Mott Haven Herald

Latino Museum shortchanges NYC, says Senator

Posted on 01. Feb, 2010 by Joe Hirsch.

A museum dedicated to Latinos in the United States has been in the pipeline in the nation’s capital for several years, but at least one Latino lawmaker from the Bronx is unhappy. State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. is concerned that Puerto Ricans and New Yorkers are being left out. (more…)

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Port Morris wasteland dreams of green

Posted on 20. Jul, 2009 by Sarah Trefethen.

By Sarah Trefethen
sarah.trefethen@motthavenherald.com

It’s a sunny spring afternoon, and a handful of residents are spending time on the stoop of Jasmine Court, on the corner of 138th Street and Bruckner Boulevard. Trucks rumble on and off the expressway. Pedestrians hurry past.

Laura Barksdale, 52, says she sits outside because she likes to watch the people go by. But she acknowledges Port Morris is not the most comfortable place to hang out outdoors.

“There’s nowhere to relax and sit around,” she said. “There’s nowhere to go.”

The industrial area at the borough’s southernmost tip is a place of trucks, factories and fumes, with little to offer humans who travel by foot or by bike, or want to sit a spell. But the proposed South Bronx Greenway could bring tree-lined paths and waterfront parks to Port Morris’ lifeless streets.

Work is already underway on the Randall’s Island Connector, the first step in implementing an ambitious plan that could eventually lace much of the South Bronx with safe and attractive places to exercise and enjoy the outdoors.

Once the Randall’s Island Connector is built, the plan calls for trees to be planted along Willow and Locust Avenues and 138th Street. Cyclists will get their own lane, protected from trucks by a curb.

Right now, the streets leading to the East River shore end in barbed-wire fences. The plan calls for access to the river from 132nd and 134th streets, where small waterfront parks will be built.

Plans for the South Bronx Greenway originated in Hunts Point a dozen years ago, when Majora Carter, then a program associate at The Point Community Development Corporation, wrote a $1.25 million grant proposal to make the waterfront more accessible.

Two new waterfront parks opened in Hunts Point in 2006, but the remainder of the plan remained on paper until this spring, when Mayor Bloomberg announced that $22 million in federal stimulus money would be used to move the greenway from the drawing board to reality.

Completion of the greenway would make it possible for walkers or cyclists to take a trail from Port Morris to Hunts Point Riverside Park, and to connect there with the Bronx River Greenway, leading all the way to Westchester.

“The greenway will offer a community that has had the least amount of park space per resident, compared to the rest of the city of New York, some breathing room,” said Miquela Craytor, executive director of Sustainable South Bronx.

Jasmine Court, an assisted living facility for the formerly homeless, is a rare place in Port Morris where people actually live. But the Port Morris section of the greenway will also benefit the tens of thousands people living nearby in Mott Haven, and waterfront enthusiasts from even further afield.

Forty-year-old Ozzie Morales, a delivery driver from East Elmhurst, likes to stop his van at the fence at the end of 134th Street and enjoy the view.

“I think it would be really, really great,” he said when told about the proposed greenway. “It’s a beautiful view, and this is wasted land. It has so much potential. I could see seating here, and a promenade, like they did on the West Side in the 20’s.”

There are also thousands of people with jobs in Port Morris. Vanessa Lloyd, 18, is a clerical worker at the World Vision distribution center in Port Morris. She thinks trees and bike paths would make the neighborhood a better place to work.

“We need something like that to make it look lively. To have people be able to ride their bikes instead of walking in all this trash,” she said. “It’d be nice to have some healthiness around.”

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Whose South Bronx Greenway is it anyway?

Posted on 20. Jul, 2009 by Sarah Trefethen.

By Sarah Trefethen
sarah.trefethen@motthavenherald.com

A number of Mott Haven community leaders are complaining that they have been left out of planning the South Bronx Greenway’s future.

At stake, they argue, is not only recreation but jobs.

“There’s a whole spectrum of economic development opportunities here, and we want to make sure this is as inclusive as it needs to be,” Arline Parks, the chair of Community Board 1’s economic development committee, said at a recent committee meeting.

A team of consultants is working with Hunts Point community groups to plan how businesses and residents can get the most out of the proposed greenway. They are developing a business plan for a new, home-grown non-profit organization that would manage the greenway, putting more effort into upkeep than city agencies would be expected to.

