Talk Bronx New York

Giants Amid the Blooms

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AS summer approaches and the euro and pound remain mightier than the dollar, New York City seems to have been recolonized by Europeans over the last few weeks. But one group of visitors that arrived recently from Britain for a brief change of scenery did not travel the normal way, slogging through the purgatory of airport customs. Most of them arrived at Port Elizabeth in New Jersey in the holds of cargo ships. And at least one made its way into the Bronx strapped to a low flatbed truck so big that it had to wait until the middle of the night to cross the George Washington Bridge, stopping traffic with its greenish biomorphic bulk, like something bound for a government lab at Area 51.

The city is no stranger to these kinds of tourists, having hosted its share over the last few decades. But the New York Botanical Garden’s “Moore in America” exhibition, which opens Saturday with 18 of Henry Moore’s big, beloved bronzes (and two more in fiberglass), is the largest outdoor collection of his work in a single location ever presented in New York, or anywhere else in the country. And it serves as the garden’s announcement — after it dipped in its toes with a crowd-pleasing show of Dale Chihuly glass works in 2006 — of its intention to venture more ambitiously into the art world as a way of opening people’s eyes to the garden not simply as a nice, blossomy place to spend a summer afternoon but also as a museum in itself, one of flora.

“It opens up the gardens to new audiences who might not be all that into plants or into gardening but who are into human creativity,” said Todd Forrest, the garden’s vice president for horticulture, riding one recent sunny morning on the back of a golf cart as Moores were being trucked into place all across the garden’s 250 acres.

“And by bringing in art, we show them that the garden — that these kinds of gardens — are in themselves works of art,” he continued. “They’ve been designed and constructed and conserved in much the same spirit.”

In choosing Moore, one of the most revered and familiar sculptors of the 20th century, the garden may be taking few risks. But Mr. Forrest and officials at the Henry Moore Foundation, in rural Hertfordshire north of London, said that the landscape, with its combination of highly choreographed planting, natural schist formations and native forest, was such an ideal fit for the work that it seemed the logical choice for the garden’s first ambitious exhibition.

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Foreclosures affect Bronx homeowners 

Devon Honeyghan spent $25,000 renovating the kitchen of his Bronx house in preparation for selling it and moving to Georgia.

But two “For Sale” signs and an abandoned house standing all in a row across the street have him doubting he will make any of his money back.

Honeyghan, a 42-year-old livery cab driver, lives in Wakefield, the working-class northeast Bronx neighborhood hit hardest by the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

Statistics released this month by the Center for Responsible Lending show the value of nearly 400,000 homes in the Bronx has dropped $4.9 billion because of surrounding foreclosed homes.

The foreclosure crisis began with missed mortgage payments and first-time owners losing their homes. It later hit banks and the financial industry, but its most recent victims are the neighbors who live on streets with abandoned homes.

Honeyghan, who bought his new house in Georgia at the market’s peak, is so desperate to sell his Bronx home that he offered to buy the abandoned house across the street, which has become an eyesore and is filled with stray cats. He could not because it is locked in a divorce case.

“I just don’t see myself getting my money back,” he said. “I was going to spend $10,000 on the bathroom, but it’s not worth it.”

Carmen Rosa, district manager of Community Board 12, says most foreclosed homes in the neighborhood have not deteriorated - just yet - but residents fear what is to come.

“You see the signs up - ‘For Sale, For Sale, For Sale’ - on every street,” Rosa said.

“At our board meetings, residents are very concerned about the impact the foreclosures will have on the value of their homes,” she said, “but they are also concerned if someone walks away from their home that people will break in and they will have to become watchdogs. There is a social impact, too.”

Paul Founsette, 54, a contractor who lives on Ely St. in Wakefield, for example, sweeps the sidewalk and driveway of the two-story brick house across from his. It was foreclosed and has been vacant for more than a year. The “For Sale” sign seems to have given up too, toppled over in the driveway.

“If it’s not clean, it’s going to blow across,” Founsette said. “It just looks bad for everyone. It’s a rough time.”

Two blocks from Founsette is a foreclosed home with an overflowing mailbox and a truck with blown-out tires abandoned out front.

And, posted on telephone poles on every corner throughout the neighborhood are flyers from land sharks calling out to those at their lowest point of desperation - “Wanted - Houses and Land, Bought All Cash, Top $$$.”

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 Manhattanites Choose The Bronx

Now that the glory days of moving to Brooklyn after being priced out of Manhattan are all but gone, the question remains: where do Manhattanites move?

The above I.R.S. graph is based on net migration and shows a clear trend; while Staten Island seems to be a last resort for the priced-out set, The Bronx has attracted more Manhattanites than Brooklyn since the beginning of the decade.

