Talk Bronx New York

While Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión is playing coy about his political plans should Mayor Bloomberg succeed in extending term limits, other Bronx politicians are not.

Carrión, who is running for city controller, said last week he has no doubt the City Council will approve the term limits extension, but he insists it’s still too early to say whether he will flip back and seek reelection to his $160,000-a-year borough presidency.

Much will depend, of course, on what the current controller, Bill Thompson, chooses to do. For now, Thompson is insisting he’s still running for mayor, Bloomberg or no Bloomberg.

Assuming that neither Thompson nor Carrión are politically suicidal, the smart money is on both running next year to keep their current jobs.

That, of course, would force Carrión’s would-be Bronx successors to rethink their game plans for 2009.

Heading the list is Councilman Joel Rivera, (D-East Tremont) son of endangered county Democratic leader Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of the citywide and local officials postpone their plans for four years,” he said. “And that’s all it’s going to end up being.”

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At Busy South Bronx Pool, an Unlikely Team Keeps the Peace

Crotona Pool’s manager, Kevin Walker, calls everyone out of the water at the end of the morning session. The Bronx pool has up to 1,400 visitors a day.

James Harrigan, 21, an ex-gang member who is one of a group of young pool volunteers, raised a flag he made.

He is known by the name tattooed on his left arm: Scorpio. He favors diamond earrings and designer sunglasses. He takes pills to control his angry outbursts, and sometimes carries a pistol, a .22 or a .45, depending on his mood.

On this day, on the street outside the Crotona Pool in the Bronx, where hundreds of children wait to get inside, he wears the earrings and sunglasses, but does not have a gun.

“Don’t move!” he shouts when a boy in navy trunks tries to tiptoe to the front of the line of sugar-fueled children, some wrapped in SpongeBob SquarePants towels, others wearing neon flip-flops. The boy gets back in line.

Scorpio, who is known by this name, is Terrance Carpenter, 26. He is one of a dozen or so young men who volunteer unofficially each week at the pool, which sits amid an area long fractured by hostilities among gangs like the Bloods, the Crips and the Latin Kings. Some of the volunteers are gang members, but others have turned their backs on crime.

Crotona Pool was one of several huge public pools to open in 1936 in New York. Built by Robert Moses with financing from the Works Progress Administration, they were heralded as some of the most remarkable public recreational facilities ever constructed in the United States.

But the pool, like the park it abuts, went into steep decline starting in the 1960s, as middle-class residents fled the surrounding neighborhoods — Morrisania, Crotona, East Tremont, West Farms — and poverty and violence took hold. Today the area has come far from its worst days, thanks in part to a citywide decline in crime and in part to the efforts of residents. The young volunteers, some of whom have contributed to their neighborhood’s violence, now seek to help keep the peace, at least in the neutral zone of the pool.

The volunteers have no enforcement powers; their duties are not clearly defined. But at the enormous pool full of excited — sometimes overexcited — children and teenagers, they provide extra ears and eyes for the officials charged with maintaining order. When the children violate the no-diving rule, they scold them. When horseplay gets too rowdy, they tone it down. When they see loiterers looking for trouble on the streets outside the pool, they swagger over to ward them off.

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Rumblings of a Bronx Comeback From Espada

He has been out of the political spotlight for a few years. But Pedro Espada Jr. is clearly thinking serious of re-emerging into the raucous Bronx electoral life.

Mr. Espada, a former Democratic state senator and one-time candidate for Bronx borough president, is strongly considering running again for the State Senate. However, Mr. Espada, who represented the Hunts Point and Bronx River sections (the 32nd Senate District), is now looking instead at running in the adjacent 33rd Senate District, which stretches from Kingsbridge to East Tremont. He would be challenging the incumbent, Efrain González Jr.

Mr. Espada has long been a colorful political figure and, for a long time, the most prominent enemy of the Bronx Democratic Party organization. He has also been a lightning rod, of sorts, in the heavily Democratic Bronx because of his announcement in 2002 that he would switch parties and become a Republican.

In the end, however, he never officially changed his registration, although he began to sit with the members of the Republican majority to participate in that party’s conferences.

“My wife and I moved to the Mosholu Parkway area and people started asking me to get more involved in community activities, from visiting schools to participating in Little League activities,” Mr. Espada said. “And most of all, these people kept telling me that there should be an alternative to the present incumbent, Senator González.”

As a result, he said, those residents who urged him to run for the Senate, began circulating petitions to collect signatures to qualify Mr. Espada to get a spot on the ballot for the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.

“As of this moment, I have not announced my candidacy,” Mr. Espada said. “And I won’t until I’m convinced that the residents truly want a change.”

But then, Mr. Espada began sounding very much like a candidate ready for political battle.” There is a huge vacuum of leadership in this area and there is no time to lose,” he said. “And I’m positioned to offer them the leadership that this area deserves.”

Mr. González, the former senator said, is a virtual absentee official. “People have simply not heard from the incumbent,” he added. “And that’s not just in the last two years, but in the last 20 years.”

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New York Real Estate: Morris Park, Bronx

MAP/BOUNDARIES

Morris Park is defined by Pelham Parkway to the north, the Amtrak/Metro-North tracks to the east and south and Muliner Avenue and Bronxdale Avenue to the west.

INTRO

Morris Park’s thriving Italian community is often compared to the better-known Little Italy centered on Arthur Avenue, but that doesn’t mean the locals are any less proud of their neighborhood.

The number of pasticcerie, salumerias, and pizzerias crammed into the area is spellbinding, Italian is spoken in the shops, and even the parking meters are striped with the colors of the motherland’s flag.

But at the turn of the century, Morris Park was famous for something else: its racetrack, which was built by John Albert Morris.

Local development picked up in 1910 when a streetcar line was installed on Morris Park Avenue, and construction of new roads and housing continuing well past World War II. Soon, droves of Italian immigrants began settling in the area.

Though the area’s Italian qualities are prominent, some locals claim there’s more to Morris Park than the Italian community.

“It’s always been a family area, and that’s stayed the same, but now all types of people live here,” said Angela DaBenigno, who moved to Morris Park in 1992. “People move in, people move out, but the area constantly adapts to the changes.”

The neighborhood is now home to significant populations of Albanians, Latinos and Chinese.

“There are a lot of different ethnic varieties, different colors,” said DaBenigno. “Years ago it was much more Italian, but times change.”

Though Morris Park’s population has become more diverse in recent years, residents still have certain things in common.

“It’ll always be a good, regular crowd–down-to-earth, working class people,” said DaBenigno. “No matter how much it changes, it’s still a gem in the Bronx.”

TO EAT & DRINK

Morris Park’s restaurant scene is comprised largely of Italian eateries, with the pizza places considered among the best in the Bronx. Try Emilio’s (1051 Morris Park Ave.); Luciano’s Pizza (1005 Morris Park Ave.); Pasta Pasta (2023 Williamsbridge Rd.); and Federici Ristorante (980 Morris Park Ave.).

• Patricia’s

This extraordinarily popular brick pizza restaurant gets so packed during peak hours that squeezing through to your table can be quite trying indeed. The atmosphere’s unbeatable, and so is the food: sandwiches made with slices of rich and oily focaccia, breadbaskets accompanied by garlicky dips and arguably some of the best pizza in the Bronx (some even say the city).

1080 Morris Park Ave. 718-409-9069

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City Reaches Out to Bronx On New BRT Route

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.

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