About New York; Championing Lady Justice In the Bronx
LADY JUSTICE presides over the entrance to the old Bronx County Courthouse, her sandblasted robes fairly gleaming in contrast to the fenced-in hulk’s soot-encrusted walls. She casts her gaze beyond Third Avenue, over a vista of newly built homes that have slowly brought this section of Melrose back to life.
Yolanda Garcia takes pride in that statue, which she used to see all the time growing up in the neighborhood, where her family runs a carpet business. After all, Lady Justice remained untouched by the scavengers who descended on the building in search of Beaux Arts booty when it was shuttered in the late 1970’s.
”But we still have the statue,” Ms. Garcia said. ”Remember, our statue is not blindfolded. She doesn’t have the scales of justice. She does have a shield and a sword. She knew what was coming. She’s one tough broad.”
As tough as Ms. Garcia and her neighbors, who belong to Nos Quedamos (We Stay), a grass roots planning group that has spent years literally drawing up a new vision of homes, streets and parks for their once-ravaged community. Although the group secured $1 million in government and foundation grants to turn the courthouse into a civic center, the city auctioned it for $130,000 in 1996 to an electrical contractor who never made clear what plans he had for the 1914 landmark structure.
Nos Quedamos unsuccessfully sued the city to try to stop the sale. It became a moot point late last year, when the city repossessed the building after declaring the contractor in default on payments. But rather than try to work out an agreement with Nos Quedamos — whose work has been praised by architects and featured in museums — the city will once again put the building on the block next week.
Scorching heat and stifling humidity gripped much of the East Coast on Monday, with the National Weather Service issuing heat advisories as temperatures approached 100 degrees in many areas.
The heat wave is expected to last into Tuesday and prompted officials in Philadelphia and Connecticut to send students in public and parochial schools home early both days and cancel evening programs, The Associated Press reported. The heat caused power failures that interrupted some subway service in New York.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management said it was opening cooling centers for people who do not have air conditioning, and other cities are making similar arrangements. Officials urged relatives and neighbors to check in on elderly, housebound people, who are most in danger during hot spells.
The hot weather extended from New England down through the Middle Atlantic states into the Carolinas.
Weather officials said heat waves are not just uncomfortable, they are dangerous. “Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer,” the weather service said. “On average, more than 1,500 people in the U.S. die each year from excessive heat.”
That is more than the deaths attributed to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and lightning combined, the agency said.
In New York City, service on the F and G subway lines in Brooklyn was disrupted during Monday’s rush hour by power failures on the subway signals. Officials of New York City Transit said generators were being sent to the affected areas so service could be resumed.
New York Needs More Green To Take Environmental Lead
Saying it needs to live up to its name, the Wildlife Conservation Society is taking steps to make the Central Park and Bronx zoos and its other animal parks more environmentally friendly.
“We can’t be a leader in global conservation if we don’t also live it at home,” President Steven E. Sanderson said in a release Wednesday as the organization announced plans for a 30-percent cut in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The 112-year-old organization conducts research and works to protect rare and endangered animals in various places around the world. Based at the Bronx Zoo, it also operates the Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens zoos and the New York Aquarium.
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