Dust off those clothes

Jessica Haller, Riverdale’s most notable environmentalist nowadays, is hosting the community’s very own clothing swap tonight, at 8 p.m., in her home, at 3720 Independence Ave., Apt. 1F.

Instead of purchasing new clothes and jackets for the winter, Riverdale families came come and peruse their neighbors’ duds. The idea, as Ms. Haller explains, is to reduce consumption and waste.

Participants should come to the event with clothing — that’s clean and in good condition — like sweaters, jackets, mittens, scarves, etc.

Whatever is not taken at the end of the night will be brought to a charity.

Admission is $10. Proceeds will also go to the charity.

For more information, call 718-432-5799.

A look at gifted program

The number of students enrolled in the city’s gifted and talented programs dropped by half from this year to last year, according to The New York Times.
A new policy intended to equalize access to the program also failed to diversify children entering the program.
The Times reports that 48 percent of children entering the program this year are white, compared to 33 percent under previous admission policies and 17 percent in the rest of the school system.
This year’s incoming gifted class was 13 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic, compared with kindergarteners and first-graders throughout the city, 27 percent of whom are black and 15 percent of whom are Hispanic
Twenty-eight percent of this year’s gifted and talented students were Asian, the only other group that increased this year along with whites, compared with the 15 percent of Asians in other kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.
Overall, the program has shrunk from 2,678 kindergarteners and first graders last year to 1,305 kindergartners and first graders starting new classes this fall.

Accolades for Axelbank

Van Cortlandt Village resident and Riverdale businesswoman Suzanne Axelbank was honored today by the Oriental Trading Company for her drive to help trafficked children in Ghana, West Africa.

Riverdale resident Graciela Berger Wegsman writes a story about the owner of Someplace Special in today's Daily News. Over the past 15 months,

Ms. Axelbank has collected more than $1,100 from charity events, in-store donations and through the sale of rubber bracelets. She donated the funds to the International Organization for Migration, which has been working to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate children who have been trafficked to work in fishing villages and islands in Ghana's Lake Voltra region.

Ms. Axelbank documented her charitable endeavors and won an essay for the "Make the World More Fun" contest, sponsored by the Oriental Trading Company.

She was honored today at her West 238th Street store, and was presented a $10,000 cash prize. The International Organization for Migration was also given $10,000.

Riverdale in the news

The New York Times follows up on Press story about the recent push by the community to tow the high number of abandoned cars on local streets.

Mentioned earlier on this blog, Manhattan College students, at the urging of their outgoing president, are considering starting a new club for virgins. The story was first reported in the school's paper. "It was the biggest story we broke all semester,” David Ellison, editor in chief of The Quadrangle, told The New York Times.

Senator-to-be maneuvering

Pedro Espada Jr., essentially the state senator-elect for part of Fieldston, Kingsbridge and points eastwards, is maneuvering to cast the deciding vote in January's struggle for legislative leadership in the state Senate.

Mr. Espada says he has formed a voting bloc with Sens. Ruben Diaz Sr., Carl Kruger and Hiram Monserrate. He's the only non-incumbent, but running as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic area, he's still quite likely to win the 33rd state Senate seat next Tuesday.

With the state Senate's Democratic conference in flux — frantically trying to gain the last two seats it needs to overcome the Republican majority in that house of the Legislature for the first time in 30 years, with a group of young, ambitious legislators leading the charge — four votes in the fight to pick a majority leader is potentially game-changing. But that's no surprise; ever since Mr. Espada defeated Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. in the September primaries, his status as a potential kingmaker, whose vote might decide any number of legislative contests, has been thoroughly analyzed from here to Albany and back.

What is new is that the group of Democrats rumored to be fence-sitting as far as which party to caucus with next year has organized itself into a coalition.

"We’ve been talking about the whole leadership issue and what’s important to us in our districts … certainly it is my hope that we can formalize ourselves and our leverage to transcend politics as usual up in Albany," Mr. Espada told me earlier this afternoon.

Mr. Diaz, reached by cellphone in Santo Domingo, was more neutral.

"So far so good, it looks good," he said, but later added "that doesn’t mean that anything is written in stone."

Mr. Diaz unseated Mr. Espada years ago in the 34th state Senate district and the two have reportedly not been on good terms since. Meetings in the run-up to the formation of this voting bloc have come as a surprise to political observers at the Bronx News and elsewhere.

A Belated Return - Extension Passes

Blogger was out of action for the past 40 minutes or so.

Surprising no one, in the interim, the term limits extension passed by a vote of 29 for, 22 against, with zero abstensions.

In the run-up to the vote, Councilman Jimmy Vacca said this was "the most difficult and agonizing" decision of his career, and voted in support of extending term limits to 12 years from eight.

"I don’t seek to have my cake and eat it too. I don’t seek to play both sides of any fence. I made a decision now I stand by my decision," Mr. Vacca said, sounding angry as he delivered his remarks.

He said his district office, normally swarmed with constituent complaints, has recently been swamped instead with calls lobbying one side or the other of the term limits issue.

Mr. Vacca was also critical of state and federal-level legislators kibitzing on the issue.

"Let’s be real, and let’s say that the hypocrisy is going to stop somewhere," he said.

Councilman Oliver Koppell said, "We’re acting within the rules ... The rules provide that this council can change the charter in this way."

With the voting over, the council chamber sounds like it's getting rambunctious. CityRoom, as always, has more.

Barron/Rivera face-off

Councilman Charles Barron just laid the term limits extension at the feet of Mayor Michael Bloomberg once again.

"Some were bribed, some were threatened, some were offered all kinds of things so they couldn't vote their conscience ... they weren't strong enough to do that," Mr. Barron said.

Councilman Joel Rivera, the council majority leader, just said that at the Community Board 7 meeting he went to that West Bronx Blog covered, "term limits was the last thing" on the minds of the residents he met with.

They were more concerned with getting potholes fixed, he said.

Yassky amendment

The Yassky amendment to the bill that would legislatively extend term limits from eight years to 12 failed, 22-28-1.

His amendment would have required a public referendum on the term limits extension in early 2009.

