Talk Bronx New York

About New York; Championing Lady Justice In the Bronx

LADY JUSTICE presides over the entrance to the old Bronx County Courthouse, her sandblasted robes fairly gleaming in contrast to the fenced-in hulk’s soot-encrusted walls. She casts her gaze beyond Third Avenue, over a vista of newly built homes that have slowly brought this section of Melrose back to life.

Yolanda Garcia takes pride in that statue, which she used to see all the time growing up in the neighborhood, where her family runs a carpet business. After all, Lady Justice remained untouched by the scavengers who descended on the building in search of Beaux Arts booty when it was shuttered in the late 1970’s.

”But we still have the statue,” Ms. Garcia said. ”Remember, our statue is not blindfolded. She doesn’t have the scales of justice. She does have a shield and a sword. She knew what was coming. She’s one tough broad.”

As tough as Ms. Garcia and her neighbors, who belong to Nos Quedamos (We Stay), a grass roots planning group that has spent years literally drawing up a new vision of homes, streets and parks for their once-ravaged community. Although the group secured $1 million in government and foundation grants to turn the courthouse into a civic center, the city auctioned it for $130,000 in 1996 to an electrical contractor who never made clear what plans he had for the 1914 landmark structure.

Nos Quedamos unsuccessfully sued the city to try to stop the sale. It became a moot point late last year, when the city repossessed the building after declaring the contractor in default on payments. But rather than try to work out an agreement with Nos Quedamos — whose work has been praised by architects and featured in museums — the city will once again put the building on the block next week.

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A Garden in the Bronx

How a small urban farm is helping one community eat well without leaving the neighborhood.

Along Third Avenue in the center of the South Bronx, the street is filled with McDonald’s and commercial fried chicken joints that fit neatly among rows of low-income apartments. Though the fast-food enterprise rakes in billions of dollars each year in the U.S., it has a particularly overwhelming presence in poor communities such as the South Bronx. The neighborhood boasts the highest rates of asthma and diabetes in the city, according to the city Department of Health’s 2006 Vital Statistics Summary. Growing up on greasy hamburgers and high-fructose soft drinks, residents often find themselves with little understanding of healthy eating and where to find better options.

Just around the corner, on 165th Street and Boston Road, there is something surprising for this area: A once abandoned lot overwhelmed by rubbish and drug dealers has been converted into a community garden called the Jacqueline Denise Davis Garden, or the JDD. This community garden is part of an initiative called Learn it, Grow it, Eat it, started in 2006 and funded by the Council on the Environment of New York City to educate teens about their health and their community.

“Community gardens are becoming a trend,” says David Saphire, the project coordinator of Learn it, Grow it, Eat it, or LGE. The venture was partially based on other urban farms that have experienced great success, such as Added Value in Red Hook, Brooklyn and East New York Farms in East Brooklyn.

While there are over 600 community gardens in New York City alone, Saphire says that LGE is one of the only initiatives that incorporates health education in high schools. The JDD, Wishing Well Community and the Model T gardens in the Bronx are all part of LGE.

In Saphire’s office, on the opposite end of New York City, located just across the street from City Hall, he explains how the idea developed. Saphire was teaching a nutritional program in local high schools in the South Bronx, touting healthy alternatives to the common fast-food pitfalls. Saphire, a self-educated nutrition guru who has been an environmental educator and researcher for the last 10 years, is a thin man, one who looks like he practices what he preaches.

Working in the South Bronx, it didn’t take long for Saphire to notice a gap between what he was teaching in his nutrition lessons and what foods were readily available to his students. The solution Saphire proposed: Teach the kids about healthy alternatives by having them grow their own fruits and vegetables. And, as an added bonus, make it free.

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Completed in 1914, the Bronx Borough Courthouse on 161st Street and Third Avenue has served as home to the borough government and a courthouse. The Beaux Arts-style building features a granite exterior, marble interiors, and a statue of Justice above the south entrance. The building was abandoned in 1978, but later designated as a historic landmark by the city. It has been refurbished and was home to various community groups, but today it sits empty. Without an owner or use, preservation groups worry that the building is again falling into neglect and disrepair. Source..

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New Bronx Academy Gets Promise From Department of Education

The Department of Education has approved plans for a new charter school to be placed inside the landmark courthouse on Third Avenue and 161st Street.

“That charter school process is not easy,” said Reverend Wendy Calderon-Payne of the Urban Youth Alliance. “They make you prove that you have the ability to run a charter school.”

For three years, religious leaders in the South Bronx worked and prayed to bring a charter school to the courthouse, which has been closed since 1978. The Virginia-based organization Imagine Schools was granted the charter, but the facility will be run by the Bronx organization Urban Youth Alliance and will be called the Bronx Academy of Promise.

The theme of the school will be career education. Along with learning the core subjects, students will be taught what jobs are associated with those subjects and how to get into the various fields.

“We are promising the young people here something very, very special,” said Reverend Timothy Birkett of the Church Alive community church. “We are going to give them an opportunity to look forward to their future, and we are promising things are going to be better than they are today.”

For 30 years, various groups have been unsuccessful in developing the property. Although the charter has been granted, there are still millions of dollars in construction that needs to be done.

While construction is going on, community leaders are going to have to pay close attention to security at the site. Over the years, there have been a number of break-ins, where fixtures and electrical wiring have been stolen.

Leaders say new copper pipes already been put in for heating have been stolen. The building was also steam cleaned, but someone tagged it with graffiti.

“We are asking the community to support us; don’t tear us down,” said Calderon-Payne. “Let the building go up so that our children, their children, their nieces and nephews can come and get a great education.”

Currently Boriqua College is building a campus next to the courthouse. The charter school will go from kindergarten to the eighth grade.

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Bronx Hardware Store Delivery Driver Delivering More Then Hardware

Bronx - District Attorney Robert Johnson announced Thursday that a 30-year-old Bronx man selling illegal drugs while making legitimate deliveries for the hardware store that employed him.

A grand jury has indicted Luis Fernandez, of 1584 East 172nd Street, the Bronx, on two counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 1st degree, a Class A-1 felony offense, four counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd degree, a Class B felony offense, and two counts of Criminally Using Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd degree, a Class A misdemeanor offense.

Fernandez is facing a maximum sentence of eight to 20 years imprisonment on each count if convicted of the most serious charges, Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 1st degree. Fernandez, whose bail was set at $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash, was arraigned on the indictment before State Supreme Court Justice Robert Seewald.

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