Casa Celina Affordable Housing Development Tops Out At 1810 Watson Avenue In Soundview, The Bronx

 

Casa Celina, a new affordable housing development in the Soundview section of The Bronx, has officially topped out. The building is located at 1810 Watson Avenue and will comprise 205 mixed-income units for seniors and formerly homeless adults.

The Casa Celina development team includes Xenolith Partners, The Kretchmer Companies, and ELH Management. City agencies involved in the project include New York City Public Housing Authority (NYCHA), the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

The breakdown of apartments will include 46 one-bedrooms and 158 studios, all reserved for individuals and families at 50 percent area median income. A total of 62 units will be set aside for the formerly homeless adults.

“This project demonstrates NYCHA’s commitment to address the urgent need for affordable senior housing for NYC residents to age in place,” said NYCHA executive vice president of Real Estate Development Jonathan Gouveia in a statement when the project broke ground in October 2021. “We are proud to work with all of the partners who have helped advance the quality and resiliency of affordable housing design while providing community programming and services to NYCHA residents and the surrounding neighborhood.”

Updated rendering of Casa Celina – Renderings by Nightnurse Images courtesy of Magnusson Architecture and Planning

As described by Magnusson Architecture and Planning, the building was designed to promote mental health and a sense of community. This includes oversized windows throughout for abundant natural light, resident lounges on each floor, and social spaces that help prevent a sense of isolation for residents living alone. Amenity spaces will include a 1,725-square-foot senior community space, a fitness room, laundry facilities, and a landscaped roof terrace where yoga classes and gardening will be available.

Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA) and New York City’s Department for the Aging will provide staffing for the senior community space.

MAYOR ADAMS’ STATEMENT ON TRAFFIC COLLISION ON WEST 28TH STREET AND BROADWAY

 

 New York City Mayor Eric Adams today released the following statement after visiting the site of a traffic collision that injured several people on West 28^th Street and Broadway in Manhattan earlier this afternoon:

 

“At this time, we know that at least six people were injured today when a taxi and a cyclist collided and innocent pedestrians were caught in the aftermath. This is a terrible tragedy, and those injured and in critical condition are in all of our prayers. We will continue to release as much information as possible when we receive it. But we should not have to accept, and I will not accept, a reality where New Yorkers die from traffic violence. Traffic safety is all of our concern, and I will continue working and taking action every day to keep New Yorkers and everyone else visiting our city safe on our streets. I also want to thank the numerous New Yorkers who came to the aid of those injured and displayed that New Yorkers will always be there for each other.”

Governor Hochul Signs Landmark John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York Into Law

Legislation S.1046-E/A.6678-E Establishes the Most Expansive State Level Voting Rights Act in the Country  

Expands Access to Voting by Prohibiting Voter Dilution, Suppression, Intimidation, Deception, or Obstruction

Requires Jurisdictions with a History of Civil or Voting Rights Violations to Seek Preclearance for Changes to Important Election Policies and Practices 

 Governor Kathy Hochul today, at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, signed the landmark John. R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York (S.1046-E/A.6678-E) into law cementing New York State's place as a national leader on voting rights and fulfilling a key part of the Governor's 2022 State of the State agenda. The Governor signed the bill alongside Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Assemblymember Latrice Walker, President of the NAACP New York State Conference Dr. Hazel N. Dukes and key voting rights advocates.  

"At a time when the very foundation of our democracy is under threat, New York is leading the nation with new laws protecting the fundamental right to vote," Governor Hochul said. "Today, we honor the work of the late Congressman John Lewis and activists like Medgar Evers as we make meaningful changes to our laws that enfranchise voters and ensure the voices of the people are heard in our democracy. Where the federal government fails to act, New York will continue to step up and lead the way: we did it with abortion protections, we did it with gun safety reforms, and I'm so proud to say we are doing it again with voting rights."

