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If you’ve been following our story of the resounding anger Bronxites are voicing against the sweetheart deal to keep FreshDirect in New York City by moving from Long Island City to The Bronx waterfront then read more on our continuing saga against undemocratic processes that disenfranchise the communities of the South Bronx. To further aggravate an already tense and delicate situation, during last week’s sham public hearing (which was held AFTER the $130 million deal was announced) it came to light that Community Board 1, which covers the Harlem River Rail Yards where FreshDirect would move, was never informed about the plans to change the land use which was already promised to be a key part of the Bronx Greenway and waterfront access. The following is our official Press Release that we as residents have sent out:

Press Release: Community Members Unite to Stop FreshDirect’s Exploitation of the South Bronx

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9:00 AM Monday, February 13, 2012

Press Release: Community Members Unite to Stop FreshDirect’s Exploitation of the South Bronx

BRONX, NY, February 13, 2012:

Community residents and activists will rally Tuesday, February 14th at 8:45 AM outside of 110 William Street, to demand that the board of the New York City Industrial Development Agency vote to block FreshDirect’s sweetheart deal in the Bronx. The deal was suddenly announced last Tuesday, February 7th. Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. hailed the privately arranged deal as a win for everyone. FreshDirect is expected to receive a $130 million subsidy package from the city, the state, and the Bronx in exchange for its decision to relocate from Queens to the Harlem River Rail Yards along the waterfront in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx.

But local community members are upset about the adverse impact that FreshDirect’s relocation will have on the South Bronx. They have organized a group called SOUTH BRONX UNITE! STOP FRESHDIRECT! and find numerous aspects of the deal and how it is being portrayed disturbing, deceptive, and deleterious to the health and welfare of the South Bronx community.

“Fresh Direct has pledged to bring new jobs to the Bronx,” said Mychal Johnson of Community Board 1, “But they have no obligation to do so. FreshDirect is not penalized if they fail to reach their job creation targets. There are no mandates or incentives to hire people from the South Bronx, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in all of New York City. Further, there is no guarantee that FreshDirect jobs would even be at a living wage.” According to subsidy watchdog group Good Jobs New York, the city is failing to leverage the proposed subsidies for the creation of good jobs for people that need them. In addition, GJNY claims the IDA has failed to provide taxpayers a clear cost/benefit analysis of the benefits expected to be awarded to the company.

“The way this went down was completely undemocratic,” said Mychal Johnson. “The Governor, the Mayor, and the Borough President announced this was a done deal before the public hearing, before the official vote, before there was any chance for public input. They decided to give FreshDirect $130 million dollars in taxpayer support, without any assessment of how this would affect the community. Worst of all, even with millions of dollars of subsidies, tax breaks, and incentives, there is no written guarantee of even one new living wage job for the South Bronx.”

The relocation is a “slap in the face to the people of the South Bronx,” said Rev. Ruben Austria, a faith leader and resident of Mott Haven. “We are in dire need of fresh food in this community, but FreshDirect won’t even deliver in the South Bronx. Yet they have no qualms about driving fleets of trucks in and out of our neighborhood every day, polluting the air our people breathe, while they bring their product to wealthier communities. They say there’s no demand in the South Bronx, but they make no provision to serve families using food stamps, who would gladly purchase affordable fresh food.”

The burden on the South Bronx angers Daniel Wallace, a neighborhood resident. “This project demands that the people of the South Bronx bear an inordinate amount of the costs of a deal from which we are guaranteed no real benefit. People in Manhattan get to eat fresh food; we get to eat more exhaust. As a South Bronx resident, it infuriates me that the people elected to represent our community’s interests are instead allowing us to be saddled with another terrible deal. The way FreshDirect and our elected officials flouted the democratic process to complete this deal is a real sign of disrespect to me and the rest of the people who live in the South Bronx. They didn’t even pretend like our voices matter.”

