Wave Hill Events May 5–May 12

An article I read over the weekend by Rob Cowen, the author of Common Ground: Encounters With Nature at the Edges of Life, has been on my mind as I think about the week ahead. Cowan wrote: “I know that the chance to encounter and experience the intimacy of nature in all its beautiful and terrifying glory is a key part of understating the true shape of being human.” Intimacy is so much of what the experience of Wave Hill is all about―I felt relieved to read his deep validation of its place in our urban lives.

THU, MAY 4    ART WORKSHOP: WOODLAND WATERCOLORS

Explore Wave Hill’s woodlands and shady areas using watercolor and related media to capture dappled light and luminous colors, with artist Wennie Huang. Materials not included; hardware, such as easels and brushes, will be provided. $270/$240 Wave Hill Member. Registration required, online at wavehill.org or onsite at the Perkins Visitor Center, starting April 26. This six-session workshop continues May 11, 18, 25, June 1, 8. 

MEET AT WAVE HILL HOUSE, 10AM–1PM

SAT, MAY 6    EARLY-MORNING BIRD WALK

Join naturalist Gabriel Willow on a special early-morning walk to spot the amazing diversity of birds in the gardens and woodlands, as well as in the skies above, before the gates open to the public. Ages 10 and older welcome with an adult.Free, but advance registration is required, online at wavehill.org or onsite at the Perkins Visitor Center, starting April 26.

MEET AT THE FRONT GATE, 8:30AM

SAT, MAY 6    FAMILY ART PROJECT: CLIMATE KITES PARADE

Due to the fragile nature of some of our trees, we don’t fly kites at Wave Hill, but we will parade them! Join visiting artistAndrea Lomanto to design a simple paper kite to display your environmental dream for caring for the earth. Carry your kite message in a spring parade or take it home to watch it fly. Free, and admission to the grounds is free until noon. 

WAVE HILL HOUSE, 10AM‒1PM

SAT, MAY 6    GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS WALK

Join us for an hour-long tour of seasonal garden highlights. Free, and admission to the grounds is free until noon.

MEET AT PERKINS VISITOR CENTER, 11AM

SAT, MAY 6    MEET THE ARTIST: BORINQUEN GALLO

Join us at this artist talk in the Sunroom Project Space. The artist Borinquen Gallo discusses her installation, an imaginary hive interior informed by Wave Hill’s beehives. Created using recycled plastic bags and caution tape woven through debris netting, her hive points to the apiary as a symbol of community and collaboration. Free with admission to the grounds.

GLYNDOR GALLERY, 2PM

SUN, MAY 7    FAMILY ART PROJECT: CLIMATE KITES PARADE

Due to the fragile nature of some of our trees, we don’t fly kites at Wave Hill, but we will parade them! Join visiting artistAndrea Lomanto to design a simple paper kite to display your environmental dream for caring for the earth. Carry your kite message in a spring parade or take it home to watch it fly. Free with admission to the grounds. 

WAVE HILL HOUSE, 10AM‒1PM

SUN, MAY 7    GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS WALK

Join us for an hour-long tour of seasonal garden highlights. Free with admission to the grounds.

MEET AT PERKINS VISITOR CENTER, 2PM

SUN, MAY 7    YOGA IN THE GARDEN

Enjoy the garden as the setting for your yoga practice as you find your breath and become connected to the landscape. Classes are led by certified Yoga Haven instructors, for all levels. Please bring a mat and be on time. This class is held indoors in case of rain. Drop-in rate is $30/20 Wave Hill Member; series fee is $210/$130 for eight weeks. Registration opensApril 26.

ON THE GROUNDS, 10–11AM

MON, MAY 8    

Closed to the public.

TUE, MAY 9    GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS WALK

Join us for an hour-long tour of seasonal garden highlights. Free, and admission to the grounds is free until noon.

MEET AT PERKINS VISITOR CENTER, 11AM

TUE, MAY 9    GALLERY TOUR

Wave Hill’s Curatorial Fellow will lead a tour of the spring exhibitions in Glyndor Gallery. The group show, Outcasts: Women in the Wilderness, explores how women have been treated and portrayed as outcasts in history, myth and biblical legend. In the Sunroom Project Space, Borinquen Gallo’s imaginary hive interior is informed by Wave Hill’s beehives. Free with admission to the grounds.

GLYNDOR GALLERY, 2PM

A 28-acre public garden and cultural center overlooking the Hudson River  and Palisades, Wave Hill’s mission is to celebrate the artistry and legacy of its gardens and landscape, to preserve its magnificent views, and to explore human connections to the natural world through programs in horticulture, education and the arts.

HOURS  Open all year, Tuesday through Sunday and many major holidays: 9AM–5:30PM, starting March 15.  Closes 4:30PM, November 1–March 14.

ADMISSION  $8 adults, $4 students and seniors 65+, $2 children 6–18. Free Saturday and Tuesday mornings until noon. Free to Wave Hill Members and children under 6.