Legislation S.1046-E/A.6678-E will encourage participation in voting by all eligible voters by ensuring that barriers to accessing the polls are removed. In particular, members of racial, ethnic, and language-minority groups will now be protected by new measures that will ensure they have an equal opportunity to vote in the State of New York. This legislation does so by addressing:      

• Voter Dilution. Prohibits methods of election that eliminate the voting strength of a protected class and establishes legal protections for violations. 
• Voter Suppression. Prohibits election-related laws and practices from being implemented in ways that deny members of a protected class the right to vote and establishes legal protections for violations. 
• Voter Intimidation, Deception or Obstruction. Prohibits acts of intimidation, deception, or obstruction that impact the ability of New Yorkers to access their right to vote and establishes legal protections for violations. 
• Expanded Language Assistance. Requires election-related language assistance beyond what is required by the federal Voting Rights Act.  
• Preclearance. Establishes a state analogue to the now dormant "section 5 preclearance" of the federal Voting Rights Act, requiring covered jurisdictions to "preclear" any changes to certain important election-related laws and policies before they can implement them. Under the new law, covered jurisdictions seeking to make a change to a range of election measures will first need to have those changes reviewed to ensure they will not violate the voting rights of a protected class. Covered jurisdictions are those with a history of civil or voting rights violations.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera - Tomorrow: Community Cannabis Town Hall

 

Tomorrow, Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition is hosting a Community Cannabis Town Hall at the Tolentine Zeiser Church Fr. Smith Center on University Avenue and Fordham Road. Check out the interactive exhibit and join the community dialogue at 5:30PM on Tuesday, June 21!

NY State Senator Gustavo Rivera | rivera.nysenate.gov

 

Third Avenue BID Pride Event Commercial Not Community This Year

 

Sunday's 3rd Avenue BID Bronx Pride Event was very different from the pre pandemic 2019 Bronx Pride Event. This year the event was one hundred percent commercial with three blocks of vendors who paid for their spaces. Gone were the Rainbow Crosswalk to welcome you to the event, the Bronx Pride Parade across East 149th Street, the stage with entertainment and speeches by elected officials, and the information tables with needed handouts and their much needed information to the community. 

In were commercial vendors who almost all, the day before were at the Fair in Westchester Square. The vendors had higher prices because they had to pay more for their spaces for the Bronx Pride event. A perfect example was the ears of cooked corn that were four dollars at Westchester Square, were five dollars at the Bronx Pride event. The only information table was by the CCRB that had forms for people to fill out to complain about the NYPD. The reason no other NYC agency was there as compared to the last Bronx Pride event, according to the person at the CCRB table was that the CCRB paid fifty dollars for the space. Other vendors paid up to $125,00 for non food, and up to $500,00 for food or business companies. 

We were unable to speak with Michael Brady, the Executive Director of the 3rd Avenue BID because of the Juneteenth holiday, but we suggest that he return to past Bronx Pride events with the information tables the BID had at the 2019 event. If you must have vendors, keep it to a minimum so those attending the Bronx Pride event will buy their food and other items from the stores on Third Avenue. 

This was the 2019 Rainbow Crosswalk that was missing in 2022, as was the Bronx Pride Parade across East 149th Street.

Also gone were the many information and community booths, being replaced by vendors who paid big bucks for their spaces.

Also missing were the parade of elected officials and community people.

In 2019 Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is with some now former staffers of State Senator Alessandra Biaggi. 

Apollonia Cruz was one of many who performed on the stage at the 2019 3rd Avenue BID Bronx Pride event. 

Now the 2022 Third Avenue BID Bronx Pride event 

Above and Below were blocks of vendors, from a commercial promoter. 

Amaurys Grullon of Bronx Native located at 127 Lincoln Avenue was unhappy at the event that he thought would be more community driven like in the past Bronx Pride events. He left midway through the event. 

Cheerleaders from Cheer New York located at the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan performed in the street since there was no stage. 

Here the Cheer New York cheerleaders make a pyramid on the left side of the photo, and you can see the red top of a bucket for donations on the lower right side of the photo.

Montefiore Hospital which had a nice large corner at the Westchester Square event the day before with the same promoter, only had one small table at the 3rd Avenue BID event. 

The CCRB booth to file complaints against police officers, paid fifty dollars for the space according to the man running the booth. 

