MORRIS PARK BEMOANS NO HOLIDAY LIGHTS ON SHOPPING STRIP
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in most Bronx neighborhoods, but not in Morris Park.
For only the second time in half a century, there are no holiday lights along Morris Park Ave. and Williamsbridge Road.
APPLE STORE OPENS IN GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL
BY CHRISTIE ROTONDO AND DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Grand Central commuters jockeyed for room with hundreds of eager Apple fans Friday morning as the tech giant opened its latest store in the city.
Jacob Davis, 19, won the honors of being the first into the sprawling store at 10 a.m. after traveling 200 miles from Albany and camping out for 24 hours in the midtown transit hub.
BRONX COMMUNITY DEBATES NEW PLAN FOR BANKNOTE BUILDING
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
When Taconic Investment and Denham Wolf Real Estate bought the historic BankNote building in 2007, they vowed to remake the South Bronx behemoth as high-end office space and a hub for the arts and gourmet food.
Then the market went bust.
Now the developers want to remake the BankNote as a hub for food stamps.
SMITH ELECTRIC VEHICLES CLOSER TO BEING BRONX-BOUND
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Plans to open a $5 million electric truck factory in the South Bronx chugged ahead Wednesday, with the city approving $1.7 million in tax breaks for Smith Electric Vehicles.
The world’s top electric truck manufacturer hopes to use the benefits to renovate a 90,000-square-foot warehouse in Port Morris and create more than 100 jobs over seven years.
GROUP CLAIMS NESTLE PREYING ON BX LATIONS WITH BOTTLED WATER
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Food and beverage giant Nestlé is preying on Latinos in the Bronx by selling them bottled water, a watchdog group claims.
Nestlé opened the country’s first Pure Life bottled water store in Longwood two years ago and has used Spanish television commercials to market the water to Latinos as a healthy product.
But Pure Life water is sourced from public water systems and is no better than tap water, which is free, according to Corporate Accountability International, a Boston-based watchdog group.
The group led a protest outside the Southern Blvd. store on Wednesday and conducted blind taste tests for passersby.
FEDS EYE PROJECTS IN BROOKLYN, BRONX FOR LABOR ABUSES
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Illegal labor is the foundation of the city’s affordable housing industry, construction workers and union leaders claim.
Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2015. But Hizzoner’s push is coming under scrutiny, with a top contractor headed to trial for wage infractions at an East Harlem project and a housing agency bigwig arrested Oct. 6 for corruption.
Now the U.S. Labor Department and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development are probing underpayment and kickbacks at affordable housing projects in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned. At the Bronx site - 780 Prospect Ave. - workers are due $575,000.
MTA TEES UP PLAN TO SELL DRIVING RANGE FOR RETAIL DEVELOPMENT
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The MTA is shopping a golf driving range to land buyers, marketing the Bronx property as ripe for big-box retail development.
The 14-acre plot in Pelham Gardens is one of nine city-owned tracts that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to lease or sell, the agency recently announced, following a review of nearly 4,000 holdings.
YANKS WINS MEAN BIG BUCKS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN, ERIN DURKIN AND BILL HUTCHINSON (NYDN)
Business owners - even Mets fans - are banking on a long playoff run for the Yankees to pad their bottom lines.
The city Economic Development Corp. says the American League Championship Series could bring a windfall of about $12.6 million per home game. Thinking bigger, each World Series Game could stir up $20 million per game.
ELECTRIC TRUCK FIRM ALL THE BUZZ IN THE BRONX; 100 JOBS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
THE WORLD’S top electric truck manufacturer hopes to open a new factory in the South Bronx that could create more than 100 jobs over seven years.
Smith Electric Vehicles has requested $1.7 million in tax breaks from the New York City Industrial Development Agency to help it renovate a 90,000-square-foot warehouse in Port Morris.
SUBWAY HUNKS IN CHEEKY WEBSITE WITH STRAPHANGER PHOTOS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
A racy new website has straphangers snapping photos of “hot guys” on the subway.
Subwaycrush.net, launched in June, is the New York version of tubecrush.net, a popular British site with photos from the London Underground.
Straphangers will submit photos featuring New York men sipping coffee, napping or reading on the train - with swooning comments like, “Is he kidding me with those arms? Never. Let. Go.”
