But the neighborhoods of the South Bronx have an edge: experienced community-based organizations devoted to an idea whose time may have come—green-collar jobs building a more energy-efficient, less polluting economy.

Green jobs have become a buzz word, embraced by the Obama administration as a way out of the economic downturn. It has provided $4 million to a union-backed education organization, which will parcel it out to local organizations.

In this special report, the Herald examines how much of that money will be spent, analyzing what it may mean for residents and for the Bronx and taking readers to the workplaces and classrooms that will share the $4 million to teach new skills. We visit:

• The Osborne Association, which helps people who’ve done time in jail or prison to become gainfully employed.

• Project H.I.R.E. at Bronx Community College, where trainees learn construction practices

• And an after-school program run by SoBRO, where young people get an early start at thinking green.

A version of this article appeared in the June issue of the Mott Haven Herald.

Carmen E. Arroyo

Arroyo, who was indicted in June for stealing from SBCC Management Corp., a housing agency he headed, spent $20,000 of the embezzled funds to pay for a trip to Puerto Rico for the assemblywoman and councilwoman, to pay the salaries of interns in their legislative offices and their political club, to make contributions to their campaigns and to buy new flooring for the assemblywoman’s office, according to the indictment.

On a two-week trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in November 2008, he charged $10,500 on the company credit card for his hotel, room service, massages and spa treatments. All-told, over a four year period, he charged $90,000 to the card for personal expenses, according to the United States Attorney for the Southern District, Preet Bharara.

Maria del Carmen Arroyo

Izquierdo Arroyo served as president of SBCC Management, and was also the chief of staff to his grandmother the assemblywoman. He was widely believed to be preparing to succeed his 74-year-old grandmother.

On March 2, Margarita Villegas, the executive director of SBCC, who was indicted with Izquierdo Arroyo, also entered a guilty plea to embezzling $50,000.

Her lawyer told the Daily News that she had not made a deal to testify against the Arroyos, and in announcing Izquierdo Arroyo’s guilty plea the U.S. Attorney made no mention of a cooperation agreement with him.

Izquierdo Arroyo has agreed to repay the $115,000. He is scheduled to be sentence on June 25. The embezzlement charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Rev. Martha Overall, the pastor of the Mott Haven church, showed Archbishop Rowan Williams the church’s Wednesday food pantry.

She told the archbishop, who is the symbolic head of the Anglican Church worldwide, “We are really the poorest of the poor. Since we are open all the time, we are the community church,” according to the Diocese news site.

The archbishop was in New York for a theological conference. During his visit he met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Consortium for Worker Education will use the money to establish a Center for Environmental Workforce Training to teach both job skills and offer general education.

The organization will partner with several non-profit organizations, including Mott Haven-based SoBro and Greenworker Cooperatives to train residents to build or retrofit energy-efficient buildings.

Most of the participants will “learn how to work with their hands—being able to fix things,” said Rebecca Lurie, director of development at the consortium.

Jobs will include window installation and building repair, installing insulation and repairing or installing boilers, she said Some participants in the program will also learn to conduct energy audits and market energy upgrades to building owners,

Lurie said the consortium hoped to launch the program, which will last for two years, within a month.

Sustainable South Bronx and The Point CDCthe Osborne Association, the Association for Energy Affordability, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. and Bronx Community College’s Project Hire will also serve as partners in the program, which was hailed by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. as “a big step toward becoming the ‘greenest’ borough in New York City.”

All told, the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, aims to provide training and education services for 425 participants, while placing 297 of those who receive a degree or certificate in jobs.

By Adam Liebowitz

This summer, youth in THE POINT’s Summer Day Adventure Program and the teen ACTION program launched a new initiative around urban farming. In EarthBoxes and gardens at both THE POINT and the Bryant Hill Community Garden we planted seeds and seedlings of many different types of vegetables.

This initiative hopes to inspire our youth and the larger community to get first-hand experience working with the earth and growing vegetables, as well as educating them about the healthy benefits of eating locally-sourced food both for themselves and the environment.

