Community boards are the little City Halls of the city, dealing with local issues involving city agencies, and serving an advisory role in zoning and other land-use issues.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 1 (Melrose, Mott Haven) meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB1 Office, 3024 Third Ave. Call (718) 585-7117.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (Highbridge, Mount Eden and Concourse) meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Murray Cohen Auditorium, 1650 Grand Concourse. Call (718) 299-0800.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (Bathgate, Morris Heights, Fordham and Mount Hope) meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at South Bronx Job Corps - Auditorium, 1771 Andrews Ave. Call (718) 364-2030.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 7 (Norwood, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights) meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, at the Botanical Gardens, Mosholu Gate Entrance, Visitors Center Café, E. 200th St. and Kazimiroff Blvd. Call (718) 933-5650.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 9 (Soundview, Clasons Point, Parkchester, Bruckner and Harding Park) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at CB9 Office, 1967 Turnbull Ave. Call (718) 823-3034.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 10 (Throgs Neck, City Island, Pelham Bay, Co-op City, Zerega, Westchester Square, Country Club and Edgewater) meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at Middletown Senior Center, 3035 Middletown Road. Call (718) 892-1161.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 11 (Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Laconia and Van Nest) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at 1200 Van Nest Avenue, Lubin Hall, Mazur Building. Call (718) 892-6262.
- COMMUNITY BOARD 12 (Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn, Eastchester and Baychester) meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB12 office, 4101 White Plains Road. Call (718) 881-4455.
NYC DOT and NYC Transit have begun presenting at Bronx community boards to help promote the June 29 launch of NYC’s first bus rapid transit route along Pelham Parkway and Fordham Road in the Bronx. The new service, known as Select Bus Service, has distinct features that will make riding the bus a new experience for transit riders along the corridor.
As MTR wrote earlier, Select Bus fares will be paid under a “proof of payment” system where riders would pay at stations and show a receipt if asked by on-board fare collectors. This will shorten delay caused as passengers pay one by one at the head of the bus.
Northwest Bronx program assist on evictions, problems with landlords
Northwest Bronx residents with housing concerns can benefit this summer from a new pilot program.
The local community board has joined up with the West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center to offer housing assistance to the more than 140,000 people living in the area.
“We decided to partner with them because they needed space, and we needed to help residents,” said Fernando Tirado, district manager of Community Board 7, which covers Jerome Park, Norwood and University Heights.
“It’s to deal with the growing problem of tenants being forced out or not getting the appropriate amount of services from their landlord,” said Tirado.
The program will provide such services as help with filing government housing forms, assistance contacting city agencies with complaints, and mediation of disputes between landlords and tenants.
A representative from the resource center will be at the board’s office at 229-A E. 204th St. on the third Tuesday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to offer housing expertise.
Sandy Dunford, executive director of the resource center, said the board had been referring residents to her office for years, but it was difficult to get them to come in, which often had disastrous consequences.
“Then the problem deepens, and it may be too late by the time they come to us. If we can help earlier, there’s a lot of things we can do,” Dunford said.
“There’s nothing sadder than having someone come in a day before they are evicted or foreclosed on and knowing that if they had come in earlier, we might have been able to do something,” she added.
The first session took place on May 20, and the program is already having an impact.
Just a few people showed up, but several received guidance about how to organize a tenants’ association, and one woman facing foreclosure is receiving help with the problem.
“There’s no way she would have come in if not for this program,” Dunford said. “She didn’t know we existed, but she came to the board, and they said to come in when we were here the next day.”
The program is set to run through September, but if it is successful, it may be extended.
“We hope that people in the community will be supportive of it, so that we can continue our partnership on a permanent basis,” Tirado said.
Community Boards are the little City Halls of the city, dealing with local issues involving city agencies, and serving an advisory role in zoning and other land-use issues.
COMMUNITY BOARD 1 (Melrose, Mott Haven) meets at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 27, at Lincoln Hospital, Conference Room 6, 234 Morris Ave., at E. 149th St. Call (718) 585-7117.
COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (Highbridge, Mount Eden and Concourse) meets at 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Murray Cohen Auditorium, 1650 Grand Concourse. Call (718) 299-0800.
COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (Morris Heights, Fordham, Bathgate and Mount Hope) meets at 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 26, at St. Simon Stock School, 2195 Valentine Ave. Call (718) 364-2030.
COMMUNITY BOARD 7 (Norwood, Jerome Park, Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights) meets at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, at Kittay House, 2550 Webb Ave. Call (718) 933-5650.
COMMUNITY BOARD 9 (Soundview, Clasons Point, Parkchester, Bruckner and Harding Park) meets at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 20, at CB9 Office, 1967 Turnbull Ave. Call (718) 823-3034.
COMMUNITY BOARD 10 (Throgs Neck, City Island, Pelham Bay, Co-op City, Zerega, Westchester Square, Country Club and Edgewater) meets at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 13, at American Legion Hall, 550 City Island Ave. Call (718) 892-1161.
COMMUNITY BOARD 12 (Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn, Eastchester and Baychester) meets at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 27, at CB12 office, 4101 White Plains Road. Call (718) 881-4455.
Could the scene on the wall along Jackson Ave. be considered art? Maybe, but not once it has been defaced.
Graffiti Not Something We Want in The Bronx! Says Residents..
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development and rising property values in the Bronx, complaints of graffiti in the borough increased by 58% last year, costing business owners and taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Bronx police are responding with greater enforcement, cuffing 780 people for graffiti crimes last year, second only to Brooklyn in arrests citywide, according to the NYPD’s comprehensive year-end GraffitiStat report, obtained by Bronx Boro News.
Police say graffiti has not necessarily increased, but that people are more vigilant and the NYPD’s reporting system now requires cops to file an incident report for each graffiti complaint.
But the new reporting system does not account for the consistently steep increase in complaints over the past three years. Bronx residents filed 1,416 complaints in 2007 compared with 892 in 2006, and 338 in 2004.
In response, community leaders, politicians and the district attorney’s office all say they are developing creative solutions to attack the problem — including more arrests, harsher sentences and holding building owners responsible for cleaning up graffiti as soon as it happens.
“It’s in my face, there’s no way to ignore it,” said Fernando Tirado, district manager of Community Board 7 in Kingsbridge, which had the most graffiti complaints — 191 — in the Bronx. “Business owners become exasperated from the amount of work they have to do just to maintain their property.”
“It sends a horrible, horrible message,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein, who runs a graffiti hotline and cleaning service through his office.
“It shows that the community is in disrepair, on the decline.”
Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester) echoed what many, from the district attorney’s office to local shop owners, say - graffiti needs to be cleaned up quickly.
Frank Fitts, community council president for the 45th Precinct, which had the most - 311 - graffiti complaints in the borough, said he tells residents to report graffiti even after the painters are gone, so the city has a record of it.
Arrests of those caught in the act and kids with graffiti paraphernalia in school were up by 61% last year over 2006, from 484 to 780.
But police say that no matter how many officers there are, graffiti is simply a difficult crime to stop.
“It’s not so much understaffing. It’s a crime you really have to be lucky to catch the kids, it’s done so fast,” said Officer Vic DiPierro, community affairs officer of the 49th Precinct. “Kids can tag up a store gate in seconds.”
The district attorney’s office held a summit meeting with transit officials last week on how to prosecute graffiti vandals not initially caught in the act.
Earlier this month, the office prosecuted a teen who was arrested with a camera filled with photos of works he admitted creating.
Punishment for first time offenses includes community service or restitution to property owners.
In the past, the community service may have included sweeping streets, but under an experimental program in Bronx Criminal Court, called Bronx Community Solutions, offenders specifically have to clean up graffiti. Repeat offenders face jail time.
Wilfredo (Bio) Feliciano, a former street graffiti artist turned professional mural artist, argued criminal convictions are not the answer.
“For these kids, this is the way of letting the world know, to say, I exist,” he said.
“If they would use half of the money in finding outlets for people, you’ll maybe cut that number of complaints in half.”
Klein “wholeheartedly” disagrees.
“I would like to see more arrests being made,” he said.
“It’s a crime. There’s a very small percentage of vandals that eventually become artists. You see the garbage scrawled on buildings, it’s not art.”
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