Heavily Discounted Bronx Museum Memberships on Groupon

There's a great deal over on Groupon.com offering one year family/dual memberships to the Bronx Museum of the Arts ($75 value) for only $30! So far 12 people have taken advantage of the offer, so 13 more people need to participate in order for the deal to be on...so click on over to Groupon and take advantage of this awesome offer!

~ErLu

Honest Discussion

Making the interweb rounds this fine morn brought me to "We live in the Bronx, but..."

There is a new post up by the anonymous blogger linking to an article about the renewed emphasis on the "Culture of Poverty" thesis. This linked article comes in response to a Times article from a week and a half ago about the return of the treatment and evaluation of poverty as having cultural origins.

In any case, WLITBB decries the lack of a comment section on the blog's Tumblr format. Well, we're hurting over here at the ol' BD for posts, so we figured that we'd lend our comment section to the task of having what WLITBB calls an "honest discussion about poverty."

I think the over and under is four comments before an anonymous poster calls another anonymous poster lazy or a racist (or before a poster gets angry about an anonymous poster posting anonymously). Just a little prediction from past experience. But let's try to keep it civil, people.

~ErLu

It's My Park! Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow (10/23) is It's My Park! Day throughout NYC. Click here to see an overview of the day and figure out exactly where your local park's event is taking place.

For anyone living in the Bedford Park area, the Bedford Mosholu Community Association will be meeting at 10am at the Mosholu Comfort Station at Webster Avenue and Mosholu Pkwy. South.

After you help cleanup your local park, head on over to the Williamsbridge Oval "Bark in the Park" event! Details below...
Bark in the Park

~ErLu

Bronx Real Estate Summit Tomorrow

The Bronx Real Estate Summit will be taking place tomorrow at the Bronx Library Center. The suggested donation to attend is $25 with all proceeds going to the library. More info below!
Bronx Real Estate Summit
~ErLu

204th Street Foodtown Rebuilding Presentation Tomorrow

The owners of the 204th Street Foodtown will be at tomorrow's CB 7 meeting to present information regarding the rebuilding of the grocery store. Please see below for details.
Norwood Foodtown Supermarket Presentation

~ErLu

Yet Another Armory Study

Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr.'s office announced yesterday that the faculty and students of NYU's Capstone Program will be engaging in a year-long study to determine alternate uses for the Kingsbridge Armory. The blogger over at Bronx Political Chatter pretty much sums up our feelings on yet another study of the redevelopment of the Armory. Study it all you want - you still need someone who's willing to come in invest hundreds of millions of dollars to rehab it.

Bronx News Network spoke with Diaz Jr.'s Communications Director, John DeSio, who said that this is great news for the Armory and, "Things, they come through this program, they happen." Whew - now I feel better!

~ErLu

Found Puppy!

Help get this little fluffball back to its owners! See the below flyer for details.
Found 1

~ErLu

'Fresh Grocery' Has Arrived at Marble Hill Target

I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of the new Fresh Grocery section of the Marble Hill Target (40 W. 225th Street) for a while now. I shop in Target all the time for baby essentials, home goods, greeting cards - you name it, I have shopped in Target for it. I have always found their prices on non-perishable food grocery items to be unbeatable, so I also do a substantial amount of food shopping there (when I'm not hauling ass up to the glorious wide-open aisles of the Stop & Shop at Cross County). I'm totally one of those dorks who keeps filling out their costumer surveys online in the hopes of winning a $5,000 Target gift card. Every time I fill one of those surveys out, I write, "Please add some simple produce to your food offerings...onions, peppers, lettuce, etc.!"

Well, my prayers have been answered (well, at least they've been partially answered -- still keeping my fingers crossed to win one of those gift cards one of these days) - Target's new Fresh Grocery initiative has finally arrived at 225th Street!

After suffering through the renovations that rendered the store almost unusable all summer, I'm happy to report that the Fresh Grocery section is simply AWESOME. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peppers, onions, bananas, cantaloupe, lettuce, celery, oranges, and apples are just a few of the new produce options being offered by Target. Everything is extremely fresh and, best of all, very competitively priced. Even their non-perishable aisles seem to have grown.

Job well done, Target. Keep that fresh produce coming!

~ErLu

Food Dynasty?

We were driving over to Van Cortlandt Park to catch the Manhattan College HS XC Invitational (holy crap, I've never seen such a huge cross country meet before in my life!) and noticed that the Van Cortlandt Village C-Town over at Sedgwick Avenue and VC Avenue W has flown the coop and it is now a Food Dynasty. What the hell is a Food Dynasty anyway? Any of you Vanny Villagers care to share your opinions of the new store? Reviews are mixed of these grocery stores (bodegas?) in other parts of the city. Shoppers in Sunnyside, Queens say their Food Dynasty couldn't be any nastier, while residents in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn seem to like their store. Why did the C-Town leave? In any case, I think we can all agree that Food Dynasty is a pretty ridiculous name for a grocery store.

~ErLu

Bark in the Park!

Please see the below flyer for details regarding the first ever "Bark in the Park" event at the Williambridge Oval.
Bark in the Park
~ErLu

DOT Releases Free iPhone App to Find Car Services

NYCDOT has just made it a little easier to catch a ride in NYC - they've created a free iPhone app which quickly puts users in touch with the closest TLC approved car services. This is an extremely handy app to have in the BoogieDown, where yellow cabs only pop up once in a blue, and usually just because they're getting their cars serviced on Webster Avenue.

Here are the deets, straight from DOT:

I work for the NYC DOT, and we’ve recently released a free iPhone app. Called “You the Man” after our anti-DWI campaign, the app uses the iPhone’s GPS to help locate the nearest TL+C approved car services and allows you to click-to-call for a ride. A built in map also shows the nearest subway stations. I thought the app might be of interest to your readers, especially in areas where yellow cabs are less available.

The app also features a BAC calculator, Twitter integration and a designated driver selection game for New Yorkers who are driving to go out.

The app is available for free in the iTunes app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/you-the-man/id386961259?mt=8

More info on the campaign: www.YouTheManNYC.org

Good stuff!

~ErLu

BP Diaz to Host Hearing on "Jobs for the 21st Century" [UPDATED]

Ha! It's nice to get a chuckle on a rainy Friday morning...From the inbox:

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and New York State Senate President Malcolm A. Smith will host a joint legislative hearing on “Jobs for the 21^st Century,” a public meeting (today, from 10am to 12pm at 851 Grand Concourse) organized by the New York State Tri-Level Legislative Task Force to receive input from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to better determine what local, state and federal government can do to create jobs and put New Yorkers back to work.

Bronx business’ [sic] owners and local entrepreneurs will testify in front of the task force, which will compile the information received during the hearing to better determine what can be done to attract companies and create jobs in the borough.

Here's an idea of how to "create jobs and put New Yorkers back to work" - don't kill a $310 million mall plan that would create 2,200 jobs.

Update @ 11:20am with some love from a BD Reader in the ol' inbox:

I just wanted to let you know that I love your posts on the Armory---I don't understand how anyone can justify losing all those jobs and that retail center? Regardless of the bp stance on living wage issues you can't let that project go in a down economy--his job was to make it happen and work out a deal. It was too big a project to let it fail. These other guys who defend it do not represent the community--if you took a poll of the area and asked if they would have wanted the jobs and shopping venue I bet it would have overwhelming support. What a loss. But your comments have been right on the mark--don't let a few crazies try to stop you b/c a lot more people agree with what you are saying and so few people are willing or able to speak up.

Thanks, BD Reader!

~ErLu