Talk Bronx New York

Maurice Samuels, left, and Dennis Badillo, in a class in Bronx Park. They are participants in a job-training program for arborists.

 In New York, a city where tree climbing in public parks is officially considered disorderly conduct, the art of hauling yourself skyward, branch by branch, may be endangered for children and adults alike. Add the modern diversions of mobile gadgets and video games and, as Idiongo Okoro said, “you never really notice the trees.”

But now he does. For the past four months, Mr. Okoro and 10 other New Yorkers from some of the toughest neighborhoods have spent time in patches of urban forest to learn how to care for, prune and — yes, — climb trees as part of an intensive seven-month job training program.

There are jobs for professional tree-climbers (a k a arborists), and although New Yorkers raised amid concrete and brick might not make the likeliest candidates, Mr. Okoro, 25, and his group are learning how to walk on branches and shin up trunks.

The program is part of an unusual outreach effort by the city and a collection of private tree-care companies and nonprofit groups to train urban young people for “green-collar” jobs.

The program, now in its second year, has already had success, parks officials say. Graduates from last year’s class now work as apprentice arborists with the parks department and the New York City Housing Authority, horticulturists with the Prospect Park Alliance, and grounds custodians at Wave Hill and the Central Park Conservancy. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Harris Field

Rebuilding Harris Field, a 15-acre park in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, is going to cost the city almost $14 million, the Post reported. The city’s renovation of the park and its six playing fields was announced in 2007 with an estimated cost of $6.6 million, which was later upped to $8.7 million. The latest price increase — which represents a 110 percent cost overrun — is due to high levels of lead, found by workers who were trying to install tanks for drainage at the site. The Department of Parks & Recreation said it needs the additional $5.2 million to remove the contamination before replacing grass with artificial turf on two of the fields. According to the city’s Web site, the Harris Field project is slated for completion in the spring, but it was not immediately clear whether the contamination would delay the end date.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Bronx, NY - Tiki Barber and “Team Tiki” led the pack at the first annual Wildlife Conservation Society Run for the Wild on Saturday. Over 3,800 participants ran, walked or strolled through the Bronx Zoo during the 5K experience created to benefit wildlife and wild places. This year’s run highlighted gorillas, a species that WCS has had a leadership role in conserving for over five decades. The Bronx Zoo’s award-winning Congo Gorilla Forest allows zoo-goers to get up close with just glass between a gorilla and them. The run was part of the zoo’s Earth Month and Earth Expo festivities, which ends on Sunday, April 26. To plan a visit or pledge support for gorillas and the WCS Run for the Wild, there’s still time – go to www.wcsrunforthewild.com.

The stage was set for more than 3,800 participants at the first annual Wildlife Conservation Society’s Run for the Wild with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by former NFL running back Tiki Barber. Helping him do the honors are (left to right) Vincent LeVien, NYS Comptroller’s Office Dir of Community Affairs; Preston HS student Francesca Marricco, who sang the National Anthem; John Robinson, WCS Exec VP of Global Programs; Hector Aponte, Bronx Parks Commissioner; Tiki Barber; Congressman Jose E. Serrano; John Calvelli, WCS Exec VP for Public Affairs; Edith McBean, WCS Trustee; Dr. Robert Cook, WCS Exec VP for Living Institutions; and Jim Breheny WCS Director for the Bronx Zoo. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Jaylynn Diaz, 7, enjoys the ride on her sled in Bronx Park on Bronx Park East and Waring Avenue in the Bronx

  The borough’s children are on the path to better lives, but the recession could threaten their progress and widen existing disparities, local child advocates warn.

Officials from the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York met with nonprofit group leaders and borough politicians last week to discuss their report, Keeping Track of New York City’s Children 2008.

The report follows some of the issues affecting the borough’s estimated 387,000 children. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

A Bronx Tree Honors a Slain Journalist

The untimely death of the journalist Tim Russert has been the subject of much commentary and reflections, especially on television in the past week. The unsolved murder of another journalist, Bradley Will, nearly two years ago never received such saturation coverage.

A recently planted apple tree in a South Bronx park is perhaps the only memorial in the city to Mr. Will, a video journalist based in New York, who was shot dead in Mexico in October, 2006, while covering anti-government protests. His killers, who may have been captured on his tape, have not yet been brought to justice.

This is not new in Mexico, which has earned the distinction of being among the 10 worst countries when it comes to impunity for the murders of journalists, according to a recent survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists. In fact, narco-fueled violence has made that country among the world’s most dangerous for journalists, who often resort to self censorship, rather than run the risk of being deleted by drug gangs.

Friends of Mr. Will were very much thinking of this – and of him – in recent days, when some television channels were devoting hours of coverage to the death of Mr. Russert, a beloved media figure.

“It really does highlight the disconnect or distance between hard-hitting investigative journalists who are out there working and the risks they take versus the boys club in D.C.,” said Mark Read, who teaches media studies at New York University. “There is a self-importance there, and rarely do they try to leverage their celebrity to speak out and help protect those who are doing risky, dangerous work.”

Mr. Read had befriended Mr. Will in New York in the late 1990s, when they both were active in the city’s community gardens, which were under threat from officials and developers. Both of them had also come to know Harry Bubbins, an environmental activist in the South Bronx.

“We met while doing environmental organizing,” said Mr. Bubbins. “During the Giuliani administration we were arrested at City Hall for protesting the auction of community gardens.”

Mr. Bubbins said that Mr. Will eventually moved toward independent reporting work, traveling to Latin America often. He went from being part of the story to covering it. Ultimately, his killing became the story one last time.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post