Koppell on term limits

"I can tell you that it is almost impossible that this charter commission can decide in time ... it just won't happen," Riverdale City Councilman Oliver Koppell just said, referring to the commission Councilman David Yassky's amendment would create.

The commission would have to determine whether or not there should be a referendum on the term-limits extension now before the council. He's saying they couldn't make their decision before petitions were due to get on the primary election ballots — messing up the entire electoral process for 2009.

"It would be unfair to postpone this any longer ... we shouldn't be embarrassed to use a process" provided under the law, Mr. Koppell said.

It would be unfair to Mr. Koppell's counsel, Jamin Sewell, as well. Mr. Sewell is a candidate for Mr. Koppell's seat after term limits force him from it — if term limits force him from it — in 2009. Mr. Sewell probably wouldn't run against his own boss if he could seek re-election, so the outcome of the referendum would determine whether or not he petitioned to seek the Democratic nod for Mr. Koppell's City Council seat.

Mr. Koppell was the only person to offer an argument against the amendment who is also supporting the extension of term limits from eight years to 12, although City Councilwoman Maria Baez just voted against it.

They just finished taking the vote.

Liu on term limits

"Referendums are a safety valve on the normal legislative process," said City Councilman John Liu. Mr. Liu is a hopeful for citywide office, maybe public advocate, maybe comptroller.

Term limits weren't the result "of a rich man's ad campaign," he said. It was born of a "deep cynicism" over politics nationwide.

"If we're going to change this, and I believe it should be changed, either extended to three terms, or abolished altogether, we need to put it back to the people," Mr. Liu continued.

Mr. Liu went over his time, but was trying to argue that after all the work done to include folks who might not normally participate in the legislative process, people who might stay out of politics out of that same cynicism, changing through legislation a decision made through referendum might undo much of that work.

Tony Avella just spoke and Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito just took the floor. We're still hearing from opponents of the current legislative term limits extension.

I'm not at city hall — I'm listening thanks to the magic of WNYC.

Opponents to term limits speak

"From the very beginning, the process has been the problem," said Councilman Vincent Gentile, supporting the amendment to the bill that would extend term limits from eight years to 12 that would require a referendum on the issue in early 2009.

The members of the council who are now speaking are divided between folks who flatly oppose the entire process, including the amendment, and members who believe the amendment makes a legislative term-limits extension more palatable.

This is just an added level of confusion. During the public hearings last week, many members of the public who testified seemed unsure if they were testifying on a third term for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a perfunctory third term for everybody or the shot at a third term that is actually before the Council right now.

Live blogging on term-limits, cont'd.

Bill de Blasio, who has been an opponent of the term-limits extension, just delivered his remarks. Charles Barron is up now. The Brooklyn councilman and hopeful for Brooklyn borough president is warming up for an impassioned plea akin to the ones he's been giving throughout this process.

"The bottom line, Mayor Bloomberg has not been the best person to run this city," he said, putting the current "economic mess" at hizzoner's doorstep.

Mr. Barron compared Mr. Bloomberg to Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who quietly accepted the results of a referendum earlier this year that thwarted his attempt to extend term limits in his country.

"Mayor Bloomberg, be like Hugo," said Mr. Barron. "Let the people decide."

The people of the City of New York have already twice upheld term limits in 1993 and 1996.

Live blogging on term-limits vote, cont'd

The amendment introduced by Councilman David Yassky and supported by colleagues Alan Gerson and Gale Brewer, which Mr. Yassky is now introducing, will set the stage for a voter referendum on the term-limits extension in early 2009.

"You know the arguments. Voters have supported term limits twice," including a referendum in which the two-term limit was specifically upheld, said Mr. Yassky.

Making a referendum mandatory will avoid making the city more cynical about politics and government, he said. It's necessary because he and his colleagues have decided self-interest in the issue, he added.

"If there's ever a case for putting the policy judgment of the public over our own, this is it," said Mr. Yassky of Brooklyn, who remained on the fence over the term-limits issue until very recently despite intense pressure from groups opposing the legislation Ms. Quinn just introduced.

Live blogging on term-limits vote

Council Speaker Christine Quinn is delivering her arguments for the bill she's about to introduce.

"Allowing the voters the right to re-elect the people in this room is the right choice," she said.

Throughout her remarks she's been very careful not to mention Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It's been said already that introducing this legislation as a special one-time shot to get Mr. Bloomberg back in office would present delicate legal challenges.

She said opponents might "mischaracterize this as a back-room deal," and a subsequent burst of laughter temporarily halted the proceedings.

"Support for this bill is broad and deep. We've heard from New Yorkers from Elmhurst to Kingsbridge," said Ms. Quinn.

The Riverdale and Kingsbridge residents who sent us their testimony were against this bill.

Extending term limits is "increasing voter choice," said Ms. Quinn.

"None of us are arrogant enough to believe that we are indispensable, but we are confident enough and secure enough in our ability to help the city we love that we are willing to stand before the voters on election day and ask them to re-elect us," she added.

Ms. Quinn said she'd vote for the bill and against the amendment that Councilman David Yassky is introducing right now.

Council vote has begun!

The City Council proceedings that will likely end with a vote on a bill that would legislatively extend term limits from eight years to 12 has begun. I'm listening to it thanks to WNYC.org, which is streaming it live.

Check back — I'll be posting any good factoids or observations that might amend your viewing/listening of this event (because if you're obsessive enough to be reading our blog you must be listening to this as well) as I get them.

Scoop it or pay!

Dog poop has been a hot — steaming? — topic on The Press' opinions pages these past two weeks. It all started with a letter to the editor, chastising local dog owners who refuse to scoop the poop.
Here's some good news: the city Department of Sanitation has just raised the fine levied against those who fail to clean up after their four-legged companions. Instead of $100, lazy dog owners will now have to fork over $250.

Riverdale women snub screenings

A new report, “Breast Cancer Screening among New York City Women,” shows that throughout the five boroughs, mammography rates were lowest in the Kingsbridge and Riverdale sections of the Bronx, Southwest Brooklyn, North Queens and Northwest Queens, with more than one in three women reporting not being screened for breast cancer in the past two years.
Washington Heights and Inwood in Upper Manhattan; Highbridge, Morrisania, Hunts Point and Mott Haven in the Bronx; and Southeast Queens had the highest rates, with at least 80 percent of women getting timely mammograms.
Mammography rates across the boroughs were similar and ranged from 73 percent to 76 percent.
October is Breast Cancer Month. The findings are part of city Department of Health's Vital Signs report and are based on the Community Health Survey — a telephone survey of approximately 10,000 New York City adults who are 18 years or older.

