Inner City Press Bronx Reporter
Archive #1 2001: Jan. 1 - March 31, 2001
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March 26, 2001
This week: schools, health, and crime.
The voting on Edison's proposal to take over Community School 66 (and three schools in Brooklyn, and one in Harlem) has begun. While C.S. 66 has garnered less attention from the citywide press than the other four schools, the N.Y. Times of March 22 recounted Edison's main pitchman (and a former campaign aide to Floyd Flake), Marshall Mitchell, getting lost on his way to C.S. 66 (which the Times misidentified as "P.S.). Mr. Mitchell finally arrived, and rallied Edison's "canvassers," at the Caridad Restaurant on Southern Boulevard. He told them to stress Edison's supposedly positive results at the other 111 schools it had contracts to run. The Times' John Tierney editorialized (3/23) in favor of Edison, throwing in that "[a]ll four of the Democratic mayoral candidates have sent their children to private schools for at least part of their education through 12th grade." Given his tone, it's surprising he didn't mention the continuing low reading and math scores at P.S. 46, where the Bronx Borough President's wife has been principal....
In health news, the Fire Department is planning to open a new ambulance station, at Washington Avenue and 172nd Street. St. Barnabas Hospital, at 183rd Street and Third Avenue, is applying to be designated a trauma center. The Bronx current has two such centers: Jacobi, in the North Bronx, and Lincoln Hospital, in the South. Both of these are City-owned; health care workers unions oppose St. Barnabas' application. The Borough President, however, does not. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez reports (3/23) that St. Barnabas CEO Ronald Gade (whose wife previously got into trouble, siphoning off radiology work to a clinic near St. Barnabas, that she owned) has given the B.P. $28,000, for his mayoral campaign, since 1999. There are other St. Barnabas political connections: City Councilman Wendell Foster's daughter, Helen, has been working there, waiting to run for her father's term-limited seat...
The Police Department last week reported a decline in Bronx crime in every category except rape, and attributed the drop to increased vigilance in "Tremont, Morris Heights, Highbridge [and] Bedford Park." Assistant Chief Patrick Timlin, senior Bronx commander, said that he "assigned extra officers to clubs and other gathering spots where violence typically erupted." Three weeks ago (see below), we reported on complaints that the 48th Precinct received about the Jet Set club, on 18th Street and Third Avenue. While, for a few nights after the last Precinct Community Council meeting, a squad car parked outside the club, things have now returned to normal: cars triple parked, shouting and arguments, when the club lets out, at four in the morning...
Speaking of law enforcement: last week, Anvil Mortgage, on which we've previously reported, was closed down, by the state Attorney General and Banking Department. They'd lure prospective home buyers with midnight television ads, charge them a $500 application fee -- and then break off all contact. Also, Park Avenue Meats, at 4047 Park Avenue, was fined and temporarily closed down, for health violations....
A turbines update: last week, the N.Y. Post editorialized against the environmental justice campaign around new power plants, four of which would be in the South Bronx (see last week's Report, below). The Post (3/23) opined that even thought "some of the plants will be located within a half mile of neighborhoods that include more minorities and people below the poverty level than in the city generally," this "prov[es] . . . exactly nothing. The sites were not chosen according to who lives there, but because of their nonresidential nature and their proximity to adequate gas and electric hookups." The Post reports that both the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and the South Bronx Board of Trade support the Mott Haven turbines -- but doesn't note that these groups have supported the leasing of the Harlem River Yards to Francesco Galesi, and the incursion of polluting uses on the Yards, since the lease was signed.
A pertinent example from California: residents of South Gate, by Los Angeles' Interstate 710, voted down a proposal for a power plant in their community earlier this month. This despite the power plant's proposed owners' campaign to procure a positive vote: the company spent an estimated $150,000 on a Christmas parade float for the town, a Cinco de Mayo festival and a mailing of candles to all city residents (implying that without this plant, they'd have no electricity). But even the South Coast Air Quality Management Board, which had approved the plan, estimated that the plant would emit 56 tons of oxides of nitrogen, 17 tons of carbon monoxide, 24 tons of volatile organic compounds and 287 tons of particulate matter -- each year...
A Bronx question: if they get a referendum in California, where there are already rolling black-outs, why not in New York?
