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Mayor Bloomberg lays out multi-agency economic plan for South Bronx

Mayor Bloomberg came uptown Tuesday to tout his South Bronx Initiative, a multi-agency effort to knit various private projects and city improvements into comprehensive economic development.

But one major player - the borough president - was notably absent.

“The South Bronx - long known nationally as the area Howard Cosell was talking about when he said, ‘The Bronx is burning’ and once known locally as an area of underinvestment and decay - is undergoing an extraordinary transformation,” said Bloomberg.

In recent years, nearly $3 billion in public and private investment has poured into the borough, Bloomberg said, including the $300 million Gateway Center Mall, almost $300 million for local schools, more than $900 million for transportation improvements, as well as the new Yankee stadium.

While the mayor credited Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and his office for major input into the initiative, Carrión was a no-show at the event on the steps of the Bronx County Building.

Sources in the borough president’s office said Carrion was annoyed at “the last-minute notice - not the first time - from City Hall for the event.”

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Lengthy Interview With Councilmember Foster

The Highbridge Horizon has now posted a lengthy interview with Councilmember Helen Diane Foster on our Web site.

On April 11, the Horizon interviewed Foster in her District Office on Jerome Avenue. We published excerpts of this interview in our April issue, but because the Web does not provide the same space constraints as the printed page, we offer a far more expanded version online.

During the interview, Foster was typically candid, as she addressed a wide range of topics during the course of a roughly hour-long conversation. Her words about the killing of Sean Bell, and the trial of the three officers who killed him –words Foster spoke exactly two weeks before the officers were acquitted — have echoed powerfully in recent weeks.

“There is more outrage over the torturing of animals,” Foster said, “than there is over the fact that another Black man is killed at the hands of the police.”

A little later on in the interview, she added: “I think when the verdict comes out, once again like the Diallo case, this city will be looked at and judged on what that outcome is. It appears that we keep going back to Dread Scott, where a Black man has no rights that a white man has to respect, including his own life. And if we see another acquittal in this city, it will be a sad day for all of New York City, and how we are looked at [not only] by ourselves, but by the country. “

Other highlights of the interview:

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Bronx Officials Push For PCB Check

As the city struggles to come to terms with revelations in the Daily News about illegal PCBs in its schools, leadership on the issue is coming out of the Bronx.

Recent testing has uncovered alarming levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in five Bronx schools - along with two schools in Manhattan and one in Queens.

While the Department of Education has not acknowledged that the illegal contamination is a problem, Bronx elected officials are proposing solutions - at the local and national levels.

“I am deeply troubled about the reports concerning possible PCB contamination at city schools,” said Borough President Adolfo Carrión. “And while we could waste time debating PCB levels, the risk of exposure and the potential health risks, that will not address the underlying problem.”

Carrión has called for immediate action to protect students and staff from PCBs - and taxpayers from potential fines and lawsuits down the road.

Carrión’s plan calls for the Department of Education to take the following measures:

Immediate testing of the air, surfaces and caulking at all 266 at-risk schools;

An abatement plan with strict time lines for schools with confirmed contamination;

Establishing a monitoring protocol to assure parents and teachers that cleaned schools are and remain within acceptable exposure limits.

The DOE has so far said it has no plans to test for PCBs at the more than 250 other city schools built between 1960 and 1977, despite the city’s own air and dust testing turning up elevated PCB levels at schools where The News found contaminated caulk.

On a national level, Bronx Reps. Joe Crowley (D-East Bronx, Queens) and José Serrano (D-South Bronx) are taking the lead on legislation to find and remove all PCB caulking from schools, hospitals and public housing across the country.

“Like asbestos and lead paint, the presence of PCBs in our community poses a grave health threat, especially to our children,” said Crowley, whose district includes all of the Bronx schools tested.

“To effectively tackle this problem,” he said, “federal, state and local officials must work together.”

Serrano vowed not to let any inaction by the city further delay action that’s already 30 years late.

“We will be on the case until the PCBs are gone,” he said.

Elected officials from other boroughs also are taking local action. Read more..

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Digital TV Conversion Draws Closer 

A count by The Bronx Beat shows that 150,000 homes in the Bronx could lose access to basic television programming, which generally covers Channels 1 through 13 and includes the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Those households represent 418,500 Bronx residents who will lose television access if they do not purchase a converter box for digital network service, sign up for cable service or buy a new television.

Since its mass production began in the late 1940s television has always been based on a free access system as long as the customer purchased the television set. On Feb. 17, 2009, however, a Federal Communications Commission, FCC, mandate requires a change to digital broadcasting from the long-used analog technology. This will open up the air waves for use by emergency responders and create greater access to wireless Internet service. With the changeover, most people who do not currently subscribe to a cable service will be left without television until they purchase a converter box or a new television.

“The people that are affected by this are only getting broadcast channels with older television sets,” said Michael Knobbe, the executive director of Bronx Net, a cable channel in the Bronx. “Anyone with cable service doesn’t have to worry about it. Broadcast is changing, not cablecast.”

To subsidize the cost of the converter, the FCC has created a coupon program. Each coupon is worth $40, and there is a limit of two per household. The cost of a converter can range from $40 to $70. The coupons can be found online at www.dtv2009.gov, a Web site set up by the FCC with all information pertaining to the conversion.

To date, there is no data available for how many households in the Bronx have Internet access so it is unclear how they will learn about this option. To receive a coupon, people may also call 1-888-DTV-2009 and request a form.

Although more than 400,000 Bronx residents are directly affected by the conversion, spokeswoman Lisbeth Perez Almeida at Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr.’s office said that they do not have plans to do anything because there have been no complaints. Community Board 1, representing Mott Haven, Port Morris and Melrose, said the same thing. Read more..

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Jose Rodriguez is new district manager for Community Board 4.

Spotlight on Bronx People: Jose Rodriguez

Jose Rodriguez prefers to turn his back on the South Bronx’s past and look forward as new district manager of Community Board 4 in Highbridge, just as he has with his own life.

A high-school dropout, he left home as a teenager and struggled to support himself, going on welfare at one point.

Within a few years, with the influence of the Love Gospel Assembly Church on the Grand Concourse, he got back on track, earning his GED, a bachelor’s degree at Touro College and a master’s degree at John Jay at night.

During the day, he worked for the Attorney General’s consumer fraud unit, thanks to a lucky break from an aunt who worked there as a secretary.

Proving his drive and work ethic at several other jobs, he most recently worked for Rep. Jose Serrano as director of community outreach, before becoming district manager last month.

Rodriguez describes Board 4 as having gone through a renaissance, much like his own. He dubs the board’s area the “civic hub” and cultural center of the borough.

“Although things might not be doing well in our nation’s economy, I think people here would tell us they are better off now than 20, 30 years ago,” he said. “Board 4 specifically has seen a real turnaround, an economic turnaround, a commercial turnaround.”

Rodriguez says his No. 1 goal is to engage and listen to the community and create a transparent process.

The board has struggled over the past several years, as members who voted against the new Yankee Stadium plan were systematically eliminated by Borough President Adolfo Carrión.

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