Tension and term limits

West Bronx Blog is watching what the term limits fight will do to Maria Baez's Council District 14, a nub of which is in our coverage area, too.

And the Norwood News' newly married editor Alex Kratz has the low-down on a Community Board 7 meeting that turned into a big-name debate over term limits, with three Northwest Bronx pols — Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and City Councilman Joel Rivera — butting heads. Mr. Dinowitz has been out against a legislative extension of term limits for a long time; Mr. Rivera, like his and Ms. Rivera's father, Jose, don't like that term limits exist at all.

That debate would have turned into a double-header if Mr. Dinowitz was at yesterday's press conference unveiling the design of the contribution Riverdale resident Alec Diacou's YES the Bronx plans to make to the borough's skyline. All three Riveras were present, as was a staffer from Councilman Oliver Koppell's office, but Mr. Dinowitz and his representatives were nowhere to be found.

At the event, the elder Mr. Rivera told me he hopes the much-discussed power struggle over his job as Bronx Democratic party chairman is over soon, so everyone "can get back to business," including the business of campaigning for the Democratic presidential nominee.

Riverdale's bowling alley

We've talked about it several times, but the situation hasn't gotten any better.

Drivers are still overshooting the sharp turn at Exit 22 on the northbound side of the Henry Hudson Parkway, plowing down the three arrow signs erected there.

The Riverdale Press reported on this in August 2007 when the city Department of Transportation installed a new set of signs — for the upteenth time — at the exit ramp. But by early October one of those signs was down, and by December, they all were.

Apparently someone else has his eye on the situation, too.

Riverdalian Robert Davis has been keeping track of the ill-fated signs, posting their ups and downs on his Web site.

“My neighbors, my children and I were wondering how often the signs get knocked down and wondering how long it takes to put them back up. So I kept track,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Press. “As it turns out, Exit 22 is a special kind of self-enforcing ‘speed trap.’ It traps anybody who’s not expecting a blind short ramp, sharp right turn, stop sign and T-intersection, and then it does some serious damage to their car.”

The Web site includes photographs and video of the danger zone, and tracks the rise and fall of the arrow signs throughout a period of about 14 months.

In that time, Mr. Davis points out, roughly 16 accidents resulted in the loss of at least one sign — that’s about one accident every 27 days.

A spokesman for the DOT has maintained there is enough cautionary signage before the hair-pin turn. Drivers just need to take it slow, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Davis has his own suggestions (above at right) for which signs should be erected there.

More on Bronx clout

The Observer ran a thoughtful look at the fate of state Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith that highlights an interesting fact about the Northwest Bronx: Two of the House's state Legislature's upper house's highest-ranking Democrats represent Riverdale. And, as veteran scribe Jacob Gershman points out, their agendas and Mr. Smith's aren't necessarily in line.

State Sen. Jeff Klein, who represents some of Riverdale but more of Westchester County, is forever doling out cash to the campaigns of other Democrats, as the article points out. Mr. Klein's spokeswoman, Alexis Grenell, is currently on loan to the campaign of Joe Addabbo Jr., the City Councilman challenging incumbent Republican legislator Serf Maltese this year. Mr. Klein is also Mr. Smith's deputy, and Mr. Gershman hints that he could be gunning for the current minority leader's job — something oft-rumored but just as often denied.

Mr. Klein's colleague Eric Schneiderman represents more of Riverdale, but the lion's share of his district is Upper Manhattan. For years, he's been banging the drum to end vacancy decontrol, tighten gun regulations and take over the state Senate. His district was changed in 2002 to include Washington Heights and Inwood, a move some say was GOP revenge for early involvement in that particular venture.

Mr. Gershman reports that Mr. Smith wants a moderate line on taxes and housing reform — which runs counter to some more liberal positions Mr. Schneiderman has taken. And if you want a good idea of how many voices are clamoring within the Democratic Senate conference, look no further than the recent debate over property taxes: Mr. Klein and Mr. Schneiderman, in the same conference, backed differently nuanced versions of essentially the same property tax reform bill.

Take the current economic crisis and sprinkle it with the apparent dissonance among the leadership in the Democratic Senate conference, Mr. Gershman writes, and Mr. Smith 's quest to become majority leader is a hunt for the worst job in Albany.

Bronx Dems' future goes to court

The city Board of Elections met yesterday to hear arguments from lawyers on both sides of the fight over the Bronx Democratic Party. They made no decision — Daily News blogger Liz Benjamin reports it was because the board commissioner from the Bronx GOP sat on his hands rather than cast the deciding vote.

A decision one way or the other would have influenced state Supreme Court Justice Robert Seewald's decision on the matter, which comes before him Monday.

If you're just tuning in, a group of Bronx Democratic pols with Assemblyman Carl Heastie at the head drummed up enough support to yank control of the county party from its sitting leader, Assemblyman Jose Rivera. It's of interest to Riverdale and Kingsbridge because Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the neighborhood, is another leader on the Heastie side of the fight. If Mr. Heastie succeeds in taking the reins from Mr. Rivera, it could mean more clout in city politics for politicians from the Northwest Bronx.

But at the meeting where Heastie supporters expected to vote Mr. Rivera and his faction out of power, the wily veteran pol packed the house with boisterous supporters, had a surrogate unexpectedly take control of the meeting, and had his loyalists change the party's rules so the people he brought to the event could vote him into power.

Mr. Heastie and his supporters say that meeting was not done according to party rules and isn't valid. They say their votes are the ones that count. It's up to Mr. Seewald to decide one way or another.

Tragedy with a Kingsbridge connection

The rookie probation officer who, the Daily News reported last week, fatally shot herself in her office Oct. 10, grew up on Bailey Avenue, The Riverdale Press has learned.

Community Board 8 staffer Patricia Manning told us just now that Elizabeth Luna, 30, served on the board as a youth member in the mid-1990s. The exact years Ms. Luna spent on the board were unavailable, but Ms. Manning said she was appointed when Fernando Ferrer was borough president.

"She was very active, that I remember," Ms. Manning said. Ms. Luna was involved with Community Board 6 at the time of her death, she added.

"She was such a young, active person. I’m stunned,” said Board 8 member Laura Spalter, who served with Ms. Luna.

"She had ideas and she was very enthusiastic. That’s a real tragedy," she later added.

According to the News article, Ms. Luna frightened her colleagues when she used her Probation Department-issued firearm to commit suicide in her cubicle at the department's East 161st Street offices in the Bronx.

A single mother of two, Ms. Luna had recently spoken to the daily paper about her ineligibility for the city's free child day care program.

YES: It's not a sign anymore!

Riverdale resident Alec Diacou will unveil the next evolution of his public-relations campaign for the Boogiedown, YES the Bronx, tomorrow at his Fieldston home.

In a phone interview just now, he said that a past plan for an enormous red sign — which was much maligned by City Councilman Oliver Koppell and perhaps more diplomatically approached by other elected officials as a good start at the least — has been scrapped.

With the help of Kevin Kennon Architects, a major architecture firm, Mr. Diacou is now seeking $25 million to build a 176-foot-tall tower, topped with an 80-by-80-foot observation area, to be a "focal point" for people who might otherwise drive right by, or through, the borough. A location is still being discussed.

The tower will force people "to stop and say, 'Hey what’s up with the Bronx, what’s this thing that’s sitting there?" Mr. Diacou said.

A rendering of the design, which Mr. Kennon did pro bono, will be unveiled tomorrow.

"It never was a sign," Mr. Diacou said. "That was a mischaracterization on the part of Oliver Koppell, and I have to thank Oliver Koppell for that, because it generated a lot of publicity."

He said the giant installation that would have greeted new arrivals to the borough with "YES the Bronx" in big, friendly red letters was a "placeholder" idea.

Another Bronx voice on term limits

I watched NY1's coverage of the Council hearings on term limits last Friday night, and not long after sitting down, who did I see at the mic but Kenny Agosto, the 80th Assembly District Democratic district leader.

"This isn't about Mayor Bloomberg," said Mr. Agosto. "Many of my constituents ... admire the work the mayor is doing and many of the members of this body. This is about due process."

He invoked a series of elections that occurred during the midst of tough situations: Abraham Lincoln seeking re-election during the Civil War; Harry Truman succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt — although that was because Mr. Roosevelt died shortly after beginning his fourth term, the first and only fourth term of any American president — and of Mr. Bloomberg himself succeeding Rudy Giuliani after 9/11, despite Mr. Giuliani's bid to stay on for a third term.

"We're here today to say that we respect the work that this body does legislatively, but the right of the sacred vote is the right of the sacred vote. We need to know that this is not a game, and people go to the voting booth to make a decision," Mr. Agosto continued.

Mr. Agosto dramatically turned coat against his assemblywoman, Naomi Rivera, after rumors her father, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, deliberately under-supported state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. during the recent primary elections.

Mr. Rivera, by the way, and his son, Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, one of his biggest supporters, Councilwoman Maria Baez, and another ally, Councilman Larry Seabrook — who was running the meeting when Mr. Agosto spoke — all support extending term limits from eight years to 12.

Mr. Agosto's now aligned with a group of Bronx Dems led by Assemblyman Carl Heastie and Jeffrey Dinowitz, among others. Mr. Dinowitz — as well as the two council members aligned with him, Annabel Palma and Jimmy Vacca — oppose extending term limits. Though Mr. Dinowitz, the only one of the three I've spoken to, only opposes the move because term limits have been upheld twice through public referendum.

Bronx folks on term limits

The Bronx borough president's press office just sent us his remarks.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript of his testimony before the City Council, in a hearing today, according to the release his staff sent us:

I support extending term limits, not because Michael Bloomberg wants to run for Mayor again, but because it begins to move us back toward responsible governance and representative democracy, which should continue to be the foundation of American democracy. As a matter of fact, the short term implication for me and others is that it throws new variables in our path. But I believe the elimination of term limits is more important than anyone’s short term interest, mine included.

Mr. Carrión plans to run for city comptroller in 2009.

"What’s at stake here is the primacy of the voter in communities here and around the country where electing who they’d like to support and for how long has been forcibly removed, and replaced with an artificial sense of power," he continued.

Earlier today, Riverdale resident Ann Noonan, president of the New York chapter of the Visual Artists Guild and an activist on international issues, like freedom of speech in China, sent us her testimony against changing term limits.

"I am sad that Councilmember Oliver Koppell, who is supposed to represent the Council district where I reside has championed an undemocratic process of ramming a bill through the City Council to change a law that we the voters voted for twice. Clearly Mr. Koppell does not respect the democratic process, and it is my fervent hope that he is never entrusted with public office again," she wrote.

Bronx resident Phil Foglia also e-mailed his remarks to the newspaper:

"Not once, but twice the people have spoken forcefully. We want term limits. The second referendum was more specific. No third term. This mandate by the people was not vague or ambiguous. No third term. If this legislation is enacted, unilaterally extending your terms, this Council will have hit a new low in government not seen since Plunkett of Tammany Hall."

And yesterday, Ari Hoffnung, who is gunning for Mr. Koppell's Council seat — the election, no matter who else is running, is in 2009 — sent us his comments.

He wants council members voting against the term-limits extension to pledge that if it's passed, they won't take advantage of the legislation and seek the third term they're advocating against.

Leave your stance as a comment on this post.

Century comptroller admits guilt

The comptroller for Hampton Management, the realty company that oversees the Century building in Riverdale, has today pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million from the company, the Associated Press reported.
Fifty-two-year-old Ellen Hauer, who lives on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, took a plea deal and now faces up to 10 years in prison. She could have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison if she went to trial and lost.
The Press ran a story on Ms. Hauer's arrest in March. The theft came to light after the company performed an audit and noticed discrepancies.

From the why-you-should-care dept.

As I've tried to do, the Norwood News this week explains what's at stake in the fight for control of the Democratic Party in the Bronx — although they approach it in an editorial, this time, and take a position on which side should win.

"... how the Democratic Party is organized and conducts itself is important," they write. "The Party organization has done little voter outreach and supports lawmakers like Maria Baez who have atrocious legislative attendance records ..."

Eliot Engel, Esquire's Man

I had to fact-check this one when Rep. Eliot Engel's press office sent it to me: Eliot Engel's name is in Esquire Magazine.

More than that, they endorse our incumbent Democrat from the 17th Congressional District:

With his constituents hailing from around the globe, Engel's passion for two decades has been foreign policy. A believer in both diplomacy and, when necessary, force, he now heads the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, paying special attention to slavery and human trafficking.

More coverage of 'rogue traffic agent'

CBS News also has a story on the traffic enforcement agent allegedly doling out fraudulent parking tickets in Riverdale.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the matter is currently under investigation. Meanwhile, the aunt of the agent allegedly involved told the reporter that she didn't believe her niece would do something so dishonest.

NY Post picks up story

The New York Post today has a story on the "rogue traffic agent" allegedly issuing bogus tickets to Riverdale motorists.
The Press broke the story last week. We are still hoping more Riverdalians will come forward and let us know if they received illegal tickets from the agent, Terry Flight.

Centerstage

Riverdale resident Roman Zhurbin, 24, a member of American Ballet Theatre’s corps de ballet, is featured in Time Out New York this week. He talks about growing up in the Bronx, how he almost gave up dancing for baseball and how he earned his big break. Read the interview.

Police tell strikers to pack it up

Striking workers at the Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. were forced this morning by 50th Precinct officers to remove the tarp they set up on the sidewalk outside the Broadway factory entrance, and will later today have to fold up the tables and chairs they have been using since the start of the strike on Aug. 13.
According to Vincenzo Carovillano, who was present when the officers stopped by the picket line on Wednesday morning, the Five-O was responding to complaints made by Stella D’oro security personnel that strikers had been harassing temporary workers at the factory.
Picketers said they were told to remove the tables and chairs assembled behind police lines, and to quit parking in the space directly in front of the factory.
“He said he wanted everything down, that we shouldn’t have had it up in the first place so he wanted everything down,” said Ismael Rodriguez, speaking of the precinct’s Lt. John Trotta.
Lt. Trotta confirmed that 10 officers arrived on the scene at about 7:30 a.m. He would not comment on whether the visit was in response to harassment complaints.
Norma Rodriguez, another striker, also attributed the move to complaints that strikers were “harassing” temporary workers.
“These people who come to work, the scabs, the provoke us sometimes, too,” she said, adding that the striking workers had been given reason to believe that as long as they didn’t touch any of the temporary workers, they were within their rights to shout at them.
After 10 a.m. this morning, the blue tarp had been removed and placed in a plastic garbage bag, but tables and chairs remained.
Lt. Trotta said the workers had agreed to remove them at the end of their “shifts.”
The workers went on strike after they were given what they called an unfair contract that would cut some salaries, reduce benefits and eliminate sick days and some holidays.

A club for college virgins

Manhattan College president, Brother Thomas Scanlan, is encouraging his students to form an on-campus club for virgins in the hopes of decreasing the pressure, he believes, some students feel to engage in sexual activities.
We unfortunately missed the first story in the college's newspaper, The Quandrangle, but thankfully the paper followed up with a story on student reaction. The reporter, Kelly Shine, writes that the initial article — which ran under the headline "MC's Virgins"— caused a great deal of "buzz" on campus. But she wondered if any of her peers would be "willing to step up and say that one, they are a virgin, and two, that they want to stay one?"
No one quoted in her article "stepped up."
The article also prompted two Op-ed pieces. The writer praising Brother Scanlan explains his support for the proposal. "Students must make a statement that MC is not a place for fiends and horny college students," he writes.
The other sees the president's proposal as a step in the right direction: admitting that sex does occur on campus. It's time, he argues, to do away with a (rarely enforced) rule that prohibits unmarried students from having sex.
Virgin clubs seem to be popping up on a number of campuses. Harvard's True Love Revolution was featured in The New York Magazine earlier this year.

Group homes on the rise in the Bronx?

BoogieDowner was confused about this, but we see it here, too — non-profits buying or developing group homes on residential properties in this dodgy real estate market.

It should be said that with the exception of large co-op buildings, which are not selling equal to expectations, by most accounts Riverdale is far better off than other neighborhoods in terms of seeing a decline in home prices. But the upcoming plan for a Shrady Place group home — there was movement on that at last week's Community Board 8 meeting, and look for it in next week's edition of our paper — is not the only one in Riverdale. Long-embattled developer Ismael Fernandez is still under close watch from this community; he recently filed plans to turn his long-vacant property into another group home.

Plans for veterans' housing by seasoned group-home operators The Jericho Project in Kingsbridge Heights also continue to move forward, a Jericho representative said at the Oct. 7 Board 8 meeting.

And at least in Riverdale, this is far from a new issue. Various group homes and assisted-living facilities have drawn different measures of community opposition throughout the years.

Mr. Fernandez's project gets harsh opposition because local residents say he keeps trying to bend or break zoning rules. At the Board 8 meeting, housing committee chairman Thomas Durham spoke highly of Jericho's plans — they took him on a tour of other sites they operate — and the only objections to the Shrady Place plan have been about the steep, narrow street itself, which some on the board feel is unsuitable for people with disabilities or wheelchair users.

WaMu crash bad for the Bronx?

We're not the only ones watching you watch the collapse of Washington Mutual.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought WaMu last month, and a spokesman has confirmed that branches will be closed in the next two years where they overlap with existing Chase branches.

Rep. Anthony Weiner — a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens — said Sunday that 11 of the 30 lowest-income communities with WaMu bank branches will likely lose a bank branch because they're also home to a Chase branch. A press release from his office also says 10 of the lowest-income communities in New York City face the loss of 14 bank branches — that excludes the Lower East Side, which is included in the other number, said John Collins, a spokesman for Mr. Weiner.

"New Yorkers struggling to save and make it into the middle class are being squeezed out of the benefit a local bank can provide," Mr. Weiner said.

The press release goes on to say that a closure in Tremont could leave 70,000 residents without a with only one bank branch.

Fordham would lose one of five banks, the South Bronx — which Mr. Weiner, widely believed to be running for mayor next year, rolls into a single amalgamate — would lose one of six, and Belmont would lose one of seven total bank branches, according to Mr. Weiner.

His findings come from a spreadsheet compiled by his office that cross-tabulates city neighborhoods by median income, number of bank branches and number of WaMu branches.

Mr. Weiner asked a Department of the Treasury official to conduct an investigation.

Keeping kosher

Believing that people should be more connected to their food sources, Riverdale resident Andy Kastner has set out to slaughter his own food in the kosher tradition. His efforts were documented in a New York Times article about “the ethical-kashrut movement.”
The story says he's part of a “nascent Jewish food movement” which, it says, intersects with the sustainable-food movement.
The Times reports that Mr. Kastner has been trying to set up a grass-fed-kosher-meat co-op and that Maya Shetreat-Klein, a 34-year-old pediatric neurologist who also lives in Riverdale, has a new co-op, Mitzvah Meat.

Political spin

Local multimedia artist Nicky Enright, a.k.a. DJ Lightbolt, has been working overtime drumming up support for presidential nominee Barack Obama.
After returning from registering voters in Pennsylvania last weekend, the Riverdale resident, best-known locally for his MTA Arts for Transit permanent faceted-glass installation at the West 225th Street subway station, was inspired to create a "Gobama Mix" in the run-up to the presidential election.
In this mix, DJ Lightbolt spins Obama speeches and other oratory over reggae, hip-hop, reggaeton, South African kwaito, blues and fusion (including some pro-Obama tunes that have been popularized lately), as well as over some homemade sounds.

Unfair parking tickets

The Riverdale Press this week featured a story about an NYPD traffic agent who is allegedly issuing phony tickets to legally parked cars in Riverdale.

About a half-dozen Riverdale residents came forward to say they had received bogus tickets sometime during last month. Many of them lived on the same block. The drivers were alerted of the scam after they received late notices from the city Department of Finance saying they failed to pay the ticket or after they plugged their license plate numbers into the city's online ticket payment site.

The tickets were all issued by the same agent, T. Flight. The city Department of Internal Affairs told The Press' Megan James that the matter was under investigation.

To find out if you've been issued a faulty ticket, click here, and please let us know.

The best answer for difficult times?

Our colleagues at the West Bronx News Network have started a conversation about what should be done in the face of the city's budget crisis.

Which is worse, asks Jordan Moss: A reduction in city services or a hike in property taxes?

In his interview on Meet the Press late last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised that the City of New York would not repeat the mistakes made during the financial crises of the 60s through the 80s, when dwindling attention to city services worsened conditions in the five boroughs. But if not that, then what?

School-to-prison pipeline?

The New York Civil Liberties Union this week demanded that the NYPD stop arresting underage kids in city schools who have not committed crimes. The practice is not only illegal, the NYCLU insists, but criminalizes children as young as 11 for behavior that in another era might have been met by a simple detention.
As The Riverdale Press reported in August, finding out just how many crimes occur in city schools is a difficult task.
The NYCLU got its hands on data from the NYPD, revealing that between 2005 and 2007, officers assigned to city schools arrested about 300 children under the age of 16 for offenses like disorderly conduct, loitering and trespassing.
“Across the country, resource-strapped school districts have all but abandoned the goal of providing a quality education to every student and are instead focusing on ways to push ‘problem’ students out of mainstream educational settings,” the NYCLU wrote in its letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “As a result, the most neglected and underserved students – youth of color and those with special needs – are being criminalized.
“The problem is particularly acute in New York City where there are more than 5,000 school safety agents and at least 200 armed police officers in the city’s public schools – a force larger than all but four of the nation’s police departments.”
At some schools, truly innocuous offenses are often met with police action. At John F. Kennedy High School, senior Stephen Obeng-Agyapong said officers seem unnecessarily rough on students.
“Like hats,” he said. “They’ll confiscate it, but they won’t give it back.”
Mr. Obeng-Agyapong was jolted last year when he watched an officer try to break up a fight in the hallway and accidentally push a student down the stairs.
“They can be real aggressive,” he said.
Crime at the school seems like it has dropped since Mr. Obeng-Agyapong was a freshman, he said, but he isn’t sure if the heightened security and police presence were such a good trade-off.
Since airport-style metal detectors were installed at the entrance to the school a few years ago, students aren’t allowed to bring cell phone with them to school.
“I come home late because I play football,” he said. “I’d like to call my parents and let them know when I’m coming home,” the student said.

DEP Chief Emily Lloyd resigns

UPDATED

Emily Lloyd, head of the Department of Environmental Protection, announced yesterday that she will resign from her post.

Ms. Lloyd, 63, is leaving to handle real estate for an Episcopal parish in lower Manhattan, and has a long career of public service. Her first top-level position with the City of New York was as commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, which she first took in 1992 under Mayor David Dinkins.

She's announced her departure a week before the Independent Budget Office is scheduled to finally present the results of its study on construction costs for the Croton filtration plant project, which has ballooned in price from under $1 billion to $2.8 billion when it was last evaluated. Michael Saucier, a spokesman for the DEP, said Ms. Lloyd will leave at the end of the month and said that her departure and the IBO report are in no way related.

The city comptroller's office announced this summer it will also audit the project, and the Croton Facility Monitoring Committee has asked the state comptroller to conduct an audit as well.

The second-in-command at DEP is First Deputy Commissioner Steven Lawitts, who is also executive director of the Water Board.

This isn't the first departure from the oligarchy — it entirely comprises appointed officials — that controls the city's water rates and infrastructure. James Tripp, chairman of the board, announced in early September that he was leaving his position. At the time, it was reported that he didn't jump but was rather pushed from his post for siding against the mayor in this year's high-rate hikes.

Those rate hikes were due in part to two controversial things: Debt service on bonds used to fund capital projects like the Croton plant, and annual rent payments the city demands from the Water Board every year. Those payments were designed initially to pay off debt the water system took out from the city when it was first created, but that debt is now all but completely paid, by most accounts. DEP officials tacitly admitted in May that the rent payments continue because the city needs the money; Mr. Lawitts said Ms. Lloyd and the city's budget director agree that this is not the year to cut off that stream of revenue.

