Melrose and The South Bronx are experiencing a boom in the hotel industry.
First the luxury boutique Opera House Hotel opened on 149th street between Brook and Bergen and now coming this fall is the Umbrella Hotel. Located at 681 Elton Avenue between E 153rd & E 154th Streets right off 3rd Avenue, the 7 story building will house 56 rooms with rates varying from $129 – $159 per night said one of the owners and Bronxite, Manny Chadah of AMG Elton LLC.
On June 13th, Andrew Padilla, Director of El Barrio Tours: Gentrification In East Harlem and Welcome2TheBronx will be hosting a screening of the film followed by a panel discussion on gentrification.
Whether we like it or not, all eyes are set on The Bronx as one of the “last frontiers” for those seeking affordable rents yet convenient access to Manhattan. This can create quite a difficult situation in the Bronx as we are the most rent burdened borough in New York City. As new residents move in with better economic means, those with limited income and are more likely to be late on rent will find it harder and harder to stay in our borough. Talks about developing the Special Harlem River Waterfront District are already happening without community input as to what we would like to see there. What will happen then?
Come to the Andrew Freedman Home this Sunday from Noon to 6pm and enjoy a wonderful afternoon with Bombayo. There will be traditional bomba dancing and music and much more!
In the meantime, watch the videos from some of their previous performances including 86 year YOUNG Teresa Fortuna as she dances to her heart’s content!
There’s really no place quite like Wave Hill which is located in the Northwestern Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale. Even the surrounding neighborhood it sits in is different from the rest of the city. The list of notable residents that have lived on the estate is equally as impressive.
After almost a year of construction, work has been completed along the Metro North tracks between Melrose and Tremont stations and service restored at those stations.
This Thursday, May 22nd will be a special day for students at Immaculate Conception School in Melrose. After months of hard work and learning, students who have been a part of this visual literacy program at the Bronx Documentary Center will be exhibiting their work. Please come and join and celebrate the wonderful work these intrepid middle school students have embarked upon since entering the program.
MELROSE—A four alarm fire that started this morning around 5AM at a Dunkin’ Donuts quickly spread and destroyed five other businesses before the FDNY could get it under control. The blaze and…
Born in Bombay and raised in the Bronx, Qurrat Ann Kadwani has made history in becoming the first South Asian Female to have an Off-Broadway show. The award-winning ‘They Call Me Q!’ is a 60 minute one-woman show in which Kadwani plays 13 characters giving the audience a window into her life and challenges she faced growing up. She has performed the show over 50 times across the country as well as in Canada.
Qurrat took some time from her busy schedule, as she gets ready for the show’s first night on May 19th, to chat with us.
In what is being touted as ‘Giving Back To The Block That Raised Her Up’, JLo will be performing for the first time EVER in the Bronx. Perhaps JLo or her people really ARE reading Welcome2TheBronx. We’ve been the ONLY ones out there that have criticized her for not giving more to the community that she claims made who she is.
The latest news about the “new” City Island Bridge is that the cable-stayed bridge pushed by the Bloomberg administration has been scrapped. In its place, a “plain vanilla” causeway bridge has been proposed.
Who’s idea was that? It turns out that the plan was hatched during a secret closed-door meeting reportedly on Friday, May 2, 2014. The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) was there. Our local city and state public officials were there. A couple of people claiming to represent The City Island Civic Association and the City Island Chamber of Commerce were also there, both supposedly representing City Island residents and merchants who didn’t know what was going down.
In his New York Daily News op-ed, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. discussed the newest proposal by Move NY to impose tolls on the currently free East River bridges and for driving in Manhattan below 60th Street. The novelty in this proposal is that prices on bridges close to mass transit would be raised while those in “transit deserts” would be lowered. In spite of herculean efforts by proponents to avoid the term, Diaz correctly identified this proposal as “congestion pricing.”
As some readers know (and perhaps even she herself does too), I’ve been pretty critical and have written about Bronxite JLo’s, aka Jenny from the Block, aka Jennifer Lopez, lack of truly giving back to the Bronx and borough she is always claiming as being a part of.
Well it appears that we can finally say with confidence that this is no longer the case.
Bronx born and bred Juan “Skittlez” Ortiz has just released a parody on the hit song and video #selfie and it’s pretty hysterical. The talented singer, actor, and dancer from the Boogie Down talks to us about his inspirations, growing up in the Bronx and many more.
