Talk Bronx New York

In ‘911: The Bronx,’ Reality TV Gets Tough

 

Gritty ‘911: The Bronx’ takes Discovery Channel in a new direction.

A man who survived a fall is stabilized in the ER on ‘911: The Bronx.’

Real life washes up in the emergency room.

For camera crews shooting Discovery Channel’s “911: The Bronx” in the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital in the South Bronx, that real life includes gunshot wounds, a severe head injury to a man who jumped out of a window and a 12-year-old hit by a car and left with a mangled foot.

“When human beings get into trouble, they really get into trouble,” said Paul Gasek, the show’s executive producer and the senior science editor at Discovery. “These people are right at death’s door. This is the portal; the doctors are the gatekeepers.”

The show follows the staff of the emergency room as they grapple with a slew of patients. Some have been rushed to the hospital by ambulance, others simply walk in.

The program was shot last summer at St. Barnabas, a teaching hospital that cooperated on the production. Laws limiting the release of patient information made the work a bit of a challenge. After segments were filmed, the producers had to get permission to use them. Some people didn’t want their stories told.

“We shot an enormous amount of footage,” Gasek said. “But not all the stories panned out. Not all the people agreed to be on. We shot a number of stories that never made it to air, which we destroyed.”

Gasek admitted the show was a hard sell at the channel. There were questions about whether a gritty, sometimes gory, series fit in with the Discovery brand.

“This is not a medical show,” Gasek said. “It’s a reality show set in a hospital. We have heroes. We have real-life scenarios.”

In the first episode, one patient is the man who fell four stories, landing on his head. Another is a guy who sliced his finger on a meat cutter. Another is a pregnant woman with a broken arm. One of the most dramatic stories, however, is about a kid hit by a car. He keeps asking the staff if he’s going to die.

As of now, there are no plans to produce more than the six episodes available. Discovery will air three back-to-back, hour-long episodes tomorrow.

“There’s a little bit of uncertainty about whether they’ll [viewers] respond or not,” Gasek said. “If they tune in, they’ll have trouble turning away.

“This is really just about being in the hallway, being in the room. This is what you’ll see when there,” he said. “It’s visceral - I hope it’s not too visceral. I’m hoping people will respond.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

Read more..

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Officials, Union Rally Against Grocery Store Closures

Vornado’s Sound View plans singled out as concerns rise over retail rents

The U.S. has largely been spared the global food shortages plaguing developing countries recently, but New York City is on the brink of experiencing a grocery crisis of its own from the closure of hundreds of supermarkets in the five boroughs.

The battle to save the Key Food in the Sound View neighborhood of the Bronx has brought the issue of the city’s dwindling stock of supermarkets into sharp relief, and become the centerpiece of the United Food and Commercial Workers union’s campaign to preserve local supermarkets.

Public officials joined the UFCW and food advocates on the steps of City Hall this afternoon to pressure the city to intervene and stop the shopping complex’s new landlord, Vornado Realty Trust, from pushing the Key Food out with rent hikes.

The owner of Key Food, Pick Wick Foods, currently pays around $20 per square foot in a neighborhood where the most expensive retail runs for no more than $30 per square foot, said Pat Purcell, the director of special projects for UFCW. Vornado wants to raise rent to $50.

“Fifty dollars a square foot is an unheard of number,” Mr. Purcell said while the event organizers tried to get an earlier union protest to leave the steps well after their allotted time slot. “It’s a number you throw out there to force the market out. It’s not a number you negotiate around. The owner is willing to spend a couple million dollars to renovate and is willing to pay a very reasonable rent in the thirties, and more importantly they do $2 million a year in fresh produce.

“Do you know how many green carts you have to put in the street to get $2 million in produce sold?”

The city has only recently begun to address the impending shortage of grocery stores and sparse access to fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods with well-intentioned but limited solutions like Mayor Bloomberg’s Green Cart Initiative—giving permits to fruit and vegetable vendors in underserved neighborhoods.

