Talk Bronx New York

Mo’ Mo Gridder’s Barbecue Coming to the Bronx

Fresh from attending the Bronx Food and Arts Festival on Sunday, Dave Cook of the highly recommended food site Eating in Translation reports that Hunts Point barbecue rig Mo Gridder’s – famous for its St. Louis cut smoked rib platter served in the parking lot of an auto center – is moving into its very first restaurant space without axles.

Owner Fred Donnelly will open Mo Gridder’s II in the Belmont Section of the Bronx, in the space vacated by Roberto restaurant at 632 East 186th Street at Crescent Avenue. Barbecued pulled pork and smoked brisket will soon be just a squishy, sesame seed bun’s throw from Arthur Avenue. Score one more for the Bronx – most of which, at least food-wise, has been down so long that up looks like a pallid Domino’s slice.

Mo Gridder’s was closed yesterday and today for its own annual tune-up, so there’s no word yet if the new restaurant space will feature the legendary $34.95 oil change (up to 5 quarts), suspension-steering-brake check, and St. Louis-cut smoked rib platter special on its menu.

In the meantime, the original Mo Gridder’s location in Hunts Point has expanded its regular hours (to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday) for the summer, and prices haven’t budged since Peter Meehan’s January 2007 review for the Times. During normal hours, Mo Gridder’s even sells bottles of its own vinegary sauce for $5.

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New South Bronx Apartments Named For Local Nun

A once-empty lot in the South Bronx is now the site of new apartments.

The Sister Thomas Apartments at 870 Southern Boulevard in Hunts Point was officially named Thursday.

The abandoned city-owned lot, once a reminder of the crime that plagued the neighborhood in the 1970s, was developed by the South East Bronx Community Organization into 103 units of affordable housing.

“When I came up today in my car and I went through the area, and it was extraordinary,” said former Mayor Ed Koch, who attended the dedication. “It was alive. And I remember when I went through this area when I became mayor and it was dead or dying.”

“And Lord make this home a happy place and bless it from above. So that’s how my new family knows how much I love them,” said Sister Thomas of the Sisters of Charity, whose name graces the apartments.

Sister Thomas was one of those who led the push to clean up the neighborhood and bring housing back to the borough.

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Rumblings of a Bronx Comeback From Espada

He has been out of the political spotlight for a few years. But Pedro Espada Jr. is clearly thinking serious of re-emerging into the raucous Bronx electoral life.

Mr. Espada, a former Democratic state senator and one-time candidate for Bronx borough president, is strongly considering running again for the State Senate. However, Mr. Espada, who represented the Hunts Point and Bronx River sections (the 32nd Senate District), is now looking instead at running in the adjacent 33rd Senate District, which stretches from Kingsbridge to East Tremont. He would be challenging the incumbent, Efrain González Jr.

Mr. Espada has long been a colorful political figure and, for a long time, the most prominent enemy of the Bronx Democratic Party organization. He has also been a lightning rod, of sorts, in the heavily Democratic Bronx because of his announcement in 2002 that he would switch parties and become a Republican.

In the end, however, he never officially changed his registration, although he began to sit with the members of the Republican majority to participate in that party’s conferences.

“My wife and I moved to the Mosholu Parkway area and people started asking me to get more involved in community activities, from visiting schools to participating in Little League activities,” Mr. Espada said. “And most of all, these people kept telling me that there should be an alternative to the present incumbent, Senator González.”

As a result, he said, those residents who urged him to run for the Senate, began circulating petitions to collect signatures to qualify Mr. Espada to get a spot on the ballot for the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.

“As of this moment, I have not announced my candidacy,” Mr. Espada said. “And I won’t until I’m convinced that the residents truly want a change.”

But then, Mr. Espada began sounding very much like a candidate ready for political battle.” There is a huge vacuum of leadership in this area and there is no time to lose,” he said. “And I’m positioned to offer them the leadership that this area deserves.”

Mr. González, the former senator said, is a virtual absentee official. “People have simply not heard from the incumbent,” he added. “And that’s not just in the last two years, but in the last 20 years.”

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NYC’s biggest produce market may relocate to New Jersey

America’s biggest wholesale produce market is looking to leave New York _ if the city doesn’t help rebuild the aging, outdated facility in the Bronx.

Steven Katzman, co-president of Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association, a vendors group, said a meeting is scheduled in late June to consider options for moving the market to New Jersey.

“But we’d rather stay here,” he added.

The Hunts Point market supplies 3.3 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables a year worth over $2 billion to more than 10 million consumers, vying with France’s giant Rungis produce market just south of Paris for sheer size and volume of sales.

The vendors’ cooperative pays more than $4 million a year to use the 125-acre, city-owned facility, which includes about 400,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouses, plus railroad tracks, loading docks and parking for trucks.

Katzman said the 41-year-old market is not up to today’s standards, citing as an example its open loading docks without refrigeration.

Katzman said the city’s Economic Development Corp. had come up with an initial rebuilding proposal that would cost $750 million, as estimated by a city-hired consultant.

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BRONX BOYS OF SUMMER 

The borough’s parks are all being renovated at once, so local teams are sharing crowded turf.

Construction equipment behind them and other teams all around, members of the Love Gospel Assembly Little League found themselves betwixt and between at one recent practice

A view of the Croton Water Filtration Plant under construction, looking northwest from the roof of Montefiore Medical Center.

A stream of cash pouring into the Parks Department budget has created a rehabilitation bonanza at Bronx parks, but the mostly welcome windfall is also displacing community sports teams and visitors to parks across the borough.

As an incentive for Bronx officials to agree to the construction of the nearly $3 billion Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park by the New York City Department of Environmental Preservation, the agency agreed to give the Parks Department $220 million to $260 million for rehabilitation projects at 63 parks around the borough.

The deal had one major provision: The money had to be spent by 2009. Officials in the borough aren’t completely sure why that deadline exists, but the result is a rush to spend. As the weather warmed up and both children’s and adults’ baseball teams hit the diamonds, they faced a flurry of rehabbing that’s made it hard to play.

Although park renovation sounds like a great thing to many, critics also fault the undertaking for including too little community input, benefiting disadvantaged neighborhoods like Hunts Point, Soundview and Highbridge less than other areas, and even possibly contravening DEP’s own charter.

“It’s inconveniencing a lot of people with the construction they’re doing,” said Anthony Robles, president of the Bronx Panthers youth football team. The Panthers were booted from the Williamsbridge Oval Park, in nearby Norwood, due to a construction project. Robles said he learned of the Oval project “right when they were coming in with the equipment and closing off the fields.”

Having to share their field, members of the Love Gospel Assembly Little League were forced to move due to several rain puddles at home plate. Coach Rory Gilbert said, “We have to coexist – but I have permits for this field.” Referring to two other large groups, including the young football players currently using the field, Gilbert added, “But I’m getting ready to start batting and if they have a problem with that, I really can’t do anything.”

Obtaining a field requires that an applicant fill out a form and pay an $8 per hour fee, with a two hour use minimum, but one Parks Department staffer explained: “The big problem is if we have the availability.”

When completed, Harris Park – where fences went up in April and several teams are now sharing one field – will have four new ball fields, a multipurpose field as well as a new track, playground and an exercise equipment room with showers.

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