Nobody Told Us About Outbreak

Nobody Told Us About Outbreak

Residents Fuming Over Silence on Disease

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX NEW YORK, MARCH 14- Co-op City shareholders, speaking out during interviews expressed concerns that they had just found out about two confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ Disease in their building, one from last summer and one from 13 months earlier than that.

Among the Building 27 shareholders who were interviewed, only Teresa Acevedo said that she was not concerned about reports of cases of Legionnaires’ Disease in her building.

Expressing the dominant point of view among those questioned Ariel Jimenez, walking out of his building with his 5-year-old son, Elian, said, “This is really spooky. I’m concerned for the little ones who don’t have fully developed immune systems to fight disease, and, of course, I’m concerned for everyone else in the building. We should have been told about this in December, when management and the city’s Health Department first found out about it.”

Jimenez added, “Like many people in our building, we have had problems with mold in our apartment. Under the circumstances, it should have been even more important for the shareholders in our building to know what was happening in terms of the cases of Legionnaires’ Disease.”

Expressing an even more vocal view, Ethel Minkin stressed, “This whole thing about Legionnaires’ Disease in our building is a shock to me. Riverbay should be sued for this. Co-op City is a nice place, but there are too many secrets. The shareholders have a right to know what’s going on.”

Rena Mena, a former paramedic, added, “We have a whole lot of environmental problems in our apartments. I have toxic black mold in my apartment, which Maintenance workers keep fixing because it keeps coming back. I suffer from asthma, so I’m especially concerned, like Legionnaires’ Disease, that could make it more difficult for me to breathe.”

A shareholder, who wished to remain unidentified, stressed, “We just got through settling an environmental lawsuit in North Carolina, and now, we have to deal with this. I have a 1-year-old daughter, and I’m extremely concerned about our health.”

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): The Ball’s Over for Cinderella Rams

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): The Ball’s Over for Cinderella Rams: The Ball’s Over for Cinderella Rams Fordham Ends Season with an 87-74 Loss to Dayton By Howard Goldin BRONX NEWS, MARCH 14- The high fl...

The Ball’s Over for Cinderella Rams

The Ball’s Over for Cinderella Rams

Fordham Ends Season with an 87-74 Loss to Dayton

By Howard Goldin

BRONX NEWS, MARCH 14- The high flying Dayton Flyers (23-9) triumphed over the Rams of Fordham (10-21) after a first half of nearly unstoppable shooting from the floor, (17 for 27) 63 percent. At the same time, they prevented Fordham from putting the ball in the basket. Fordham only netted 9 for 33 (27.3 percent) during the first half. 

A 3 pointer by Vee Sanford at 15:51 raised the lead of the Flyers to double digits. His first basket of the contest set the tone for a perfect shooting game for the 6-4 senior. When the buzzer sounded to end the game, Sanford had netted all nine of his shots from the floor, three of three from beyond the arc and both of his attempts from the free throw line. 

After the contest, Sanford responded to the praise of a reporter, “Far from being perfect. Just a good night and I’m glad my teammates could find me. I think the last game I had like this was in high school.”

After the score, 18-8, reached double figures again, the Flyers continued to increase their lead until reaching a game high lead of 22 (47-25) with 1:58 left on the clock in the first half. The score was 50-31 at the half.

Each coach described his team’s performance in the initial period. Fordham’s Tom Pecora remarked, “We started the game like we ran out of gas. We were tired from last night. They [Dayton] really made some great shots.”

On the other hand, Archie Miller of Dayton opined, “I thought we got off to an outstanding start on both ends of the floor.”

The Rams began the second half with great intensity and improved shooting. The Rams cut the deficit to seven at 14:30 after a beginning scoring run of 17-5. Pecora explained his halftime talk to his team, “I didn’t even yell to be quite honest…I really just talked to them about having pride…If you go out and you give the effort you’re capable of, the score will take care of itself. Maybe we’ll get back in the game and maybe we’ll steal it.”

Although Fordham outscored Dayton , 43-37, in the second half, the Rams could not prevent Dayton from shooting more than 50 percent from the floor. Thus, the lead increased to 87-74 at the conclusion of the contest.

At the conclusion of the game, Miller stated, “Advancing is the greatest feeling in the world this time of year.” His team did advance and will face the #4 seed Saint Joseph’s, on Friday afternoon in the quarter-finals.

Branden Frazier, a young man from the neighborhood where Barclays is located, ended his career at Fordham in sterling fashion by scoring 30 points. The result of his effort raised his career point total at Fordham to 1,642 and his total of assists to 492. 

The 6-1 senior explained the meaning of ending his college career in his own neighborhood, “It was good to be home, growing up down the block. I just felt comfortable playing and had a lot of friends and family here…To have everyone stand up for me and clapping, even people who were not Fordham fans, meant a lot to me, just to go down and hug every single person that I went to battle with in every game is special.”

Pecora talked of his respect for Frazier, “He was coming with us at Hofstra and when I decided to make a move and come to Fordham, it was one of the first phone calls I got…Branden said ’Coach, I’m with you, it you’ll have me.’ He’s grown as a player; he’s grown as a person; he’s graduating; he’s a fine student, and you can see the way people react to him here and everywhere. He’s just a wonderful kid. I have an 11 year-old son and if he can be like him, I’d be blessed.”

