Quote on 1-year anniversary of Pantaleo non-indictment

  "Today marks the one-year anniversary of the day that a grand jury failed to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the tragic and preventable killing of Eric Garner. It is with heavy hearts that we reflect on the challenges we have faced combating the prejudices and biases underlying this issue over the past year. Let us stand together as a community and honor Eric’s memory by continuing to raise our voices against injustice, both on the streets and in the courts."

Said Council Member Andy King 12^th District of the Bronx

Co-Chair of the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus of the New York City Council.

BRONX UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS AGAIN

BRONX UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS AGAIN

Unemployment Down to 6.5%; More Bronxites Employed Today Than Ever Before;

Over 100K More Bronx Residents Working Since May 2009

The Bronx continues to show progress in the areas of job creation and economic development, according to new statistics from the New York State Department of Labor.

The unemployment rate in The Bronx fell to 6.5 percent in October 2015, down from 6.6 percent in September 2015 and 8.9 percent in October 2014.

Those same statistics show that the total number of Bronxites who are employed is 571,700, up from 468,800 in May 2009 when Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. first took office. This is the highest number of Bronxites employed since the Department of Labor began keeping statistics in 1990, and means that over 100,000 more Bronx residents have jobs today than six years ago.

“The Bronx has seen tremendous growth over the past six years, and none of that would have been possible without strong partnerships between our elected officials, community boards, business community, non-profits, neighborhood leaders and our 1.4 million residents, who everyday are working to make our borough a better place to live, work and raise a family,” said Borough President Diaz. “We have cut our unemployment rate in half, and more Bronxites have jobs today than ever before. That is success that we can all be proud of.”

The Department of Labor’s complete release can be found at http://on.ny.gov/1R6npuU.

Since Borough President Diaz took office in 2009, The Bronx has seen more than $7 billion in total development, which has led to the creation of thousands of new jobs. In addition, a new partnership announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in August 2014 between the New York State Department of Labor and the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, as part of the “NY Works,” program is placing Bronx residents in these jobs, helping to ensure that new development here benefits everyone, especially Bronxites.

Statement of Principles on Private Development

In response to the wave of real estate speculation threatening the South Bronx and that will open the doors to hyper-gentrification, we present below a Statement of Principles on Private Development.  These principles have been in the making for upwards of a year by members of the Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Trust (in consultation with experts in each area) in response to the decades of "development" without community engagement that has caused a health epidemic and now threatens mass displacement. As some of our elected officials choose to deny the existence of gentrification, many developers have already bought land, filed plans and erected buildings "as of right", and many are not requesting any zoning changes, variances or government subsidies that would trigger wider accountability. Over the coming weeks, members of the community will be assessing adherence to these principles of each developer -  from Carnegie, Cheskel Schwimmer and Chetrit to Hornig, JCAL, Savanna and Somerset, among many others - and sharing the information publicly so that we can best direct the breadth of efforts to protect and uplift our community. I. Jobs. As a community facing one of the highest unemployment rates in the city, we call upon all real estate development construction opportunities to be given to union workers (with preference to South Bronx residents) with a significant percent to be given through apprenticeship programs to South Bronx residents of color in all building trades. Commercial enterprises developed as part of real estate development should hire a significant percent of its long-term workforce from the South Bronx and pay at a living wage or prevailing wage standard, whichever is higher. II. Housing. Guided by a history of disinvestment and displacement that caused the loss of 80% of South Bronx housing stock and where residents are now facing high rent and higher rent increases, we call upon all private developers in the South Bronx to set aside a significant percent of any new residential rental and for sale development for local residents at an affordability rate based on the current average median income of the South Bronx. We also call upon developers to provide ongoing contributions to an anti-displacement fund to develop tenants’ rights materials and outreach, to assess displacement-related impacts of development projects and to further affordable housing construction and other community needs. III. Environmental Justice. As an environmental justice community facing severe health inequities (which cause asthma rates eight times the national average) from the decades-long over-saturation of waste transfer stations, fossil fuel power plants, industrial facilities and other diesel truck-intensive business, we back the Principles of Environmental Justice and the creation of green space and public waterfront access  and call upon all real estate developers to support the community-designed and -driven Mott Haven Port Morris Waterfront Plan (before ground is broken on their own development projects) as well as the reduction of the 850 acre significant maritime industrial area in the South Bronx, the largest in New York City, which currently restricts the community’s waterfront access. IV. Empowering Local Arts, Artists, and Communities. We will enforce a new paradigm in the South Bronx that counters the cynical relationship between real estate and art, and that victimizes artists as disposable collateral. We will look critically at developers and creative clusters that more easily become mechanisms to employ our street and social credibility for dis-location and consumerist overcrowding rather than nurturing drives that weave themselves into the wider fabric and respect the character of the neighborhood in which they exist.  We insist that private developers and businesses sponsor and assist in nurturing our artistic community through anti-displacement strategies and initiatives such as: (i) community-driven projects to develop multi-use artistic venues and multi-sectoral incubators; (ii) funding for projects and entrepreneurial activities that feature artists in leadership roles and engage community members as equal partners; (iii) studio residency or work-space programs that focus on creative practice development for emerging artists; and (iv) funding for local small non-profit organizations that support artists of diverse disciplines, practices, cultural backgrounds and career stages. V. Promoting Community Cohesiveness.  To prevent a tale of two neighborhoods from developing as a result of building high end residential developments along the waterfront edges of one of the poorest economic but richest cultural districts in the country, we call upon all developers to provide meaningful contributions to the broader community to bridge inter-connectedness, including support for community gardens and urban farms and space set-asides for community groups, youth and senior programming and other needs of the community. VI. Local Economic Development.  We call upon all developers to enact a local South Bronx preference policy with respect to material purchasing, contracting, servicing, selling/leasing and all other business activities related to residential and commercial development in the South Bronx, including a significant percent favoring South Bronx businesses that are truly minority and women owned business enterprises (MWBE). VII. Health Equity. Residents of Mott Haven and Port Morris suffer from high rates of asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. Because of these and other factors, life expectancy for community residents is 10 years less than that of residents of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Neighborhood conditions can play a key role in addressing these disparities, but without a deliberate focus on health equity in the planning and design of new developments, buildings and open spaces can unintentionally widen health inequities. Developers should analyze the health impacts of their projects, and use documents likeThe Active Design Guidelines  and Enterprise Green Communities Criteria to guide their design process to create spaces that promote health. VIII. Public Private Projects.  With respect to private development projects receiving city subsidies, zoning variances, land use changes or in any other way involving the government and thus requiring community input and/or approval, these principles should be enforced with the full weight of the government, who should also ensure timely notice and meaningful public engagement in the planning, building and maintaining of such projects. Additionally, we would like to see the city work with affordable housing developers to erect more 100% affordable housing in the South Bronx, and all publicly-owned vacant and/or available real estate should be prioritized for community-driven development initiatives, including transferring such real estate to local land trusts.

3rd Annual Allerton Tree Lighting

 

Join us on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015 for our 3rd Annual Allerton Tree Lighting!    Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm Location: Bronxwood Tree  (Triangle of Bronxwood, Boston Road & Allerton Avenue) Special appearance from Santa Claus! Warm refreshments will be provided by Morris Perk. For more info please call :718-409-0109

MENORAH LIGHTINGS WITH SENATOR JEFF KLEIN AND ASSEMBLYMAN MARK GJONAJ

MENORAH LIGHTINGS

WITH SENATOR JEFF KLEIN AND ASSEMBLYMAN MARK GJONAJ

Monday, December 7th

3:30pm - Bronx House

990 Pelham Parkway South, Bronx, NY

4:30pm - Einstein Hospital 

Corner of Morris Park Ave. & 

Eastchester Rd., Bronx, NY

5:30pm - Pelham Parkway at White 

Plains Road, Bronx, NY

For more information, please contact 

Senator Klein’s office at (718) 822-2049.

or

 Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj at 718-409-0109

Belmont Christmas Tree Lighting to go on

Last year's Christmas tree at the Vincent Ciccrone Playground in Belmont.

   The New York Post which first reported that the Christmas Tree in Vincent Ciccrone Playground in Belmont would not be on display this tear due to the hiring of a security guard to chase away pan handlers and homeless people. It now seems that after a lot of media attention that the Belmont BID along with City Councilman Ritchie Torres have come up with the funding to have a Christmab tree in the Belmont park again this year,

  The scheduled date of the Christmas tree lighting in Vincent Ciccrone Playground in Belmont is Saturday December 12th at 3 PM.

Silver Found Guilty on All Counts

JUST IN:

 Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was found guilty on all counts of the trial for which he was charged by the U. S. Attorney.
Sheldon Silver will now have to give up his seat in the state assembly due to his conviction.

Statement Of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara On The Conviction Of Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

 “Today, Sheldon Silver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York.”

More details as they come in.

Those Who Make Money Out of the Suffering of the Poor and the Homeless

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz
District 32 Bronx County, New York

You should know that there are many people who are making a lot of money out of the suffering of the poor and the homeless.

It is important for you to know that as the homeless population in the City of New York nears 60,000 and everyone talks about ways we can help the homeless – and even though the City and State spend exorbitant amounts of taxpayer dollars on homeless families, the money doesn’t really go to the homeless. It goes to people who are taking advantage of the situation, who will go broke themselves if the homeless problem gets solved once and for all.

Some individuals who are exploiting the homeless situation are landlords, who raise the rents higher and higher until they push their tenants out onto the streets. This way, their empty apartments can be converted to “cluster sites” or shelter units.

Whereas in the past, a landlord may have been charging $1,000 per month for an apartment for a lease-holding tenant, under these new circumstances, that same landlord can get $109 per night, in some cases up to $3,400 per month to use these same apartments as municipal shelters.

Those landlords have many friends in high places, and they are protected by powerful people.

You should also know that throughout the City of New York, they are building more and more self-storage facilities than housing units. There are places where every two blocks you will find a self-storage facility being built. These storage facilities are a growth industry that feed off the homeless situation.

The owners of these storage facilities don’t have to employ too many people, pay workers insurance, health insurance and unemployment benefits, because the homeless people who use the facility have to do all of the manual labor themselves to store their furniture and belongings.

As you can see, my dear friend, the self-storage facilities not only feed off of the homeless but also use them to do work for them.

While families are being displaced from their apartments and are being thrown into the streets, the City of New York will place them in cluster site shelters and at the same time, the City will pay the storage costs for the families’ furniture and belongings.