Talk Bronx New York

Gov. Paterson Thursday joined a growing chorus saying the upcoming trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be moved.

 As protests grow louder over holding the 9/11 trial in lower Manhattan, a Long Island congressman introduced a bill Thursday that would keep the prosecution out of civilian courts.

Republican Peter King’s bill would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts.

“On top of having to provide security for three or four years, we’re talking about an area that is already congested and will have to be closed off,” King said. “It’s bad for traffic and business.”

The Obama administration announced last month that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others would be tried in Manhattan Federal Court.

The move angered many business leaders, who argue it would cripple real estate and commerce in the area, and frightened downtown residents.

King called the plan “one of the worst decisions ever made by any president” and insisted Mohammed should be tried by the military.

Mayor Bloomberg, who first supported the plan, reversed himself Wednesday and said it would be glad to see it moved somewhere else.

Gov. Paterson said Thursday there needs to be “some suitable alternatives that would fall within the court’s jurisdiction but for the public at large would be a better place to hold the actual trial.” Read more..

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Sonia Sotomayor has a Wikipedia page, so in just a few minutes you can know more about Obama’s pick to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court than we do. You probably already know that she is a homegirl, born in the South Bronx.

You may get a glimpse of the conservative case against her at National Review’s Bench Memos, where Ed Whelan tells us some of Sotomayor’s decisions on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit have been reviewed by the Supreme Court, and that her nomination to her first big job by the first George Bush is no guarantee against right wing attack, because her nomination was engineered by the hated arch-liberal Pat Moynihan. Read more..

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Don’t pop the cork on the champagne just yet for that long-stalled 911 emergency call center in the Bronx.

First, the good news: The City Council is expected to give its final approval this week to zoning-related actions required for the $750 million project on a tract of land in Morris Park.

And now the bad news: The city still hasn’t reached a deal with the private owners of the 8.75-acre site, just north of the Hutchinson Metro Center.

Councilman James Vacca (D-East Bronx) helped pave the way for the expected zoning approvals by negotiating a community benefits agreement with the city.

For one, the height of the center will be capped at 254 feet, down 10 stories from the original 351 feet. And city officials agreed to a $1.1 million study of whether separate entrance and exit ramps should be be built to the site from the Hutchinson River Parkway. Read more..

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Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Engine Company 271 on Himrod Street in Brooklyn will work only days, but the ladder company will be on duty 24 hours.

The Fire Department is reducing night duty at four city firehouses next month as a cost-cutting measure, and closing down the firehouse on Governors Island, the fire commissioner said on Thursday.

The commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, said the reductions would be made in every borough except Queens. They are expected to save about $8.9 million and are part of the department’s efforts to meet budget cuts demanded by the mayor.

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Bronx Neighborhood Shocked By Graffiti On 9/11 Mural 

Two women walk past defaced memorial mural to Firefighter Peter Bielfeld.

Over several nights this month, a graffiti vandal stared into the face of Firefighter Peter Bielfeld, who lost his life rushing into the World Trade Center - and coldly spray-painted right over it.

Now the Olinville community where Bielfeld lived, the South Bronx community where he worked and Bielfeld’s family are raging, and out to punish whoever defaced the memorial wall mural of Bielfeld.

“It’s ridiculous. It is very personal,” said Bielfeld’s father, Ernest, 73, who held memorial services at the mural in memory of his son on Olinville Ave., before his son’s remains were found. “It’s such an emotional thing for us. Angry? I’m pissed off.”

The defaced mural is at Thwaites Place, down the street from where the 44-year-old Bielfeld lived on Barker Ave., on the wall of a bodega where he regularly bought cigars.

Bielfeld’s face and much of the rest of the mural was obliterated by the bubble-letter tag - “SIPS.”

“How could you do something like that? 9/11 has touched everyone,” said Victor DiPierro, community affairs officer for the 49th Precinct, who has added his own $250 to the NYPD’s $500 reward to catch the defacer. “It’s just so disrespectful. It’s blatant.”

DiPierro calls graffiti his “forever arch nemesis.” He goes out on the street weekly, cleaning graffiti off walls. But, graffiti on a memorial mural? DiPierro compared it to defacing a tombstone.

He warned “SIPS” that he will most likely have the same fate as a similar defacer whose tag was “SNEZ.”

DiPierro spent a year hunting for SNEZ, who defaced a 9/11 mural in Morris Park. When he found the 14-year-old at the end of the spray can, he was punished by the law and his parents. DiPierro said he will similarly canvas the area’s schools to find SIPS.

DiPierro is also working with Eddie Rodriguez, who painted Bielfeld’s mural, and who has agreed to restore the image, which has a twin near Ladder 42, Engine 73, where Bielfeld worked. The firehouse, the 49th Precinct Community Council and DiPierro plan on splitting the cost of the restoration.

Ernest Bielfeld hopes the mural will be a permanent record of the story of his son, who had been injured the weekend before Sept. 11 and was visiting the fire department’s medical office when the planes hit.

He rushed downtown, borrowed equipment from a different firehouse and left behind a note for his family expressing his love in case he did not make it back.

“It tells a story of a good guy who did above and beyond the call of duty,” Bielfeld said. “When one of your kids goes, it’s indescribable. But it is not in memory of just Peter, but the 343 firemen who were murdered.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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