Talk Bronx New York

GREED MAY FIND GREEDY SUITOR

The Yankees may have lost all the respect they almost earned for once. When third baseman Alex Rodriguez opted out of his enormous contract during Game 4 of the World Series, the front office of the Bronx Bombers put their collective feet down and said that enough was enough. It seemed to be a decision that had to be made, regardless if they were a better team with him. What seemed to be an irreparable relationship that was headed for divorce court just made a detour at a marriage counselor.

Looking for a raise from $25.2 million a year to a repulsive $30 to $35 million, A-Rod walked away from his $252 million, 10-year free agent deal he signed with the equally oblivious Texas Rangers in 2001. The Yankees did not want to lose the Rangers? $21 million pay-off throughout the final three years of the original deal and publicly stated that they were not going to negotiate with Rodriguez if he decided to opt out, which was a stipulation put into the contract.

The Yankees were set to sit down and talk with Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, on an extension, but the slugger and Boras decided to use the opt-out clause before giving the Bombers a chance to make their offer, even ignoring requests from the team for a face-to-face meeting. This apparently infuriated Hank Steinbrenner, theson of George and main decision-maker since the elder Boss has taken a back seat of late.

On October 29, Hank Steinbrenner made a statement that included, ?If a player doesn?t want us, we don?t want them. That chapter is closed.? But on Wednesday, he apparently had a change of heart after Rodriguez initiated a meeting in Tampa. Following a session in the Sunshine state, Hank Steinbrenner told reporters, ?At this point it appears he?s (Rodriguez) willing to make sacrifices to be a Yankee.?

Some of those sacrifices were leaving Boras out of the room during the meeting and apparent subsequent negotiations, and a lowering of Rodriguez?s earlier demands of a 10-year, $350 million contract. The deal being discussed is for the same length, but a paltry $275 million.

Rodriguez did not leave his fans twisting in the wind and released a statement on his website that read as if he was doing the Yankees a favor by meeting with them. ?Prior to entering into serious negotiations with other clubs?,? ?We know there are other opportunities for us?,? ?I reached out to the Yankees through mutual
friends?? Through the goodness of his heart, A-Rod somehow pulled himself to have this third party call the people that are drowning him in lettuce, and may do so even more for the next decade.

The troubling thing is that if there were so many other clubs out there in his price range that he was about to enter ?serious negotiations? with, why is he willing to accept a pauper?s pittance from the Yankees that is $75 million less than what he was looking for? Is a $300,000 annual raise enough for him? How will he deal with the consequences and possible fallout from all of these shenanigans?

Coming off an MVP-caliber year where he batted .314 and hit 54 home runs and drove in 156 runs, why would he not shop himself around for a bigger payday? The reason may be that he and his super-agent have even out priced themselves. There are only a handful of teams that can even think of spending that kind of money for one player and the vibes may have been cool. Not wanting to lose a good thing he already had, Rodriguez may have erased a mistake by approaching the Yankees with hat in hand.

How fitting would it have been if he was sitting out there not willing to go below his demands and no one was biting? Unfortunately, the Steinbrenners seem to be going back on their word and all of us paying our bills from check to check will have to wait for redemption.

SOURCE: Long Island Times

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Fans help keep A-Rod in Bronx

This is a story about Anthony and A-Rod. One you know. The other you don’t. If you are a Yankees fan, know this: You owe your undying thanks to Anthony. Perhaps.

Three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees continue to hammer out the terms of a new, mega monster deal. The numbers are unfathomable to most of us, 10 years for $275 million, probably more after you factor in the bonus potential.

We may soon know the influences that first drove A-Rod to opt out of New York, and then opt back in. He has said that the true story will soon be known. We don’t need to wait. It was Anthony.

Anthony Berardi is 11 years-old, and a 6th grader at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Anthony is baseball crazy, a Yankees fan, and his favorite player is Alex Rodriguez. When A-Rod said he wanted out of New York, Anthony was angry.

“Being a huge A-Rod fan, I was disappointed, and mad,” Anthony said.

Anthony is a boy of action. Some just call sports radio programs to weep and whine. Not Anthony.

“When I first heard about it, I went to the computer and wrote A-Rod an e-mail,” Anthony said. “I was mad he opted out. I asked him why. I told him that the Yankees would give him the greatest opportunity, and that he would have a better career if he stayed with them.”

Maybe the big lug at third base listened.

SOURCE: REP-AM.com

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Bronx budget benefits housing most

For the fifth year in a row, the largest chunk of Borough President Adolfo Carri?n’s $31 million capital budget will go toward new housing.

Carri?n’s newly released 2008 budget allocates $8 million to help finance 22 new building projects, many of them for low- or moderate-income families or first-time homeowners.

“The majority of the constituent calls into my office are regarding housing and/or the lack of affordable housing,” Carri?n said.

“If we want to sustain our economic growth, we have to address the ongoing housing crisis that is facing the city.”

Carri?n’s office has wide authority to allocate capital funds - its share of the city capital budget - to fill in gaps that otherwise could sink some projects.

This year’s capital budget for the borough is $13,000 less than last year’s, but still $7 million more than any year before that.

Besides housing advocates, supporters of green in the Bronx can applaud Carri?n’s $4 million allotment for parks projects.