And another Bronx question (and selective media review): in exchange for the "franchise" to offer cable television in The Bronx, Cablevision has assigned four channels (Ch. 67-70) to BronxNet, housed at Lehman College. We've previously praised some of BronxNet's programming: Gary Axelbank's twice daily talk show; Teens Talk To Glenis, etc.. And we're all for "public access," where amateur producers are given training, and then a camera, to propagate their views. But something's gone wrong: BronxNet Channel 68 has taken to running, at least three times a week, a show in which strippers gyrate in a unidentified nightclub, dollar bills jammed in the g-strings; the show's producers dance pointing handguns into the camera. The show concludes with a Web site address, and a telephone number, with a "212" area code. ICP is all in favor of free speech, and the First Amendment. But this material is being shown on a free cable station, which parents cannot block. Bronx residents have had difficulty obtaining public access time on BronxNet, while this material, with no clear Bronx connection, is being shown... And what is the response of the Bronx politicians who claimed much credit for "getting" BronxNet these four channels from Cablevision? You'd have to ask them...
For an update on challenges to Citigroup's applications to acquire European American Bank, click here.
March 19, 2001
The results of the 2000 census are trickling out -- the Daily News on March 16 took a day off from alternative covers of the Dow Jones stock market collapse and the Puffy Combs trial, to proclaim: "The Biggest Apple!" The charges in The Bronx is the past decade are marked: Latinos now make up 49% of the borough's population; in the West Farms neighborhood, the figure is over 80%. Against this backdrop, we've continued our analysis this week of Citigroup's lending in The Bronx (and Upper Manhattan) in 2000. See also, "Citigroup's Purchase Of EAB Challenged," by Tania Padgett, Newsday, March 13, 2001, Pg. A46; "Group Launches Challenge to Citi-EAB," by Liz Moyer, American Banker, March 13, 2001, Pg. 3; "EAB-Citigroup Merger Plans Questioned," by Tania Padgett, Newsday E-dition, March 12, 2001; "Consumer Group Challenges Citigroup's EAB Acquisition," Reuters, March 12, 2001; "Community Group Challenges Proposed Citigroup-EAB Deal," by Eileen Canning, Bridge News, March 12, 2001. OK: the analysis:
[Some archival material cut to save server space - with questions, contact us]
March 5, 2001
This week: The Bronx as the least organized (and most skeptical) borough; misreported, misrepresented, yet somehow, always moving forward... But first, a first-hand account of a recent (and otherwise unreported) meeting:
The 48th Precinct Community Council monthly meeting, held February 27 in the station house, under the Cross Bronx Expressway, provides a snapshot of the state of "community policing" in New York City. Some two dozen residents of the area (encompassing East Tremont, Bathgate, Belmont and West Farms) attended, including newly-elected City Councilman Joel Rivera and his mother, Ivine Galarza (who whispered repeatedly to Joel: "Aren't you going to say something to the audience?"). The main presentation was by the precinct's commanding officer, Captain James McNamara, who, from Internal Affairs, was appointed to replace Captain Phipps in 1999. At well over six feet, with silver hair, McNamara's the type of self-assured, almost Clinton-like presence the Department would like to project. He summarized the precinct's crime statistics: homicides down, from three in 2000 to two, to date, in 2001. He muttered an acknowledgement of an increase in "GLAs" -- later clarifying that this means "Grand Larceny Auto." He asked for residents' help with this, noting that the precinct has 1,100 parolees, only two of whom are for car thefts. Shaking his head, he described professional thieves, with the stripped carcasses of cars on flat-bed trucks, rolling these cars down into the street and driving away. A woman complained of two long-abandoned cars on 178th Street. McNamara said that once the cars are stripped, it's a matter for the Sanitation Department.
The two murders were described in some detail. On Saturday, February 24, Jose Velez of 2179 Washington Avenue was stabbed to death, following an argument about loud music with a man who works -- or worked -- for the superintendent of the building. "'Stewart,' I think his name is," McNamara said. "We picked him up on Sunday. So he's in jail." McNamara went on to describe another recent crime: a woman claimed (that was McNamara's word) to have been forced into a car at gunpoint, while hailing a cab at Webster and "One-Eight-Two" at "Oh-Three-Hundred hours," on Sunday, February 25. She said the car had Virginia plates, that she was "driven around and raped," and let out of the car on Claremont Parkway. The next day, officers from the precinct drove her around -- she said she remembered going over the 208th Street Bridge from The Bronx to Upper Manhattan, and said the car drove into an alleyway off the playground of St. Jude's School. "When the officers found that their car didn't fit in the alley, we knew something was wrong," McNamara said, adding that the woman later "gave it up," and admitted she'd fabricated the story. "She'd had sex with her boyfriend, and the condom broke -- she couldn’t face her mother," McNamara said. The audience groaned. One woman asked: "Will she be prosecuted?" "It is a crime," McNamara responded, "but I doubt the D.A. is going to prosecute... The girl's only fifteen. She was more afraid of her mother than anything else." Some audience members nodded.