“We’re going to say to the mayor, ‘If this is an issue for you, go tell your friends at Vornado.’ That’s not what we’re going to allow,” said UFCW lobbyist Richard Lipsky before the speeches began.

“Vornado is a real public player,” Mr. Lipsky added. “They are a finalist in the 125th Street development. They are asking the Port Authority to intervene to buy Madison Square Garden. They are always in the loop to ask for public benefits. Now if you’re going to be in the loop to ask for public benefits and you’re going to grow your company on that basis, then you have to be a good corporate citizen. And throwing out the last big supermarket in the South Bronx neighborhood of Sound View is not being a good public citizen.”

New York City has lost one-third of its supermarkets over the past five years, most of them in the outer boroughs and in low-income neighborhoods, according to a recent report by the Department of City Planning. About 750,000 New Yorkers live more than five blocks from a grocery store in neighborhoods hardest hit by the closures, meaning they have little access to fresh produce or affordable groceries.

Assuming that a minimum of 35 people worked in each of the 100-plus grocery stores that have closed, at least 3,500 jobs have been lost, estimated Mr. Purcell.

“In some neighborhoods,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, “banks are taking every available retail site because they pay more than other businesses, and in other neighborhoods we are being overrun by the drug chains, and what’s closing?

“Our supermarkets. Not everybody gets Fresh Direct, not everybody goes to exclusive gourmet grocery stores. They go to the Key Foods and the Associateds. We have got to get the government to approach this with ideas that make it profitable for supermarkets to open new stores.”

SOURCE: Observer

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Montefiore is ‘Keeping Kids Healthy’ in the Bronx 

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 to Focus on Wellness and Safety

WHAT:

For families with children 12 years old and younger, the themes for this year’s Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 are: wellness promotion, health education, and safety and community. This FREE, fun-filled afternoon is sponsored by The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center and HIP Health Plan of New York. While offering an afternoon of entertainment, games and refreshments, important health education and health screenings will be provided.

Great visual opportunities

The Children’s Health Fair will include:

Child Health History I.D. Cards and Fingerprinting

Asthma and Diabetes Information

Nutritional Information

Medication Safety

Hearing and Vision Screenings

NYPD Representatives

FDNY Representatives

Face Painting and Activities

WHEN:

Sunday June 1, 2008

Noon - 3PM (Rain or Shine)

WHERE:

Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center

Corner of East Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue

Bronx, NY

Keeping Kids Healthy Children’s Health Fair 2008 is open to children ages 12 and under who are accompanied by an adult.

SOURCE: PRNewsWire.com

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Middle School 391 Students Show They Care

Students at Middle School 391 in Tremont are trying their hands at philanthropy.

They’re participating in the O Ambassadors program, a nationwide effort that’s part of Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network.

As part of the program, MS 391 students will work to raise awareness in their community about different UN Millennium Development Goals, including poverty, education and health.

Students got to choose the region of the world they wanted to study and support. Over the coming year, they will raise funds to support development projects in Latin America.

“We’re proud to represent the voices of youth in the Bronx,” said Principal Pedro Santana. “There are so many issues in our world that need our attention and we’re ready to show that youth in the Bronx care.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Bronx Museum of the Arts set to open Arts Education Center

The Bronx Museum of the Arts will dedicate its Arts Education Center in a special ceremony next week.

The 3,000-square-foot arts center is housed in the museum’s new North Wing, built in part to expand education programs for youth and families.

Education programs include the Interpretive Art Program and Student Docent Program for visiting schools, Teen Council, Media Lab and Design Lab for after-school youth and Family Affair for children ages 5 to 11 and their parents or guardians.

The event will feature a commemorative plaque presentation to Rep. José Serrano for his support of the museum’s education programs and the arts.

The dedication will take place at 3 p.m. May 31 at the museum’s North Wing entrance at 1040 Grand Concourse.

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post