Thursday, April 15, 2010

BP Ruben Diaz Jr. on BronxTalk

Below is Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr.'s appearance on Gary Axelbank's BronxTalk Monday night. Gary has an interesting sit-down with Diaz in which they touch on a variety of issues, including the Kingsbridge Armory, development, sheltering the homeless in the Bronx, the Charter Revision Commission, charter schools, mayoral control of schools, and more.

The only real news regarding the Armory is that the newly developed Kingsbridge Armory Task Force will have their first meeting to tour the Armory on April 28th, and Diaz hopes they'll come up with possible development solutions for the Armory within 6 to 12 months.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Ruben Diaz Jr.'s appearance was when he touched on the planned ex pansion of Med Alliance. The owner/developer hopes to expand the healthcare services offered at his site on Fordham Road and Belmont Avenue, while also adding 58 units of residential housing. Click here for coverage of the issue if you're not familiar with it. We've said in the past that this is just a terrible idea overall because the traffic in that area is already horrendous. It is much to my chagrin that Diaz reports the he voted yes on this project "with recommendations." His recommendation was that the owner of the site should provide a drive through parking lot so that there isn't a "traffic nightmare" with vehicles forced to enter/exit through a small one-way street. Has he driven or tried to walk over in that area lately? It is already a traffic nightmare, and no matter what kind of parking system you implement it doesn't change that fact that you'll have a greater number of vehicles clogging the area trying to either access medical services or get home to their apartments. BAD IDEA. Diaz touches on Med Alliance at the 11:20 mark if you're interested...


~ErLu

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