A man from the Monterrey housing projects on 181st Street raised his hand to make a complaint, about the double parked cars and gun fire he attributes to the Jet Set Café, on 181st Street and Third Avenue. The man recounted coming to the precinct to complain, but being shuffled from Sergeant Nichols to Lieutenant Brothers. He said he spoke to police on foot patrol, who advised him to come to the meeting, to complain to Captain McNamara. "People think the cops are on the take," the man said. McNamara raised his hands, into the time-out sign. "We do the best we can, with what we have," he said. One of the Community Council members chided McNamara for the "run-around" the man said he'd gotten, at the precinct. McNamara responded: "As you see, the man has a fairly extensive complaint... Lieutenant Brothers needed to hear it in person."
This led to a description of the second homicide, year to date, in the 48th precinct. A man was stabbed in the Mexican Palace restaurant, across Third Avenue from the Jet Set (and previously reviewed by ICP: see Archives, Bronx Report of July 17, 2000: " cilantro, quesadillas, fish"). McNamara said the whole corner is a problem: "You got the Mexican Palace, El Diamante, the motorcycle club... We do the best we can, with what we have."
A collection was taken -- 21 dollars were donated, for a community council little league baseball team; officers were thanked, by name, for helping with the Christmas toy drive. At 8:10 p.m., an hour after the meeting began, a motion to adjourn was made. But not before Joel Rivera, at his mother's urging, made his presentation: "I'm getting sworn in, on March 10, at Fordham University... I'm a student there... I have my office, at 2488 Grand Concourse, I'm going to open a satellite office at Southern Boulevard and Fairmount Place." His mother, who is the District Manager of the local Community Planning Board, and before that, the director of the Housing Workshop, on Fordham Road ("where are you now?"), nodded throughout. Joel won the low turn-out election for the council seat previously held by his father, now-Assemblyman Jose Rivera. It's a fiefdom, in which power is shared: patronage power is dispensed by this regal Rivera family (at the pleasure of the wider Bronx County Democratic Party machine); the power of arms, the police power, is commanded by a six-foot four Irishman, who appears once a month under the water-stained acoustic ceiling tiles, to field complaints about late night social clubs. Two murders in two months, and both "went down" -- not a bad start to the year...
Now, a round-up: the Daily News of Feb. 27, reporting on a meeting of parents of children at Community School 66, which Education Chancellor Levy proposes to privatize to Edison Schools, Inc., opined that "it increasingly appears Edison's best chance to win parental approval lies at Community School 66... Unlike three Brooklyn public schools and another in Harlem that Edison hopes to manage, CS 66 in Crotona Park East has no entrenched parent group that wants to keep Edison out." The CS 66 Parents' Association, for example, has a grand total of two members. In ICP's experience, it's not (just) apathy -- it's also skepticism. Ironically, one of the reasons that more housing was built and rehabilitated in The Bronx than in the other boroughs is that there's less organized local resistance, even to unaffordable rents and sales-prices, in The Bronx. People watching things happening, cautiously; people vote with their feet. In the recent special election in the 15th Councilmanic district, less than 10% of eligible voters cast ballots. The political machine here, to the degree it still exercises power, does so only in the context of this lack of participation...
Misreported: the Daily News of February 26, reporting on the beating and robbing of a man delivering Chinese food on Carpenter Avenue in the North Bronx, stated, in the lead sentence, that "[a] Chinese food-delivery man was severely beaten in a South Bronx ambush." If it's crime, it must be the "South" Bronx, whatever the geography...
Misrepresented: the New York Times of Feb. 26, reporting on recent calls to privatize Co-op City in the North Bronx, and allow apartments to be sold for market rates, notes, correctly, that the publisher of "City News," a free weekly in Co-op City that's editorializing in favor of privatization -- lives in Connecticut. Once-and-future politico Iris Baez is also quoted in favor of privatization, warning that unless Co-op City keeps improving, "it could become a slum." Just what NYC (and the Bronx) need: less affordable housing...
We'll close with two short poems, distilled from the above-reported 48th Precinct Community Council meeting (we call these, "Bronx Miniatures;" they're © M. Lee/ICP, 2001):
Precinct
The podium was imitation walnut.
The tall cop stood, smirking
At the complaint of corruption.
"It's your right," he said,
"To see it that way."