The Mister Softee truck was a very popular spot on 3rd Avenue.

The most popular spot on Third Avenue other than the Mister Softee truck, had to be the Romantic Depot booth. 

Major Drug Trafficker and 12 Others Arrested: Assault Rifle, 3 Firearms, 25 Pounds of Fentanyl, and 33 Pounds of Cocaine Seized

 

Following a yearlong investigation into narcotics and gun trafficking in Queens and Brooklyn, 13 individuals were arrested in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx during the past two days on charges contained in two indictments that are unsealed and two criminal court complaints that were filed today. During the long-term investigation, an undercover officer purchased large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin including fentanyl pressed into counterfeit prescription pills with a street value worth over $3 million. In total,15 kilograms of cocaine and 12 kilograms of fentanyl mixtures were seized along with an assault weapon and three firearms, two of which were allegedly sold by accused ringleader NELSON CRUZ who is charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker.

Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Frank Tarantino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Division, New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen announced the arrests in conjunction of the unsealing of two indictments. 

The investigation was conducted by New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-23 and the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz reviewed and submitted for court authorized wire taps during the investigation. NYDETF Group T-23 is comprised of agents and officers with the DEA New York Division, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York State Police.

The indictments were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP). One indictment charges CRUZ with Operating as a Major Trafficker, Criminal Sale and Possession of a Firearm, Conspiracy and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree. His four alleged co-conspirators are charged with top narcotics felonies. JOSE DE SALA GARCIA and JOSEPH SPATOLA also face firearm charges. 

The second indictment, which focuses on traffickers primarily operating in Brooklyn, contains charges of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First and Second Degrees. In addition, two criminal court complaints charging CRUZ and four other individuals were filed today in connection events that occurred on June 15 and 16, including the delivery of cocaine to a Bronx location and search warrants conducted in Queens. 

Beginning approximately one year ago, defendant MANUEL SURIEL allegedly began selling cocaine at a restaurant in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. SURIEL subsequently introduced a co-representative of alleged major trafficker CRUZ and other alleged narcotics traffickers who conducted narcotics sales in Brooklyn and Queens. 

Beginning October 8, 2021, defendant SURIEL and a co-representative of CRUZ allegedly conducted a series of sales with an undercover officer at locations in Queens and Brooklyn, including the first fentanyl sale charged in the case. On October 14, 2021, SURIEL and the co-conspirator allegedly provided 100 grams of fentanyl in exchange for $5,100 in the parking lot of a Target department store in College Point, Queens. By January 2022, the focus of the investigation shifted away from Brooklyn to CRUZ’s organization, based in the Richmond Hill/South Ozone area of Queens. Over time, CRUZ established a pattern of providing large quantities of fentanyl on consignment, with several sales in the $10,000-$16,000 range. 

A wiretap investigation revealed that CRUZ allegedly conspired with JOSE DESALA-GARCIA, MANUEL SURIEL, JOSEPH SPATOLA and others to possess, sell and distribute narcotics in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and elsewhere. The investigation revealed that cocaine had been obtained from sources of supply in Puerto Rico and fentanyl from Mexico.

The first gun sale in the investigation occurred on February 18, 2022, with the purchase of a semiautomatic pistol from CRUZ and DESALA-GARCIA for $1,100. The sale took place across from a residence located on 130th street in Queens. On March 9, 2022, CRUZ sold another assault rifle for $2,500. Narcotics sales with CRUZ then allegedly continued through May 2022. 

Beginning on June 7, 2022, agents and officers with NYDETF Group T-23 and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit arrested 13 individuals. SPATOLA and PATRICK HARRISON were arrested on June 7, after members of the NYDETF Group T-23 conducted a surveillance operation in the vicinity of Bay 28th Street in Brooklyn, and observed SPATOLA park his car, and walk away with a Target bag found to contain one kilogram of cocaine and 238 alleged fentanyl pills. HARRISON was inside the vehicle. 

A court authorized search of SPATOLA’s Queens residence, resulted in the seizure a Glock 23 handgun, a Glock magazine with .40 caliber ammunition cartridges, and a box of additional rounds of ammunition, as well as additional quantities of cocaine. 