“It’s a difference of do you want it kept clean, or kept clean and also planted every year,” said Frank Randazzo, director of the Bronx Empowerment Zone, an arm of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation that provided $150,000 to pay the consultants.

According to Daniel Hernandez, one of those consultants, the new non-profit will most likely resemble Solar 1, the environmental education group that manages Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River in Manhattan.

The management organization would hire other groups to run programs, organize commerce and maintain the greenway. Local residents would have priority in filling these contracts.

“There’s a lot of momentum and investment in the greenway, and implementation of this is critical,” Hernandez said. “People will see that.”

The completed plan will be presented to a steering committee assembled by Paul Lipson, Rep. Jose Serrano’s chief of staff. The committee, which includes representatives of the New York and Bronx Overall economic development corporations and several non-profits, will be in charge of turning the plan into a reality.

“It seemed to me it was more Hunts Point than Mott Haven centered,” said Parks, after a presentation at Board 1’s office.

“They talked about vendors, concerts and other activities. You’d want to make sure our community members could be vendors, and host activities, and participate in the economic development opportunities. You’d want to make sure it’s going to represent Mott Haven and Hunts Point,” she said.

Mott Haven has almost twice as many residents as Hunts Point, but Parks said Hunts Point has gained an advantage because of its activist organizations. “Mott Haven doesn’t have the kinds of organizations that Hunts Pont has,” she said. “Hunts Point has been ahead of the curve in that regard.”

Harry Bubbins, the director of Friends of Brook Park, said he was glad work was being done on the greenway.

“We were leading bike tours to promote the idea 10 years ago, so we’re very pleased to see some progress on this project,” he said.

But Bubbins was disappointed that he hadn’t anything about plans for a new organization to run the greenway. And he was worried that a planning process that doesn’t involve the whole community might seem efficient in the short-term, but ultimately fall short of its goals. “There’s a consolidation within Hunts Point groups at the expense of larger community building,” he said.

The Port Morris Industrial Business Zone promotes economic development in the area immediately surrounding a portion of the proposed greenway. Stephane Hyacinthe, who runs the program, said he thinks the greenway sounds like a wonderful idea, but no one has contacted him about the plan.

“It’s an initiative I’d be more than willing to work on and give my expertise and knowledge,” he said, “but I don’t know who’s spearheading the project.”

Maryann Hedaa, who heads the Hunts Point Alliance for Children and is a member of the steering committee, said the perception that Mott Haven and Port Morris groups were being left out of the planning for the management of the greenway was probably correct.

But, she added, “I don’t think the right people from Hunts Point are on the committee either.”

She is less worried about the geographic makeup of the committee than she is about its collective expertise.

“The trouble is there’s no real business leadership involved,” she said. “It could be a whole lot of money going down the drain if you don’t get the right people managing it. I’m worried the people on that committee will maintain the status quo, and the status quo in the South Bronx isn’t sustainable.”

In addition to the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, the steering committee includes representatives from The Point CDC, Rocking the Boat and Sustainable South Bronx.

Randazzo also said Mott Haven and Port Morris may have been overlooked. While much of the work is already done, he said there is still time for additional input on how the greenway should be managed.

“Is there room for another opinion? I would say sure. Is it going to have the same effect as if you’d been there since day one? Probably not,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough to remember everybody.”

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Melrose says farewell to a senior citizen referral office

Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by Maria Clark.

Buena Ayuda closes its office

By Maria Clark
maria.clark@motthavenherald.com

The farewell ceremony at Buena Ayuda Para Personas de Edad’s corner office in Melrose was bittersweet. During its three years of operation, it has come to represent support, comfort and respect for seniors throughout the South Bronx.

When it closed for good on June 30, many seniors were left to wonder where they will find a suitable replacement.

Alfonso Chavez Jr., who is blind, attended the agency’s solemn closing on June 4.

“This is like a home to me,” he said. “I don’t see. I am in a world by myself. Coming here and listening to them gives me comfort and makes me feel I am somebody.”

Harry Hernandez, a social worker with Buena Ayuda’s parent company, Bon Secours, a Maryland-based health network, opened the center three years ago, as a bilingual information and referral center for senior citizens. It offered computer classes, helped translate bills and tax documents and assisted with housing and health concerns.

Chavez and his fellow seniors in the neighborhood soon discovered that Buena Ayuda was not only a place where they could get help navigating confusing bureaucracy. Within the cozy office, they met friends and had a quiet place to rest between errands.

“People couldn’t believe this office was here for free,” said Harry Hernandez.

