Talk Bronx New York

Calvin Klein slept here. So did Colin L. Powell, Regis Philbin, Jennifer Lopez and the new Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.

“Here” is the Bronx. And at a gathering to celebrate the area’s latest famous name, local leaders Wednesday wanted to make something clear: The Bronx is not burning.

There’s even a Starbucks in the neighborhood where Sotomayor grew up, City Councilwoman Annabel Palma said cheerfully. Granted, it’s a mile from the judge’s childhood apartment, but residents see it as evidence that the drug-addled den of despair portrayed in films and books — think “Fort Apache, the Bronx” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities” — is part of the borough’s distant past.

Palma joined the Rev. Al Sharpton, borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and a host of others to celebrate Sotomayor and the Bronx at a community center adjoining the brick housing project where the judge spent her formative years. “Welcome to God’s country,” the dapper Diaz said as he strode into the glassy community center, past a fish-filled aquarium and into the gymnasium. Read more..

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Rosemary “Rosey” Comiskey O’Reilly said her brother was in a doctor’s office in New Jersey when a nurse asked him if the Rosey who last year organized a Bronx party in Calabash, N.C., was his sister. When he answered yes, the nurse told him she heard it was one of the best parties ever.

O’Reilly of Carolina Shores, N.C., said that because more than 300 people attended the event, she and Frank Ward of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., decided a second The Bronx, N.Y., Day was necessary.

“We had to turn people away last year,” Ward said.

He remembers the wide variety of people who attended. Ages ranged from 50 to 80 years, and people came from all backgrounds: Irish, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Catholic and more.

Ward and O’Reilly said they have streamlined the party, so this year they will have signs indicating areas of the Bronx, such as Sacred Heart parish, Highbridge; Tolentine parish, Fordham Road; Parkchester; and others.

“This is so people have a place to congregate,” O’Reilly said. “Once they know the part of the Bronx someone is from, they know what questions to ask.”

She teases her husband, Tom O’Reilly, by saying he missed out because he grew up in Queens, N.Y. Read more..

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