From 2001 through 2006, over 23,380 Manhattanites relocated to the Bronx.

Every year, the Bronx led the three other outer boroughs in net gains of Manhattanites. That includes Brooklyn, traditionally perceived as the natural next stop in a priced-out Manhattanite’s real estate evolution.

Is it time to scan those Bronx real estate listings? Maybe not. Just last year, brokers seemed a bit concerned and disenchanted about the borough’s real estate bubble, one saying, “The North Bronx north of Fordham Road is overrated. To me it doesn’t make a difference if you are North or South Bronx, it is still low- to middle-income.”

Prices are still on the rise, however — in just one year (February 2007 to February 2008) condos in parts of The Bronx (”Riverdale, Parkchester and Spuyten Duyvil are the three most popular Bronx neighborhoods for home seekers in New York City”) went up 11%.

Before packing your bags, there could be a better borough for you; NYMag recently checked out Suburban Jungle Realty, which is like a dating service but for homeowners and cities — will you and The Bronx fall in love?

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Mayor & MTA Announce New Express Bus Routes .. IF…

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director and CEO, Elliot G. Sander today announced what could be a new express bus route from the Throggs Neck Section of the Bronx to Lower Manhattan, if - and only if - the congestion pricing plan is approved by the State Legislature and the City Council.

One of the new proposed routes, the BXM-19, would run from Throggs Neck down to Battery Place, serving as an extension to the existing BXM-9 which currently terminates at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. Currently, passengers of the BXM-9 who work in Lower Manhattan must transfer to a different bus or subway to continue below 23rd Street.

The BMX-19 would provide Bronx residents with a one-seat ride to Lower Manhattan. Taking place at a bus stop at the intersection of Layton and Vincent Avenues, the Mayor noted that he can not yet cut the ribbon on a service that would benefit thousands of Bronx residents because funding does not exist without congestion pricing.

The new express route, along with 44 other new and enhanced routes and over 300 new buses, would be funded under the Urban Partnership Agreement, which would award $354.5 million in federal funds to the City if the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan is adopted.

The Mayor was also joined by Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, City Councilman James Vacca, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Gene Russianoff, Senior Attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and local resident Audrey Izzard.

“Legislators in every community must keep in mind the benefits congestion pricing will bring and what we give up if they fail to act,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We face a real need for mass transit improvements, and congestion pricing offers the rare opportunity to fund them.

Without that funding, the MTA will not be able to make these projects happen.

The new BXM-19 bus route is one of hundreds of improvements that depend on the federal funding we will be given if we enact a congestion pricing plan.”

“If we’re serious about encouraging people to use public transportation, we must increase travel options for underserved areas,” said MTA Executive Director and CEO Sander. “This route, for example, would speed Bronx residents from Throggs Neck to jobs in Manhattan.”

“Congestion Pricing is critical to the future of New York City,” said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “That is why we are traveling to many neighborhoods around the city to demonstrate just what kind of mass transit improvements, like new express bus routes, they could expect to see with this new source of funding.”

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Congregants at New Life Tabernacle, one of seven storefront houses of worship on a single block in Wakefield in the Bronx. More pictures>>

Church Strip .. A Walk Along Religious Row

AS noon approached on a recent Sunday, the mostly Jamaican congregation of New Life Tabernacle gathered in its small storefront on White Plains Road in the Wakefield section of the north Bronx. Women in elaborate, wide-brimmed hats and men in dark suits filled six rows of pews and two dozen wooden chairs. The pastor’s wife, Paulette Randall, wearing a violet dress and holding a microphone, stood before the congregation.

“Is your soul right with God?” she asked the crowd of about 60, her voice exploding into the microphone. “That is the question.”

As she spoke, the low hum of a bass guitar resonated through the walls. Inside a drab storefront next door, the three-piece Heavenly Sound Band of the Bible Fellowship Pentecostal Assembly was warming up. “Hallelujah be your name!” band members sang as they began the service. A score of West Indian worshipers, standing near their metal folding chairs with hands raised in the air, sang along.

At Maha Shiva Parvati Mandir, a storefront Hindu temple just down the block, a service dedicated to the Lord Ram had just concluded.

“Let the birds and quadrupeds prosper,” the priest had uttered imploringly before a group of about 50 mostly Guyanese worshipers, one of whom pumped a harmonium while another tapped a tabla. “Let peace come from everywhere.”

As Hindu faithful in colorful saris and kurtas filed out the temple’s tinted glass doors, shouts of “Gloria a Dios!” drifted into the street from the whitewashed Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal next door.

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