Talk Bronx New York

Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx in his first State of the Borough speech.

 Taking on development, jobs, living wages, gun violence - and a snowstorm - Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx today in his first State of the Borough speech.

Key among his goals, says his office, will be a new plan to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, after he and others led the fight to kill a plan for a mall there.

A thousand invited guests at the Evander Childs High School campus are expected to hear Diaz announce a task force to develop new ideas for the cavernous, white-elephant armory’s future, such as manufacturing and recreation.

Diaz was pilloried by Mayor Bloomberg and construction unions for pushing the City Council to kill the plan for the heavily subsidized mall, over his insistence retailers there pay “a living wage” to workers - $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.

He is expected today to again raise the issue of living wages for projects receiving heavy city subsidies and tax breaks, and announce he has partnered with Bronx City Council members Anabel Palma and Oliver Koppell on legislation requiring that developers who receive taxpayer help make their project pay workers a living wage.

The borough president also is expected to announce a long-held dream of former borough presidents and business leaders - to bring a quality hotel to the Bronx, working with developers and the New York Hotel Trade Council to identify sites, and generate interest from hotel operators.

Former Borough President Fernando Ferrer had a master plan calling for a hotel as part of a Yankee Village near Yankee Stadium. The new Gateway Center Mall near there has been viewed as a possible site. Some have suggested a hotel near Fordham University, with the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Arthur Avenue as nearby draws. Read more..

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Omar Calhoun was itching to get on the All Hallows court. The heralded sophomore from Christ the King couldn’t wait to play his first varsity game, which finally came on Friday night in the Bronx.

Christ the King displayed a bit of opening-night jitters inside the small All Hallows gymnasium, but when all was said and done it was the Royals’ athleticism and stout defense that stood out in CK’s 49-27 victory over the Gaels.

Calhoun led the Royals with 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds. TJ Curry added nine points and dished four assists, and Kareem Thomas added nine.

“We (were) anxious to play,” Calhoun said. “We were just competing in practice. We wanted to do it on the court.”

All Hallows, which fell to 0-2 in league play, was led by Omar Kellman’s 17 points. Standout point guard Mike Alvarado did not play; coach John Carey said he was sidelined due to a stomach virus.

Royals coach Joe Arbitello didn’t like the missed layups he saw from his players, but he was more than happy to watch his team take advantage of its size advantage. CK capitalized on its clear rebounding advantage, and its stingy defense did not allow All Hallows to score a point in the fourth quarter.

“I told them we are going to score 40 or 50 points easily,” Abitello said. “But I thought we did a great job defensively; got to do a good job, and we did.”

Christ the King took a 25-18 lead into the third quarter, and that was where Curry gave the Royals a boost, scoring seven of his nine points as CK went on a 10-2 run to end the quarter with a 39-27 lead.

Curry did a fine job while stepping in for injured point guard Corey Edwards, who missed the game due to a bone bruise in his knee. Arbitello told Curry, who ordinarily plays shooting guard, that he had three days to prepare to start at the point.

“Just running into that position out of nowhere, it feels good to have a chance to lead the team,” Curry said afterward. Read more..

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Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius

  ‘Penmanship is dying!” lamented Sister Aloysius when she found a forbidden ballpoint pen in a classroom in the movie “Doubt,” set in a Bronx Catholic grammar school in 1964.

It came out on DVD last week, and to watch it was to conjure thoughts of growing up Catholic in the Bronx on the cusp of Vatican II.

It was a time and place that molded a population, and will never be seen again. Only those of us who went through it, like Marines who made it through Parris Island, can believe how it really was.

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UNH Press Release: Sophomore guard Tyrone Conley (Burlington, Vt.) led three players in double figures, but the University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team fell short against Fordham University, 60-56, Tuesday night at the Rose Hill Gym.

The Wildcats head into Christmas at 3-6, while the Rams improve to 2-7.

Conley, the America East Player of the Game, tallied 12 points and six rebounds, while fellow sophomore guard Alvin Abreu (Lynn, Mass.) added 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Senior guard Tyrece Gibbs (Brockton, Mass.) chipped in with 10 points and five boards.

