Talk Bronx New York

City officials said Monday that they were scrapping a controversial plan to replace some vocational programs at a Bronx high school with a troubled 18-month-old charter school.

The decision, a rare instance of the city changing course on a proposal to place a charter school in a public school, was made after a meeting last Wednesday between Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor, and construction industry representatives. The construction executives expressed concern that the charter school would not be able to replicate the construction trades programs at the high school, Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School, said Gregg B. Betheil, who is in charge of the city’s vocational educational programs.

The city still plans to close Smith’s construction trade programs — in heating and ventilation, plumbing, electrical installation, carpentry and architectural engineering — because of low graduation rates. But instead of moving the charter school, the New York City Charter School for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries, into the space, the Department of Education will work with industry representatives to develop an appropriate replacement school, which may be a city-run school or a charter, Mr. Betheil said. Read more..

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The city has pulled the plug on a deal to house a controversial charter school in a Bronx school building.

The surprise move came after questions from the Daily News about the charter’s current and former board members - two of whom hold powerful jobs at the Education Department.

“It’s clear the [Education Department] checked its facts and the numbers just didn’t add up,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the Citizens Union. “This was a bad decision that raised all kinds of ethical issues.”

Last month, the New York City Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries won the prized space inside Alfred E. Smith High School, which is being phased down.

Irma Zardoya, a high-ranking Education Department consultant who works at its Tweed headquarters, is the chairwoman of the charter school’s board.

Santiago Taveras - an interim acting deputy chancellor with the Education Department - was a board member for the charter until June. Read more..

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 The line between Bronx and Westchester counties separates the sickest New Yorkers from those with some of the greatest chances of staying healthy, U.S. data show.

Bronx, encompassing the New York City’s northernmost borough, ranked the worst of all 62 counties in the state in two broad indicators, according to data released today by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Nassau, on Long Island, and Westchester topped the list of New York counties in a measure that looks at how behavior, access to care, economics and environment influence health.

The institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked counties within all 50 states. While they avoided a national ranking of the more than 3,000 U.S. counties, the researchers found common reasons for differences. People in counties with a high ranking had better access to primary care providers and healthier foods. Poorly ranked counties showed high rates of smoking and obesity.

“Our focus is that everybody should be able to compare the health of where they live to their neighbors and other places in their state,” said Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, and lead researcher of the study, in a phone interview yesterday. Having the information on a local level makes it easier to find out who “can address these health problems.” Read more..

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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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          US Census Bureau is taking its show on the road

2010 is census year in America - and there is a lot riding on this drive to count everyone in the country. Some $400bn (£251bn) of federal money is allocated according to the population in each of the 50 states, and so are Congressional seats.

However, immigrant communities are often suspicious of the census, fearing the information could be used to deport those in the US illegally. Some Hispanic leaders are even calling for a boycott of the census, as I found out on a snowy morning in New York.

A troupe of dancers were braving the cold outside the Bronx Borough Hall, trying to drum up interest in the 2010 census.

Welcome to the Census Bureau road tour: census officials are criss-crossing the US with their signature blue trailers between now and April, targeting communities where traditionally people have been reluctant to be counted.

If you want better services, allow yourself to be counted, I am guaranteeing that nothing bad will happen to you

Ruben Diaz Jr,
Bronx Borough President

In the Bronx, just 56% of people returned the census in 2000, a “horrible” result, according to Bronx Borough president Ruben Diaz Jr.

He says the Bronx lost federal dollars and even seats in Congress because of undercounting.

Ligia Jaquez of the US Census Bureau is here to persuade people it is worth their while to fill out the form.

“It’s the benefits that you bring to your community,” she says.

“The government and the state use that data, for funding for new roads, new schools, for emergency services. When your community isn’t counted properly then the funding will be low.”

But not everyone wants to be counted. Read more..

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