On June 15, 2022, the investigation culminated in arrests outside of a residential building on Morris Avenue in the Soundview area of the Bronx. Members of NYDETF T-23 observed an undercover police officer meet with defendant CRUZ, who arrived at the location in a white Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck. Moments later defendants DELGADO, GENAO, and AGRAMONTE arrived in a grey Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Police observed CRUZ instruct GENAO to hand a weighted black duffle bag to the undercover officer, which was found to contain 9.5 kilograms of cocaine. Defendants CRUZ, GENAO, DELGADO, and AGRAMONTE were charged in a separate criminal court complaint. 

Agents and officers then conducted a series of additional court-authorized searches at two locations in the Richmond Hill area of Queens. In a garage located on 108th street, police recovered over 12 kilograms of fentanyl and heroin, approximately four kilograms of cocaine, and 10,0000 counterfeit fentanyl pills imprinted to look like 30 mg oxycodone, Adderall, and other prescription drugs. 

A search warrant was obtained at a second location on 130th street where officers and agents recovered a half kilogram of cocaine on a chair in the middle of the kitchen area of the first-floor apartment. In the front bedroom of the apartment, there was approximately $30,000 and a money counter seized. In the back bedroom, police seized a 9mm black Taurus handgun. In the apartment, defendant ELIANNY JIMENEZ DE LA CRUZ was arrested and charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled substance in the First and Third Degree and Criminal Possession of a Firearm. NELSON CRUZ is also charged in connection with cocaine and the handgun recovered in the apartment. 

Police estimate a total of 15 kilograms of cocaine, 12 kilograms of heroin and fentanyl mixtures were seized from all three locations.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan thanked Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, and commended SNP’s Special Investigations Bureau and Investigators Unit, the DEA New York Division, the New York City Police Department and the New York State Police for their work on the investigation. 

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said “Gun violence is New York City’s number one public safety concern, and at the same time drug overdoses are claiming more lives than ever before. This investigation exposes the close link between drug and gun trafficking. Close collaboration between federal, state and city law enforcement is key to preventing dangerous weapons and deadly drugs from taking precious lives.”

The charges and allegations are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE'S RESPONSE TO THE HARLEM MASS SHOOTING

 

"This morning our city is devastated by the news of another mass shooting, this one in Harlem, as nine New Yorkers were shot and a 21 year old young man killed. As the country marked Juneteenth, a historically Black neighborhood was reminded of the pain we still endure. As we marked Father's Day, families were left traumatized and grieving. I pray for the victims, for their families, for the entire community. 

"Mass shootings are not all perpetrated by a single shooter who could be red flagged, not all committed with a semi-automatic weapon. Depending on where and how they happen, they may not even all make headlines. The two constants across mass shootings are the devastation left in their wake and the guns that lead to such loss.

"On both a federal and state level, we are finally seeing some incremental movement on measures that could help prevent the mass shootings that make national news. Alongside that work, we have a moral obligation to re-commit to the strategies that we know work to prevent the street level shootings, a constant presence oppressing communities that have seen too much violence, known too much pain, and are not asking too much in calls for urgent relief and transformational change."

Permits Filed For 2136 Honeywell Avenue In West Farms, The Bronx

 

Permits have been filed for a six-story residential building at 2136 Honeywell Avenue in West Farms, The Bronx. Located at the corner of East 181st Street and Honeywell Avenue, the lot is near the West Farms Square East Tremont Avenue subway station, serviced by the 2 and 5 trains. Hershy Silberstein of Blue Shine Builders Inc is listed as the owner behind the applications.

The proposed 65-foot-tall development will yield 42,071 square feet designated for residential space. The building will have 69 residences, most likely rentals based on the average unit scope of 609 square feet. The steel-based structure will also have a cellar, 11 open parking spaces, and 24 enclosed parking spaces.

Kao Hwa Lee Architects is listed as the architect of record.

Demolition permits will likely not be needed as the lot is vacant. An estimated completion date has not been announced.