Mott Haven Herald

In the news, August 22-28

Posted on 23. Aug, 2010 by editor.

A gathering of evangelical Hispanic Christians in St. Mary’s Park on Labor Day will bring thousands of the faithful to Mott Haven, its organizers say. They will celebrate the 80th birthday of Rev. Yiye Avila and the 50th year of his ministry, according to state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., one of the organizers of the event, along with the Hispanic Clergy Organization of New York, Council Leaders, Radio Visión Cristiana Internacional, Radio Cántico Nuevo and Radio Conectate. The event begins at 3 p.m.

The bloodbath continues. A 21-year-old man was shot and killed at 4 a.m. Friday in front of 285 East 156th Street, near the Andrew Jackson Houses. The victim, Delquan Alston, had two gunshots wounds to the head and two gun shot wounds to his body. According to the Daily News police say Alston was a drug dealer, and may have been murdered in a dispute over territory.

A devastating fire took the life of a young man when it raged through his apartment in the early morning of Aug. 23. It took 65 firefighters to extinguish the blaze on 149th Street, the Daily News reported.

A new charter school will open in Mott Haven on Wednesday. Bronx Success Academy 1, which will share quarters with PS 30 at 510 E. 141st Street, will start with a Kindergarten and first grade and add a grade each year. It will feature a longer school day, starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m. The school is part of the Success Charter Network founded by a politician, former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.

Continue Reading

In the news, August 1-7

Posted on 01. Aug, 2010 by editor.

The work of the renowned architect C.B.J. Snyder, best known for his work on public schools, will be discussed by researcher Jean Arrington. The free lecture is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, August 18 at p.m. at the Mott Haven Library, 321 E. 140th St. off Alexander Ave, and is sponsored by the Bronx Historical Society. Call the library at (718) 665-4878 for directions or other details.

Success Charter Network is planning to open a new public elementary school in District 7 in Mott Haven in the fall of 2011. The group will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, August 11, at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of Bronx Success Academy 1, at 510 E. 141st St. at the corner of Brook Ave, so that residents can learn more about the school. Those wishing to attend should RSVP to Alexa Birnbaum at Alexa.Birnbaum@successcharters.org by Tuesday, August 10.

“Changes in The Bronx” is on view at LDR Studio Gallery at 137 Alexander Ave #10, through Aug. 4. “Changes in the Bronx” is a two-person show featuring the video of Benton-C Bainbridge and the photography of Luis D. Rosado who play witness to the changes happening in their home borough and beyond. The closing reception will be held from 5:30PM – 9:30 p.m., followed by an after party until midnight.

The killing spree continues. Carrel Ogarro, 25, was shot execution-style near his home in the Jackson Houses early Saturday. It was the fourth homicide in eight days. Police sources told the Daily News Ogarro, who was convicted in 2008 of drug possession, may have been dealing drugs from his apartment on East 158th Street.

Continue Reading

In the news, July 26-August 1

Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 by editor.

Beginning a string of three homicides in seven days, 18-year-old Troynisha Harris was killed by a man who jumped from a Lincoln Town Car and plunged a knife into her neck on July 24. Harris and a friend were sitting on a stoop on 166th Street at 3:30 a.m. when the attacker struck. When Harris’s companion struggled with him, he stabbed him in the stomach, then fled. On Saturday, police released video of the attack in an effort to find the killer.

Shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday a man was shot and killed at 681 Courtlandt Avenue in Melrose, the Daily News reported. Police did not identify the victim, who was in his 20s, and whose bodies was riddle with bullets, they said.

A well-known resident died Wednesday, four days after he was beaten and stomped by thieves who stole his cell phone. Surveillance cameras caught the attack by four men, who beat and kicked Juan Lopez, 54, as he was returning to his home on Cauldwell Avenue. “There wasn’t one person in the neighborhood who didn’t know my father,” his daughter Melissa Lopez told the Daily News. “Nobody can believe that anyone could do such a brutal thing to my father.”

Former waitresses at a Mott Haven strip club have filed suit in federal court, charging that were groped, had to fend off sexual demands from their bosses and had their tips stolen. “They degraded us, they insulted us. They touched us,” Jasmine Felipe, 26, of the Bronx told the Daily News about working at Sin City, the club on Park Avenue and East 138th Street that bills itself as “New York City’s # 1 Strip Club!”

