Mexico is too often represented by American photographers traveling south across the border. In this exhibition, five Mexican and Mexican-American photographers reverse that dynamic, focusing their lenses on the complex duality of their lives and on the United States itself. In these photos, the gaze is not at a Mexico defined by the US, but at Mexicans exploring and defining themselves as they navigate the Mexican and Mexican-American experience today.
Dozens of people from all over The Bronx and the city came out today for a sneak peak tour of the new Randall’s Island Connector which will connect our borough to the 432 island park. Once the connector is completed by Summer 2015 it will provide Bronx residents with walking access onto the island which currently is only accessible from the Bronx by car via the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (Triboro Bridge) or via Manhattan through East Harlem. This, of course, is ironic considering that The Bronx is closer to the island and only separated by 30 feet at the narrowest point by the Bronx Kill — during low-tide you can walk from The Bronx to Randall’s Island.
orn Henry Lee Jackson in The Bronx in 1957, Big Bank Hank of The Sugarhill Gang has passed away due to complications with cancer. Big Bank Hank is considered to be one of the founders of Hip Hop with The Sugarhill Gang’s hit ‘Rapper’s Delight’ which was released 35 years ago this month.
Last year, on October 21st, the infamous street artist known as Banksy struck in the Melrose neighborhood of The Bronx on E 153rd Street (just down the block from me) where Elton and 3rd Avenues meet prompting thousands of fans to trek to the area and catch a glimpse of his controversial ‘Ghetto 4 Life’ piece. The 4 story buildings have been vacant for decades (close to 30 years) with the exception of the retail spaces on the ground floor. Now the owner is beginning the process of converting the top 3 floors into market rate residential units.
Bronx Hero Karen Young-Washington, who’s on the board of the New York Botanical Garden and a member La Familia Verde (among many other organizations), is featured in the Huffington Post in the Female Farmer Project. The project is the latest endeavor by Audra Gaines Mulkern who’s documenting the proliferation of women in farming. Karen has also been featured on PBS and is on the board of Just Food.
The Real Deal just reported that the 175,000 square foot loft building 2417 Third Avenue — just a few hundred feet away from the Mott Haven Bar and Grill — is under contract for $31 million with Hornig Capital.
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…
IMPORTANT: If you can’t make next Monday’s public hearings, you can submit testimony via email so please click this link to do so!
Researchers from Columbia University and elsewhere have found a possible link between air pollution and adolescent ADHD. According to the report, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, pregnant women from New York City exposed to certain air pollutants were more likely to birth a child with ADHD. The pollutants —polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)—are released into the atmosphere through the burning of coal, tobacco, and petrol.
Legal Updates – The ongoing litigation to stop Fresh Direct’s move to the Harlem River Yards continues! Newly disclosed information provides us with the opportunity to request renewal of our claim that the State DOT violated the New York Constitution by allowing land at the Harlem River Yard to be leased to Fresh Direct. We’ll keep you posted!
“A brave 92-year-old Bronx woman who helped rescue Jews from Germany-occupied Hungary during World War II was honored Thursday for her heroic past.
Berta Davidovitz Rubinsztejn was one of dozens of rescuers who helped Hungarian Jews escape the Nazis by disguising herself as a Gentile and working with the Zionist underground youth movement Dror Habonim.
She was reunited Thursday with one of the refugee orphans she saved from the streets of Budapest and took in as her own.
“I am standing here only because of you, Berta,” said Meir Brand, 79, as he thanked Rubinsztejn during an emotional ceremony at the Riverdale YM-YWHA.
When real estate companies and developers begin to look at your neighborhood more and more intently we know that there is a big danger of gentrification creeping in. When investments begin to top $2 billion in The Bronx, that means we’re no longer the final frontier but things are already happening.
From Martin Kleinman’s The Real New Yorkers:
“As I write this, the rain falls on a cold and dreary day and that, I suppose, is as it should be, for a Real New Yorker has fallen.
There is no great tragedy when a person dies at 85 — at least that is what some would have you believe. The common wisdom is that the death of a child, or young adult is, somehow, sadder, because of all the promise that lays ahead in life and because the pain of the parents resonates so fully. Children should not pre-decease their parents.
