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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Councilman Koppell's Replacement

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Councilman Koppell's Replacement: Riverdale Report By Robert Press BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- Before we get into the race in the 11 th council district, we must say t...

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Councilman Koppell's Replacement

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Councilman Koppell's Replacement: Riverdale Report By Robert Press BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- Before we get into the race in the 11 th council district, we must say t...

Councilman Koppell's Replacement


Riverdale Report
By Robert Press


BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- Before we get into the race in the 11th council district, we must say that last Saturday's “Movie Night” was canceled due to what was forecast as bad weather. While it rained at Yankee Stadium Saturday night no rain came further north. The next event by the planners will be the “Riverdale Festival of the Arts” to be held on October 14th at the Riverdale Neighborhood House located at West 256th Street And Mosholu Avenue with no time listed as of yet.

There will be a Town Hall Meeting to discuss “Quality of Life Improvements in Marble Hill”, hosted by Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez on October 24th starting at 7 PM in St. Stephens United Methodist Church located at 146 West 228th Street in Marble Hill. Topics of discussion will include Neighborhood Security, NYCHA repairs, fire prevention, family activities, safe streets, and traffic safety, movement, and improvements.

Invited guests include State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Council members Fernando Cabrera and G. Oliver Koppell, New York City agencies that include the NYPD, NYFD, NYCHA, Department of Buildings, Sanitation, Transportation, Parks, HPD, and Community Board #8.

On to the City Council race to replace term limited Councilman G. Oliver Koppell in 2013. The race seems to be getting more defined as right now there is only one official defined candidate Mr. Cliff Stanton. I suspect that Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz who has been hemming and hawing about running will not be in the race, but will support the new Vice-Chair of the Bronx Democratic County Committee (of which Dinowitz is the Chairman) Mr. Andrew Cohen. Cohen is also the new Chair of the Aging Committee on Community Board #8.

Mr. Dan Padernacht also on Community Board #8 as Traffic and Transportation Chair who like Mr. Cohen is said to be also in the race for Councilman Koppell's seat should Assemblyman Dinowitz decide not to run. Padernacht was in the race to unseat 33rd State Senator Pedro Espada, and was convinced to withdraw from the race by state Democratic party leader Charlie King (and others) to support Gustavo Rivera who prevailed over Espada. Padernacht may have been promised favors for withdrawing, and when he tries to call them in may be told to go see Charlie King who no longer is state Democratic party leader. Then there are the one or two people who may become “Dark Horse” candidates in the race, myself included.

Lastly since I am being considered a Dark Horse candidate I was not surprised to see the Riverdale Press attack me on something I found wrong with Community Board #8's By-Laws. The last sentence of the story however was the teller, as it described a privileged conversation between CB 8 Chair Bob Fanuzzi and CB 8 board member Bob Press. I wonder which Bob broke this privileged conversation to the newspaper since it was not Bob Press.


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Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Justice denied for home owners

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Justice denied for home owners: Wakefield Area News By Mary V. Lauro BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- Her voice trembled. She was choking back tears. "Not one penny. The jud...

Justice denied for home owners


Wakefield Area News
By Mary V. Lauro
BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- Her voice trembled. She was choking back tears. "Not one penny. The judge said he owed me nothing. He hasn't paid rent for five months. That's $4,500. But she said he owes me nothing. How can that be?"
“Can you get rid of him? Is he being evicted?”
“Yes, but I have to give him about two weeks to clear-out. That's another month I won't be paid. How will I pay my mortgage, the fuel bills, real estate tax and my insurance?"
She was not the landlord of an apartment building with 20 or 30 units. It was a two-family house with one tenant and his wife. Like so many seniors in the community the rent supplemented her social security check. Without that rent, she was almost penniless. Her life savings had been sunk into a down payment for the house.
Unfortunate1y, the caller was only one of a growing number of two-family home owners who are facing what a generation ago was an isolated incident: the need to evict. What else can one do? These are not usual cases where the breadwinner loses his job, or a tragedy occurs or the tenant tries to make arrangement to pay back rent. Not at all. The perpetrators have an attitude of “Who is going to make me pay the rent?" The word has spread that it is next to impossible to collect unpaid rent beginning with the judges who have lost sight of justice.
Everything seems to be geared towards the tenant. The Attorney General's office issues a booklet on Tenants Rights directed at individuals who live in rent controlled apartment houses. There is nothing similar for landlords, or for that sub species of landlord, the owner of a two family house. The Borough President recently sponsored a forum on the rights of tenants with a star studded panel of experts. Very interesting, but there was nothing on tenant’s obligations or landlord's rights or the sad plight of a two family house.
It is true that the landlord of a two or three-family house can evict a tenant for reasons other than non payment of rent if there is no lease involved and the house is not rent controlled. It is called a "Holdover Case." However the process is long and even without a lawyer becomes costly mainly because the tenant usually does not pay rent during the process. Why would a landlord want to get rid of a tenant who does pay rent? The reasons are many: loud music, too much noise, use of drugs, bad attitudes, renting out part of the apartment, paying rent in a haphazard manner, refusing to recycle garbage, keeping an unclean apartment, etc.
The first step in a holdover case is to send via a process server a form letter notifying the tenant that he has 30 days to vacate before eviction process begins. If the tenant does not vacate the apartment, then the landlord goes to housing court for a date to see a judge. By this time the tenant owes at least two months rent, but as the devastated senior cried, it could be five months.
This whole process for the two and three-family home is so obviously in need of reassessment, one wonders why our elected officials do not pay it some attention. Non-payment of rent is a form of theft. It is a crime that goes unreported and it is, for the landlord, justice denied.



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Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Not So Savvy Tech Crooks Caught on Camera

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Not So Savvy Tech Crooks Caught on Camera: By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- A pair of electronics thieves apparently were not so tech savvy as to prevent cops from ...

Not So Savvy Tech Crooks Caught on Camera



By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, September 26- A pair of electronics thieves apparently were not so tech savvy as to prevent cops from recording their faces on surveillance video. Cops are looking for the crooks who ripped off a charter school of laptops.

At around 12:28 a.m. on September 5, a man and a woman broke into the Harriet Tubman Charter School in Morrisania. The pair made off with eight laptops valued in the thousands. Cops released surveillance video of the burglars inside the school in the hope that someone might recognize them. The video shows the pair casually walking through the empty school looking for items to take. At one point the female suspect looks directly up at the camera. It is unclear if she realized she was being video taped.

It is still unclear to investigators how the pair got into the locked school.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are kept strictly confidential.


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