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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The Fordham Road Business Improvement District announced that 76 BID businesses are participating in a special Holiday Shopping Promotion in which they will offer 10% public discounts (consumers must display one of the many BID sponsored newspaper/magazine advertisements, downloadable online coupons or a MetroCard at the time of purchases, some restrictions may apply) from Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 20. A portion of these businesses will also have extended shopping hours on each Friday until 9 p.m. during the promotion dates.

BID-sponsored print advertisements are running in the Bronx Times Reporter, the Daily News, the Mount Hope Monitor, the Norwood News and Time Out New York Magazine. There will also be web and on-air radio promotions and television commercials. Read more..

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We’re almost glad West Bronx Councilwoman Maria Baez ducked out of that debate last week on Gary Axel bank’s Bronx Talk, to save it from being a complete embarrassment.

As it was, a lotta folks said The Rev. Fernando Cabrera and Yudelka Tapia reminded them of the dull edge of a butter knife.

Though Gary and Alex Kratz, and James Fergusson of the Bronx News Network tried, Cabrera also ducked explaining how the light shined down upon him to switch from voting Republican in 2008 to register as a Democrat in time to qualify for Tuesday’s primary.

The first post debate comment on the BNN’s blog: “You should have had 3 empty chairs.”

Even if Maria should pull it off, there’s still a potential win for Bronx Dem Party Boss Carl Heastie - “Maria won’t be head of the Bronx delegation anymore,” said a party insider.

With control of the delegation, that would put Carl up a notch when he sits down with the city’s other county leaders to talk turkey about Council largess and jobs.

Meanwhile … Read more..

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                   The start of school is just around the corner

 No doubt students across the Bronx are enjoying one last day of summer freedom before school doors open on Wednesday.

The new school year brings 18 new schools to the Bronx - including four charter schools - five elementary schools, seven middle schools and two high schools.

“These new schools will give families in the Bronx more choices,” said Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer. “The new schools we’ve opened across the borough over the past seven years have done exceptionally well in helping students succeed,” she continued, “and so we look to continue that success.”

Among the new school programs is the Creston Academy at 120 E. 184th St. in Fordham, one of two small middle schools with about 100 sixth-graders to replace failing Middle School 399.

According to Insideschools.org, the school will focus “on issues unique to adolescence” to help keep students engaged.

The Carl C. Icahn elementary charter school in the James Monroe Annex at 1551 E. 172nd St. in Bronx River will open with about 100 kindergarten through second-graders.

It is modeled after the original Icahn Charter School, which opened in Tremont in 2001. The Icahn schools have been praised for high academic performance, small classes and extended classroom hours, with waiting lists to get in.

Another sought-after program is the Girls Prep Charter School of South Bronx, at 681 Kelly St. in Longwood.

“This is already a very successful charter school on the lower East Side in Manhattan,” Meyer said. “Many Bronx parents might not know about it, but it’s very much a high-demand school.”

For parents, the borough president’s office has partnered with the nonprofit Advocates for Children to host a series of education workshops this fall.

The first workshop, General Education: Rights of Students and Parents, will cover enrollment, transfer and transportation, and voluntary and involuntary transfers and discharges.

The workshop will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 21 at the Bronx County Courthouse, 851 Grand Concourse, first floor. For more information, call Jesse Mojica at the borough president’s office at (718) 590-3515.
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The Star-LedgerIn this Aug. 21 photo, Rosa Alvarez holds her Mega Millions lottery ticket at Te-Amo at Journal Square.

One of the two winning Mega Millions tickets from the Aug. 28 $333 million drawing was turned in Tuesday, but the identity of the winner remains a mystery, according to a report in The New York Daily News.

The winning $166.5 million ticket was sold at Fordham Grocery and Convenience Store in the Bronx, while the other winning ticket was sold in California. New York Lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Givner told the newspaper “I can confirm that the winning ticket was claimed today (Tuesday), but can divulge no further information.”

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