Talk Bronx New York

A third of the City Council members have not taken a public stance on the mayor’s plan to extend term limits. NY1’s Roger Clark visited the Bronx Concourse, to report on how the constituents of undecided Councilwoman Helen Foster stand on term limits.

Your 2 Cents

In response to the unprecedented debate spawned by the issue of term limits, watch NY1’s new series of on-camera, unedited, guest editorials delivered by prominent New Yorkers.
Residents in Helen Foster’s Bronx district are like many other city residents who have spoken over the last few days with NY1: they want to hear what their councilwoman has to say on extending term limits.

“She has to make up her mind,” said a constituent.

“Should she have an opinion? Sure,” said another.

As things now stand, Foster would be forced out of office in 2009 at the end of her second term. Read more..

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Growing up near New York City, school field trips to the Bronx Zoo were a regular thing; I don’t think a year went by in elementary school when we didn’t go to the zoo.  Additionally, with grandparents who were members, there were a lot of non-school trips there as well.

The Bronx Zoo is a place I remember fondly, and consequently, on a recent trip back to the area, I went with my wife (who also grew up going there on a regular basis) and my two-year-old daughter, who had never been.  The day started out well enough, with my daughter going through the Children’s Zoo, examining all the various birds and ducks and wallabies.  Though she was a little young to read about all the animals, she had no trouble trying to perform the same six-foot standing jump a bullfrog can achieve (she was unsuccessful).  And, while they may have been a mite scary, feeding the goats and sheep proved just as fun to her as I remember it being.

Then, with newly arrived grandparents in tow, we marched off to the Bronx Zoo’s brand-new (as of this past June) Madagascar! exhibit.  Housed in the zoo’s famous Lion House which was constructed in 1903, the exhibit focuses on the animals, wildlife, and dangers facing the third largest island on the planet.  This last bit the exhibit manages to convey in a sensible way, explaining the issues and using some visuals, but without ever making the future seem unremittingly bleak.

Organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society which manages the Bronx Zoo, Madagascar! features, among other things, many varieties of lemur, some of which are easier to spot than others; some truly outstandingly colorful tomato frogs; 100,000 Madagascar hissing cockroaches; and a crocodile pool.  In this fantastic pool there are two massive crocodiles and a variety of fish.  Though the pool is large – it holds 17,000 gallons of water – the crocodiles seemed as though they were close enough to touch and, when they started moving, many of the kids in a passing school group were noticeably startled.  Looking at the crocs looking at us, one never felt unsafe (the glass is two inches thick), but still got the impression that they would snack on us if they could. Read more..

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Jose the Beaver, who became a symbol of the borough’s renewal last year as the first of his kind to return to the Bronx River in 200 years, has something in common with those 1970s icons of Manhattan city life - “The Odd Couple.”

It seems the renowned river rodent has taken up residence with a muskrat - a large aquatic rodent - in his waterfront lodge.

Jose became a sensation after being spotted on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo in early 2007.

It was Julie Larsen Maher, a photographer for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoo, who snapped the first paparazzo shot of the pair together in the spring of that year, when she feared high water levels had washed away Jose’s dam.

“I thought he was gone,” Maher said, “but later I zoomed in on one of the photos and there was the beaver and his friend sitting on top of the lodge.”

The interspecies roommates apparently stayed together even when Jose relocated his lodge from near the zoo parking lot to the New York Botanical Garden upstream, where the curious living arrangement burst on the national scene.

Travel writer Eric Hansen staked out the new lodge overnight, observing Jose and his house guest with night-vision goggles to confirm the odd couple for a story in last month’s Outside magazine.

His piece raised the possibility of “muskrat love,” questioning whether the borough’s symbol of urban environmentalism could be a mascot for civil unions. Read more..

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Bronx Trivia: ‘Fort Apache, the Bronx,’ starring the late Paul Newman, was not filmed at the real Fort Apache in Longwood, but at the 42nd Precinct stationhouse on Washington Ave. in Morrisania.

Nelson Castro took political heat over having a criminal record and for having nine people listing his one-bedroom apartment as their addresses on their voter registrations.

But he triumphed in the Democratic Primary for state assemblyman in the west Bronx.

Now, Richard Soto of the Rising Voices Coalition, whose brother Mike ran against Nelson, told us he has filed a complaint with Bronx District Attorney Rob Johnson, alleging that Nelson committed perjury over that voter thing, since Nelson supposedly testified under oath in a civil court hearing that he didn’t know those voters.

Soto said the DA has pictures of Nelson posing with them at various affairs.

The DA’s office, as usual, had no comment, and after we spoke twice with Nelson, he’s yet to respond to the allegation.

Hector Ramirez, 86th A.D. district leader, probably wouldn’t mind seeing Nelson in hot water. Hector was Assemblyman Luis Diaz’s choice to succeed him after Luis went to work for Gov. Paterson. But Party Boss Jose Rivera backed Nelson instead, and Hector joined the rebels challenging Jose.

Neutral surf

We guess San Juan will be declared neutral surf, er, turf for warring Bronx political camps when the Somos El Futuro (We Are the Future) Winter Conference is held Nov. 6-11 at the San Juan Intercontinental.

Whatever the result of an Oct. 27 court date to try to settle who’s the legal Bronx Democratic boss, San Juan could be the place to mend fences over piña coladas.

Put together by the Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, the confab features daily workshops - for those who can manage to break away from conducting serious business poolside and at the bar. Read more..

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In the newfangled world of clubs and computer-generated electronic music, rap, emo, screamo, heavy metal and popular music where icons like Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi rule, the classic, quiet sounds of easy listening music and love songs may have inadvertently been pushed by the wayside.

Lenny Starwood

But those who remember the days when people flocked to nightclubs to see entertainers like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra are making an effort to bring back the old scene and make sure those days have not been forgotten.

Lenny Starwood, of Red Bank, is one of those performers. Starwood’s new CD, “The Way of Love,” has just been released, and it’s a blast from the past with songs that include “Our Day Will Come,” “The Way of Love,” “Brazil,” “At Last,” “On Broadway” and “You Don’t Know Me.” And since Starwood is fluent in six languages, most notably Italian and Spanish, the CD also features songs such as “Sabor A Mi” and “Voy Apagar La Luz.”

No matter how you look at it, it’s about love, and Starwood loves the music of that era and puts his heart into his performances.

Starwood grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., and loved singing and listening to the music of Cole and Sinatra, and also credits his influences as being Mario Lanza, Jerry Vale, Frankie Valli, James Brown and Johnny Mathis, to name a few. Read more..

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