Projects scheduled for next year include $500,000 toward a comfort station in Rodman’s Neck, after the Police Department closes its shooting range there.

Also on tap is $500,000 for renovation of the Fox St. playground. The parks portion of the capital budget had been slashed to about $1 million last year.

Some $5 million worth of school improvements also have been worked in, including money for new science labs, library upgrades, computer equipment and new playgrounds.

A new, environmentally green roof at Stevenson High School will receive $350,000 in funding help.

Other perks include $400,000 toward technology upgrades at the borough’s libraries, $600,000 for construction at the Kingsbridge Branch Library, $1 million allocated toward construction of a Morris Heights health center and a new van that will tour the Bronx educating kids about fire safety.

“This budget represents improvements to all areas of the Bronx,” Carri?n said. “When we invest wisely in our communities, we create opportunities for people to reap the benefits of a strong economy and give future generations more advantages to succeed.”

Capital funds from the city budget are calculated using a formula based on each borough’s percentage of the city’s population and land area.

Queens and Brooklyn receive 32% and 27%, respectively, and the Bronx gets about half of that - 15.2% - but more than narrow Manhattan, at 13.4%, and less populous Staten Island, with 12.4%.

Source: NY Daily News

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50,000 in the Bronx may be diabetic; many remain undiagnosed

Some 50,000 Bronxites are walking around with diabetes - and they don’t know it.

With Diabetes Awareness Month underway, that’s the estimate for the disease, which claims the highest rate of victims here than in any other borough.

“In a place like the Bronx, everybody knows someone who has the advanced complications of diabetes,” said Dr. Charles Nordin, professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and chairman of medicine at Jacobi Medical Center.

Nordin said anxiety over such complications as blindness, heart disease and amputation from poor circulation is partly responsible for the estimated high number of undiagnosed cases.

The estimate is from the city’s 2004 Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which found 3.8% of the adult population - about 207,000 people citywide - had undiagnosed diabetes.

But early detection, exercise, improved diet, medications and monitoring of blood-sugar levels are critical to delay or avoid the complications of diabetes.

“There are very effective treatments to prevent the complications,” Nordin said. “It’s very important to get out the message that diabetes is not a hopeless condition.”

In a 2003 study of screenings at Bronx churches, community centers, shelters and streetcorners, Nordin and colleagues found that 3 to 5%of about 800 people tested had undiagnosed diabetes. A 2006 survey of 1,000 patients at Jacobi found an estimated 6% were likely to have undiagnosed diabetes.

Besides fear, Nordin said barriers to diagnosis include not being aware of the early signs, such as frequent urination, extreme thirst, hunger and exhaustion, and no routine screening.

“It’s a very slow-developing disease,” said Carol Stockert, director of chronic illness management at the North Bronx Healthcare Network. “You don’t just wake up one morning and have diabetes. If you start to see any of these symptoms you need to go and see your doctor.”

The Bronx has a high prevalence of risk factors for diabetes, including the city’s highest rates of obesity, which is linked to the illness, and large black and Hispanic populations, which have a higher incidence of the disease.

In the South Bronx, where those risk factors are the highest, the city health department has launched several initiatives to prevent and manage the illness, such as free exercise classes at recreation centers, working with bodega owners to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and raising awareness.

“If you don’t know you have the disease, you may not change your diet, you may not exercise,” said Dr. Shadi Chamady, director of the health department’s diabetes prevention and control program.

SOURCE: NY Daily News

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New life for Bronx rail station?

Can the Cass Gilbert-designed Westchester Avenue Railroad Station ? abandoned since 1937 ? be transformed into a grand entrance to the Bronx River and its new greenway?

That?s the hope of local group Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice ? one that?s complicated and costly.

?It could be a beautiful gateway from Westchester Avenue to the new park,? said Tawkiyah Jordan, senior director for community programs at Youth Ministries.

The boarded-up station that belongs to Amtrak overlooks the new Concrete Plant Park, which is expected to open in summer 2008. After months of pestering Amtrak, Youth Ministries was able to bring in architects to look at the space.

?It?s a building that would break your heart to lose,? said Joan Byron, of the Pratt Center for Community Development. ?But it?s about as challenging a site as they come.?

It?s ?fragile,? with an exposed steel lattice work embedded with terra cotta, Byron said. ?The steel is expanding and exfoliating, like little potato chips flaking off, and that?s damaging the terra cotta.?

It would cost millions to renovate the roughly 2,700 square foot building above rail tracks. ?It?s like the size of a ranch house,? Byron said, ?and that?s one of the challenges because it can?t generate revenue that would pay for its development debt.?

Residents have pitched turning it into a Bronx River ecology center or a place for renting fishing gear and canoes. Some envision a holistic heath care and reproductive rights clinic there or a food pantry or restaurant.

Linda Cox, executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, the public-private partnership overseeing the Bronx River Greenway, said any project would be ?a daunting? undertaking.

?We need a closer look at the costs, the benefits and if it?s even feasible for the building to be made available,? she said.

Adam Liebowitz, of community group the Point, said some locals want a hip-hop museum.

?The South Bronx was the birthplace of hip-hop and to have this place all graffitied up in the heart of the neighborhood could be great,? Liebowitz said. If not, ?I think Youth Ministries would make sure it?s something the whole community has a stake in.?

SOURCE: NYMetro.us

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