Thursday, May 13, 2010

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:

An editorial suggests that maybe some famous Bronx natives, such as Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Lauren, or Alex Rodriguez, should get involved to lend some star power to the movement to renovate and reopen the High Bridge [New York Times]

Members of the Fort
Independence Park Neighborhood Association are making a push for landmark status for their neighborhood [Riverdale Press]

A coalition of community organizations believes the city should take over vacant luxury housing developments and use them to house the homeless...A report released by the coalition found 41 buildings in the South Bronx that are either completely or mostly vacant. [Citylimits.org]

A bit of an explanation as to why some Riverdalians insist upon listing their mailing address as "Riverdale" as opposed to "Bronx" [Riverdale Press]

Gustavo Rivera, who most recently served as an outreach director for Senator Kristen Gillibrand, has officially announced his candidacy for 33rd State Senate district [BxNN]

If you've got an eye-sore in your community that's been bothering you, feel free to snap a pic and send it into BxNN to be featured as their "Mess of the Moment" [BxNN]

~ErLu

2 comments:

Guywithacause said...

I had to comment on the condos for the homeless fiasco.

Did anyone actually read this article? "In the South Bronx the average price per condo on the market is $943,514, but the average household income is $19,111." I would LOVE to know what condos are for sale in the South Bronx that are selling for, on average, almost $1,000,000. There aren't even ANY multifamily buildings (3 families or less) that HAVE EVER sold for that price, or even marketed near that number. A glut of vacant, overpriced condos for $1,000,0000 in the South Bronx is a completely fabricated story, which draws into question the rest of the article and their "findings."

What we do have is a number of vacant AFFORDABLE HOUSING buildings, several by me in fact. The problem? These brand new buildings are restricted to those in the community, and with firm income requirements that are significantly higher than the community can afford. I think it's great to have them reserved for working/middle class people, but there are too few working/middle class people in the community to fill the high number of current and upcoming affordable housing development buildings, hence many are more than 2/3 empty.

The answer is not to confiscate them for the homeless, the answer is to allow ANY working/middle class NYers who fit the criteria to live there. We all pay taxes for these affordable housing units, so every working/middle class NYer should have access to them. If they aren't filled within 1 year, it should then be open to ANY working/middle class NYer that meets the income requirements. Wasn't that goal in the first place? Leaving them restricted only to local residents means they will sit vacant for years as nobody outside the community can move in!!!!

Anonymous said...

The Riverdale post is a Riverdale Press story, not BxNN.