And its not just us! Check out the video below about the growing movement in the South Bronx and beyond! Featured in the video is Bissel Gardens, Friends of Brook Park, Part of the Solution, Brotherhood / Sister Sol, slides courtesy of the Majora Carter Group, Bascom Catering, and more!

And there are SO MANY other groups doing similar amazing work that didn’t make it into this cut but are just as vital to the goal, such as the BLK Projek, South Bronx Urban Farmers Collaborative, For A Better Bronx, More Gardens, Added Value, the list goes on and on.

The full length video will be screened in its entirety at a special World Premiere event happening at THE POINT CDC on Saturday November 14th, 2009.

Adam Liebowitz heads the ACTION Program at The Point CDC.

Richard Izquierdo Arroyo and Margarita Villegas stole $200,000 from the non-profit SBCC Management Corp., which manages the Judge Gilbert Ramirez Building at 455 E. 138th Street and the Carmen Parsons Building at 441 E. 155th Street, the complaint, unsealed on June 10, charges.

Izquierdo Arroyo is the president of SBCC and Villegas is its director. They used the company’s American Express card to pay for $15,000 in clothing at stores ranging from Macy’s and Promgirl to Coach and Polo Ralph Lauren, according to prosecutors, and charged $66,000 for restaurant meals. Trips to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic accounted for another $80,000.

Included in those travel expenses was the airfare for the assemblywoman and the councilwoman, who is Izquierdo Arroyo’s aunt, the complaint charges. It says Izquierdo Arroyo also paid nearly $4,000 to install a new floor in the assemblywoman’s office and drew on SBCC checking accounts to make more than $13,000 in campaign contributions to the assemblywoman.

SBCC is affiliated with South Bronx Community Corp., a nonprofit that shares an address with the Parsons Building. Maria del Carmen Arroyo headed the organization before her election to the city council, and it employed Izquierdo Arroyo and Iris Arroyo, the councilwoman’s sister. Last year, the Daily News reported that the councilwoman and her mother the assemblywoman had sponsored a total of $242,000 in city and state funds for the South Bronx Community Corp.

Neither elected official has been charged with breaking the law. Izquierdo Arroyo and Villegas pleaded not guilty and are free on $200,000 bail.

When you subtract nearly a thousand guns from the arsenals of residents, what do you get? Safer Bronx streets, say the organizers of the Fourth Annual Mother’s Day Walk Against Gun Violence.

In April, the most successful gun buy-back since the New York City Police Department and the Bronx District Attorney program began last summer yielded 987 guns.

Six churches throughout the borough – including Immaculate Conception on East 150th Street and Melrose Avenue – served as the drop-off points for residents looking to exchange firearms for $200 cash cards, no questions asked.

Among the firearms turned in were 296 revolvers, 174 automatic pistols, 21 assault weapons, 13 sawed-off shotguns, 242 rifles, 163 shotguns, and 78 others, including BB guns.

Asked why they were turning in their weapons, one man said he participated in the buy-back because “I really need the money right now,” while another man said, “Times are just hard,” and one woman answered simply, “Bills.”

At one point a line formed at the ATM machine in a bodega on Melrose Avenue across the street from Immaculate Conception. Most of those waiting had come right out of the buy-back with their cash cards in hand.

One young man, who asked to be called Shaheed, elaborated on what had brought him to the event: “A gun is for protection, but you’ve gotta have something to protect,” said the 27 year-old from Harlem. “I saw it in the corner collecting dust, and at this time, I don’t have any use for it. Money is more important right now, and I’m gonna pay some bills.”

According to Gloria Cruz, leader of the Bronx Chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, however, more than just tough economic times led so many people to hand in their weapons.

“Money was tough this year,” she said, “but a lot of it had to do with the churches and the community groups involved in the program. The word got out and the people from the neighborhood knew about it. Churches are easily accessible and are a nice private place where people don’t feel they will be judged.”

Cruz, who helped promote the April 25 gun buy-back and also organized the May 5 Walk Against Gun Violence, insists that people are driven by a desire to improve their community and not just by the $200 payout.

“People just wanted to step up and take responsibility by getting guns out of their homes. Changing your community starts with changing yourself. The first part is getting that gun out of your house so people don’t get hurt,” Cruz said.

