TEENAGE BOY FATALLY SHOT BY BUS MADMAN SHEPHERDED NABE KIDS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The mother of the teenage boy killed by her ex-con boyfriend minutes before he shot up a Queens bus said Saturday there had been no signs of trouble.
“It was out of the blue,” Sheena Tucker said of Friday’s shocking violence.
“I didn’t know he had a gun,” she said of boyfriend Damel Burton, the suspect charged with killing a second man on the Q111 bus. The pair are parents of a 9-year-old son.
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.
RANDALLS ISLAND TENNIS CENTER EXPANSION PLAN SLAMMED
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Park and community advocates are raising a racket over the continued privatization of public parkland on Randalls Island.
The private company that runs a swanky tennis center at Randalls Island Park has announced plans to expand the facility at no cost to taxpayers.
But advocates claim poor players from the South Bronx and East Harlem won’t benefit, because the center operates like a high-priced club, with members shelling out thousands of dollars for lessons and perks.
NEW POCKET PARK IN MORRISANIA NAMED FOR POLITICAL PIONEER
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The Bronx’s newest pocket park honors a woman who grew up and grew old fighting to improve her neighborhood.
Estella Diggs, the first African-American woman elected to the state Assembly from the Bronx, still lives in the Morrisania neighborhood where she attended grade school. Now an one-acre park down the block from her home bears her name.
NATIONAL CYCLING ASSOCIATION REVEALS ARMORY VELODROME PLAN
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The National Cycling Association unveiled its plan on Thursday to build a world-class velodrome and BMX park in the Bronx’s long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory.
CEO Jack Simes of NCA revealed that the group hopes to rent the landmark building from the city for eight weeks next spring to host a demonstration project, including youth programs and a six-day bicycle race.
PARKCHESTER’S LAST TEMPLE CLOSES, MARKING DEATH OF COMMUNITY
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The last temple in Parkchester closed Monday, marking the death of a proud Bronx community.
Miriam Korman, longtime president of Temple Emanuel of Parkchester, knew years ago that her congregation was doomed.
But now that the 69-year-old brick synagogue with the stained glass windows is finally shuttered, she can hardly believe it.
“Here was our life,” said Korman, 88, sitting on a metal folding chair in the synagogue’s cold, empty basement last week. “It was our other home.”
RAGE AT CROSS BRONX SPARKS INITIATIVE BY LOCAL DADS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Two local fathers with an unusual type of road rage are taking on the Cross Bronx Expressway.
William Rivera and Luis Sepulveda have founded the Cross Bronx Initiative, a new push to make the infamous road faster, cleaner and safer.
An accident on Sunday on the expressway killed a 21-year-old woman and left her 20-year-old brother — a Golden Gloves boxing champ — in a coma.
Jennefer Sosa and Pedro Luis Sosa were hit by a vehicle and knocked off an elevated segment of the Cross Bronx near Zerega Ave. after getting out to inspect damage from a collision.
Segments of the road are narrow and lack shoulders.
“Everybody talks about hating the Cross Bronx,” said Rivera, 29. “Nobody talks about fixing it.”
FORDHAM HEIGHTS NEIGHBORS BAND TOGETHER TO FIGHT CRIME
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
They woke to a late-night shootout, with bursts of gunfire echoing down their Bronx block. Now the good people of Marion Ave. are refusing to go back to sleep.
The Marion Ave. Neighborhood Association - a new community group determined to make Fordham Heights safe again - held its first meeting last week.
FEDS HOPE TO BRIDGE GAP OVER BRONX GREENWAY PLAN
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
A troubled bridge over Bronx water has greenway advocates singing a melancholy tune and the federal government scrambling to save the planned span.
Part of the Bronx River Greenway, the bridge over an Amtrak rail line will eventually carry pedestrians and cyclists between two new waterfront parks and complete the scenic route.
But the bridge project is now years behind schedule, due to a squabble between Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation and has lost its funding.
SINGLE ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’ PROTESTOR TAKES ON THE BRONX
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Occupy Wall Street became Occupy 161st St. Tuesday, with a lone protester from the downtown movement canvassing a welfare line in the South Bronx.
Abraham Weiss, a 26-year-old social worker, said he came from Zuccotti Park to the Melrose Job Center to protest New York’s byzantine welfare system and rally support for the cause.
