Talk Bronx New York

Diego Medina’s plywood sculpture ‘Aurora’ has remained free of graffiti and other vandalism during the six months it has been in front of the Bronx River Art Center in West Farms Square.

       Six months, and counting.

It has been that long, and the plywood sculpture in front of the Bronx River Art Center in West Farms Square miraculously has remained graffiti-free.

While storefronts and subway trains around it have been defaced with all manner of tags and symbols, nothing has appeared on the unpainted sculpture.

“It’s pretty amazing. I think it’s great,” said Jose Ruiz, the 34-year-old gallery director and curator for the Bronx River Art Center.

“I never could have imagined that it would last this long without being tagged,” he said. “We felt that the community was changing and so we felt it would be respected, but it was an unknown. We took a risk to do it and it has paid off.”

The 14-foot, multifaceted sculpture, titled “Aurora,” is a tagger’s dream.

It has six unpainted, interlocking geometric shapes and was inspired by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1930 poem, “La Aurora de Nueva York” (Dawn in New York).

It was formally unveiled to the public in July and will remain on display in the square until June.

Even a sign that the city Department of Transportation placed in front of the sculpture stating its participation in the project didn’t last.

Although the sign was bolted to the ground, someone made off with it about a week after it was placed. Read more..

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The Department of Transportation is continuing its pilot program to reduce alternate side parking regulations in the Bronx.

The regulations are going from twice a week to once a week, and from three hours down to 90 minutes in some locations.

Alternate side regulations will be suspended in parts of Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights and Van Cortlandt Village starting on Monday for six to eight weeks as the signs are replaced, and then the new regulations will take effect.

Meanwhile, motorists in Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Marble Hill, and Kingsbridge west of Broadway will be impacted by reduced regulations starting Monday, January 11. Signs in those ares have been going up since October.

The pilot program began last year in Park Slope, Brooklyn and was quickly expanded.

 For more information on the rules changes, call 311 or visit nyc.gov/dot.

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White Plains, NY - Motorists who use the Bronx River Parkway near Kensico Dam are advised that a lane closure will be in effect for a section of the parkway due to construction for six weeks beginning Feb. 17. The project is likely to cause traffic delays southbound , particularly during morning rush-hours on weekdays. The county is reconstructing the northern 1.4-mile of the parkway from Cemetery/Old Tarrytown Road to the Kensico Dam. As a result, one lane of the southbound parkway will be closed between Kensico Circle and Virginia Road. For additional information, contact the Westchester County Department of Public Works, Traffic Division at 995-2555. To reduce delays and encourage motorists to seek alternate routes, a number of measures have been taken: Variable message signs have already been installed to give motorist advance warning. The county is working closely with the state Department of Transportation and other agencies to get the word out on signs and on the state’s 511 transportation system.

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A well-known attorney involved in a battle for leadership of the Bronx Democratic Party used a bogus firefighter placard to park illegally, The Post has learned.

Lawyer Stanley Schlein was spotted parked in a crosswalk outside the Bronx Supreme Courthouse twice earlier this month, with a Uniformed Firefighters Association placard displayed on his dashboard, according to photos obtained by The Post.

He got away with the infraction once, but a source close to Schlein said the lawyer ended up receiving a $115 violation during one of the courthouse visits.

The placard reads “Active Firefighter,” but Schlein is not a firefighter. He received it from a friend at the union because “he is a strong supporter of the UFA,” the source said, declining to be identified.

The city’s Department of Transportation does not honor parking placards distributed by law-enforcement unions - only those given out by Mayor Bloomberg - but police often turn a blind eye to illegally parked cars with fire- or police-union cards on the dashboards. Read more..

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Borough President Adolfo Carrión wants to rack ‘em up.

He’s launched a drive to make the Bronx more bicycle-friendly by getting more bike racks.

A new report, “Bike the Bronx,” calls for exploring locations where bike racks could be installed. It urges residents, community groups and businesses to ask the city Department of Transportation to install more of them in their neighborhoods.

The report was released as 5,000 biking fans turned out Oct. 19 for the annual Tour de Bronx.

With high rates of asthma from traffic on the borough’s major highways, diabetes from obesity and the high cost of gas and maintaining cars, the report says using a bike to exercise and commute to work is a triple-winner.

It cites statistics showing the Bronx has the largest number of people in the city who drive short distances alone to work, saying that with more convenient bike racks installed, that number could be significantly lowered.

“If ever there was a time to make the Bronx and all of New York City a friendlier place for bicycling, it is now,” said Carrión. Read more..

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