She believes the gun buy-back could have been even more successful if there had been more time. “Ten hours would have been even better than six hours. The Department of Justice should take a look at how successful this was and make these regular, year-round events.”

Someone thought the gun buy-back was a chance to get rid of even more lethal weapons. Although flyers for the buy-back clearly stated that the program was for firearms only, and not explosives or ammunition, a man attempted to hand in an improvised grenade.

Police shut down the New Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ in Fairmont-Claremont Village for several hours while the Emergency Services Squad removed the grenade.

Since the program began last July, the NYPD has brought in 4,538 guns at buy-backs in churches. Guns from these buy-backs are melted down and turned into wire coat hangers.

“The Bible tells us that ‘wisdom is better than weapons,’” said Police Commisioner Ray Kelly at a press conference after the event. “You might say we are beating swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks and handguns into hangers.”

The suit charges that the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation violated state law when it decided that a full environment impact statement was not necessary to carry out the plan.

Melrose-based Nos Quedamos is among the plaintiffs. “New Yorkers should be concerned greatly by the increasing privatization of public parkland, particularly when it benefits the wealthy to the detriment of other New Yorkers. This is fundamentally an issue of environmental justice,” said Yolanda Gonzalez, the organization’s executive director.

The Bronx Borough President’s race was all about the numbers: 21; two; $200; $270,000; three and 149.

Twenty-one was April 21, the date of the special election to replace Adolfo Carrión, Jr., now a member of the Obama administration.

Two was the number of candidates in what was once expected to be a crowded , competitive contest, but turned out to be a one-sided match between Democratic Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., and Republican Anthony Ribustello, a Board of Elections employee.

Two hundred is the mere $200 the Ribustello campaign had in its warchest, while $270,000 was the amount Diaz raised.

Three is Third Avenue in Mott Haven, which Diaz singles out as a model for the rest of the neighborhood’s development.

And 149 is the Mott Haven connection: “I went to Clark Junior High School 149,” Diaz said. “Mott Haven has bounced back well. I think Mott Haven is going to be in pretty good shape.”

In a pre-election interview, Diaz said improved schools were his top priority. He pointed out that he was a member of the Assembly’s education committee, and said he understood how important education funding is.

As borough president, he said, he will use more of the money at his disposal for education projects.

Diaz’s emphasis on schools would mark a policy change from Carrión, who in this year’s budget had $50 million in city funds at his disposal and used half of it for housing initiatives.

“Affordable housing is important, and we will continue to do that, but we are also going to look into the school system,” Diaz said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t advocate for the city and state to do what they need for Bronx schools,” he added.

The new borough president said he wanted to increase the number of computers in schools. Diaz also said he wanted to fund what he called the little things that can make a big difference.

Showing a command of the particulars, he cited projects such as rehabilitating the auditorium at Junior High School 123 in Soundview and the cinematography lab at Fanny Lou Hamer High School in Morrisania as the sorts of projects he would like to fund in the future.

Another top priority, Diaz said, is to put more money into community centers, so they can become job opportunity centers.

“We are going to teach folks how to prepare themselves and how to be job ready,” he said. “We’re going to work with elected officials at all levels of government and where we can partner up, we will.”

Diaz said he also wants to encourage environmentally-sound development, especially in Mott Haven, which has been slated by city planners for new high-rise apartments buildings and business development.

“I want to make sure the money that we use, when we speak to developers, is used so that they want to have green buildings,” Diaz said.

He also pledged to work to retain the residential feel of Mott Haven, where city planners hope to encourage a development of a large supermarket, an influx of new retail business and construction of a convention hotel.

“Obviously we’re going to continue to push businesses, but we want to keep the character of the neighborhood,” Diaz said.

As a veteran member of the Assembly and the son of State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., Diaz said his legislative experience would be valuable for the Borough President’s office, since he has built up relationships with elected officials in Albany, including Gov. David Paterson.

Diaz announced his candidacy on the steps of Borough hall, only a few months after a bitter fight within the Democratic Party ousted longtime leader José Rivera.

