I received this from a friend Bronx resident, James “Peach” McClory (and published poet!) on a wonderful program to get out boys to read:
I am participating in a program that a calls for MEN to participate in the the first annual “Real Men Read” initiative at PS 333 in the Bronx, New York. This initiative is to get boys interested in reading and encourage and motivate literacy in the lives of young boys.
Via the Wall Street Journal
By DONNA KARDOS YESALAVICH
The amount of new retail space across the U.S. has remained relatively flat in recent years, but New York’s Bronx borough has emerged as a hot spot.
At least five major shopping malls or centers are under way in the Bronx that will add more than 1.4 million square feet of space, one of the largest local retail expansions in the country. Despite the swell of supply already in the pipeline, developer Equity One Inc. last week said it would increase the size of its Broadway Plaza shopping center by 33,000 square feet to 148,000 square feet at an additional cost of $13.8 million, boosting the project’s total price tag to $66.5 million.
The Bronx is greening.
One of the best practices and policies to emerge from the Bronx Borough President’s office is the administration’s fierce commitment to encourage construction of LEED certified buildings and green installations.
Now the Bronx can claim yet another first with the largest solar panel installation in New York City.
Bombazo Dance Company, founded by Bronx resident of 14 years Miltieri Tucker Concepción, is the only dance company in New York City to be invited to New Orleans’ famous Congo Square Rythms Festival.
The best pizza conversation in New York City is one of those hot topics that can often get a very heated discussion going, like real estate and the best borough (obviously the Bronx) in the city.
An article posted in Untapped Cities recently declared that, “The Bronx’s Best Pizza Place Is Hidden Behind a Gas Station,” naming Pugsley Pizza in Fordham the best in the borough.
New York City Parks and Recreation began surveying the deer population of the Bronx yesterday and will continue to due so on a daily basis for week until this Saturday March 1st.
A single engine plane will be flying at approximately 1,000 feet over the Riverdale area of the Bronx as well as Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks between 6pm and 1am will be using infrared cameras to conduct the survey.
A brand new development in the Mott Haven is now accepting applications for affordable apartments. Located at 405 E 146th Street at Willis Avenue, Betances VI Family Apartments was constructed on NYCHA…
The New York Times recently published a heartwarming story and slide show in the Lens Blog on a same-sex couple in Mott Haven who have successfully raised 20 foster children — with no signs of stopping.
You may remember that a report released in 2008 showed that same-sex couples in the Bronx were more likely, than any other borough in the city and perhaps county in the nation, to have children so it shouldn’t be surprising to Bronxites.
During Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr’s State of the Borough address today, he publicly called upon the city to issue a new Request for Proposal for PS 31 and to truly explore whether or not it needs to be demolished.
It seems the Borough President has listened to our cries for the building to be salvaged since our petition to save the building was addressed to him among others.
Did you know that Bronx Community College occupies one of the highest points in the whole Bronx? Do you know how this school came to occupy that location? 2014 is the 40th anniversary of Bronx Community College’s (BCC) first full year at the campus we know today. A distinguished African-American educator oversaw the move from scattered buildings around Jerome Avenue to the high and architecturally distinguished place it now occupies; his name was Dr. James A. Colston!
Last year there were 156 pedestrian fatalities on the streets of New York City representing an increase from 2012 as well as 2011. According to an analysis done by the Daily News of NYPD statistics, there were 7 pedestrian related deaths during the first 12 days of this year and if this trend were to continue it would put us on pace to hit well over 200 fatalities this year.
Back in 2010 during renovations at the Bronx County Courthouse, several historical murals depicting Jonas Bronck and local Lenape Native Americans were severely water damaged.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr complained to the city on numerous occasions but the years went by and the decay worsened.
Now the city finally has done right by the Bronx and the murals and work will begin to restore the historical works of art.
The Bronx County Historical Society has just published a new book, by Bronx historian Lloyd Ultan, on Blacks in the Bronx during colonial times —a first of its kind.
According to the Society’s website:
For the first time in over three and a half centuries, the story of people of African descent in the colonial Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City, is being told. Discovered in over fifty scattered places, 210 separate accounts written by participants and witnesses from 1664 to 1783 in letters, government documents, court records, wills, memoirs and newspapers are brought together in one volume for the first time. The noted historian and author, Lloyd Ultan, puts these statements and accounts from the era into context, telling what they mean and tying them all together in a revealing narrative.
