Talk Bronx New York

Dr. Ruth Enters Bronx Walk of Fame Despite Having Never Lived There

She is a world renowned sex therapist. She is a beloved figure across the City and the world. Dr. Ruth Westheimer is many, many things.

But one thing she is not is a native of The Bronx. In fact, Dr. Ruth has never lived in The Bronx.

But that’s not stopping organizers of this week’s Bronx Week celebrations, which are put together by the office of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. At a press conference at the University Heights Bridge last week, Carrion announced this year’s inductees to the Bronx Walk of Fame, making a point to note Dr. Ruth’s Bronx bona fides.

“There’s a lot of very interesting people that come from The Bronx,” said Carrion. “One of them is somebody who has become known the world over for talking about a topic that we all really care about.”

Carrion added, mimicking Dr. Ruth’s famous accent, “She is Dr. Ruth Westheimer.”

Dr. Ruth is a well-known and long-time resident of Washington Heights, something Carrion acknowledged during his introduction. But no one had ever before heard that she lived in The Bronx.

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Lengthy Interview With Councilmember Foster

The Highbridge Horizon has now posted a lengthy interview with Councilmember Helen Diane Foster on our Web site.

On April 11, the Horizon interviewed Foster in her District Office on Jerome Avenue. We published excerpts of this interview in our April issue, but because the Web does not provide the same space constraints as the printed page, we offer a far more expanded version online.

During the interview, Foster was typically candid, as she addressed a wide range of topics during the course of a roughly hour-long conversation. Her words about the killing of Sean Bell, and the trial of the three officers who killed him –words Foster spoke exactly two weeks before the officers were acquitted — have echoed powerfully in recent weeks.

“There is more outrage over the torturing of animals,” Foster said, “than there is over the fact that another Black man is killed at the hands of the police.”

A little later on in the interview, she added: “I think when the verdict comes out, once again like the Diallo case, this city will be looked at and judged on what that outcome is. It appears that we keep going back to Dread Scott, where a Black man has no rights that a white man has to respect, including his own life. And if we see another acquittal in this city, it will be a sad day for all of New York City, and how we are looked at [not only] by ourselves, but by the country. “

Other highlights of the interview:

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Fordham Honors An Artful Dodger Broadcaster

You might say the signature call of baseball’s greatest living radio announcer is the sound of silence.

That ability to let the moment tell the story is one reason why, even though Vin Scully has spent the last half-century living 3,000 miles from his Bronx birthplace, he will be honored tomorrow night by his Bronx alma mater, Fordham University radio station WFUV (90.7 FM).

Scully’s voice, one of the many irreplaceable treasures the Dodgers took with them when they abandoned Brooklyn in 1957, has over 59 years called many of the most indelible plays from America’s best game.

It has not overcalled one of them. When Elston Howard grounded out to Pee Wee Reese on Oct. 4, 1955, giving the Brooklyn Dodgers their only World Championship, Scully said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world.”

When Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in April 1974, Scully reported, “It is gone” and said nothing for 25 seconds, letting the cheers tell the story.

When Mookie Wilson’s ground ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs in 1986, Scully told TV audiences, “The Mets win it!” and then remained silent for more than three minutes as celebration erupted.

In 1988, when a crippled Kirk Gibson hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run ninth inning homer to win a World Series game off baseball’s best reliever, Scully again said, “It is gone” and remained silent for 67 seconds. Read more..

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Entrepreneur Fitz Octave does a hands-on job supervising the work at FGO Motor Services, the Bronx auto repair shop he opened last May.

Fitz Octave working hard at his shop.

Fitz Octave can’t see well enough to drive a car, but he can see to it that yours runs like it just came off the assembly line.

The auto mechanic turned entrepreneur is legally blind. Last May, he opened a shop of his own, FGO Motor Services, in the Park Stratton section of the Bronx.

He’s been fixing cars since he did after-school training at age 10 at a garage in Castries, St. Lucia, where he grew up. Now 52, he refuses to let his disability keep him from the work he loves.

“People say I’m blind, but I’ll be honest with you - I am perfect to myself,” he said.

He left the Caribbean for the Bronx in 1986 to join one of his sisters. He became a U.S. citizen, and repaired and painted cars at a number of repair shops until glaucoma left him with severely limited vision in 2003.

Octave was given a cane for walking outdoors, but refused to use it. “I felt it would set me back,” he said, figuring his best bet for continuing his career was to become his own boss.

Octave went to numerous training programs, but found the one that helped him most was for visually impaired entrepreneurs at the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. He learned bookkeeping and marketing. He fine-tuned a business plan. To find a suitable site for a shop, he searched on foot.

“I was determined not to depend on other people,” he said.

In a notebook he carried (and using a big black marker so he’d be able to read what he wrote), he jotted down the addresses of vacant garages. If he couldn’t see a phone number on a “For Rent” sign, he asked a passerby to read it to him.

He walked all over the South Bronx, even down into Washington Heights in Manhattan. He made 100 phone calls.

Octave said the fact that David Paterson is now New York’s first blind governor proves a point about visually impaired people. “I’m very happy because it shows we can do the job,” he said.

The day he found the space he wound up renting, he walked from his apartment in Park Stratton to the Throgs Neck Bridge and back - and at the end of the trek discovered a place on Beach Ave. a few blocks from where he lives.

Octave got a $15,000 state grant for startup capital and had $30,000 in personal savings to add to it, but needed more money to open for business. He went to Chase, HSBC, Bank of America and Washington Mutual for a small business loan. They all turned him down. He recalled that, at various training programs he’d attended, he was told how credit unions are supportive of entrepreneurs. He became a member of Bethex Federal Credit Union, which is open to all city residents.

The Bronx-based institution has about 9,800 members and $14.7 million in assets, and has loaned money to small businesses since 1989. It currently has almost $1 million in small business loans on its books, made to 42 borrowers.

With few options, Octave took a credit union loan of $15,000 at 14.25%. The rate was set by the U.S. Small Business Adminstration, which guaranteed the loan.

“He had a convincing business plan - I was so impressed,” said Bethex loan officer Maria Estrella.

At Octave’s shop just off E. Tremont Ave., business is steady. He’s open six days a week, and now has six employees - three mechanics and three painters. Read more..

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