Diaz played an important role in the coalition that toppled Rivera and replaced him at the helm of the Bronx Democratic Party with Assemblyman Carl Heastie. One of the consequences of the coup was to weaken Rivera’s son, Councilman Joel Rivera, who had been gearing-up to run for borough president, but chose instead to sit the race out.

In the Bronx, electoral contests between Democrats, rather than between a Democrat and a Republican, are decisive. With no Democratic opponents in this race, Diaz is all but guaranteed the seat at the April 21 special election.

He will have to run again in November for a full four-year term, and could, conceivably face a primary challenge then. But a confident Diaz said he plans to continue in office. He said he wants to guide the area through the difficult times ahead.

“Bronxites are resilient; we know how to make a dollar out of 15 cents,” he said. “This was the borough where the crack epidemic was often highlighted; this was the borough that was often stepped on in the past. We’ve had dark clouds over our heads before, and look where we are now.”

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2009 edition of the Mott Haven Herald.

Lamont Barkley, 42, has lived in Mott Haven his whole life and has witnessed the devastation that overtook the neighborhood, and its rebuilding.

But that does not mean he’s ready for the latest change: the city’s plan to replace gritty industrial buildings with high-rise waterfront apartments and retail businesses.

“Development is always a good idea, as long as you don’t try to move people out of the projects,” he said.

Barkley lives in the Patterson Houses, the 15-building Housing Authority complex that occupies the land between Morris and Third Avenues from E. 139th to E. 145th Streets. The city’s plan calls for creating “a lively mixed use, mixed income neighborhood” along Morris Avenue, across the street from the housing project.

While by some estimates it could take as long as a decade for the Lower Concourse rezoning to accomplish its goals, many residents are leery of the changes.

“They’ve been trying to push people who have been here for years out,” said a local resident who would only give his first name, Poochie. “I’m 54 years old, I grew up here and most of the people who are still here, they wouldn’t be able to afford it now.”

But Thomas Carswell, who said he has been a resident for 52 of his 57 years, said he would welcome the changes.

“This particular area—Mott Haven—these projects, they’re a breeding ground for drugs, violence, STDs,” he said. “Anything that’s coming to this area to improve it, I’m all for it.”

Even though construction worker Billy Meister, 47, makes his living from development, he said he worried that Mott Haven would lose some of his favorite qualities if developers moved forward in the way the city hopes they will.

“There’s a lot of construction going on, but nothing is favorable to the people,” said Meister, who lives in Orange County but works on construction projects in the Bronx. “You can’t build a high-priced neighborhood and keep us here.”

For Charlie Brice, 35, a waitress at the Sweetwaters Café at Third Avenue and 138th Street, the idea of encouraging new businesses to locate in the area is a welcome one. Since she lives near Yankee Stadium and does not own a car, she said she would appreciate it if more grocery stores were added in the area.

But she, too, expressed concern about the impact of the changes. Growing up in Dorchester, a Boston neighborhood that has attracted higher income residents in recent years, she said she has seen the good and bad sides of gentrification. She especially lamented the loss of small “mom and pop” stores.

But while Brice, who is African-American, said she liked the diversity of Mott Haven, she worries about just who will be moving into those new apartment buildings. “It’s fine to be multicultural and all; just don’t kick us out, ”she said.

While many of the residents interviewed were at best ambivalent about the plan, the area’s elected officials have fewer qualms.

Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., the frontrunner to become Bronx Borough President, said he wanted to make sure residents would not feel they are being pushed out of the area. “Obviously, we’re going to continue to push business, but we want to keep the character of the neighborhood,” Diaz said.

Similarly, State Senator José M. Serrano said in an email response to questions that he supports the Lower Concourse rezoning, as long as city officials work with community members.

“The key here is not about when it will be completed, but whether it will be achieved with the proper community input so that the citizens of the South Bronx and its adjacent areas may benefit from the changes,” he wrote.

Barkley, the Patterson House resident, said he remained skeptical, especially after going to a ballgame at the new Yankee Stadium with his son. The stadium turns its back on the residents who live near it, he said, and he worried that a similar thing would happen if the Lower Concourse plan succeeds.

“You’ve got to remember people live here,” Barkley said. “They’ve been living here their whole lives.”

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2009 edition of the Mott Haven Herald.