* * *
[And, a block west:] Bathgate Industrial Park
A thin slit, over cinder blocks.
Inside, cans of dog food are stacked
On pallets and shrunk-wrapped.
It's a "Free Trade Zone" -- and, yes,
They are expanding.
* * *
From the present, we return to the past -- the connection being criminal law. The august (not the month, the adjective) New Yorker magazine of Feb. 19-26 has a long profile of Bronx-based (or at least, Bronx-initiated) criminal defense lawyer Murray Richman. The news hook, such as it is, is his involvement in the Club New York shooting trial, down in Manhattan. The article has some interesting Bronx history. Richman's first law office was in the back of a travel agency on Wilkins Avenue (now Louis Nine Boulevard). From there, he's go "trolling" for client up on Arthur Avenue. Murray tripled his fees. Now, while still maintaining an office on Williamsbridge Road in The Bronx, Murray divides his time between a "two-bedroom duplex penthouse overlooking the East River, on East Seventy-second Street" in Manhattan, and a house in Rockland County. (The article mentions, strangely briefly, that Murray's wife died in that Rockland home, while the profile was being compiled. Rest in peace). The article reports, among other things, that "Morrisania... remains a place of desolation, utterly at odds with Richman's memories of bustling streets, stickball, swimming at the ten-cent pool... and the public library." Community Board Three, Gloria Davis, other defenders and promoters of Morrisania -- where are you? The City, and the NYC Housing Partnership, have spend tens of millions in taxpayer dollars here -- the article does mention the "improbably scattering of small, suburban-style homes." The problem is, that's turned out to be just another, different form of desolation...
The Daily News of February 13 confirmed (after ICP's Feb. 5 Report, see below) that WebVan is NOT coming to the South Bronx, and will NOT lease the old Alexander's warehouse on Tiffany Street in Hunts Point, vacant since 1992. The News now quotes Webvan spokeswoman Amy Nobile that "the bottom line is we need to reduce our cash burn rate," and says the deal died, before any lease was signed, in September 2000 -- just as local politicians and their "economic development affiliates" were claiming credit for the deal. In fact, the News quotes the president of the BOEDC, saying that "a Bronx-based paper company and some manufacturing groups are interested in the building." No explanation of the strangely-timed September love-fest is offered. It's a typical Bronx story: political credit seized, no follow-through, no accountability. Here was our Feb. 5, 2001 update: "WebVan, which in September 2000 announced a (tax benefited) deal to open a warehouse in Hunts Point, for which numerous local officials took credit, is now not, in fact, coming. No clarification (or mea culpa) press release has been issued, however..." Now, despite the Daily News' Feb. 13 follow-up, that's still true...
* * *
February 12, 2001
Five controversies (among many) in The Bronx: last week, one resolved, one postponed, three coming to a head. In that order:
The New York State Court of Appeals has ruled that Van Cortlandt Park cannot be used for a water filtration plant, without formal action by the state legislature. The litigation against the plant began badly, with losses in the federal District Court. But then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit referred the case to NYS' highest court, which last week upheld the principle that park land can't be turned to another use, without the affirmative consent of the state Assembly and Senate. So, the water filtration plan is dead...
Meanwhile, Education Chancellor Harold Levy's plan to privatize five schools, including Community School 66 in The Bronx, has been slowed down. The voting by each school's parents had been slated to begin on February 26. That's now been pushed back to March 12, and the voting will continue until March 23. While the Board of Education is prepare to pay Edison Schools, Inc. $99,999 per school to "educate parents" and get out the vote, it's unclear if opponents of privatization will even be given access to the mailing list of affected parents. Developing...
Coming to a head: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is holding a public "scoping" meeting on February 15, at 7 p.m., at 2962 Harding Avenue, on Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P.'s new amended gas pipeline proposal. Iroquois now wants to build a pipeline that would "cross the Throgs Neck Expressway, follow the Throgs Neck Expressway Extension to Lafayette Avenue and follow Lafayette Avenue to an interconnection site [with ConEd's pipes] located just south of the intersection of Lafayette and Brush Avenues on the east bank of Westchester Creek." The other alternatives would keep Iroquois' pipeline off land. Which is safer, you ask? Off-land. Which is cheaper? On-land. We'll see...
Also coming to a head is a developer's plan to build a motel at the corner of East Tremont and Morris Park Avenues. Local residents have expressed concern about the motel's possible use for prostitution; the owner of the development company, Morris Park-Tremont Realty, says "there's no nice hotel in the Bronx - everything is garbage...I want to put something nice there." The owners of the other 28 motels in The Bronx must love that quote...