Buena Ayuda opened in 2006 thanks to a three-year grant from Bon Secours Riverdale affiliate, the Frances Schervier Health Network. The parent organization cited lack of funds as the reason for the closing.

“Everything is free, so it’s expensive to keep up. It’s very unfortunate,” said Nadine Baker, a spokeswoman for Schervier.

“When we felt lost, here there was always somebody to help,” said Aida Gonzalez, 73, a local resident. ”Where am I going to go now?”

The majority of the seniors who frequent the office face language barriers, in addition to the typical health concerns that come with old age.

Chavez first sought help at Buena Ayuda after his apartment became flooded and the building’s superintendant refused to fix the problem. Buena Ayuda helped him contact city housing agencies to get someone to clean up. The office has since become a regular stop on his stomping grounds.

“This is like giving us a piece of candy, letting us taste it and then taking it away, no questions asked,” Chavez said at the farewell ceremony.

Leocadia Ferreira, 68 and her husband Rafael Sieles, 95, sought Buena Ayuda’s help after realizing they had been tricked by a travel agent. While the couple was on a long-awaited trip back home to Santo Domingo, Sieles became ill, and Ferreira had to fly back to New York to keep from losing their visas. She noticed that although she had meant to purchase just one round-trip ticket, the agent had tricked her into purchasing two. Harry Hernandez helped her get her money back and clear up her visa complications.

Hernandez pointed lovingly to a cozy sitting area in front of the glass storefront where two elderly gentlemen sat reading the newspaper as they waited for the farewell ceremony to begin.

“I wish I could say that what I have done would make things easier for them once we’re no longer here,” he said. “I hope.”

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Community resources for senior citizens

Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by Maria Clark.

maria.clark@motthavenherald.com

The following community resources offer immigration information services, legal aid and social services:

Neighborhood Self-Help By Older Persons Project, Inc. : Offers a range of services including their Healthy Life program called Proyecto Salud, to help reduce the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes among seniors.

953 Southern Blvd., Suite 205 Bronx, NY 10459

Tel. (718) 620 4650 Fax (718) 620 4557

Legal Aid Society: Legal services including procuring government benefits, housing issues, and Family and Domestic Law.

953 Southern Boulevard

Tel. (718) 991-4600 Fax (718) 842-2867

Regional Aid for Interim Needs Inc. (R.A.I.N., Inc.): has twelve full service senior centers, home delivered meals and home care services for homebound persons, transportation services, and adult education programs.

811 Morris Park Ave. Bronx, NY 10462

Tel. (718) 892 5520 Fax 892 5732

Institute for the Puerto Rican Hispanic Elderly: Assistance applying for American Citizenship, Translation Services, Counseling, Advocacy, Crisis Intervention, Social Services, Nutrition, Housing, Mental Health Services.

389 East 150th Street Bronx, NY 10455

Tel. (718) 292-5601 Fax. (718) 292 5341

Presbyterian Senior Services/ Senior Center (PSS)
325 East 156th St. Bronx, NY 10451
Tel. (718) 585 1640 Fax (718) 585 1703

Melrose Senior Services/ Senior Center
372 East 152nd Street Bronx, NY 10455

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Mott Haven tenant leader passes away

Posted on 13. Jul, 2009 by Maria Clark.

By Maria Clark
maria.clark@motthavenherald.com

Shirley Flowers was more than just a lifelong resident of the Jose de Diego-Beekman houses which span East 138th, 143d St., and St. Ann’s and Jackson Avenues.

Flowers, who died in May from complications related to diabetes, was Beekman’s most ardent protector for over 30 years, fighting to keep crime and violence from creeping into the 1200- apartment complex.

In the late 1970s, Flowers co-founded a tenant organization to get drugs out of the 38 buildings that comprise the Beekman houses. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she tried to helped fight a ruthless drug gang called the Wild Cowboys that had taken control of the neighborhood while using Beekman Avenue as a crack peddling center.

Flowers set up a tenant patrol in the late 1980s to keep drugs away. A New York Times article from November 5, 1991, describes her sitting alone in the lobby of her building six days a week from morning until night trying her best to ward off suspicious strangers.

Despite the dangers, Flowers continued to work with troubled youth in the neighborhood.

Her friend, Mott Haven housing advocate Arline Parks, remembers Flowers as “a mother figure to a lot of people in the neighborhood. She wasn’t just a resident, she was involved in everything that had to do with the neighborhood.

“She would get on the kids when they were doing something they had no reason doing,” said Parks. “She would see what a lot of kids were doing and she would tell their mothers.”

Flowers’ daughter Sharon White remembers her mother sitting on their front stoop with a mason jar by her side, asking for donations to fund block parties she organized every year on Beekman Avenue. She organized the parties every year for the past 20 years, until last year, White said.

“She didn’t just live here, she was always involved,” Parks remembered.

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Mott Haven march denounces gun violence

Posted on 13. Jul, 2009 by Joe Hirsch.

By Joe Hirsch
news@motthavenherald.com

Naisha Pearson was just 10 years old when she was gunned downed in Saw Mill Park on East 139th Street. She was playing at a Labor Day block party in 2005 when a stray bullet struck her.

Soundslide by Maria Clark

Her killer, a 20-year-old stranger named Rene Bonilla, was shooting at someone else. He’s now doing 50-to-life behind bars.

In Naisha Pearson’s memory, Saw Mill Park was the starting point for this year’s Mother’s Day walk and rally against gun violence. It was the fourth consecutive year that the anti-gun protest was held on Mother’s Day weekend in Mott Haven, in memory of young people killed by gunfire from illegal guns.

Nearly 400 local residents and family members of slain loved ones gathered for this year’s event. They demanded solutions to the continuing scourge of gun violence in the city.

The marchers walked up St. Ann’s Avenue to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church where a half-dozen parents and other relatives of young people killed by guns shared their grief and pleaded for stricter national gun laws.

“We started this four years ago, and the turnout today is beautiful,” Naisha Pearson’s mother Taesha told the crowd as she fought back tears.

“If we keep on like this, we won’t have a future,” she said. “Our kids will be gone, and then what will we have?”

Other family members spoke out about more recent tragedies. Jamell Woods, 26, was gunned down on May 3.

“I buried him yesterday, and I thought that was the worst thing I thought I would ever have to do,” Woods’ mother Cynthia told the gathering, her voice breaking. “I’m not supposed to be burying my son; he’s supposed to be putting me away. I’m not supposed to be going through this right now.”

Sherard Bates’ brother Shannon, 33, was killed April 27.

“Conflict resolution doesn’t need firearms,” Bates said, addressing the young people in the crowd. “Ones that use firearms, they’re cowards. You’re always gonna have conflicts. How you resolve that conflict is the key.”

A gun buyback in April got 987 guns off Bronx streets (see accompanying story). More is needed, said Gloria Cruz, who founded the annual Mott Haven walk and rally after Bonilla shot Naisha, and who continues to organize the Mother’s Day event every year.

Jackie Hilley, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, which co-sponsored the march, told the crowd to pressure politicians to stem the flow of illegal guns to New York streets, “because these guns that are killing your kids and ruining your families and devastating your future are coming from states where anybody can buy a gun by just going in and handing over the money.”

“We need to close the gun show loophole at the federal level,” Hilley said, suggesting the public log onto the votesmart.com website to tell Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, “We’re tired of going to funerals in our neighborhoods from guns from other states.”

Local politicians agreed.

“We need a uniform anti-gun policy law passed,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who attended the rally along with City Council members Melissa Mark Viverito and Maria Carmen del Arroyo.

Members of the local community group the Black Spades were among numerous civic organizations that marched.

Marion “Tiny” Frampton, 53, a lifelong Mott Haven resident and former spokesman for the group, which was formed by area teens in the 1970s as a way to organize young people to protect themselves from violence in the inner city, said the carnage today is a result of failed local and national policies.

“You got to offer these kids something,” Frampton said. “The government is busy building jails, but we’ve got the raggediest schools,” he added. “They’ve got to do something about the south, because that’s where all the guns are coming from.”

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Feds charge Arroyo kin with embezzlement

Posted on 12. Jun, 2009 by Bernard L. Stein.

Taxpayer funds intended for two low-income housing projects in Mott Haven paid for trips to Puerto Rico for Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo and her mother Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, according to a federal criminal complaint charging the assemblywoman’s grandson with embezzlement.

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.

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Buy-back takes an arsenal off Bronx streets

Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by Bernard L. Stein.

By Azriel James Relph
azriel.james.relph@gmail.com

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.”

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New borough chief will bring change

Posted on 22. Apr, 2009 by Bernard L. Stein.

By Caroline Linton
caroline.linton@motthavenherald.com

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. (more…)

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