About 3/4 of city high schools receive an A or B.

Most city high schools performed well again on the annual report cards, with a handful getting low grades for the second year in a row, which could mark them for closure.

In reports released Monday, about three-quarters of the schools earned an A or a B, down slightly from the 82% that got high marks last year.

An increase in graduation rates - which would have nudged overall grades higher - was offset by the Education Department’s decision to raise the score needed to achieve each grade.

“Despite setting rising standards and requirements,” said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, “our schools are still generally moving forward.”

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NEW YORK CITY-Bronx Pro Real Estate Management opened a new 90-unit affordable housing development at 1085 Washington Ave., in the Morrisania section of the Bronx on Tuesday, according to a release from the management company. The building’s anchor tenant will be DreamYard, a local provider of art education to K-12 aged students.                                                                                                                                                                  1085 Washington Ave

Bronx Pro says it has completed new construction and renovation projects through the Neighborhood Entrepreneur and New Foundations programs, sponsored by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. In the release, Peter Magistro, president of Bronx Pro, says, “this building is a testament not only to Bronx Pro’s commitment to developing quality affordable housing, but our commitment to the creation of new communities in the Bronx.” Read more..

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Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., the expected winner of the Bronx borough presidency, shook the Bronx political scene Wednesday by announcing he will name veteran Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene as his deputy.

Diaz faces a token challenge from a Republican-backed candidate in the April 21 special election to fill the seat vacated by Adolfo Carrión, now President Obama’s urban policy director.

Sources said the Bronx Democratic County Committee will name Greene’s chief of staff, Vanessa Gibson, to run for her Assembly seat in a special election to be called by Gov. Paterson - likely on the same date - to fill Diaz’s Soundview Assembly seat.

No potential successor to Diaz has yet emerged. Read more..

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A quiet preseason day at Stan’s Sports Bar, long a central watering hole for Yankee fans

 THIRTY feet. That is the distance between the entrance of Stan’s Sports Bar at 158th Street and River Avenue and the faded black sign affixed to the side of Yankee Stadium that says “Bleacher Entrance.” It is a third of the length between first and second base, easy strolling distance for the droves of Yankee fans who crowded in religiously each baseball season.

And for 30 years, this archetypal American sports bar, with wooden baseball bats as its door handles and sketches of Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig on its walls, has been a prime piece of Bronx real estate.

Until the Yankees moved across the street, and then it wasn’t.

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If you’re looking for a place to open a checking account in parts of the South Bronx, don’t bank on it.

Many neighborhoods there continue to have little access to banking services, with Highbridge and Morrisania among the worst.

With an estimated half-million residents, the South Bronx has only 27 banks, giving the area only one bank per 20,000 residents, according to a 2008 study by Fair Finance Watch.

In Manhattan, the study found one bank per 3,000 customers.

On Morrisania’s Prospect Ave. shopping strip from 161st to 167th Sts., there are virtually no bank ATMs, and bodega ATMs charge up to $2 in fees.

The closest banks are more than a mile and a half away. Read more..

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