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

Difficulty of Work Blamed for Delays Replacing Park Space Lost to Yankee Stadium

A parks department official, called before the City Council to explain why an effort to replace recreation space lost to construction of the new Yankee Stadium has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, said on Tuesday that the department’s inexperience with such complex projects was partly to blame.

The city was required to build new parks in the Bronx after Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park were chosen as the site of the new stadium. State and federal law dictate that a similar amount of parkland of equal or greater fair market value replace the old parks.

The Parks and Recreation Department originally said that seven of the eight replacement parks would be completed by April 2009, in time for opening day at the new stadium. The eighth, Heritage Field, planned for the site of the current stadium, had been scheduled to open in December 2010, after the stadium is demolished, but that date has been pushed back to 2011.

Earlier this year, the agency said the completion of some of the parks would be delayed for as long as two years and cost $174 million, up from an earlier estimate of $95.5 million. The new figures prompted the City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee to call for a hearing.

On Tuesday, council members asked Liam Kavanagh, the parks department’s first deputy commissioner, a series of pointed questions, including whether the agency had been dishonest about its original cost estimates.

Read more..

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

Councilman James Vacca fuming mad at Citgo stations

This Citgo gas station, on the Southbound side of the Hutchinson River Parkway, is one of the highest priced gas stations in the Bronx.

Councilman James Vacca got the city to take action against the high prices at the Citgo stations on the Hutch.

They should pour this gas from a Champagne bottle.

A Bronx lawmaker hit the gas price ceiling over what two local gas stations on leased city land were charging motorists - and got results.

Councilman James Vacca took aim at the CITGO gas stations on the Hutchinson River Parkway near East Tremont Ave., where gas prices started at $4.49 last week. According to the American Automobile Association, the average price in the city is $4.12.

“Historically, these gas stations have been the highest in the borough by far,” Vacca said. “Even now, with the current crisis we face, they continue to be the highest. When I saw that it hit $4.49, that was the last straw.”

In a letter to the city Parks and Recreation Department, which owns the land, Vacca called on Commissioner Adrian Benepe to terminate the lease of the twin stations, which face each other on opposite sides of the parkway.

“These two stations are notorious for charging 25 to 35 cents more than stations only three blocks away,” Vacca wrote in a May 23 letter.

A listing of gas prices on MSN.com showed the two CITGO stations ranked as the most expensive in the Bronx.

Vacca’s office has been fielding numerous complaints about the prices.

“With residents of the Bronx feeling the pinch of ever-increasing gas prices every day,” Vacca wrote, “it is unconscionable that the city would tolerate flagrant price-gouging.”

In response, Parks officials said they are sending the concessionaire, Super Value, a “Notice to Cure” that states their gas prices are inconsistent with prices charged at other area stations.

The notice orders the owners to immediately adjust their prices accordingly to comply with the terms of their contract. An inspector is to follow up.

Read more..

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

Bronx Beaches Are Mostly Private

A member of the American Turner Club had the place all to herself last week.

It may not be Miami, San Diego, or even the Rockaways, but the Bronx - yes, the Bronx - has 10 beaches where visitors can enjoy a summer swim.

While most people know about Orchard Beach along the sprawling shoreline of Long Island Sound in Pelham Bay Park, there are several lesser-known and less-crowded spots to take a dip in the waters of the northernmost borough.

Six of the sandy shores are side-by-side private beaches along a stretch of Clarence Ave. from Throgs Neck to Country Club. They accept new members, but require applicants to be sponsored by a current member in good standing.

“It’s a strip of heaven that we try to keep secret,” said Carol Richardson, who has been working at the American Turner Club, the largest club on the strip, for almost 20 years.

“Oh, wow. This is the Bronx?” she said people exclaim when they see the view from their 180-seat dining room, and from the beach for the first time.

The private club’s 200-foot-wide beach has brownish sand, a pier and a small lawn. There are rocks and some cigarette butts in the sand, making it an entryway to the water, not a spot for sunbathing.

All the beaches on the strip look out on City Island, and the smell of salt water makes the borough’s air pollution problems seem like they belong to another, distant place. The Health Department checks the water almost weekly and assures it is healthy for swimming.

The Danish American Beach Club down the street has a bar, dozens of picnic tables and a sun deck. It is only accessible to its 400 members, but the club accepts new members.

“I don’t think anyone realizes there are beach clubs like this. In the summer, you have to watch where you step because there are a million little children running around,” said Matt Curry, 32, the caretaker of the club, who lives on the property and was a member as a child.

Next door, a member of the White Cross Fishing Club said most people do not know about the strip and “that’s the way we like it.”

He said prospective members must be recommended by two members in good standing to join the 100-member club.

“Strictly private, for members only,” says a sign outside.

The Morris Yacht and Beach Club on City Island also has a beach -its waters are tested regularly for swimming - as do Locust Point and the Schuyler Hill Civic Association.

Orchard Beach is the largest Bronx beach, at 1.1 miles, and the only one run by the Parks and Recreation Department.

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

Read more..

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

Ferry Point Golf Course Finally Approved To Go From Dream To Reality

It was supposed to be a world-class golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, and best of all, it would cost the city next to nothing. Developers would pay for it all and recoup the cost of the city-owned course from greens fees.

But nearly 10 years and $15 million later, the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx is still a duffer’s dream waiting to happen. And on Friday, for the first time, the city announced that it — not a private developer — would pay the unknown millions needed to complete the project.

The Parks and Recreation Department put out requests on Friday for proposal seeking a developer to build the course, at city expense, and another to operate it.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the city comptroller, William C. Thompson, announced the plans in a joint news release that heavily emphasized the bid for contractors, but made only glancing reference — one subordinate clause — to the fact that the city will pay for the project.

Read more..

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