Talk Bronx New York

Almost five years ago, Transcon International Inc. leased space in a nearly empty former manufacturing building in the Port Morris section of the South Bronx.

The needle trade businesses had for years been leaving the neighborhood, which was a symbol of urban blight in the 1970s and 1980s, and the building, on Rose Feiss Boulevard just east of Bruckner Boulevard, had at one time been scheduled for demolition by New York City.

Now, Transcon, a warehouse and shipping company, occupies four of the building’s six floors — the other tenant is a military uniform manufacturer — and its executives could not be happier with this neighborhood, which seems to have hit its stride.

“This is a phenomenal little peninsula of extraordinary abilities,” said Michael Blodget, the chief executive of Transcon, referring to an area that stretches roughly from 149th Street south to the Harlem and East Rivers and the borough’s southern border.

Covering about 40 square blocks and encompassing Mott Haven, Port Morris, named after a port created along the East River by Gouverneur Morris, one of the writers of the Constitution, is one of the few industrial areas of the city that are flourishing. Read more..

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The Hub — the commercial strip around Third Avenue and 149th Street — is among the parts of the South Bronx that some boosters are trying to rebrand as the “Downtown Bronx.” (Photos: David Gonzalez/The New York Times) City and Bronx officials this week trumpeted a major pedestrians and traffic redesign of the Hub, the commercial strip around Third Avenue and East 149th Street. Perhaps it will be more successful than a previous makeover, which tried to rebrand the area as the “Downtown Bronx.”

Fluttering above the heads of officials — and sometimes above the consciousness of local residents — were banners affixed several years ago to lampposts promoting the “Downtown Bronx Shopping District.” Never mind that the term is nothing less than a geographical impossibility to anyone who actually grew up in the Bronx, where “downtown” pretty much meant any place below 125th Street in Manhattan.

This attempt at rebranding stumps many people who walk past those banners daily (as they go to take the subway downtown, of course). Some thought it meant you could catch Manhattan-bound buses. Others said Downtown Bronx was all the way south, up against the river in Port Morris. Few knew they were smack dab in the thick of it.

Banners in the Hub commercial district in the South Bronx calls the area the “Downtown Bronx.”

Jonathan Sanchez, a security guard on his way to work, had no clue where it was. “This is the South Bronx right here,” he said, oblivious to the banner on a nearby lamppost. “Downtown is more like, Manhattan. The South Bronx is, you know, this area. It seems very good. It’s not like it used to be.” Read more..

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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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Digital TV Conversion Draws Closer 

A count by The Bronx Beat shows that 150,000 homes in the Bronx could lose access to basic television programming, which generally covers Channels 1 through 13 and includes the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Those households represent 418,500 Bronx residents who will lose television access if they do not purchase a converter box for digital network service, sign up for cable service or buy a new television.

Since its mass production began in the late 1940s television has always been based on a free access system as long as the customer purchased the television set. On Feb. 17, 2009, however, a Federal Communications Commission, FCC, mandate requires a change to digital broadcasting from the long-used analog technology. This will open up the air waves for use by emergency responders and create greater access to wireless Internet service. With the changeover, most people who do not currently subscribe to a cable service will be left without television until they purchase a converter box or a new television.

“The people that are affected by this are only getting broadcast channels with older television sets,” said Michael Knobbe, the executive director of Bronx Net, a cable channel in the Bronx. “Anyone with cable service doesn’t have to worry about it. Broadcast is changing, not cablecast.”

To subsidize the cost of the converter, the FCC has created a coupon program. Each coupon is worth $40, and there is a limit of two per household. The cost of a converter can range from $40 to $70. The coupons can be found online at www.dtv2009.gov, a Web site set up by the FCC with all information pertaining to the conversion.

To date, there is no data available for how many households in the Bronx have Internet access so it is unclear how they will learn about this option. To receive a coupon, people may also call 1-888-DTV-2009 and request a form.

Although more than 400,000 Bronx residents are directly affected by the conversion, spokeswoman Lisbeth Perez Almeida at Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr.’s office said that they do not have plans to do anything because there have been no complaints. Community Board 1, representing Mott Haven, Port Morris and Melrose, said the same thing. Read more..

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Short Trip On Internet Highway For South Bronx Businesses

Tenants in the Harlem River Transportation and Distribution Center have easy access to the Major Deegan and Bruckner expressways - but when it comes to the information superhighway, sometimes there’s no entrance ramp.

“I’ll be working during the day, and for a period of maybe 10 minutes, the Internet system goes down,” said Tony Ricchio, senior vice president of the management company that runs the large industrial park in Port Morris.

Lack of reliable high-speed broadband Internet access is bedeviling many businesses in the South Bronx industrial zones. Most are far from residential areas wired by Cablevision or Verizon for cable and DSL.

While the city is studying the issue and companies are coming up with alternatives, Bronx business owners say they are wallowing in a digital divide.

“To be competitive, you need fiber optic,” said John Mullane, head of Transcon International Inc., a company in the industrial park that moves and stores fine art.

He wants to expand to serve museums, but can’t without state-of-the-art Internet service.

“It’s like years ago when we started, people would ask if you had a fax, then e-mail, and you’d be embarrassed to say you didn’t,” he said.

Experts say part of the problem stems from franchise agreements with cable companies.

“Cable doesn’t have to go to places where there aren’t residents,” said David Birdsell, dean of the Baruch School of Public Affairs and a member of the Broadband Advisory Committee created by the City Council. “So there’s very little incentive for … Verizon … to go and provide high-quality copper and local stations that will multiply the DSL signal.”

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