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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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 Worker halts traffic on Grand Concourse to allow trucks access to construction site.

Eying End To Bronx Street Work By 2009

There’s good news on the road reconstruction mess on the Grand Concourse at the Bronx Civic Center. Work will be completed before Christmas - of next year.

The planned 45-month renovation of key roads in the Concourse/161st St. area will be done by next November - 316 days ahead of schedule, city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Borough President Adolfo Carrión announced last week.

Carrión called the speedup of the project, begun in January 2006, “an example of smart construction and planning by the [Transportation] Department, the community and the contractor.”

It will certainly be a relief to frustrated motorists crawling ever more slowly along the usually congested 161st St. stretch between the Bronx County Building on the west side of the concourse and the borough’s courthouse complex down the hill on the eastern side.

The city has deployed NYPD traffic agents at key spots to help ease the jams, but it’s still been more a tortoise crawl than a hare’s sprint for drivers. And finding parking also takes longer, because many metered spaces are gone.

The project is rebuilding the Grand Concourse from E. 161st St. to E. 166th St., and E. 161st St. from Sheridan Ave. to Gerard Ave., including the Concourse underpass.

The DOT is replacing the E. 161st St. underpass arch structure, incorporating landscaped urban design features for Lou Gehrig Plaza and adding more open space.

In addition to the reconstruction, the DOT will upgrade street lighting and add green space, benches and trash cans.

Officials said the reconstruction plan is designed to improve pedestrian and traffic safety, while other plans include revitalizing neighborhood infrastructure with new roadways, sidewalks, dedicated bicycle lanes, trees and planters.

Questions regarding the project may be addressed to the community liaison, Onyinye Akujuo, at (347) 386-9375 and via fax at (718) 410-2462. For concerns during nonconstruction hours, call the New York City government services and information hotline at 311.

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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