not that easy to leave there. Some of us made it out and moved away, others died through the violence or old age and then there were those who chose to stay and try to make a difference.
Next time you see someone who lived in Melrose and the South Bronx during the 70’s, 80’s and even early 90’s you should congratulate them for making surviving such a horrific time which most certainly left an indelible mark on Melrose, The Bronx, New York City, state and country and most importantly on those of us who experienced it first hand.
Not sure who gets the credit for this video but it was posted by YouTube user TheBerlin09.
A big Melrose THANK YOU to all who endured it and survived as well as a moment of silence for all the lives lost.
Check out this great segment on the construction going in in Melrose by Shazia Khan of NY1.
Thanks to the our favorite BoogieDowners, a Welcome2Melrose article was featured in NewYorkBlips, “a one-stop access to all the breaking news, rumors, and commentary from expert sources around the Web.” This is a great honor since they day that “If it’s hot, if people are talking about it, searching for it or sounding off on it – you’ll always find it at NewYorkBlips.” But it doesn’t end there…as if that wasn’t great enough the same article was worthy enough for a mention in the New York Times’ City Room round up of the New York/Region Section on January 13, 2010.
A big Melrose THANK YOU is in order, yet again, to our great friends at BoogieDowner. If you haven’t visited them then it’s about time to because they are the #1 blog for all things BRONX…and they preach what every savvy Bronxite knows: that The Bronx is Burning…BURNING HOT!!! And don’t forget to check out Welcome2Melrose’ Person of the Year for 2009!!
Since 2009, Welcome2TheBronx has been a popular online platform dedicated to highlighting the vibrant culture, history, and ongoing developments within New York City’s northernmost borough. Founded by life-long resident and community advocate Ed García Conde, the site features local news, personal stories, and in-depth coverage of issues such as gentrification, community empowerment, art, and real estate. Through its engaging content and active social media presence, Welcome2TheBronx has become a trusted resource for residents and visitors alike, shining a spotlight on the unique identity and rich heritage of the Bronx.
More from W2TBX
Contact Us
© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv
