Welcome2Melrose

Sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses every now and again. As I was rushing up Third Avenue, I stumbled upon this Curbside Haiku:

Imagine a world
Where your every move matters.
Welcome to that world.

There are over a hundred of these signs throughout the city as part of the Department of Transportation’s Curbside Haiku safety initiative.

Have you spotted any yet?

Join us this Saturday as representatives of Sustainable Communities • Bronx Metro North Study provide an interactive tour of the Melrose Metro North Station
and its pedestrian access points.

This is a very important way we, as a community, can band together and give feedback and be part of the process for the future of our neighborhood. Melrose has the best transportation access in the entire Bronx with subway access, bus routes and a Metro North station. Statistics show that 25,000 Bronxites make the reverse commute to work to Westchester and Connecticut making the Melrose Station a critical component for area residents in our transportation network.

Read more below straight from the source and don’t forget to take the community survey!!

The Department of City Planning of the City of New York (DCP) is studying areas surrounding select Metro North Stations in the Bronx. With support from the HUD Sustainable Communities program as part of a regional consortium of cities, counties and planning organizations, DCP is working with communities to plan for the Metro North corridor in the Bronx. The goals of the study are as follows:

· Connect Bronx residents to job centers in the region (25,000+ Bronxites make the reverse commute to jobs in Westchester and CT)

· Capitalize on the Metro North corridors by identifying opportunities for transit-oriented development

· Spur investment in lively, sustainable, mixed-use neighborhoods, by permitting new mixed-income housing around stations where growth is appropriate

· Improve station visibility, pedestrian access and intermodal connections around Bronx metro North stations

In order to successfully achieve these goals we need the full support of all community stakeholders. The DCP is moving forward with some important outreach initiatives described below.

Community Tours

In an effort to understand the community needs, pedestrian environment and transportation options surrounding the Melrose and University Heights Metro North Stations, DCP will be conducting interactive tours of key pedestrian access routes. While DCP staff will be onsite to guide the tours we need your help to make them a success! Please join us on Saturday, January 28 th in an effort to strengthen Bronx Communities. Bring your friends, co-workers, and neighbors. See details below and attached flyer:

Melrose Station

When: Saturday January 28th, 2012 10:00 AM—12:00 PM

Where: Meet at the Melrose Metro North Station Platform (Entrance on Park Avenue at 162nd Street )

University Heights Station:

When: Saturday January 28th, 2012 2:00 PM—4:00 PM

Where: Meet at the University Heights Metro North Station Platform (Entrance at W. Fordham Road and University Heights Bridge)

Please let us know if you will be attending or if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Community Survey

Your input is an important part of our successful planning effort. As part of our outreach program, DCP has developed a community survey which includes questions to help us understand community needs, land use, the pedestrian environment, and transportation facilities. Below is a link to take survey online and attached is an electronic copy of the survey available in both English and Spanish. Please complete the survey by the March 30 th deadline online, via email, mail, or fax to:

Online:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SCBronx

Or to:

Shawn Brede

One Fordham Plaza, 5 th Floor

Bronx, NY 10458

(718) 220 8505

F (718) 584-8628

sc_bronx_dl@planning.nyc.gov

Today, I had the pleasure of participating in US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Listening Session for the 2012 Food and Farm Bill at Hostos Community College right here in the Bronx. Senator Gillibrand is the first US Senator from New York to sit on the Senate Agriculture Committee in over 40 years. This gives New Yorkers a strong voice in the next bill which is set to replace the current Farm Bill that expires this year.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand opened up the talks and spoke about the need to increase food stamp benefits and SNAP benefits which she and her colleagues would like to increase it by 30%. She says that this would be a great step towards assisting families in need especially those in food deserts to be able to spend more money on healthier foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables and produce.

The Senator further went on to speak about the disconnect that exists between Hunts Point Market and the Bronx. Here we have the world’s largest food distribution center right in the Bronx yet there is a disconnect with the neighborhood where it is located. She spoke about how the area is intimidating and generally inaccessible to Bronxites due to its truck stop-like appearance. The floor was soon opened up to those attending and the first one to come up and speak was none other than Karen Washington, our very own urban farmer from the Bronx.

Karen spoke about how the Bronx is on top when it comes to hunger. She pointed out how we need to have more funding for food than to keep people incarcerated and that more is spent on incarcerating people than spending on keeping our people healthy. Karen voiced her dismay at being able to look across to Hunts Point but not being able to access it. All of these issues are issues that disproportionately affect people of color in our borough.

Senator Gillibrand responded enthusiastically to Karen’s speech saying how she looked forward in working together on some of the key issues such as expanding community gardens and connecting with local schools. Karen is a strong advocate of teaching kids starting at kindergarten on up about agriculture and growing food and why it is good for you to eat such foods versus the processed foods that are so readily available.

There were other speakers, one in particular who mentioned that the Bronx was burning in the past but now the Bronx is growing in reference to the hundreds of community gardens out here. Then there was Steve Ritz, a NYC Educator who has successfully worked with high school students installing and maintaining green roofs and walls, who challenged Senator Gillibrand to work on enforcing the ban of selling soda and junk food / candy in our schools.

The one thing that was very discouraging to me and several other Bronxites was that this is a “listening session” to hear the voice of the Bronx yet there were barely people of color or Bronxites in attendance. Thus why I decided on the title, “Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Visits The South Bronx But No One’s Home”. To have such an important meeting to “listen” to the voice of the people at 11AM when people are working is a disservice to the community and constituents which you serve. I mean no disrespect or to belittle her hard work and I actually applaud that she eventually made it to the Bronx but we need to have this listening session after business hours so that BRONXITES can attend, BRONXITES can voice their concerns, BRONXITES can be part of the process and not just the usual suspects who are always in attendance at these meetings because it is what they do. A true listening session in the Bronx would have been made up of a vastly different crowd than was in attendance today at Hostos Community College.

Are you interested in attending such a listening session that will affect policy in the United States for the next 5 years? SOUND OFF in the comments below!

Melrose residents are not wasting time in starting their resolutions in getting fit – including myself. Here’s local resident and certified trainer Luis Rodriguez, better known as Gato, teaching me the ropes at the newly opened Planet Fitness on 3rd and 151st at the HUB in Melrose.

Mike Kamber, renowned photojournalist and Melrose resident, is currently on assignment in Iraq reporting on the close of the Iraqi War. His latest entry in the New York Times is a bittersweet chronology of emotions during that time spent covering the seemingly endless battles, deaths and all the ills that go along with war.

Kamber has put his life on the line one too many times during these past 8 years simply to ensure that the world sees firsthand, through his eyes, or lense if you will, the atrocities of armed conflict.

Just this morning, a little over an hour ago he reported that, “63 dead in baghdad today, coordinated bombings across the city. nearly impossible to work. if cameras were bombs, this place would be completely safe. can’t even shoot from the hip” on his facebook page.

Read his account in the link below:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/bearing-witness-in-iraq/?emc=eta1#/1/

Image: Bronx Documentary Center in Melrose on Courtlandt Avenue, founded by Mike Kamber

Yup, those are roses blooming up on the balcony of a local Melrose home. The warm weather we’ve experienced this Fall has left the local foliage green for longer than the norm as well as roses blooming so late in the year! Any botanists out there to explain whether this is normal with roses or it just one of the effects of “local warming“?

National health club chain, Planet Fitness has opened its doors for business in Melrose right in the heart of The Hub on 3rd Avenue and East 151st Street. Now accepting new members for just $1 down and $10 / month, the facility will officially open January 2012 – just in time for those New Year resolutions. In the meantime, newly signed up members can work out at any other Planet Fitness for no additional charge until the gym officially opens.
In the coming days we will explore what impact a low-cost national chain gym will have on the local, more established gyms of the area.
It’s a double-edged sword because the South Bronx is in desperate need for more health clubs due to the high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the area but how will the small mom and pop gyms survive with such competition?

This past weekend on Saturday, October 22nd, the Bronx Documentary Center officially opened its doors with “Visions: Tim Hetherington” to a packed crowd of five to six hundred friends,colleagues and adoring fans. “They came to see Tim” said Mike Kamber, close friend of Hetherington and founder of the Center.

Tim Hetherington was killed in Libya on April 20th, 2011 while on assignment during the beginning of the Libyian revolution and almost as if by fate, 2 days before the opening of the exhibition – on the 6 month anniversary of his death, Libyian dictator Muammar Gaddafi was caught and executed.

Visions: Tim Hetherington is a multimedia journey not only through his photography and the artist but through the person behind the camera. Visitors to the gallery can listen in to a video presentation of Tim as well as his friends and colleagues talking about his life and his impact in the world of photo documentary journalism. As one of the earliest proponents of multimedia work in the 90s when he began his career it is only fitting that his life is celebrated as such.

The exhibit runs through December 2nd, 2011 and is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11am to 6pm.