Talk Bronx New York

 Bronxite John Melton checks out audio equipment at Bronx Speakers Store on Boston Road and says he likes to blast car stereo, to the chagrin of many.

 You wouldn’t know it from all the noise, but the Bronx has gotten quieter this year.

Bronxites logged almost 8% fewer noise complaints to the city’s 311 hotline during the first six months of this year than they did over the same period last year.

There were 28,915 noise complaints from Jan. 1 to the end of June, compared with 31,411 last year.

“I have to give some credit to the weather,” said Councilman James Vacca (D-East Bronx). “We’ve had a mild summer so far and a lot of rain and those are both circumstances that are detriments to noise. That’s got to be a contributing factor.”

“I’m not surprised. It seems to be less noisy,” said George Dallas, 72, of Morris Park. “It’s just people blowing their horns. But that’s New York drivers. You have to live with it.”

For the second year in a row, Community Board 7, which includes Norwood, University Heights, Jerome Park, Bedford Park, Fordham and Kingsbridge Heights topped the list with the most noise complaints in the borough.

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Don’t pop the cork on the champagne just yet for that long-stalled 911 emergency call center in the Bronx.

First, the good news: The City Council is expected to give its final approval this week to zoning-related actions required for the $750 million project on a tract of land in Morris Park.

And now the bad news: The city still hasn’t reached a deal with the private owners of the 8.75-acre site, just north of the Hutchinson Metro Center.

Councilman James Vacca (D-East Bronx) helped pave the way for the expected zoning approvals by negotiating a community benefits agreement with the city.

For one, the height of the center will be capped at 254 feet, down 10 stories from the original 351 feet. And city officials agreed to a $1.1 million study of whether separate entrance and exit ramps should be be built to the site from the Hutchinson River Parkway. Read more..

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A proposed 911 call center that would have put a 37-story building in a Bronx flood plain is going back to the drawing board after the cost shot up to almost $1 billion.

The city had for two years estimated the cost of the 400,000-square-foot building at $670 million, but that jumped to $957 million when a proposed contract with Tishman Technologies was published last month.

“We are scaling back the project in order to maintain the essential elements, but at a lower cost,” said Matthew Monahan, spokesman for the Department of Design and Construction. “The early projected numbers were at another time in the city’s economic history.”

The NYPD says the center is a critical relief valve for the city’s 1 million 911 calls each month, which are all routed to MetroTech Center in Brooklyn.

The Bronx center would take half those calls when finished, but could handle all the calls in an emergency - and would be built to withstand an earthquake, a hurricane, a flood or a terrorist bomb.

Design documents say 750 people would work at the 911 center, requiring a 500-car garage. The city had hoped to finish the building by the end of next year.

Neighbors in Morris Park hated the idea of a 363-foot tower on a 9-acre office park site, as well as all those cars coursing through neighborhood streets, said City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), who represents the area. Read more..

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Talks Focus on Bronx Golf Course

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. announced on Monday that the city had started talking with Sanford Golf Design to design and build a championship-caliber golf course over a former garbage dump at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, potentially giving new life to a project that has been dogged by years of delay and problems. The project’s price tag has nearly quadrupled since it was proposed in 1998, to well over $80 million, by one estimate.

The proposed 18-hole, links-style Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course would be built using city capital funds, with an estimated completion by the fall of 2010. A public hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 26, 22 Reade Street in Manhattan. After construction has begun, the city plans to seek proposals from businesses to operate the golf course and make additional improvements, including a clubhouse and restaurant.

However, New York City Park Advocates, a community group that has often been critical of the Parks Department, quickly issued a statement criticizing the proposed deal. The group said that the city had not completed a study of the project’s environmental impact, noting that the site included a former landfill.

The project has a long and troubled history.

In 1998, during the administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Parks Department announced plans to have a developer, Ferry Point Partners, build a golf course. It would have received a 35-year lease in exchange for financing the $22 million project, which was to be completed by 2001. The 222-acre site called for a driving range, a clubhouse, two playgrounds, a banquet hall and a restaurant overlooking the East River, as well as a waterfront esplanade.

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Councilman James Vacca fuming mad at Citgo stations

This Citgo gas station, on the Southbound side of the Hutchinson River Parkway, is one of the highest priced gas stations in the Bronx.

Councilman James Vacca got the city to take action against the high prices at the Citgo stations on the Hutch.

They should pour this gas from a Champagne bottle.

A Bronx lawmaker hit the gas price ceiling over what two local gas stations on leased city land were charging motorists - and got results.

Councilman James Vacca took aim at the CITGO gas stations on the Hutchinson River Parkway near East Tremont Ave., where gas prices started at $4.49 last week. According to the American Automobile Association, the average price in the city is $4.12.

“Historically, these gas stations have been the highest in the borough by far,” Vacca said. “Even now, with the current crisis we face, they continue to be the highest. When I saw that it hit $4.49, that was the last straw.”

In a letter to the city Parks and Recreation Department, which owns the land, Vacca called on Commissioner Adrian Benepe to terminate the lease of the twin stations, which face each other on opposite sides of the parkway.

“These two stations are notorious for charging 25 to 35 cents more than stations only three blocks away,” Vacca wrote in a May 23 letter.

A listing of gas prices on MSN.com showed the two CITGO stations ranked as the most expensive in the Bronx.

Vacca’s office has been fielding numerous complaints about the prices.

“With residents of the Bronx feeling the pinch of ever-increasing gas prices every day,” Vacca wrote, “it is unconscionable that the city would tolerate flagrant price-gouging.”

In response, Parks officials said they are sending the concessionaire, Super Value, a “Notice to Cure” that states their gas prices are inconsistent with prices charged at other area stations.

The notice orders the owners to immediately adjust their prices accordingly to comply with the terms of their contract. An inspector is to follow up.

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