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.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan to preserve and create 200,000 units of affordable housing is crumbling, Casita Maria searches for a new executive director as Sarah Calderon departs the organization after 7 wonderful years, and the Gould Memorial Library at Bronx Community College may be repurposed are some of the stories you’ll find here at Bronx PM Links.
Bally’s gambling complex proposal at the former Trump Links in Throggs Neck relies on getting state approval to alienate parkland, but lacks local leaders’ support as the legislative session winds down. By…
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Tonight we’re bowling for a good cause: To raise money for Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (kindly click the link to make a donation. No amount is too small or big).
The Bronx knows all to well the deadly impact this disease has had on our communities and according to BOOM!HEALTH, our borough has the highest infection rate of HIV/AIDS in all of NYC.
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.
Last week The Real Deal talked about how it appeared that certain developments may be responsible for a 9% increase in subway ridership in The Bronx between 2009 and 2014 and while that may be the case for a few of the stations, none of the others are proximate to actual new developments to account for increases as high as 34% at 176th Street on the 4 line.
While looking at the infographic above, there have been no major developments constructed in the East Bronx in Eastchester near the Gun Hill Road Station on the 5 Dyre Avenue line which saw a 28% increase in ridership and the same goes for Parkchester which saw a 19% jump. Kingsbridge and Bedford Park Boulevard along the 4 train, which saw a jump of 11% and 10% respectively also didn’t have any major new construction housing to account for such large increases.
Could lack of housing and truly affordable housing be the reason?
8 out of 12 Bronx community boards have voted NO (1 voted yes) so far on the city’s planned changes to the zoning text to include for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning on Quality and Affordability. This all comes on the eve of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr Bronx Board public hearing to be held tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 12th at 6pm.
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.
