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..

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Left without busing, sixth-grader Leigha Archibald must rely on her mom, Karrie, to drive her to Middle School 180 in the Bronx.

City education officials have denied busing to sixth-graders at two Bronx schools, forcing parents to miss work and spend extra money to escort kids to school safely.

“Yesterday, we’re on the way to pick [my daughter] up, and there’s a crackhead …lying on the sidewalk with a stem, smoking crack,” said Marcus Ortiz, whose 11-year-old daughter Taisha Lomba is in the sixth grade at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation.

When Taisha applied to the school it was in her district - making her eligible for busing. But Urban Assembly moved over the summer, leaving many families in the lurch.

At Middle School 180, Karrie Archibald, mother of 10-year-old Leigha, was assured sixth-graders accepted into a performing arts program at the Kingsbridge school would be bused. Not so.

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After replacing its summer parks series last year with one free mega-concert in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the Metropolitan Opera on Wednesday announced a new plan for this summer: a series of six free recitals from July 13 through Aug. 14 in all five boroughs, starting at Summer Stage in Central Park, with Paulo Szot, Lisette Oropesa, Alek Shrader and Vlad Iftinca. After the opening recital, at 8 p.m. on July 13, a Monday, the rest will take place on Friday evenings at 7 p.m.: July 17 at Crotona Park in the Bronx; July 24 at Queensbridge Park in Queens; July 31 at East River Park in Manhattan; Aug. 7 at Tappan Park in Staten Island; and Aug. 14 at Coffey Park in Brooklyn. The Met will also offer, starting on Aug 29, a 10-day festival of high-definition broadcasts of Met productions in Lincoln Center Plaza, ending with Anthony Minghella’s staging of “Madama Butterfly” on Labor Day. Read more..

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 Curtis Sliwa

Tourists hungry for a peek at the real New York can skip Times Square and Central Park and head for the South Bronx instead.

Radio host Curtis Sliwa is leading out-of-towners on three-hour walking tours of the once crime-ridden neighborhood to give them a firsthand look at what it was like and how it has changed.

“The Bronx has improved dramatically, but you can get a flavor of what it was like,” said Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels. “It’s an opportunity to see the old and the new.”

So far, about 125 people have taken the tour, which was first reported by Crain New York Business.

Sliwa, who has also flirted with running for public advocate, says his so-called “Underbelly Tour” is a must-do attraction for those looking to get beyond the glitz of the world’s most intriguing city.

“I show them, this is where there used to be burned-out buildings, gangs, drug dealers,” Sliwa said. “You see a burned-out building with graffiti and right next to it you see a brand-new place and thriving businesses.” Read more..

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Faced with a sharp drop in its endowment and a $15 million deficit, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced on Monday that more than 100 of its 1,200 employees had accepted buyouts and that dozens more would be laid off.

The society, which operates the Bronx, Central Park, Prospect Park and Queens Zoos and the New York Aquarium, also announced what it called a vast overhaul intended to make it “meaner, leaner and greener.”

The society, with an annual budget of around $200 million, has faced increasing pressure because it relies heavily on grants and gifts. John F. Calvelli, executive vice president for public affairs at the society, said the organization’s endowment had fallen about 30 percent from its peak of around $480 million. Read more..

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