Round'em Up

Here are some Bronx-related stories which we've rounded up for you, our lovely readers, while trolling the interweb with our horse and lasso this fine morning:

The NYC Bar Association is urging the city to 'stop allowing community benefits agreements to be part of the zoning approval process.' [New York Times]

BD Note: The failed Armory deal is of course mentioned in this extensive piece examining how the role of CBAs has changed over the years. Here's an interesting excerpt:

As one member of Mr. Liu’s task force, Julia Vitullo-Martin, put it, a “new weird principle” had been grafted onto the “perfectly legitimate” idea that a developer should try to mitigate the effects of gentrification.

“The original concept got lost,” said Ms. Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, an independent research group. “Why should the developer be responsible for the wages paid by retailers? That has nothing to do with the land-use process.” [NY Times]

A look at some of the real estate big wigs that have been identified as longtime enablers of Pedro Espada Jr. due to their major financial support [Village Voice]

Housing activists demanding Pedro Espada Jr.'s resignation shout "You won't come to the Bronx, so the Bronx comes to you!" outside of his Senate office Tuesday afternoon [citylimits.org]

Fordham football's easy on the eyes QB John Skelton has been drafted by the Arizona Cardinals [fordhamsports.com]

A new Hudson Valley Bank branch will be coming to the Hutch Metro Center in October 2010 [prnewswire.com]

A look at Fordham Road Plaza and the 149th Street transit plaza and what DOT has done in the past and must do in the future in order to redesign these bustling areas [Huffington Post]

Baseball fans will now be able to take a free ferry sponsored by Delta Airlines from the Wall Street area up to the Bronx to catch Yankees games [nytimes.com]

Disgruntled employees and doctors at St. Barnabas Hospital charge that there's been a significant increase in patient-on-employee attacks recently [Daily News and abclocal.go.com]

~ErLu