And, in the 15th Councilmanic District, in Fordham and Belmont, the special elections to replace Jose Rivera is slated for February 20. Rivera's tapped his 22 year old son, Joel, who is also being supported by the Democratic County Committee and the Borough President. Joel's main opponent is Edwin Ortiz -- at 35, something of a senior statesman in this race -- who has got the support of the Espadas, and of Cong. Eliot Engel. The neighborhood's sidewalks are filled with Joel's fliers; the sound trucks are turning up the volume...
We'll conclude this week with a restaurant review, from lower Belmont: 182nd Street and Belmont Avenue, to be exact. Just opened, at 643 E. 182nd Street, is... a Mexican pizzeria, Bravos. A recent visit found the supplies still being loaded in, as the Grand Opening flags whipped in the wind. There was a single pizza, in the front window, and no menu, either behind the counter or anywhere else. But the proprietors, responding to an inquiry, mentioned caldo de camarones (shrimp soup), and bistek (self-explanatory). The caldo consisted of three mussels, five small shrimp, in a thin broth, with a basket of hot corn tortillas. For four dollars, you can't go wrong...
* * *
February 5, 2001
The U.S. Department of Justice's announcement, on January 31, that it will not pursue federal civil rights charges against the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo 41 times in Soundview two years ago, as he reached for his wallet, has disappointed (and worse) many Bronxites. "The evidence ... does not provide a basis for bringing federal criminal charges," said Mary Jo White, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Supposedly, DOJ felt that it wouldn't be able to prove that the officers -- Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy -- violated Amadou Diallo's rights by intentionally using excessive force. After DOJ's announcement, a number of Bronx residents interviewed by Inner City Press alluded to the Rodney King case, in California in 1992, where DOJ brought and won a federal civil rights prosecution. "What's missing here," one Soundview resident asked: "a videotape?" He added: "Rodney King is still alive... Amadou was killed at 22. Maybe we all just have to start carrying cameras around."
In less dramatic news, it was revealed last week that Education Chancellor Harold Levy has agreed to pay Edison Schools, Inc. $99,999 for a "get out the [privatization] vote" campaign at each of the five schools he's seeking to turn over to Edison, including Community School 66 in The Bronx. Why $99,999, you ask? So that no vote by the Board of Education was required. Parents who oppose privatization can, of course, hold bake sales to raise money to get their views across, prior to the vote, slated to begin on February 26...
The city's Economic Development Corp. is soliciting proposals for a long-vacant block of the Bathgate Industrial Park, just south of the Cross Bronx Expressway. EDC says it will hold an " informational meeting" on February 14, and that March 29 is the deadline for proposals. We at Inner City Press remember when residents were "relocated" from this supposedly "In-Place" industrial park, and the buildings demolished. We know people who work there, packing dog food and other "sundries" in shrink wrap, facing period layoffs and no benefits. Will this new proposal be any better? We'll be following it. A related update: WebVan, which in September 2000 announced a (tax benefited) deal to open a warehouse in Hunts Point, for which numerous local officials took credit, is now not, in fact, coming. No clarification (or mea culpa) press release has been issued, however...
Finally, for this week, here's an absurdly-detailed request we received on February 1, that (this is a long shot) a reader may be able to answer better than we can -- just click on the requester's e-mail address to respond:
Subj: 1295 Walton Avenue?
Date: 2/1/01 8:16:37 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: lawleewright@netscape.net
To: BronxReporter [at] innercitypress.org
I am inquiring about a street light at the corner of 1295 Walton Avenue located in the Bronx, NY. I need to know what was the condition of the light between August 1, 1982 and August 30, 1982? When any repair or light bulb was changed? and Who made the repairs at 1295 Walton Avenue? Thank you for your prompt attention.
* * *
January 29, 2001
School privatization: today Harlem, tomorrow The Bronx. On January 18, staff of Board of Education chancellor Harold Levy locked out the school board of PS 161 in Harlem, which, along with PS 88 in The Bronx, and IS 246, 320 and 111 in Brooklyn, Levy is proposing to "privatize," to Edison Schools, Inc.. Levy's spokeswoman Margie Feinberg told reporters that the Harlem board members were denied access to the school because they failed to follow "procedures," including filing for a permit, not because of their views. On Jan. 24, more than 400 parents packed the auditorium at PS 161 for an emergency meeting on the proposed takeover by Edison Schools. Most denounced the plan. Barbara Ruple, a parent and school aide at PS 161, said: "We're not for sale. We are not pieces of meat." Ah, privatization...
