The top story this morning continues to be how community boards across New York City are striking down de Blasio’s zoning changes. Meanwhile, a look into the world of green taxis, Comptroller Scott Stringer thinks it’s fine time to shut down Rikers, 4 buildings get a new lease on life, and a peek inside the Bronx General Post Office and plans for the landmark.
People of The Bronx
Pandas in The Bronx, buying South Carolina crabs right here in our borough, and a new documentary explores the difficulty of extreme poverty facing single fathers and devastate impacts on their families are some of the stories you’ll find in this evening’s edition of Bronx Links.
The New York Times has released an article on a recent poll they conducted which indicates that roughly half of New York City residents are barely able to make ends meet. In The Bronx, that number is at 36%. The Bronx also leads New York City with the percentage of residents (25% of respondents) who do not feel confident that local government elected officials are not addressing the multitude of problems facing our borough.
On Bronx AM Links we have stories on standing proud of being from the South Bronx, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and how she almost pulled away from the confirmation process, and Councilmember Ritchie Torres on controversial plans for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) plans for infill at public housing to create market rate and “affordable” housing on its properties.
Last week we reported that 9 of 12 Bronx Community Boards had voted down any changes to the zoning text for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Affordability and Quality—a cornerstone for Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan to preserve and create 200,000 units of “affordable” housing.
Now, this morning, The Bronx Borough Board and the BP has voted no on MIH and ZAQ which seems to align that with the wishes of the residents of The Bronx as well as with many similar increasing sentiments around New York City.
Now just because Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr voted no, don’t let your guard down just yet.
It was up for barely a month yet it made headlines around the world and now it’s gone—the Piano District billboard has been replaced with an innocuous ice cream ad.
The billboard display heralding the coming of luxury waterfront living and a rebranding of a neighborhood while promising to bring in “world class dining, fashion, and art” for many was a sign that gentrification was coming in and fast.
No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab) is pleased to present Intersecting Imaginaries at 900 Grand Concourse, a site-responsive exhibition curated by Natasha Bunzl, Dalaeja Foreman, Paola Gallio, Mary Kay Judy, Eva Mayhabal Davis, Lindsey O’Connor, Walter Puryear, and Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle. Including sculpture, photography, installation, video, works on paper and commissioned works by Bronx-based and tri-state area artists, Intersecting Imaginaries considers mapping as a method for understanding place, time, and identity.
The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the philosophical concept of the social imaginary, which considers community to be composed of human interaction and perceived connection. Intersecting Imaginaries melds this abstract understanding with an acknowledgement of external circumstance, presenting a constellation of works that speak to memory and lived experience as composite parts of a map, and as the binding fibers of community.
Facing the Bronx Supreme Courthouse, and mere blocks from Yankee Stadium, the storefront sits in a highly frequented intersection of the South Bronx. These landmarks, each controversial in their own right, arouse singular stories within a diverse borough that inform the cultural and sociopolitical discussion at the heart of the exhibition. The site has served many functions: it was once a ballroom as part of the Concourse Plaza Hotel, a diner, a thrift store, and now stands empty, sharing walls with housing provided by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizen Council. Remnants of its former lives are evident in the raw space, serving as inspiration and context for works that navigate body politics, racial identity, communities in flux, and the natural environment as both separate and intersecting realities.
The Bronx may be the greenest borough, with almost 25% of its land dedicated to parks, but residents in The South Bronx do not have equitable access to green spaces. Now that The Randall’s Island Connector—after 2 decades of wrangling with city agencies and community advocacy groups—area residents and the rest of the borough have access to an additional 330 acres of parkland.
The $6 million connector, which only stretches for a quarter mile under the Amtrak line from 132nd Street to Bronx Kill, is now paved with bike and pedestrian lanes so that Bronxites can enjoy the wide open spaces which Randall’s Island provides along with the many playing fields.
NY1 reporter Erin Clark shares a heartwarming story about a Bronx woman from Country Club known as Aunt Cathy to thousands of soldiers stationed abroad who’ve received one of her almost 5,000 care packages.
Catherine Praino began sending care packages and adopting platoons overseas after her own nephew, Christian Engeldrum, was killed in Afghanistan in a roadside bombing attack.
Karen Young-Washington, an urban farmer from The Bronx has just won $10,000 in a national voting contest held by NationSwell to help further the work her organization, Rise and Root Farm.
An AllStar Award Nominee favorite, Karen has been one of the local pioneers and leaders in urban farming in our communities serving as a role model which everyone in our borough can look up to.
The Bronx waited a week for our borough president to speak up on the tasteless…
We are a diverse and resilient people, here in The Bronx.
Bronxites are an extremely proud group of people considering that many would dare ask what do we have to be proud about?
We not only survived abandonment, the arson which burned neighborhoods to the ground, rampant drug problems, violence and other ills but we rebuilt our borough without the aid of greedy outside interests.
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