“It’s unacceptable,” says Ivelyse Andino, a resident of the South Bronx. “We already have the highest rate of asthma in the country, the most concentrated health problems, including infant mortality and childhood obesity – and these things are the direct result of urban planning policies that utterly disregard the rights of poor communities of color. Now FreshDirect is going to bring in another 130 trucks driving through our streets every day, and produce 380 tons of solid waste each month – and there hasn’t even been a legitimate environmental impact study done.”

The worst part of the deal, say environmental activists like Harry Bubbins, is that the space FreshDirect will occupy is misused public land. The proposed site for FreshDirect at the Harlem River Rail Yards in the Bronx was supposed to develop freight service to reduce air pollution from truck traffic, expand the South Bronx Greenway, and give residents access to the waterfront. Instead, 1.9 miles of waterfront space will remain inaccessible to the public. “This gargantuan facility,” said Bubbins, “is clearly inappropriate for our waterfront and has sparked keen and widespread interest in the best use of this valuable public land. We look forward to an aggressive inquiry by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into the original lease between the New York State Department of Transportation and the Harlem River Rail Yards. It seems they are in default, and a new community led public planning process needs to be initiated. A more mixed use and diverse array of activities on the 100 acres foot print will yield more jobs, cleaner air and a better return for the tax payer investment than what is proposed with the lucrative backdoor deals proposed for FreshDirect to abandon Queens.”

Despite the anger over the FreshDirect sweetheart deal, community members are optimistic. “We’re going to use every legal tool available to us to fight for our community,” said Corrine Kohut, an attorney and homeowner in the South Bronx. “We’re too well informed and organized to let this happen without a fight. Our elected officials and the public agencies that are supposed to look out for our interests aren’t going to get away with selling out the community anymore. We look forward to a community-led development plan that makes efficient use of nearly 100 acres of public waterfront land and incorporates sustainable development, living wage jobs, clean air and waterfront access for South Bronx residents.”

Contact: Harry Bubbins, Friends of Brook Park

harry@friendsofbrookpark.org

(646) 648 4362.

Mychal Johnson, Community Board 1 mychaljohnson@gmail.com (212) 810-0562

http://southbronxunitestopfreshdirect.blogspot.com/2012/02/press-release-community-members-unite.html?m=1

Good morning, lovely residents of Melrose! Make it a spectacular day!

It’s City politics at its finest in the Bronx. When the Bloomberg administration fought (not so hard and not so smartly) to keep the Yankees in the Bronx, they gave a sweetheart deal for the team’s demand of parking for 9,000.

Now, the owners and operators of the 21 acres of concrete wasteland are close to defaulting on over $200 million in bonds – and according to the Daily News, will be the largest default on city issued bonds in decades. How many times did the community rally against so much parking space when statistics showed that fans weren’t using the old ones as much in the first place? Many Yankee fans already arrived by subway and surely more would come via the new Metro North Station at 153rd Street.

Now, with no one really using the parking lots that barely reach a third of capacity on game days, the operators raised the the parking rate from $24 to $35 last year which will further impact the occupancy rate.

These 21 acres could have been put to much better use as a system of world class parkland, affordable mixed-income housing and perhaps that long awaited hotel. Now who suffers? The tax payers and the community suffers from such sweetheart deals and since it’s in the Bronx (particularly the South Bronx) City Hall will continue to turn the other way when questioned about this financial fiasco.

If you ask me, this is a scandal worthy of federal investigation and perhaps a class action lawsuit against the City.

Read more at the Daily News.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pricey-yankee-stadium-parking-garages-owner-heading-default-237-million-bonds-article-1.1016386?localLinksEnabled=false

One of the great things about living in Melrose is the easy access to the lifelines that make up the transportation network of this great city and region. Whether you’re traveling by subway, bus, railroad or car, you’re only a few short minutes away from your linkages.

You can take the 2, 4 and 5 trains at 149th Street / Grand Concourse or the 2/5 trains at 3rd Avenue / 149th Street and be whisked away to midtown in under 20 minutes. If your commute is north, away from the city then you also have the option of Melrose’ Metro North Station at 162nd Street and Park Avenue where you’ll find yourself in white plains within 25 minutes or even a super fast ride into midtown in 10 minutes and two stops into Grand Central.