When Congress voted to spend $37 million Tuesday to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Rep. Jose Serrano, who represents Mott Haven and Hunts Point, voted No. Serrano called for an end to the Afghanistan war, and said e U.S. forces should leave Pakistan unless Congress gives specific authority for them to be there. “I believe that sending forces to Afghanistan after 9/11 to root out the terrorists, their supporters and their training camps was the correct move. Nine years later, I believe that it is past time to end our involvement in that nation, because it is clear we are stuck in a quagmire and not on the road to peace or victory,” he said after the vote, which won approval for President Barack Obama’s policy 308-114 with many Democrats voting against the expenditure while Republicans voted with the White House. If military involvement in Pakistan were to be put to a vote, Serrano said, he would vote No again.

Every year, police forces across the country hold a one-day summer event called “National Night Out” to bring police officers and community residents together to discuss local issues and concerns outside the tense environment of precincts and meeting rooms. This year’s event in Mott Haven will take place in St. Mary’s Park on St. Ann’s Avenue on Tuesday, August 3rd, where officers from the 40th precinct will be present. Among this year’s featured events, high school students and adult volunteers from the United Playaz organization will stage an event to promote the need for peaceful conflict resolution among young people. The event is scheduled to run between 3 and 8 p.m.

Brook Park in Mott Haven was the scene for the second annual Festival for Immigrants on July 24, as hundreds gathered to hear activists speak out against Arizona’s controversial new law, which many feel discriminates against Latinos. There were musical and dance performances, including the Mexican traditional dance troupe Cetilizli Naucampa, which performs dances based on the Nauhatl traditions. Speakers called on the public to join a planned protest against the Arizona Diamondbacks when they visit Citifield in Queens to play the Mets on Friday, July 30.

The Bronx Culture Trolley will make its next run on Wednesday, Aug. 4, with a number of stops in Hunts Point and Mott Haven, including 52 Park, The Point CDC, Bronxartspace, LDR Studio Gallery and the Bruckner Bar and Grill. The free ride begins at Longwood Art Gallery, Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse at East 149th Street.

Cecil Joseph, who was briefly the interim Bronx Borough President when his boss Stanley Simon was indicted for corruption in the mid 1980s, has opened a new McDonald’s across from Lincoln Hospital. After heading the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, Joseph, who grew up in the Patterson Houses, turned entrepreneur, forming a company to acquire fast food franchises.

Continue Reading

In the news, July 6-11

Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by editor.

The farmer’s market at La Finca del Sur will open this Saturday, July 10, from 10-1. The mid-summer Farm Fest is July 31.

Nineteen-year-old Mavon Chapman was gunned down on 149th Street and Morris Avenue and died of his head wound before he could be treated at Lincoln Hospital a block away.

A school focused on money is being hailed for improving students’ ability to do math and for instilling discipline. The Wall Street Journal likes Mott Haven’s Middle School 223, the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, which uses play money to teach real world lessons.

Firefighters, elected officials and community leaders will gather to mark the 20th anniversary of the successful battle to reopen the firehouse on 150th Street on Saturday, July 10, Immaculate Conception Church, 330 East 150th Street. Closed by the Koch administration in 1989, Squad 41 remained out of service for 14 months. During that time, 14 residents perished in fires, while community groups held protests and went to court. David Dinkins restored the company on July 1 1990.

Marcus Hickman and Angel Hernandez will lead a history tour of Hunts Point on Sunday, July 18. Sponsored by the Bronx County Historical Society, the tour will meet at the Hunts Point #6 train station where Southern Boulevard, East 163rd Street, and Hunts Point Avenue converge. The cost is $10 for Historical Society members, $15 for non-members. For reservations call 718-881-8900.

Tenants on 146th Street were evacuated when the power went out on Thursday, not only knocking out air conditioners but causing a build-up of carbon monoxide. They were back home by Friday.

Continue Reading

In the news, June 28-July 4

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by editor.

A baby hawk fell from the family nest on an air conditioner in the Hub. Mott Haven resident Lee Rivera called in Friends of Brook Park, which rescued the bird. It will be rehabilitated and released into the wild.

Is a large, suburban-style supermarket in Mott Haven’s future? The city Economic Development Corp. has just issued a call for developers to build at the Hub–on two lots between East 149th Street, Brook Avenue, Westchester Avenue, and Bergen Avenue–and it’s offering incentives for building a supermarket on one of them. Under the city’s FRESH program, enacted to bring more and better food options to under-served neighborhoods, the 58,000 square foot lot is eligible for zoning breaks and financial incentives if it’s developed as a supermarket.

A 26-year-old man was shot dead in the elevator of a building on 149th Street.

Police arrested an aide to Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, Wilfredo Nazario, and charged him with impersonating an officer and stealing $4,000 by flashing a badge and a gun to get into a Bronx apartment. The Assemblywoman defended Nazario, saying it was all a mistake.

