Talk Bronx New York

A general view of the Hunts Point Riverside Park is seen at the 2009 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize special outdoor tribute on September 3, 2009 in New York City

Residents around the Hunts Point neighborhood in the Bronx can literally breathe a sign of relief.

A sewage treatment plant located in the neighborhood didn’t have its contract renewed with the City on Friday. The City canceled the $34 million per year contract in order to save money, while it finds ways to close an approximately $5 billion budget gap.

The New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo) has received a bad reputation for producing unpleasant odors in the neighborhood for many years. Raw sewage was taken to the plant to be converted into fertilizer pellets from 14 sewage plants across the city.

U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), who represents parts of the Bronx, said the City’s decision was a victory for the residents.

“NYOFCo has polluted our community’s air for 16 years, and today is the beginning of the end,” said Serrano in a statement. “It is an end to the burning eyes, the coughs, the missed school days, even the asthma attacks, all conditions triggered by NYOFCo acrid odors.”

The congressman added that the plant was the cause for complaints about the smell, as well as a public safety concern for the past 10 years. He has been rallying for the plant’s closure. According to Serrano, the plant not only produced an unpleasant odor but also polluted the area. Read more..

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A medical clinic in the South Bronx in New York has used its federal funding to implement biometric check-in of patients to prevent medical record accidents, according to a CNN article.

The system Urban Health Plan uses is an iris recognition system provided by Eye Controls wherein patients are greeted with a scan of their eye upon their arrival to determine who they are and bring up the correct medical records.

One of the reasons such a system is so invaluable to this clinic is due to its heavily Hispanic client base wherein few submit social security numbers and others speak limited English. These lapses in information and clear communication have led to a number of cases of mis-identification before the system’s installation. Other issues the new system has been thwarting include opening of duplicate records and medical fraud. Read more..

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Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies head to the boogie down Bronx in ‘City Island.’ They play a married couple in a dysfunctional family.

Set in a section of The Bronx called City Island, Vince Rizzo (Andy) is a corrections officer who is taking acting classes behind his family’s back. The movie unfolds as secrets and lies told by family members and his social circle are foiled and the truth comes out. Andy told ET, “…It’s a movie about interrelationships and behavior and predicaments. It’s about the construction of the story, how that tapestry of through lines of all the characters intertwine and sort of like emotional farce and the comedy of errors or lies.”

Also serving as a producer, Andy explained why Julianna was perfect for the role of his wife, Joyce. “I know she has this character in her; this sort of working class character,” he said. “She didn’t want to do her normal hair. She had this wig that she had done for a job that never came through or something and when she put on the wig…it was like perfect.”

‘City Island’ also stars Alan Arkin, Steven Strait, Ezra Miller, Emily Mortimer, and Andy’s real-life daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorida who plays his on-screen daughter. The comedy opens in theaters on Friday, March 19. Read more..

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A Bronx man was arrested Sunday for stabbing a 27-year-old man who tried to play peacemaker during a wild bar brawl, police said.

Kevin Velasquez, 21, drove a knife into Marcos Cruz’s chest early Saturday in front of Glen Roy’s Sports Bar and Tavern on E. 149th St., police said.

Velasquez was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Cruz was stabbed about 3:30 a.m. after stepping in between Velasquez and another man during a melee. Cruz didn’t know either man, police said. Read more..

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Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx in his first State of the Borough speech.

 Taking on development, jobs, living wages, gun violence - and a snowstorm - Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx today in his first State of the Borough speech.

Key among his goals, says his office, will be a new plan to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, after he and others led the fight to kill a plan for a mall there.

A thousand invited guests at the Evander Childs High School campus are expected to hear Diaz announce a task force to develop new ideas for the cavernous, white-elephant armory’s future, such as manufacturing and recreation.

Diaz was pilloried by Mayor Bloomberg and construction unions for pushing the City Council to kill the plan for the heavily subsidized mall, over his insistence retailers there pay “a living wage” to workers - $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.

He is expected today to again raise the issue of living wages for projects receiving heavy city subsidies and tax breaks, and announce he has partnered with Bronx City Council members Anabel Palma and Oliver Koppell on legislation requiring that developers who receive taxpayer help make their project pay workers a living wage.

The borough president also is expected to announce a long-held dream of former borough presidents and business leaders - to bring a quality hotel to the Bronx, working with developers and the New York Hotel Trade Council to identify sites, and generate interest from hotel operators.

Former Borough President Fernando Ferrer had a master plan calling for a hotel as part of a Yankee Village near Yankee Stadium. The new Gateway Center Mall near there has been viewed as a possible site. Some have suggested a hotel near Fordham University, with the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Arthur Avenue as nearby draws. Read more..

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