Traveling by bus? We’ve got you covered with 13 bus lines (including Express Bus BxM 4) running through our neighborhood ( 1, 2, 4, 6, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 32, 41, 55). Six of these lines converge at the HUB at 3rd Avenue / 149th Street for easy access to the 2 and 5 trains.

If you’re one of those people that need to drive then you’re also in luck with quick access to and from Manhattan via 5 bridges all within 5 minutes from the heart of Melrose and highways like the Major Deegan and Bruckner Expressway.
Even Jersey is a stone’s throw away (in light inbound traffic to the Garden State you can be over the George Washington Bridge in less than 15 minutes!)

So if you’re thinking about moving to Melrose, besides being much more affordable than Williamsburg, Long Island City, Astoria and even Harlem, we’ve got the best transportation network with amazing access to the city.

Hipsters can keep Williamsburg with their crappie L train connection!

A group of young men were busted yesterday for utilizing an abandoned building in Morris Park as a marijuana grow house. How much does this cost the tax payers for this one bust alone?

While we have real crimes being committed such as rapes, murders and beatings – let alone the banking industry which nearly collapsed this country into major financial ruin, we are spending billions upon billions of dollars in this country to fight the “evil” marijuana.

We really need to do some serious soul searching into this because our government is fighting something that is clinically proven to be beneficial yet we allow alcohol to be consumed in vast quantities when 1 in 25 deaths around the world can be attributed to alcohol use? There have been absolutely no deaths on record that were because of marijuana use at all. So where is the problem?

Furthermore, humans and a large majority of life on earth have cannabinoid receptors indicating that we have evolved in conjunction with such substances. Alcohol on the other hand destroys our liver!

The billions spent in New York State alone, fighting marijuana, could be put to better use in education, health care and other social programs to help the poor rather than incarcerate them.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8526160

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!

VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE SHARE FAR AND WIDE!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 4th, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will be coming to the Bronx at Hostos Community College as part of her listening sessions for the upcoming ” Food and Farm Bill ”. This is an extremely important event for Bronxites in particular since we have the dubious distinction of being the poorest and unhealthiest and atrocious access to healthy and nutritious produce and vegetables that other areas in the state take for granted.

Please do share and if you can’t make it, send a friend, neighbor or relative in your place. I cannot begin to stress the importance of being there. I do have my reservation with the poor selection of time of day that the event will be held, which is 11am thus limiting the number of Bronxites who can attend. Maybe we can convince Senator Gillibrand to hold another session in the evening when it is more convenient for the working families in the Bronx?

**Spread the word!**

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will be coming to the Bronx on January 4th to hear community members’ concerns about the food system and seek input on how she can improve access to healthy, affordable through changes in the “Food and Farm Bill”.

We can have a say in how to make affordable healthy food more accessible in grocery stores, farmers markets, CSAs, and new market opportunities. Come out and let your voice be heard this Wednesday! See below for more detailed information.

United States Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand (NY) cordially extends this invitation to attend her upcoming Farm Bill Listening Session in New York City.

As Congress begins debating the next Farm Bill, Senator Gillibrand will continue her statewide agricultural listening sessions to gather input from local farmers and advocates.

As the first New Yorker to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years, Senator Gillibrand plans to focus on a broad range of food policy and agricultural issues that are important to New York in the next Farm Bill, including nutrition, access to affordable healthy food, farmers markets, CSAs, organics, new market opportunities, assistance for dairy farms and specialty crops, and investments in renewable energy.

EVENT: Farm Bill Listening Session DATE: January 4, 2012 TIME: 11am PLACE: Hostos Community College, D Building 149th Street and Walton Avenue, Bronx Savoy Multipurpose Room on the 2nd Floor

Please RSVP to FarmBillNYC@Gillibrand.Senate.Gov

**Save The Date – Bronx Food and Sustainability Coalition meeting – February 2012 **

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.