Boston Road hot sheet motel politics: the Borough President and his "chief strategist" (and more), Roberto Ramirez, are opposing the City Planning Commission's version for re-zoning Boston Road, to preclude so-called "hot sheet" motels. Reportedly, Ramirez' law firm is suing the City Planning proposal; the lead attorney is Ramirez law partner Linda Baldwin -- wife of City Councilman Adolfo Carrion, who Ramirez is said to favor as the next Borough President. Eh-pa-le!
Meanwhile, Jose Rivera's son has been running a van through his father's old district, with loud speakers playing Latin music, babbling about the upcoming special election...
North Bronx surreal: on Jan. 25, Terry Anne Bastone, a prospective candidate for City Council from the North Bronx (where June Eisland is term-limited), described to reporters outside her home on Kingsbridge Avenue a December meeting with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Riverdale) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx, Westchester). "Mr. Dinowitz told me the club membership would not support me because I don't have a nice Jewish name," Bastone. "He told me right in front of Mr. Engel."
Dinowitz quickly called Bastone's accusation an "out-and-out lie." Engel put out a press release: "I have no comment on these obviously inaccurate statements. Terry Bastone, like anyone else, has the right to run for any office, based on her qualifications and accomplishments, not on ethnicity." The Daily News quotes "a source close to Engel" and Engel "told her she was unelectable - that she didn't have the support out in the community." Hmm...
* * *
January 22, 2001
Late at night, on Cablevision's Bronx channels, they run a half-hour paid advertisement for a subprime lender, Anvil Mortgage. It's structured like a religious revival, with an amphitheater full of grateful homeowners, virtually all of them African American, singing the praises of Anvil and its chief executive, Eric Kotch, who is... not African American. Mr. Kotch states soulfully into the camera and says that in 1994, the federal government "loosened guidelines" for mortgages, but that "the banks" don't want to tell you about it. Only Anvil! The cameras flash to testimonials: smiling couples in two-family homes, locations unknown. On the bottom of the screen, where you'd expect "Compensated Endorsement" to appear, is it does in the ads for Conseco, starring Lou Rawls and various game-show hosts, Anvil's ad proclaims: "Typical Experience." The ad concludes with a chant: "This is YOUR chance."
A news search for Anvil Mortgage, in the last two years, find no articles at all. A Web search finds that the New York Banking Department fined Anvil for a violation of Part 410.1(b)(1) of the Superintendent’s Regulation: "failing to demonstrate and maintain an adjusted net worth of not less than $250,000.00." A search of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data reveals that, in 1999 in the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area, the high-interest rate lending Anvil made 41 home purchase loans to African Americans, 16 to Hispanics, and six to whites. This is targeted marketing -- if the interest rates were normal, we'd be the first to applaud. But if you target a "protected class," with high-interest rate credit, someone is supposed to sue you. Mr. Spitzer? Or -- a better joke -- Mr. Ashcroft? Developing....
In other accountability news, last week, Banana Kelly, until so recently a South Bronx powerhouse, paid to support Francesco Galesi's Harlem River Yards project, announced tersely that management of 27 of its buildings is being given to Promesa (yes, the group whose chief financial officer was shot and killed, by another employee in 1992); the Local Initiatives Support Corporation announced that 14 other Banana Kelly buildings are being turned over to another managing agent. But what of those who for so long praised, funded and used Banana Kelly? No accountability for them, for now at least...
Do we have positive news? We do. First, hats off to Wayne Gorbea's most recent album, "Saboreando . . . Salsa Dura en el Bronx," especially its cover of "El Yo-Yo," previously made famous by Cortijo y su Combo -- that is, with Ismael Rivera. In terms of events, the Bronx River Art Center, at 1087 East Tremont, is opening a month-long show of Sites and Sounds from the Artist Space Program, featuring "three dimensional mixed media artworks that incorporate both acoustic and electronic music scores." The kick off is on January 31, 6 to 9 p.m....
* * *
January 16, 2001 -- Fires, Gunshots, Turbines and Geysers
Fire: on January 13, firefighter Donald Franklin, 42, and two tenants of 320 E. 166th Street, Nathaniel and Jean Barnes, died in a two-alarm fire. Two teenagers, Zebediah Hart and Eugene Hart, managed to save another resident, 78-year old Mann Smith, by dragging his out of the building. The Times called the building "partially abandoned," and quoted an unnamed police spokesman that "[t]he first and fifth floors of the building were unoccupied" and that "the city was planning on taking over the building because of code violations." Apparently on its own observation, the Times added that "[m]any of the windows were boarded up, and a dozen rats scurried out of the building after the fire last night." Rest in peace, to all three. And note that rats are scurrying throughout the Bronx, without regard to fires...
