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A Onetime ‘Jungle’ Feels the Winds of the Past

THE crime occurred early on the morning of Wednesday, May 21. Mike Young, a handyman who is president of Padre Plaza community garden, arrived to find his saws, power drills, clippers and shovels — 24 items worth a total of $1,352, according to the list he keeps in his wallet — had been stolen.

Mr. Young discovered the theft when he was walking by the garden on his way to pick up his tools en route to a client’s house. A member of the garden called out to ask if he had left the shed open. Mr. Young said no but thought the question was odd. When he went to check, he saw to his dismay that the shed was empty.

Mr. Young is a stocky 46-year-old with a thin mustache and matching goatee who wears his work boots even on Sundays and spends much of his time maintaining the garden, a third of an acre at St. Ann’s Avenue and 139th Street in Mott Haven in the South Bronx.

During the night, someone had apparently broken into the garden’s aluminum shed, which was locked, and taken nearly everything inside.

“I sat down,” Mr. Young said the other day, ensconced beneath a canopy of redwoods, “and tears came to my eyes.”

The theft was an unsettling echo of the garden’s troubled past. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the surrounding area was plagued by problems, Padre Plaza was infested with drugs.

“It wasn’t a garden; it looked more like a jungle,” Mr. Young said. “There was one guy working in here, and his nickname was Flex. He had no ladders, no tools. He had a pair of scissors.”

One day last spring, Mr. Young offered to bring over his tools, and the two started working nights, cutting branches from overgrown plane trees, pruning unruly shrubs, trimming bamboo and pulling weeds, their work accompanied by the music of Marvin Gaye and KC and the Sunshine Band. Members of local nonprofit groups, along with residents and passers-by, started asking if they could help.

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Farmers markets, Fresh Direct have fruit and vegetables pouring into the Bronx

In a borough typically cited for its lack of access to fresh produce, fruits and vegetables abound with the onset of summer.

The Bronx has more than 20 local farmers markets and Fresh Direct, a Manhattan luxury food delivery service, is offering groceries and produce to the entire South Bronx at a discount.

Health experts say the benefits of the fresh produce are endless.

“We’ve all heard ad-nauseum about the skyrocketing rates of diabetes, obesity and other diet-related diseases, and the farmers market is an enjoyable place to live a more healthy lifestyle,” said Gabrielle Langholtz, spokeswoman for Greenmarket, a program of the Council on the Environment of New York City, which runs three markets in the Bronx.

And through city funding for wireless card-swiping stations, the produce at most markets can be bought with food stamps.

Even better, while supplies last, folks who use food stamps at the farmers markets are given an extra $2 in Health Department “Health Bucks” to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables for every $5 they spend.

At Drew Gardens, on E. Tremont Ave., east of Boston Road, shoppers can go ultra-local and buy food grown in the Bronx, along with the produce from area farms.

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Bronx Residents To Receive Free Financial Advice

The city launched a pilot program Thursday aiming to provide free financial advice to low income Bronx residents as part of the mayor’s fight against poverty.

The Financial Empowerment Center in Melrose, Bronx offers free one-on-one financial counseling and coaching to low-income residents.

The move comes as a new city-conducted study finds low- and even middle-income residents are using cash checking centers instead of banks because the fees are lower.

“Generally speaking, you’re probably better with one of the larger full-service organizations, and I think the cash checking centers are providing competition to the banks, and that’s good if you believe in capitalism,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “That’s what will keep the fees lower and perhaps out of this some of the banks will lower their fees.”

City officials are also putting together an online directory of low-cost and free financial counseling services available across the city.

For more information, call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov.

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Bronx community boards to meet

Community boards are the little City Halls of the city, dealing with local issues involving city agencies.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 1 (Melrose, Mott Haven) meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB1 Office, 3024 Third Ave. Call (718) 585-7117.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 4 (Highbridge, Mount Eden and Concourse) meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 24, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Murray Cohen Auditorium, 1650 Grand Concourse. Call (718) 299-0800.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 5 (Morris Heights, Fordham, Bathgate and Mount Hope) meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at South Bronx Job Corps - Auditorium, 1771 Andrews Ave. Call (718) 364-2030.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 9 (Soundview, Clasons Point, Parkchester, Bruckner and Harding Park) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at CB9 Office, 1967 Turnbull Ave. Call (718) 823-3034.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 11 (Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Laconia and Van Nest) meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at 1200 Van Nest Ave., Lubin Hall - Mazur Building. Call (718) 892-6262.

- COMMUNITY BOARD 12 (Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn Eastchester and Baychester) meets at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at CB12 office, 4101 White Plains Road. Call (718) 881-4455.

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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.”

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