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham’s Cinderella Story?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham’s Cinderella Story?: Fordham’s Cinderella Story? Rams Win First Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Game Since 2007 By Howard Goldin BRONX NEWS, MARCH 13- As th...

Fordham’s Cinderella Story?

Fordham’s Cinderella Story?

Rams Win First Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Game Since 2007

By Howard Goldin

BRONX NEWS, MARCH 13- As this year’s Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament included all teams in the conference, the last place Fordham Rams were given an opportunity to participate. The Rams last took part in the tourney in 2008. Their most recent tournament victory was a 63-61 win over the Richmond Spiders in 2007. Thus, Fordham’s (10-20) defeat of the George Mason Patriots (11-20) on Wednesday night at Barclays Center was a source of pride and satisfaction to the team and staff, Fordham students, alumni and its fans.

A free throw by 6-8 junior Erik Copes of George Mason began the scoring. A jump shot by Brooklyn native Bryan Smith of the Rams gave Fordham its first advantage at 18:58. Fordham kept that lead throughout the game. An 18-9 scoring run by the Rams capped by a jumper by freshman Jon Severe at 11:32 raised the Fordham lead to double figures for the first time in the contest. Four times later in the first half the Rams reached their highest advantage of the contest, 11 points. The Rams led, 33-26, at the half.

Early in the second half, six unanswered points by Fordham allowed the Rams to again achieve an 11 point lead, 29-28, at 17:16. A 15-5 run by the Patriots mid-way through the second half cut the deficit to a single point , 48-47 with 9:02 remaining in the game. 

In the final minute of the game, nine players had opportunities from the free throw line. Five fouls were committed by George Mason with the hope of catching up to Fordham in the last 60 seconds. Four Patriots were also sent to the charity stripe by Fordham fouls even though the Rams were leading. 

Fordham coach Tom Pecora commented on his strategy, “I’m a convert [to fouling to prevent a basket from being scored]. You got to foul. They’re so good in shooting.” 

Free throws were a factor in Fordham’s 70-67 victory. In the first half, Fordham missed its only free throw attempt. In the second half, the Rams netted 21 of 31 from the charity stripe. In contrast, the Patriots only had 17 free throw attempts and sunk 11 of the shots, a 10 point disadvantage in a game they lost by three. Of the calls, Pecora said he advised his team, “Do everything hard. You can get the respect of the officials.”

Fordham controlled the boards, 50-42, thanks to the rebounding of Ryan Canty, who pulled down 19 boards. Pecora opined, “It was a career night for Ryan Canty. He’s a great rebounder.  Senior Branden Frazier surmised, “He [Canty] enjoys rebounding and the team feeds off that.” 

For Brooklyn natives Frazier and Smith of Fordham the trip home was very meaningful. Frazier remarked, “I grew up down the block. Being in Brooklyn helped us a lot.” Smith was especially pleased to see family and friends in the arena, “A lot of people who couldn’t come to Fordham to see me came here today.”

Of the two, Pecora said, “It took guts for them to come to Fordham. They were highly recruited.” 

Fordham advances to play the 5^th seed, the Dayton flyers, on Thursday afternoon. 

Tags: Fordham, Rams, Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Picking Up the Pieces

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Picking Up the Pieces: Picking Up the Pieces Fire destroys 2 buildings in Morrisania By David Greene BRONX NEWS, MARCH 12- A long struggling community must onc...

Picking Up the Pieces

Picking Up the Pieces

Fire destroys 2 buildings in Morrisania

By David Greene

BRONX NEWS, MARCH 12- A long struggling community must once again pick up the pieces after a devastating fire destroyed two buildings and has closed two popular businesses and left several families homeless.

Fire officials were first called to the three-alarm blaze at the Pamela Deli, located at 781 E. 163 Street at 3:30 p.m. on March 6. Fire officials and witnesses at the scene reported flames and smoke pouring out from all three floors of the wood-frame structure, before an adjacent building also caught fire.

A third building suffered multiple broken windows, as well as smoke and water damage, as firefighters vented the building. The thick, black smoke could be seen billowing high above Tinton Avenue for several miles.

Kevin Hudson, who works at an adjacent SRO had just left work and was several blocks away when he saw the speeding fire trucks, when he raced back to his building to assist with the evacuation of the 51 residents.

As firefighters were just bringing the fire under control, Hudson said of his residents, "Everyone is fine, but there's a lot of smoke in the hallways." He concluded, "Everyone evacuated quickly, there use to it. We do drills every week."

Two firefighters suffered minor burns and were transported to local hospitals. Nearly 150 firefighters from 33 units, including one unit from as far away as New Jersey battled the flames for several hours. Firemen remained at the scene the rest of the night as fire flared-up several times.

The Department of Buildings would later deem the structure unsafe and the building would be torn down.

The building's owner Pamela Baez, who has run the popular deli for the better part of three-decades, has vowed to rebuild.

Tags: Fire, building