Dr. Ruth Enters Bronx Walk of Fame Despite Having Never Lived There
She is a world renowned sex therapist. She is a beloved figure across the City and the world. Dr. Ruth Westheimer is many, many things.
But one thing she is not is a native of The Bronx. In fact, Dr. Ruth has never lived in The Bronx.
But that’s not stopping organizers of this week’s Bronx Week celebrations, which are put together by the office of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. At a press conference at the University Heights Bridge last week, Carrion announced this year’s inductees to the Bronx Walk of Fame, making a point to note Dr. Ruth’s Bronx bona fides.
“There’s a lot of very interesting people that come from The Bronx,” said Carrion. “One of them is somebody who has become known the world over for talking about a topic that we all really care about.”
Carrion added, mimicking Dr. Ruth’s famous accent, “She is Dr. Ruth Westheimer.”
Dr. Ruth is a well-known and long-time resident of Washington Heights, something Carrion acknowledged during his introduction. But no one had ever before heard that she lived in The Bronx.
A Bronx building where a young DJ pioneered hip-hop in the 1970s has been saved from a plan that would have moved it from affordable to market rate housing, Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday.
Last year, tenants of the building reached out to DJ Kool Herc after receiving word that the owner planned to leave an affordable housing program that would have opened the door to rent increases.
During the 1970s, DJ Kool Herc began spinning records at parties in the basement recreation room of the Sedgwick Avenue building. The hip-hop movement then spread around the world.
The 100-unit apartment building has been deemed eligible to be listed on national and state registers of historic sites.
The affordable housing program, known as Mitchell-Lama, offers owners incentives such as low-rate mortgages and tax breaks in exchange for charging tenants low to moderate rents for a certain period of time.
Schumer said the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development rejected the proposed sale to developer Mark Karasick because current rents could not be sustained if the sale had gone through.
“This very positive development is the first step toward preserving affordability” for all endangered Mitchell-Lamas housing, Schumer said.
The HPD’s decision paves the way for tenants to negotiate directly with the owner, the senator said. The tenants are working on a plan to buy the building.
Joe Conzo: Co-Author Of The Book Born In The Bronx
Born In The Bronx .. Hip Hop’s Baby Picture Album
Joe Conzo accredited to being Hip Hop’s 1st photographer took a minute to talk it up with Talk Bronx about his new book Born In The Bronx and the book signing.
Through Born in the Bronx, Joe Conzo presents a unique cross-section of an explosive and experimental time in music history. Born in the Bronx is a striking anthology of Hip Hop’s baby steps. Not only does it capture the emergence of a burgeoning culture but also the fashion and character of the surrounding community through rare photographs of MC’s and DJs to records, flyers, and other ephemera.
DJ Kool Herc, on left, gathers with tenants and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer in the rec room where hip-hop was born.
Efforts To Save Hip Hop Birthplace Stepped Up
On a mission of a very different kind than what used to draw him to the ground-floor recreation room that he made famous through music more than three decades ago, legendary hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc returned to the Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in the Bronx last week in a bid to save the soul of the building itself.
As he stood alongside U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer to support an effort by the building’s residents to purchase the property and preserve it as affordable housing, Kool Herc emphasized that similar battlegrounds over fair housing exist elsewhere. “We need to recognize this building,” he told the tenants, activists and officials assembled. “But we’re seeing all throughout New York City how people are losing affordable housing.” (Meanwhile, he noted, storage facilities have sprouted all over the borough – “They got places to store your stuff, but not to keep you,” he said.)
It’s a message that resonates with housing advocates who hope that the well-publicized Bronx case will not only highlight a growing problem, but help spur state legislation to protect the city’s dwindling stock of reasonably priced apartments in the statewide Mitchell-Lama housing program.
Talk Bronx had a chance to speak with Hip Hops Legendary 1st Latino DJ Disco Wiz who is one of the co-founders of the Hip Hop Meets Spoken Wordz event held in the Bronx. In its 3rd strong year of helping homeless Bronxites with clothing and food donated from folks with good hearts, Wiz is excited! Donations not only come from Bronxites, but from all over New York City.
Support from many local Bronx and city organizations is huge and Wiz says that Hip Hop isnt too far behind in support either. The event hosts a variety of performances from old and new school Hip Hop artists. The event was formed by way of Old School meeting new school and keeping in touch with the community.
So tell us who you are and what you do.
My name is DJ Disco Wiz I am a first generation Hip-Hop pioneer credited for being the first Latino Hip-Hop DJ and Co-inventor of Hip-Hops first Mixed Plate (Dub Recording) With my partner Grandmaster Caz. I am a poet, activist, historian, and forefather of the culture we now know as Hip-Hop. I am the co-creator of the Hip-Hop meets Spoken Wordz Series and author of my upcoming memoirs “Its Just Begun” with Ivan Sanchez.
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