The Bronx Community Pride Center at 448 East 149th Street is looking for volunteers to help it serve the area’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents. People who know bookkeeping and accounting are especially needed.

Continue Reading

In the news, June 21-28

Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by editor.

A Book Fair on the sidewalk in front of the Bronx Museum on the Grand Concourse at 165th Street this weekend has been organized to call attention to the absence of bookstores in the Bronx. The fair, on Sunday, June 27, from noon-5 p.m., will feature books, magazines and comics, along with authors and artists.

SummerStage Dance 2010, will be in St. Mary’ Park this weekend. Rennie Harris RHAW and Le Soul Afrique with Special Guest Akim Funk Buddha will perform on Friday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Abakua Afro-Latin Dance Company and Areytos Performance Works will be on stage on Saturday at 7.

One of the culprits in a scandal that has cast a shadow on Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo and City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo is headed to a federal pen for the next 10 months. Margarita Villegas pleaded guilty to embezzling $50,000 from a non-profit housing corporation that manages low income apartments. Next up, Richard Izqierdo Arroyo, who admitted stealing $115,000, some of which prosecutors say went to the assemblywoman and councilwoman, his grandmother and aunt, respectively.

Friends of Brook Park has a plan to create oyster and mussel beds in the Bronx Kill, which separates Mott Haven from Randall’s Island. The organization is awaiting word from the feds about a $50,000 grant for its proposal to clean up the polluted water nature’s way.

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin won’t challenge Congressman Jose Serrano this year, but won’t rule out a run in 2012, when new district lines are drawn. Benjamin is giving up his seat in the State Legislature.

A refugee from Sierra Leone, who attended International Community High School in Mott Haven was stabbed to death in Washington Heights Sunday. Police said 18-year-old Mohamed Jalloh, who lived in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, was seen arguing with a group of men in a McDonald’s.

Mott Haven has a new landmark, the seven-story Haffen building in the Hub. The Landmarks Preservation Commission also began considering creating a Grand Concourse Historic District stretching from 153rd to 167th Street.

Thirty-three-year-old Tamar Brown was killed on Courtlandt Avenue near the Melrose Jackson Houses Sunday. Police said he had been shot several times.

A soldier who grew up in Mott Haven was murdered on an Army base in Georgia. Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado, 47, a father of three was shot several times. Police have not identified the shooter, who turned himself in and is in custody.

Thieves broke in to St. Rita’s Shrine Church in Mott Haven and stole chalices and communion plates, some jewel-encrusted.

Continue Reading

Marchers call for end to gun violence

Posted on 17. May, 2010 by Emily Lavin.

As she sat on her aunt’s lap, tears streamed down five-year-old Maryliz Romero’s face as she thought of her uncle, whose picture she was wearing on an oversized button.

“This is what we go through all the time,” said her aunt, Lesly Romero, 35, looking down at her niece.

Two years ago, while Maryliz’s uncle was visiting friends in Mott Haven, a stray bullet took his life. He was 15 years old.

“This is why we’re out here,” said Romero.

Romero and her niece were two of hundreds who gathered at 139th Street and Brook Avenue on May 8 for the Fifth Annual Walk Against Gun Violence. Armed with signs to commemorate loved ones and bullhorns to magnify their words, they walked the streets of Mott Haven and urged the community to end gun violence–a problem many of them say is only getting worse. (more…)

Continue Reading

Vigil held for shooting victim

Posted on 04. Oct, 2009 by Joe Hirsch.

25 year-old Taisha Santiago was killed protecting her 9 year-old son as they were caught in crossfire in front of their home in Mott Haven on September 25. 25 year-old Jason Irizarry and 16 year-old Robert Vargas were arrested for firing the shots, one of which killed Santiago.

The shooting occurred at the corner of 445 East 146th Street on the corner of Willis Avenue around 3 p.m while Santiago and her son were returning from the laundromat. Santiago pushed her son up the stairs of their building, but was felled by shots before she could make it up the stairs herself.

Members of the local anti-violence organization Million Mom March gathered for a vigil to honor Santiago on September 30, along with community residents and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

“Our elected officials, police department and community leaders must continue to work together in the difficult fight to control the use of illegal guns in our streets,” Diaz said.

The Million Mom March holds a rally annually to commemorate victims of violence in and around Mott Haven. Over 400 marchers attended the 2009 rally last March to draw attention to the violence that continues to claim lives, much of it at the hands of young people with illegally-owned handguns.

Continue Reading