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.

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In the news, August 15-21

Posted on 17. Aug, 2010 by editor.

St.Luke’s School on E. 139th St. near the corner of Cypress Ave will be celebrating its 100th year Anniversary on October 2nd. Alumni from around the country will be attending, to participate in school tours, along with a mass and evening event at Eastwood Manor. Those interested in attending are asked to rsvp by accessing the school’s website, www.stluke138.org, then downloading, filling out and sending the registration form and payment. Early registration is encouraged.

The Department of Sanitation has changed the recycling day for parts of Mott Haven and Melrose to Tuesday. Recyclables will be picked up then between St. Ann’s and Prospect avenues from 149th to 161st streets. Here’s a map.

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Mott Haven ministry has four-legged helper

Posted on 09. Aug, 2010 by Juan DeJesus.

One Saturday five years ago 28-year-old Andrew Mann drove his budget truck from Poplar Bluff, Missouri to Mott Haven. Ever since, the young minister has been overseeing the day-to-day activities at Graffiti “2” Ministries on Brook Avenue and East 141^st Street.

If you ask those who live in the area about him, many will just say “Who?” But everyone will recognize his constant companion, a five-year-old golden yellow Labrador named Proof. (more…)

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Mercy Center throws lifeline to Mott Haven families

Posted on 09. Aug, 2010 by Toyin Adebanjo.

Heidy Rios knows what it’s like to be poor. Born and raised in the Bronx, for a time she had so little money that she and her children lived in an apartment that had no stove or refrigerator. She kept food cold by putting it on the windowsill during the winter.

She remembers being fearful and embarrassed when she went to job interviews. She didn’t know how to turn on a computer, let alone use one.

Then, one day when she dropped her children off at St. Pius V School on East 144th Street, Rios found a flyer advertising the services of Mercy Center, which was headquartered at the school at the time. (more…)

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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.

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Green jobs, green city: a special report

Posted on 06. Jun, 2010 by Bernard L. Stein.

The economy may be recovering, but you wouldn’t know it in Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris, where, officially, one of every five adults is unemployed, a number that overlooks many undocumented immigrants and ignores those who have given up on looking for work or taken part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time employment.

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.

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Workers learn by doing in Project H.I.R.E.

Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by Carla Candia.

A brand-new duplex apartment in the University Heights section of the Bronx is ready for inspection. Equipped with bamboo floors, a ceramic kitchen and a spacious bedroom closet that would make more than one New Yorker jealous, it would rent for at least $2,000.

Instead it will be demolished. And the construction workers who built the apartment won’t mind seeing it go. (more…)

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SoBro gets students ready for green economy

Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by Alex Green IV.

The adage “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is being given new meaning by a group of high school seniors working with SoBRO, the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.

The students are starting a fashion business that will recycle hand-me-down clothing and plastic soda containers to make handbags, pencil holders and change purses.

The project, called Green Goes Greener 2010, is an add-on to SoBro’s In-School Youth program—a year-round after-school program that provides career planning and work-readiness training to low-income students. (more…)

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Mott Haven co-op preaches gospel of reuse

Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by Vishal Persaud.

Sounds of power sanders filled the warehouse of ReBuilder’s Source on Timpson Place on a recent afternoon. They didn’t buzz, they boomed. Six people were at work, two or three times the usual staff at the worker-owned cooperative.

ReBuilder’s Source didn’t hire more workers. It was hosting a weeklong training program in cooperation with the Osborne Association – a non-profit that provides job training for people who were once in prison. (more…)

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Mott Haven students learn hurricane’s lessons

Posted on 03. Jun, 2010 by Emily Lavin.

While most of their classmates slept in and hung out during their week-long spring break from Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School, Laurin Ellis, 18, was picking up a drill and installing dry wall. Jessica Colon, 17, was taking her very first canoe ride. Joanelly Fermin, 17, was cleaning up parks and helping to build benches. (more…)

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