That revenue comes from water-rate payers who are, presumably, already paying taxes, which is part of why Mr. Tripp was so reluctant to continue providing it.

So Ms. Lloyd is leaving her fair share of controversy behind.

The City Room post linked above goes in to more detail about her accomplishments while DEP commissioner.

The 'wild style' of Kingsbridge

Author Ivan Sanchez's new book, Next Stop: Growing up Wild-Style in the Bronx, due out next week, details the violence and crime he experienced growing up on the streets of Kingsbridge during the late 1980s and 90s. The Daily News interviewed the author, who now lives in Virginia.
The article reports that Mr. Sanchez used the real names of some of his old, crack-dealing friends.
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea?
“I’ve received a lot of death threats,” he told the News. “And I have reasons to fear for my life.”

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Founders of a new ethics-based charter school opening next September were inspired by Riverdale's own Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
Judith Wallach, who supervised the school's founding team, told The Jersey Journal that "Ethics is taught as a subject in its own right, and ethical considerations are infused throughout the curriculum."

Punch, counterpunch

Assemblyman Jose Rivera filed a countersuit against the Bronx Democrats led by Assemblyman Carl Heastie, the so-called "Rainbow Rebels."

The dueling legal actions will determine who assumes officer positions in the Bronx Democratic Party. Both will appear before a state Supreme Court judge on Oct. 27, at 2 p.m.

Those officer positions were supposed to be filled by votes of the Bronx Democratic County Committee, a large group of borough party members elected in the September primaries.

The officers and the Democratic district leaders, party officials also elected in September, were supposed to choose the leader of the party.

However, the Sept. 28 meeting where all this was supposed to happen, quickly devolved into chaos. The two opposing factions within the party wound up holding separate meetings, and each call the opposite meeting illegitimate for various reasons.

Once again, who gets to sit in elected positions will be decided by state Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Seewald instead of the voters that thought they'd be involved in a democratic process.

Liz Benjamin is reported that Assemblyman Jose Rivera's lawyer, Jerry Goldfeder, filed the suit Tuesday. That's one day after the rebels' election lawyer, Stanley Schlein, filed a suit in which Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is the lead plaintiff.

Liz has a link to Mr. Goldfeder's filings, which assert the meeting led by Assemblyman Carl Heastie on Sept. 28 was illegal because he sat idly by while the other side voted him out of power.

Rivera, you'll be served

Assemblyman Jose Rivera, the beleaguered party leader of the Bronx Democrats — or, by a growing number of accounts, the former party leader — will soon be served with papers seeking to invalidate his half of the chaotic Sept. 28 meeting that was supposed to decide who would run the Bronx party establishment.
Mr. Rivera's former election lawyer, Stanley Schlein, filed litigation against him in state Supreme Court today on behalf of Assembly members Jeffrey Dinowitz, Carl Heastie, Aurelia Greene and the other folks who say the county's elected Democratic committee members voted them in as party officers on Sept. 28. Mr. Rivera and an ever-thinning number of Bronx pols say votes they ran were the only ones that counted, and Mr. Rivera is still the chairman.
"The order asks the judge to block their meeting from having any effect. That’s in essence what it does," Mr. Dinowitz said.
He refused to discuss the legal particulars of the filings because he is not an attorney in the case — just a plaintiff — and was careful what to tell a reporter without consulting his counsel first.
However, he did say that the case was a contingency plan in case Mr. Rivera does not cede power soon.
And even if Mr. Rivera doesn't give up, said Mr. Dinowitz, "It wouldn’t matter because he wouldn’t be able to function as the county leader."
That's because a growing number of politicians are now recognizing Mr. Heastie as the borough's party boss, including Brooklyn Democratic leader Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
A spokesman for Mr. Rivera has not yet returned calls for comment, however, the Rivera faction has maintained that Mr. Rivera is still in the top spot on account of the number of voices on Sept. 28 that shouted for him to remain in power.
Heastie supporters argue that only some of those shouting voices were eligible to vote for the party's leader, and say that Mr. Rivera's supporters did nothing at the meeting to separate the two. They also say the meeting as a whole was illegal because Councilwoman Maria Baez, the party committee's vice-chairwoman and a Rivera supporter, brought it to order. They say only Mr. Heastie was allowed to start the meeting. Of course the Rivera folks dispute that, too.
Watch for more details in Political Arena this week.

Surprise visitors at Heastie HQ

It may be uncertain just which Bronx Democratic County Committee will ultimately be deemed legitimate — incumbent Jose Rivera’s loyalists or insurgent Carl Heastie’s adherents — but that hasn’t stopped the insurgent faction from celebrating the grand opening of its new headquarters with a couple of surprise visitors.

After quietly sending some of his staffers late in the game to help in the fight to topple Assemblyman Rivera from his spot as party leader, Councilman Jimmy Vacca was at the opening to show his support.

And state Senator Efrain Gonzalez Jr. — a friend and ally of Mr. Rivera who lost his seat to Pedro Espada Jr. in a bruising primary (the result, some say, of the county leader’s betrayal) — was greeted with cheers as he walked in the door.

"The numbers are there, you know, you saw, if you stood there, I wasn't there but the votes, the district leaders, there's a majority, majority of county committee eligible to vote, what more can you say? Then you work on unity," said Mr. Gonzalez.

Lately, Mr. Gonzalez has been that cryptic as a general rule — in case you were wondering. But his comments were meant to explain why he was there at the opening with a group busily working to oust Mr. Rivera, his one-time ally, from power.

He says his relationship with Mr. Rivera has not changed.

"For me, it's still in the same position. I'm still the same," he said.

Asked by Candice Giove, a Riverdale Review reporter, if he felt Mr. Rivera betrayed him, he said, "Let's just say there are a lot of things that went wrong, and whoever takes responsibility for it, I take responsibility for my own. It would not have happened in other circumstances, but we can leave it and we move forward. We move forward and we make things better for the people."


The numbers from September were surprising to many. Mr. Gonzalez lost in the eastern and southern parts of his district, where his campaign staff had been counting on support from Rivera loyalists. A Rivera spokesman, Mike Nieves, has said that the failure to deliver for Mr. Gonzalez in those areas was the result of a "misunderstanding," and one political gadfly in the area blames the Gonzalez loss on confused personnel assignments on election day.