Gunshot: on January 6, 2001, ex-Bronx State Supreme Court justice Abraham D. Levy died, of natural causes, at 95 years old. Most memorable, of his time in the Bronx court house, was the day (July 8, 1987) when a 42-year-old woman walked into his office and fired two rounds at him from a .38-cal. pistol because he would not release $ 198 in public assistance checks to repair leaks in her apartment. The story resonated outwards; the Washington Post quoted Levy that it was "all in a day's work." Rest in peace.
Turbines: the state DEC has rubber stamped the ten planned waterfront power generators, two of which are slated for the South Bronx, two for Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, and NONE for Manhattan. New York Power Authority Chairman Clarence Rappleyea said proudly: "This is a two-year process, and we're squeezing it into a couple of months." Any power plant generating over 80 megawatts requires a full environmental review. These planned generators will generate -- you guess it -- 79.9 megawatts. While other elected officials prepare to sue, the Bronx Borough President, as usual, hints at how he can be satisfied (using precisely that word): "I want to see some proof on those emissions, I want to see reports from other municipalities where these generators have been tested, and then I'll be satisfied." Then again, it's not only elected officials, but also affected residents, who can sue...
Geyser: the Botanical Garden has discovered water under its property. Drilling through 515 feet of schist bedrock, they've hit a gusher, and clocked its flow at 50 to 60 gallons per minute. "We have been looking for water on the property for some time so we did not have to be reliant on the city," said a spokeswoman for the Garden.
Just south, at the Bronx Zoo, officials last week admitted that they've been shooting dogs, which they characterize as wild and rabid. PETA's on the case, and has a good point: why not use a tranquilized gun, rather than a rifle? Routine brutality...
* * *
January 8, 2001
We'll begin this week with a consideration of the digital divide. Cablevision, owner of the Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden and "The Wiz" electronics stores, has the "franchise" (read, monopoly) for providing cable television service in Bronx county. Bronx residents are bombarded with commercials, urging them to buy a cable modem at The Wiz, and experience high-speed Internet service. There's only one problem: whereas Cablevision offers this service in Westchester County, on Long Island and in New Jersey, it does not offer it in The Bronx. Cablevision has issued a press release, stating that "The Riverdale section of the Bronx is currently scheduled to receive service some time in 2002." The electronic redlining behind all this couldn't be clearer: the lowest income, most predominantly "minority" county is excluded, and the provider intends to enter the county in its most affluent, least predominantly minority neighborhood. The U.S. Department of Justice in 1995 filed a redlining lawsuit against a bank, Chevy Chase, on just this theory. Whether the new administration -- with John Ashcroft nominated as Attorney General -- would pursue this is questionable. But there are applicable state and local laws...
Meanwhile, NYC police commissioner Kerik has recently "transferred" (that is, removed) the commanding officers of three Bronx precincts the 44th, covering West Tremont, Morris Heights and Highbridge, where crime has climbed 13.5 percent as of Dec. 24; the 52nd, covering Bedford Park, which had a 5.29 percent increase in crime and a 92.3 percent increase in killings, to 25 from 13 last year; and . the 41st, covering Hunts Point and parts of Mott Haven, where reported crime rose 10.44 percent.
41st Precinct Sergeant James Caban was recently found guilty of having locked up a livery cab driver who Caban's wife accused of stealing money from her purse. Caban used his power as an officer to try to get the money back, locking the cab driver up, then writing it down later as only a "stop and frisk." Caban's been convicted of Official Misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor, and Falsifying Business Records in the 1st Degree, a Class E felony offense, following a non-jury trial before State Supreme Court Justice David Stadtmauer. He'll appears for sentencing on February 27, 2001 in Part 35...
We wish to amplify our report, two weeks ago, on the race to succeed city councilman Jose Rivera. Beyond Rivera's 21-year old son Joel, and Edward Ortiz, there are two other candidates: Julio Munoz and Joseph Padilla. Here's the kicker: Ortiz, Munoz and Padilla have all served on Community Board 6; Joel's mother, Ms. Galarza, is the district manager of CB6 (a fact missed by the New York Times once-over of the race, but pointed out to Inner City Press, years ago, by the now-deceased East Tremont activist Eliazair Escalante. R.I.P.).
