What's Taking So Long?

Riverdale Report

By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 13- There were several giant inflatable rides, activities for children, games to play, and a giant barbecue last week in the street next to PS 24 that was called Springfest. 

West 235th Street was closed from Independence Avenue along Seton Park so that about 1,000 children and their parents could enjoy the festivities. The PS 24 Parents Association sponsored this event, and the parent volunteers worked the other sides of the tables to help provide needed funding for the school. You can go to my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com to see photos of this event including the “Dunk Tank” where Interim Acting Assistant Principal Manny Verdi tried to stay dry, but keep getting dunked thanks to the help of PA Executive Board member Cliff Stanton who was giving advice on how to hit the target to dunk Mr. Verdi. 

The only problem that I saw was that there were several cars parked opposite the school were ticketed by the 50th Precinct midway through Springfest. The reason could have been that the local residents were not given enough time to move their cars as I was told the signs went up the night before. This should be a topic at the next 50th Precinct Council meeting.

Last Thursday was the now quarterly meeting of the Croton Facility Monitoring Committee. Mr. Steve Desnayer representing the Parks Department spoke of the projects that the 200 or 240 million in mitigation funds (money promised by Mayor Bloomberg in 2003 to Bronx parks in order so the elected officials of the Bronx would vote to alienate part of Van Cortlandt Park to build the Croton Water Filtration Plant). Mr. Desnayer noted two projects currently in design one at 233rd Street, and the other for enhancing the area around White Plains Road northbound by Pelham Parkway which was being done in conjunction with the DDC rehabilitation of Pelham Parkway. He then mentioned some more projects adding that to date 151 million dollars has been registered. Gary Axelbank (an opponent of the filtration plant since the early 1990's when it was proposed to be built in the Jerome Park Reservoir) stated "according to MOU signed in late 2003 or early 2004 all park projects were to be done within five years or 2009 at the latest, and here we are in 2013 and they are not yet completed".

That was only the beginning of a tough night for Mr. Desnayer as the next item focused on why the Parks Department contractor doing work on Sedwick Avenue took away 30 parking spaces over the Memorial Day weekend when no work was being done. It was said that three different projects were being done at the same time. The removal of trees on the berm (to protect the integrity of the wall of the reservoir), installation of the partial jogging path, and the replacement of part of the sidewalk around the reservoir. Mr. Desnayer could only apologize for the loss of parking, and said that the department would try to have their contractors think of the community and take away less parking spaces.

There was more to the meeting including how the DEP could not answer why they were waiting for clearance to remove asbestos from the Demo plant (next to the reservoir) built after 1990 when asbestos use was banned in NYC in 1978. Go to my blog to read more.

Monday was the official ground breaking for the West 230^th street Shopping Center expected to be two stories with 133,000 square feet of retail space along the Broadway Corridor in Kingsbridge and Marble Hill. 130 covered parking spaces will be on site, and it is expected to create 250 permanent and 500 construction jobs. Check my blog for more on this.

Also on the blog is the latest listing of events going on at Wave Hill, and comments from Councilman Koppell on the recent court decision on the “Taxi of the Future”. While Koppell was pushing for a 100 percent handicap accessible taxi fleet, he said “The increase in wheel-chair accessible taxis brings us closer to my goal of requiring that all taxis be accessible to disabled individuals”.

If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.