But Mr. Gonzalez carried Riverdale and the election districts voting in Van Cortlandt Village. Despite reservations about corruption charges — state Sen. Eric Schneiderman at one point exhorted Riverdalians to vote for Gonzalez because rival Pedro Espada Jr. made him "look like a choir boy," and 81st AD District Leader Bruce Feld urged local Dems to vote for Mr. Gonzalez because he had "looked at the alternative" — the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club mobilized for him. And they delivered.

"If you look at the numbers, and as we're looking at the numbers, I'm very proud of Riverdale. That answered a lot," said Mr. Gonzalez.

With only three more months in office, Mr. Gonzalez’s next step is unclear. He vowed to remain in Bronx politics, but his support from many of the people he has now come to back has been tepid at best, so whether or not he'll have a place in the new Bronx order is unclear — at least until his trial on federal corruption charges, which begins next spring, is resolved.

I've got to apologize for the grayness of this post, as I didn't bring a camera to this event. I'm not 100 percent sure my video camera even still works after a security guard tried to take it from me at Sunday’s donnybrook at the Paradise Theater.

Heastie Dems open HQ

The Bronx Democratic County Committee chaired by Assemblyman Carl Heastie — not to be confused by the Bronx Democratic County Committee chaired by Assemblyman Jose Rivera — just sent out a press release announcing the opening of their county headquarters.
The text is below.

Bronx Democrats Open
New Headquarters

County Leader Carl E. Heastie and the New Leadership Team Move Ahead With Plans for November Election

Bronx Democratic County Leader Carl Heastie, Bronx elected officials and the newly elected officers of the Bronx Democratic Party will officially open the new Bronx Democratic headquarters and will launch the Bronx Obama campaign.

What: Grand Opening of the new Bronx Democratic headquarters

When: Friday, October 3, at noon

Where: 914 East 163rd Street

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz tells me that's Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr.'s former campaign headquarters.
The battle of warring press releases continues. Earlier this morning, a spokesman for the Rivera faction sent a release inviting Bronx Dems to watch the debates — albeit in their own homes — on behalf of "Chairman Jose Rivera."
The Heastie Dems say Mr. Heastie's the chairman because he was appointed by the district leaders, 15 of 24 of whom voted for him in their hasty Sunday night meeting — as, at the Rivera faction's request, the Utopia Paradise Theater staff were packing up the microphones and shoving everyone out the door. A staffer for Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Tom McNeil, is taking the lead as their point press contact.
Rivera Dems point to a voice vote by county committee members as affirmation of his status, though there was no way to tell which voices were committee members and which voices belonged to the hundreds of folks Rivera supporters bused in for the meeting.

Koppell on term limits, Rivera

In a perhaps unexpected reversal, City Councilman Oliver Koppell thinks Assemblyman Jose Rivera should step down as the Bronx's Democratic party boss, he told me in a phone interview a little earlier this afternoon.

"It is clear to me now there has to be a change of leadership," he said, later adding, "As much as I like Jose Rivera, it’s time for him to resign."

Breaking from Riverdale's reform Democratic establishment — such is the nature of the neighborhood that reform Dems greatly outnumber any other variety of political species — Mr. Koppell supported Mr. Rivera throughout what appears to be a losing struggle to retain his family's grip on dominance of the borough's Democratic party. The area's reformers backed a group led by Assemblyman Carl Heastie. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is one of the faction's ringleaders, and after a hotly contested Sunday-night set of meetings, they're confident they'll take control of the party.

I asked Mr. Koppell if his support was, in part, because Rivera's son Joel and right-hand woman Maria Baez were the council majority leader and Bronx delegation leader, respectively. If he went against Jose, I asked, wouldn't that make it nearly impossible for him to get things done?

"It would have created problems, let’s put it that way," he said.

The subject came up during a discussion about term limits, which, Mayor Michael Bloomberg today announced, he plans to extend from eight consecutive years to 12 with the help of the City Council.

I asked Mr. Koppell if the disconnect between him and the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, arguably his biggest constituency, over the Rivera fight would cost him in a potential re-election bid.

He hasn't decided if he will run yet, he said, though he'll have to make up his mind soon.

And will this disagreement turn the club against one of its longtime captains, similar to the strife in the 80th Assembly District?

"I don’t think that issue is going to affect — it may be that some people are not happy with me, I’m sure that’s so. I tried to explain why I supported Jose Rivera," said Mr. Koppell.

Look for more from that interview in next week's Political Arena.

Sunday extra: 80th Assembly District drama

Political leaders in the 80th Assembly District, which includes Van Cortlandt Village,
have been drifting apart ever since state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. lost his re-election bid to Pedro Espada Jr. in the primaries. We cover that this week in Political Arena — our online edition should go up soon — but in the meantime, here's some video to explain what we mean.

We talked with Kenny Agosto on Sunday after political operative Anthony Rivieccio angrily confronted Robert Press, of the Committee of 100 Democrats and an unpaid staffer for Mr. Gonzalez, just outside the auditorium at the Utopia Paradise Theater on Sunday.

We asked him to explain what had just happened. Here's what he had to say:


Bronx Dems meeting - Kenny Agosto on hurt feelings from N. Clark Judd on Vimeo.

Afterwards, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera — who worked closely with Mr. Agosto until Mr. Gonzalez's loss encouraged him to change sides — came up to us to respond:


Bronx Dems meeting - Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera on the 80th AD from N. Clark Judd on Vimeo.

Members of the Democratic faction backing Assemblyman Carl Heastie against current party leader Jose Rivera say that on Sunday night, they had more voting members of the county committee there, and by rights they should have been able to vote him out. What Ms. Rivera, Jose's daughter, is saying is that Mr. Agosto was partly to blame for that.

Mr. Agosto countered, after Ms. Rivera left, that she was present and working with him when he was deciding who to run for county committee seats.

Her allegation that people who had been brought there weren't sure what was going on were echoed, repeatedly, by Heastie supporters. They say the Rivera faction packed the house with non-voters who weren't sure what they were doing there. So fingers are pointing on both sides.