The Times also mis-served the Bronx in its Dec. 31 story on the low "recertification" rate of the state's Child Health Plus program, which is intended for children of the working poor. The Times attributes the 50% fall-off rate to parents who do not show up for the face-to-face recertification interviews. But many Bronx residents who do show up are put through a run-around -- told that they have to apply for Medicaid, or asked for double and triple proof of where and how they live. This was meant to be a streamlined program, only for children, including of undocumented immigrants. But the social worker mentality of the interviewers, particularly at 188th Street's Union (once Hospital, now "Community Health Center," following its take-over by St. Barnabas), is to blame for the fall-off in insurance coverage -- not, as the Times has it, the negligence of the parents themselves. That's just too easy (and to paternalistic) an explanation...
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January 1, 2001
One of our focuses in early 2001 will be on education chancellor Harold Levy's plan to privatize five public schools in NYC, including one in The Bronx: Community School 66. As details emerged in the week between Christmas and New Years, Levy's hand-chosen contractor, Edison Schools, Inc., has been given until the end of February to procure a vote for privatization from the schools' parents. There's a need for local scrutiny of this privatization process. Both the New York Times and the Daily News have editorialized in favor in Levy's plan (the Post, it goes without saying, is on board). Because of how lucrative the NYC "market" might be for it, Edison is now dangling the carrot of a "free" personal computer for every student over third-grade. Sounds good, doesn't it? Maybe they'll pipe in the corporate Channel One television network, so kids can see advertisements during the school day, as well as at home. The Daily News' editorial, of Dec. 27, was shameful: it quoted, without qualification, Edison's own (unverified) claims that "[l]ast year, Edison's students gained an average of 5 percentage points on standardized tests." The Times (Dec. 28), after referring to a Michigan study that accuses privatized schools of "dumping their weaker students into nearby public schools -- after being paid to educate them -- and screening out disadvantaged and disabled students altogether," goes on to support Edison and Levy as well. But this is the same New York Times which, in an otherwise interesting Dec. 27 article about the old Fashion Moda art gallery on 147th Street called the Bronx' main artery, 3rd Avenue, "Third Street," and in a Dec. 29 real estate article, gave unqualified praise to the publicly-funded gentrification of East Harlem (which the Times calls a "pioneering neighborhood"). So, we'll be watching...
We'll also be watching how the new administration in Washington, and the proposed new Environmental Protection Agency chief, Christie Whitman, act on the miniscule advances in the late 90s in "environmental justice," a major need in The Bronx. One predictor of what's coming is a "briefing" meeting that Bush received, in May 1999, from a group of conservative, "free-market" think tanks, including the Reason Public Policy Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Political Economy Research Center. These groups pitched him on the (discredited) idea that market forces, by themselves, can protect the environment more effectively than government regulation. The ideas discussed included allowing ranchers to sell their federal grazing permits to environmentalists who want to retire public land from grazing; and letting environmentalists bid on federal timber sales to protect trees from logging. "Let those who care about the environment pay for it," is the slogan. But how would this play out in lower-income neighborhoods? Is it reasonable to expect, for example, the residents of the South Bronx to have bought the land on which Bronx Lebanon Hospital built a medical waste incinerator, five blocks from a housing project? The $1 dollar a year lease the Francesco Galesi received, from the Pataki administration, for the Bronx' Harlem River Yards -- that, we could afford. But the price was low due to political influence, which is sadly lacking in communities like the South Bronx...
In political news, there will be a special election, to fill the City Council seat the Jose Rivera gave up, to take Roberto Ramirez' Assembly seat. The machine's choice? Rivera's son Joel, a 22 year old Fordham student. Nepotism is alive and well in the South Bronx...
On December 27, ICP ventured into the Bronx Supreme Court, 851 Grand Concourse, to file a lawsuit against the New York Banking Department's approval of the Chase - J.P. Morgan merger (click here for our ongoing ChaseWatch). Question: why is there no photocopying store anywhere near the Bronx court house? The nearest one of which ICP is aware is a small one on Fordham Road, across from the Rose Hill campus, and another small one (closed, on December 29) on Kingsbridge near Jerome. Months ago, Kinko's had a sign up, on a building on Webster just above Fordham: "Coming Soon." Well, it hasn't come, and now the sign is gone. As previously reported, Federal Express closed its office in Fordham Plaza. With all the talk of the Bronx' "revitalization" (most recently, in ex-LISC-er Paul Grogan's new book, "Comeback Cities"), the lack, in a county of over one million people, of a photocopy store, or a Federal Express office, or even a judge willing to hear a case about a bank's redlining of the Bronx, continues to be troubling...
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