Talk Bronx New York

Bronx residents are saying shooting for “Life On Mars” is causing parking problems. For some New Yorkers, the news that an American remake of an award-winning British television series was being shot in their neighborhood might be cause for celebration. But residents of the Amalgamated Houses, a sprawling cooperative in the northwest Bronx, are indignant about the loss of almost 400 on-street parking spaces on Monday and Tuesday, caused by the taping of ABC’s “Life on Mars” in their otherwise quiet neighborhood.

The Amalgamated is home to more than a few old-time lefties and activists, and the residents did not take this meekly. Upon learning of the shoot on Thursday, they began lobbying local politicians and officials for a quick fix that would allow them to park a few blocks away. They got their wish — permission to park on Goulden Avenue, a desolate stretch between the reservoir and De Witt Clinton High School, with a security guard and a shuttle service provided by the co-op.

Ed Yaker, 64, a former co-op president and longtime resident of the Amalgamated, said building management spent most of Friday making phone calls to ease the parking squeeze. “If we didn’t have an organized community where we have an office that can make calls, what would have happened?” he asked. “Tough luck parking in your own neighborhood, that’s what.”

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Democrat who represents the area, helped reach out to the authorities to shift the time of the parking ban from Sunday night to early Monday.

“This is good for the city to have shows filmed here, but you can’t given them a blank check,” Mr. Dinowitz said. “Taking away people’s parking for two days is absurd.” Read more..

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Ears Cocked for the Sound of Blasting

KAREN ARGENTI, a 57-year-old environmental consultant who lived on the west side of Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx for 20 years, still remembers how the music from concerts in Harris Park, on the reservoir’s east side, used to carry across the water.

That sound carries over water so well is one of many reasons Ms. Argenti can’t believe that for at least three weeks and possibly longer, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection plans to do blasting along the 94-acre reservoir’s eastern edge, near Goulden Avenue and 205th Street.

“The blasting is going to be just like the music,” she said. “People are going to hear it everywhere.”

The agency has long intended to build shafts near the reservoir to connect tunnels, which are part of the Croton Water Filtration Plant project, a treatment facility that the agency is building beneath Van Cortlandt Park. But a few weeks ago, the department announced that instead of drilling to make space for the shafts, it would blast.

According to Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, this plan is significantly different from the one laid out in the 2004 environmental impact statement that outlined the scope and effects of the project. “The fact is when the D.E.P. was trying to sell this to the community, we were specifically told there would be no blasting,” Mr. Dinowitz said, adding that he would like to see a revised environmental impact statement before the work goes further.

But with blasting scheduled to begin in early September, residents have little time left to voice their objections.

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