Talk Bronx New York

What a great year. What a rotten year.

Okay, so maybe somewhere in between, even with the economy sliding into 2009.

It was that kind of year for the Bronx, with the highs hopefully edging out the lows. And let’s wish for it to be onward and upward in 2009.

Economy: Boom and bust

# On the upside, there was the new Yankee Stadium going full steam ahead - steamrolling over the local community in the process with a big loss of centrally located parkland - and the new Gateway Center mall to its south, both due to open in 2009. And the city finally chose a developer to turn the giant Kingsbridge Armory into a mall.

# The downside: the Bronx had the highest jobless rate in the state, registering 7.7% in October, while continuing to be the poorest urban county in the nation.
It was reflected in growing lines - with many turned away - at struggling local food pantries.

# A report in September by the Center for an Urban Future titled “Attack of the Chains?” found the Bronx has the fewest chain stores of any borough, with many not in the Bronx at all. Read more..

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The new store is located in the ‘Hub’ at 416 Westchester Avenue, between Third Avenue and Boone Avenue.

The company said that the store incorporates a new interactive retail design, inviting consumers to experience wireless voice, data, music and video services in a full-service environment.

The store also features over 3300 square-feet of retail, technical support and customer service space along with interactive product and service demos available throughout the store.

It also has integrated systems and operational enhancements, designed to streamline the sales process and increase customer satisfaction and a check-in kiosk inviting customers to sign in on arrival and stay informed via monitors that track their place in the queue for service. Read more..

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The Hub — the commercial strip around Third Avenue and 149th Street — is among the parts of the South Bronx that some boosters are trying to rebrand as the “Downtown Bronx.” (Photos: David Gonzalez/The New York Times) City and Bronx officials this week trumpeted a major pedestrians and traffic redesign of the Hub, the commercial strip around Third Avenue and East 149th Street. Perhaps it will be more successful than a previous makeover, which tried to rebrand the area as the “Downtown Bronx.”

Fluttering above the heads of officials — and sometimes above the consciousness of local residents — were banners affixed several years ago to lampposts promoting the “Downtown Bronx Shopping District.” Never mind that the term is nothing less than a geographical impossibility to anyone who actually grew up in the Bronx, where “downtown” pretty much meant any place below 125th Street in Manhattan.

This attempt at rebranding stumps many people who walk past those banners daily (as they go to take the subway downtown, of course). Some thought it meant you could catch Manhattan-bound buses. Others said Downtown Bronx was all the way south, up against the river in Port Morris. Few knew they were smack dab in the thick of it.

Banners in the Hub commercial district in the South Bronx calls the area the “Downtown Bronx.”

Jonathan Sanchez, a security guard on his way to work, had no clue where it was. “This is the South Bronx right here,” he said, oblivious to the banner on a nearby lamppost. “Downtown is more like, Manhattan. The South Bronx is, you know, this area. It seems very good. It’s not like it used to be.” Read more..

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