PROGRAM FEES  Programs are free with admission to the grounds unless otherwise noted.

Visitors to Wave Hill can take advantage of Metro-North’s one-day getaway offer. Purchase a discount round-trip rail far and discount admission to the gardens. More at http://mta.info/mnr/html/getaways/outbound_wavehill.htm

DIRECTIONS – Getting here is easy! Located only 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan, Wave Hill’s free shuttle van transports you to and from our front gate and Metro-North’s Riverdale station, as well as the W. 242nd Street stop on the #1 subway line. Limited onsite parking is available for $8 per vehicle. Free offsite parking is available nearby with continuous, complimentary shuttle service to and from the offsite lot and our front gate. Complete directions and shuttle bus schedule at www.wavehill.org/visit/.

Information at 718.549.3200. On the web at www.wavehill.org.

“CITY HALL IN YOUR BOROUGH” LANDS IN THE BRONX LATE MAY

  New York- Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. today announced the next stop for City Hall in Your Borough will be The Bronx. Mayor de Blasio, top City officials and commissioners will arrive to Bronx Borough Hall the last full week of May for a week-long series of satellite office hours.

“Moving City Hall’s day-to-day operations to Bronx Borough Hall will allow for an intensive focus on the people and the priorities of The Bronx,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I look forward to being on the ground, meeting with and hearing from Bronxites.”

“Like all New Yorkers, Bronxites demand exceptional service and prompt responses from their government. Bringing City Hall directly to The Bronx will provide my constituents with an opportunity to get direct answers from various agencies, learn more about the future of the city and interact with the highest levels of municipal government. I look forward to a productive and substantive week as we welcome Mayor de Blasio to The Bronx in late May,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

The week will include meetings with local groups, various stops and events in the borough, and a town hall. First Lady Chirlane McCray will also hold a series of events.

The announcement was first made via Mayor de Blasio and Borough President Diaz’s respective Twitter accounts, @NYCMayor and @rubendiazjr. More details about the Bronx edition of “City Hall in Your Borough” will be made public in the near future.

EDITOR's NOTE: 

Bronx Week ends on Sunday May 21st with the Annual Bronx Week Parade, Food, and Music Festival along Mosholu Parkway. More on Bronx Week as soon as I get the details from the BP's office, and if the mayor will be part of Bronx Week or host 'City Hall in your Borough' after Bronx Week. 

Bronx Democratic Party - Judicial Screening Process Now Open

Judicial Screening Application Now Open! 

 

The Independent Judicial Screening Committee of Bronx Democratic Party (IJSC) is currently accepting applications  is currently accepting applications for all of the elected judicial positions that will occur in the 2017 election in and for The Bronx and the City of New York. 

All potential candidates for Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York and Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York must complete and submit a 2017 questionnaire. Questionnaires must be completed and submitted no later than May 5, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. to the offices of Bronx Democratic Party headquarters located at 1640 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461.

Candidates who qualify will be interviewed by a judicial screening panel between May 13th and 14th, 2017, the Bronx Democratic Party headquarters. 

For more information on the application process, please visit: http://bronxdems.org/ijsc/ 

1640 Eastchester Road

Bronx, NY 10461

T: 347-281-9759

www.bronxdems.org

info@bronxdems.org

Assembly Member Daniel J. O’Donnell Endorses Elvin Garcia for City Council

  New York State Assembly Member Daniel J. O’Donnell today announced his enthusiastic endorsement of Elvin Garcia for the City Council open seat in District 18.

“Elvin is a gifted individual with a passion for bringing a voice to the South Bronx,” said Assembly Member O’Donnell. “His work at the Mayor’s office helped bridge gaps between historically marginalized and underrepresented groups and the City government. I have no doubt that Elvin will bring an innovative and fresh voice to the City Council.”

Assembly Member O’Donnell has served in the New York State Assembly since 2003, serving as Chair of the Committee on Corrections for four years and Chair of the Arts Committee since January. The Assembly Member has sponsored trailblazing legislation like the Marriage Equality Act, Raise the Age, and the repeal of 50-A, which shields the release of police officers disciplinary records. The Assembly Member’s work against bullying based on race, ethnicity, gender and identity in New York was realized through the Dignity for All Students Act, which has provided much-needed protections for students in New York City, and across New York State.

“The best leadership for the South Bronx is in Elvin Garcia,” said Assembly Member O’Donnell. “He is a lifelong resident, deeply committed to the place he has always called home. His perspective, experience and resolve will be the driving force of his success in the City Council. I strongly endorse Elvin for City Council District 18.”

Elvin Garcia, former Bronx Borough Director for the Mayor’s office and lifelong South Bronx resident, is running for the open seat in City Council District 18.

“I’m honored to have Assembly Member O’Donnell’s endorsement,” said Garcia. “Assembly Member O’Donnell has been a trailblazer in the LGBT community. As a member of the LGBT community, the Assembly Member’s work has impacted my life in so many ways. I am deeply honored by his endorsement in particular.”