Trailing 49-44 with 8:56 remaining, the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run that was sparked by a Conley 3-pointer that cut the deficit to two. Gibbs then hit a pair of free throws before sinking one of two at the line to give UNH a 50-49 advantage with 5:10 to go. Conley followed with a layup and completed the three-point play at the line after he was fouled to put the Wildcats on top 53-49 with 4:41 to play.

Mike Moore’s basket – the first Fordham points in a span of 5:19 – cut the Wildcat lead to two and started a 6-0 run that would give the Rams a 55-53 lead with 2:22 left in the contest. Junior forward Abby Kabba (Oklahoma City, Okla.) would hit one of two at the line before Gibbs sunk another pair at the stripe to put UNH back on top 56-55 with 1:01 remaining. Jio Fontan’s layup with 43 seconds left regained Fordham’s edge before the Rams sunk three of four from the line to close the scoring and pick up the win.

UNH trailed 22-8 with 7:06 left in the first half when two Russell Graham (Norristown, Pa.) layups, sandwiched around a Colbey Santos (Onset, Mass.) 3-pointer, set off a 15-4 run that brought the Wildcats to within 26-23 with 1:42 left. The two teams swapped baskets and headed into the break with Fordham leading 28-25.

Graham gave the Wildcats eight points off the bench, while Santos recorded six points, five rebounds and two assists in a season-high 33 minutes. Read more..

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A Friendly Bustle, With Oases Nearby

IT was either the Bronx or Queens.

Jason Velez, 32, a financial adviser, and his girlfriend, RoseAnn Monterroso, 28, a consignment shop manager, had decided to move in together. He owned a one-bedroom in Bedford Park and worked nearby in Belmont. She owned a one-bedroom in Jackson Heights and commuted to Midtown.

They looked in Queens but decided they would get more for their money in Bedford Park — whose proximity to public transportation and major highways provides easy commuting to both Manhattan and Westchester.

“There’s the Bronx stigma,” said Mr. Velez, who grew up in Parkchester. “I thought it would be hard to convince her, but the more she saw, she started liking it.”

She sold her place, he sold his, and they bought a two-bedroom in his co-op on East 201st Street for $178,000. They plan to redo the bath and closets with a custom job, not prefab units.

“We’ll take the extra money,” Mr. Velez said, “and instead of buying something we don’t like, we’ll create something we do like.”

But Bedford Park is about more than affordability to Mr. Velez. It’s about friendliness. For instance three weeks ago his broker, David Abreu, who lives next door, visited a Manhattan comedy club to witness what Mr. Velez had billed as his first foray into stand-up. (In fact, Mr. Velez is no comedian: halfway through his “set,” he pulled Ms. Monterroso onstage, dropped to one knee and proposed. She said yes.)

Once heavily Irish and Jewish, Bedford Park in the 2000 census was 58 percent Hispanic, 17 percent white, 13 percent black and 7 percent Asian. There is a large mix of new arrivals, among them Guyanese, Albanian and Vietnamese. A Korean commercial strip occupies a block of East 204th Street.

John Dhauraj, a Guyanese immigrant who has owned a three-bedroom house on East 203rd Street for 19 years, was chatting one recent afternoon with a neighbor, Cholelle Miranda, who grew up locally and rents a place in a six-story brick apartment house two doors down. Their block is typical: tree-lined and backing up to the woodsy Mosholu Parkway, with early 20th-century single-family and multifamily houses sandwiched in among apartment buildings.

“This block is still a community,” Ms. Miranda said, and Mr. Dhauraj added, “We look out for each other.”

Like many in this middle-class area, both feel pinched by the economy.

“Let me put it to you this way,” said Mr. Dhauraj, 63, who used to work in building maintenance. “Since I retired, I got to look at the pennies. When I was working, I never looked at pennies.”

Fortunately, Mr. Dhauraj bought before the wave of subprime lending. The Bronx is the seventh-ranked county in the nation for foreclosure-related decreases in home values, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

But several factors insulate Bedford Park. Rental apartment buildings, which constitute a majority of housing here, are mostly immune. Typical homeowners have lived in their homes for a long time, so are less susceptible to the recent proliferation of risky loans.

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