Talk Bronx New York

This Article Was Submitted By a TalkBX Reader.

If You Would Like an Article Posted on TalkBX You Can Send The Article To

TalkBox AT TalkBX.Com or VIA Our Contact Page

Mayor Bloomberg lays out multi-agency economic plan for South Bronx

Mayor Bloomberg came uptown Tuesday to tout his South Bronx Initiative, a multi-agency effort to knit various private projects and city improvements into comprehensive economic development.

But one major player - the borough president - was notably absent.

“The South Bronx - long known nationally as the area Howard Cosell was talking about when he said, ‘The Bronx is burning’ and once known locally as an area of underinvestment and decay - is undergoing an extraordinary transformation,” said Bloomberg.

In recent years, nearly $3 billion in public and private investment has poured into the borough, Bloomberg said, including the $300 million Gateway Center Mall, almost $300 million for local schools, more than $900 million for transportation improvements, as well as the new Yankee stadium.

While the mayor credited Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and his office for major input into the initiative, Carrión was a no-show at the event on the steps of the Bronx County Building.

Sources in the borough president’s office said Carrion was annoyed at “the last-minute notice - not the first time - from City Hall for the event.”

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

James Vacca Coy Over Possible Bronx Borough President Run

East Bronx City Councilman Jimmy Vacca isn’t totally denying he’s thinking about a run for borough president in the 2009 Democratic primary.

Though he’s up for one more Council term, he has yet to declare for any office with the city Campaign Finance Board.

And with three Hispanics - term-limited Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. and ex-State Sen. Pedro Espada - likely to dilute the Latino vote, and Councilwoman Helen Foster pulling a heavy black vote, Jimmy just might slide in with the help of the East Bronx/Riverdale white vote.

But we tend to think it could be a bargaining chip with Joel’s dad, Dem Jefe Jose Rivera, to back Jimmy for a council leadership role - from Speaker to chair of a powerful committee, such as land use or finance.

Competing for a Council plum: South Bronx Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

East Bronx/Queens Rep. Joe Crowley likes and respects Jimmy, but as Queens Democratic boss, he also has to deal with his homies.

Gettin’ his mojo workin’

Political circles are wondering just when Joel Rivera is gonna get out of the gate in that run for Bronx BP.

While Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. has been raising bucks and working the boro, Joel’s already spent half his money raised so far and barely been making the rounds.

“It’s like he’s campaigning in his apartment,” said a local political operative - not the only one talking about it.

But Joel’s camp says it’s ready to crank up his political mojo - when the time is right.

One thing for sure - the last thing Daddy Rivera wants is party arch-enemy Pedro Espada having a shot at winning - or being a spoiler. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Council Member In Funding Flap 

Bronx City Council member Maria Del Carmen Arroyo has a unique way to get taxpayer support for her family.

Last year she sponsored $82,500 in Council “discretionary funds” into a nonprofit that employed both her sister and nephew, the Daily News has learned.

Arroyo’s sister, Iris, was “fiscal officer” for the South Bronx Community Corp., where a former employee accused her of incompetence that led to thousands of dollars of federal liens filed against the group.

Iris Arroyo’s son, Richard Izquierdo, was also listed as an executive at the agency; he claims he’s not paid.

The Arroyos’ arrangement comes as the feds charged two staffers of City Council member Kendall Stewart on Wednesday with embezzling discretionary funds through their nonprofit.

No one has been charged with a crime in the funding of the nonprofit that employed Arroyo’s relatives, and Stewart himself has not been charged with a crime.

Each City Council member is given a set amount to spend annually on “discretionary” items that are usually pet nonprofit causes within their districts.

Stewart’s aides were charged with siphoning off $145,000 in such funds through a nonprofit he funded.

Council member Arroyo is the former director of South Bronx Community Corp., which purports to “provide various services to the elderly, disabled and low income families” in the Bronx. Her mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, was director of the nonprofit years before.

In her Council biography, the younger Arroyo claims to have been a “volunteer” at South Bronx, though records show her collecting $33,000 to $45,000 a year in 2001 and 2002.

She left the nonprofit after being elected to the Council in February 2005. Early last year, she was co-sponsor of a $75,000 “member item” and sole sponsor of a $7,500 member item for South Bronx Community Corp., records show.

Arroyo confirmed Wednesday she’d sponsored the money for the group, but insisted it was allocated only after her sister, Iris, and Iris’ son, Richard, had left.

“I know that when the Council discretionary funds were allocated, I know that they were no longer there,” she said.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t say when her sister left. As of February 2007, Iris Arroyo was signing tax documents as the group’s “fiscal officer,” records show.

Also the group received $50,000 in discretionary funds in 2006, although at the time sponsors were not publicly listed. Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

The City Council’s Biggest No-Shows

After Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster, a Bronx Democrat, missed an important vote on congestion pricing this week because of a flight delay, a closer look showed that she has the fifth-poorest attendance record on the City Council — about 72 percent, not counting absences for medical reasons.

So who has the worst record? That distinction goes to another Bronx Democrat, Maria Baez. Ms. Baez, who chairs the Council’s State and Federal Legislation Committee and serves on about half a dozen other committees, has missed 203 of 608 hearings and full Council meetings since 2004. Only 19 of her absences were excused, for an overall attendance rate of 66.61 percent, according to Council records.

The average Council attendance was about 84 percent, the records show. Before joining the Council in 2002, Ms. Baez was a community activist and served as chief of staff to Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the Bronx Democratic party boss who was a former councilman.

Edging Ms. Baez for second worst was Councilman James Sanders Jr., a Queens Democrat, at 66.9 percent. Ms. Baez and Mr. Sanders did not immediately respond to requests for comment this morning.

The gold star for attendance goes to Councilman Tony Avella of Queens, who made 98 percent of his committee hearings and Council hearings. Interestingly, Mr. Avella — who is among the first announced candidates for mayor in 2009 — was one of only five members who in 2006 voted against bumping the Council’s base salaries to $112,500 from $90,000. Ms. Baez had an excused absence that day.

Here is a list of attendance percentages for all sitting council members. The records, supplied by the Council, are from 2004 on — or from the date the member joined the Council if it was after 2004 (as noted in parentheses next to the member’s name).

(Note: After this chart was initially published, Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin of Manhattan pointed out that her 84.48 percent rating did not account for her maternity leave, which accounted for 35 absences. Remove those, she said, and her attendance record shoots up to 94 percent. Another Council member, Diana Reyna of Brooklyn, also took maternity leave, causing her to miss 28 meetings. With those meetings removed, her attendance record goes from 79.37 percent moves up to 83.7 percent. A third Council member, Thomas White Jr. of Brooklyn, had 13 medical absences; not counting those, his attendance record would have improved to 80 percent from 75.82 percent.)

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

This Article Was Submitted By a TalkBX Reader.

If You Would Like an Article Posted on TalkBX You Can Send The Article To

TalkBox AT TalkBX.Com or VIA Our Contact Page

Our reader says:

“I am beginning to think that we were Bamboozled by the Bronx Borough President who gave our parkland to the Yankee Organization.”

  The new Yankee Stadium, with a 2009 target date, is being built near the old one in the Bronx.

Building Yankee Stadium But High & Dry On Funds 

Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.

So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post