News From The Bronx Council for Environmental Quality

 Using Waterfront Parkland for Private Housing and Economic Development - and what that means for you

Dear Friend of Parks and Waterfront Access,

For more than twenty years, city leaders have twisted the arms of local elected officials to support using Bronx Parkland for new dream projects.  The Bronx is the testing ground for quick and greedy land swaps.  If it happens in the Bronx, it will happen in your borough.  Do not think for one moment that there is a paucity of Bronx vacant land for affordable housing; there is plenty -- it just costs more money than free parkland! 

 

The ULURP has started.  They are selling off publicly owned waterfront property for private profit (POW-P3).  That would be the southern section of the always-crowded-Mill Pond Park -- once the site of the historic Bronx Terminal Market swept away in exchange for Gateway, then given back (due to the high brownfield costs) for a trade-in with the Yankee Stadium Redevelopment project that alienated another crowded neighborhood park.  

 

Make no mistakes: this is an expensive site for NYC taxpayers.  While it is on the Harlem River waterfront, parkland will have to be alienated, sanitary and runoff sewers will have to be connected to the combined sewer system; schools will have to be built (even though vacancies are abound all over that district); noise and sensory buffers will have to be added as this area has the highest asthma rate in the country; and as they ask for an exemption for parking, more subway trains will have to be added to an already overcrowded mass transit system. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

City Developers have an answer for everything.  They say they don’t need to replace the parkland they are taking -- that they already provided for the Lower Concourse Rezoning greenway years ago. That the area has no infrastructure connection, is not a problem -- the new sewer lines will take care of adding the runoff overstressed CSO system; there is no date to begin the plan for the Harlem River LTCP; it has the largest discharge outfall citywide, with the most outfalls of any other waterbody, and has the largest catchment area per outfall. City Developers say they will build a school.  The transportation stuff is bad too. They can't fit more people in at the 149th Street Station and there is no guarantee MTA will do anything about it. Where are we going to get all this money?  All this among many years of previous broken promises in this neighborhood already!

 

The city does not need this; they don’t even have a private developer.  This project is not in the Lower Concourse area – it is north of that.  The $200 million for infrastructure is not enough – the CSO connection will cost that much alone.

 

The Bronx Council for Environmental Quality (BCEQ) will be submitting detailed comments.  BCEQ has sought to establish — as an Inherent Human Right — a sound, forward-looking environmental policy regarding an aesthetic, unpolluted, environment protecting a natural and historic heritage.  We have been working on Harlem River issues to develop connections to and along the River and create on water access and activities.  This included work on the Pier 5 Wetland and community visioning for a park, as well as the planning document for the Brownfield Opportunity Area along the River.

 

CITYWIDE ACTION NEEDED

If it happens here, it will happen in your community.  Call/write/meet with your Council Member:  tell them you want them to vote against using parkland for housing and economic development.  We will update you when it gets to the Council.  

BRONX ACTION NEEDED

 

Come to the Bronx Community Board 4 Public Hearing this Tuesday, April 25 at 6 pm -- the Bronx Museum of the Arts.  Arrive early as you have to sign in. Be prepared, you only have 2 minutes, bring a written statement.  Ask the Community Board to please vote against using waterfront parkland for housing and economic development.

Date & Time:

Tuesday, 4.25.17

6 pm - be early   

Bronx CB 4 Hearing

ULURP, Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement, etc.

Place:

Bronx Museum of the Arts

1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx, New York 10456

T: 718-681-6000

Draft Generic EIS Pier 5Parkland:aka Lower Concourse North,      CEQR16DME012X, ULURP 170311ZMX, N170312ZRX, 170314PPX, 170315ZSX

Bronx Borough President Bronx Tech Summit on April 28th

Bronx Day in Albany is on May 1st

5th ANNUAL BRONX DAY IN ALBANY 

Monday, May 1,2017 

Hart Theater Lounge at The Egg 

4:00PM - 8:00PM

COMPLIMENTARY SEATING IS AVAILABLE. 

To reserve your seat, please call 718-409-0109
and ask for Marilyn Ceilema

Bus Locations: 

Assemblyman Gjonaj's District Office 1126 Pelham Pkwy South Bronx, NY 10461

Throgs Neck Houses 425 Swinton Avenue Bronx, NY 10465

Tracey Towers 40 W Mosholu  Pkwy S, Bronx,  NY 10468

Engel Responds to House GOP Plans to Revive Trumpcare

   Congressman Eliot L. Engel, a top member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statement on Republicans’ latest plan to revive Trumpcare:

“Trumpcare already takes aim at working families, seniors and children. Now, in a transparent effort to salvage the President’s first 100 days in office, the GOP has concocted a plan to make a bad bill worse by stripping down protections for people with pre-existing conditions even further, and eliminating guarantees to essential health benefits.

“Trumpcare failed because the American people, and House Members from the President’s own party, saw through House Leadership efforts to pass it off as something it wasn’t. I have no doubt that Trumpcare’s revival will meet the same fate.”