OPPORTUNITY ZONE BOOSTS BIDS FOR HOT BRONX PROPERTY

photo by Ben Fractenberg This story ran on Oct. 11, 2019 in THE CITY. A worn-down factory building on Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx may not look like much — but its owners are banking on a government-backed gold rush. The Benedetto family, giants in the recycling industry, put a 99-year lease on the property up […]

How to avoid Brooklyn’s worst landlords

photo by Lore Croghan A smart apartment hunter’s guide to sussing out the slumlords. This story ran on August 30, 2019 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle It’s near the end of apartment-hunting season — at least for those who weren’t savvy enough to understand that September leases tend to be the most overpriced. I am […]

The Disappearing 3-Bedroom: Larger Families Have Few Affordable Options in NYC

photo by Adi Talwar This story ran on July 2, 2019 in City Limits. Christina Saldana’s 9-year-old daughter Hailey plays with a brown doll in the crawl space between the family’s sofa and the wall. She has a small pink box of toys crammed in the corner, and another next to the hot pink twin bed […]

It’s Been Slow-Pedaling for Bike Infrastructure in Bushwick

photo by Adi Talwar This story ran on August 9, 2019 in City Limits. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of vintage Schwinn bikes hang upside down, dangling over a red Mazda convertible in a garage on Harman Street, in between Knickerbocker and Irving Avenue. They belong to the Classic Riders, one of the only bike […]

Pedestrian Injuries Rise in Bushwick, Where Safety Features are Few

Photo by Adi Talwar This story ran on August 6, 2019 in City Limits. It was an illegal parking lot. Fabiola Mendieta-Cuapio thinks about this a lot — the laundromat on the corner of Wyckoff Avenue and Hart Street and the parking spaces that hung off of it, spilling into the sidewalk. Because maybe if someone would […]

Confidence on wheels: Brooklyn’s bike classes for grown-ups

This story ran on June 3, 2019 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The instructor spoke in choppy sentences that made little sense out of context. “Two feet. Two feet. Going forward. Stronger. Pushing that forward. Back.” But John LaPolla’s words worked the way a snake charmer’s might on a group of 20 adults in McCarren […]

BID PUSHES FOR 24-HOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH CENTER IN THE HUB

photo by Niamh McDonnell A 24 hour drop-in center that will accommodate mental and physical health non-emergencies is under discussion to open in The Hub. This spring the city’s health department proposed centers in the Bronx and Brooklyn, but some community members in The Hub demanded more input in the planning process. Now the center […]

FOURTH TIME’S THE CHARM: SOUTH BRONX WOMAN TO OPEN BOROUGH’S ONLY GAY BAR IN PORT MORRIS

An old Port Morris motorcycle repair shop will soon become the only gay bar in a borough with few spaces for the LGBTQ community. Audrey de Jesus said she is hoping to open the three-story club and restaurant, which will feature drag and burlesque shows, in August. With exposed pipes and yellow walls, the stucco-fronted space […]

HOW A POWERFULLY-BACKED FESTIVAL CRUMBLED

By Rachel Rippetoe / March 29, 2019 Marco Shalma had once hoped there would be a music festival Saturday, March 23, inside the still-unfinished Union Crossing on 141st Street. What happened there instead haunts him. Nearly 70 people protested on the steps of the future commercial development, chanting “Fire to the gentrifiers,” and waving signs of Shalma’s face […]

Uprooting a Dangerous Industry: New York City’s Garbage Reform Explained

Miguel Mondesi has been a garbage worker in New York City for 22 years. He’s only 46, but he says everything hurts — his knees, his ankles, his hips. The father of three starts his shift at 3 a.m. and works for the next 10 to 15 hours. In that time, he’ll make up to […]

NYCHA tenant reps challenge HUD official over housing policy

In their ongoing battle with City Hall, tenant leaders from New York City public housing have become bedfellows with an unlikely partner: the federal government. Following a year-long legal battle with the Housing Authority that resulted in the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the agency, those NYCHA leaders and other tenants are hopeful […]

Mott Haven LGBTQ leaders unfazed by Bronx lawmaker’s homophobic comments

Prominent local LGBTQ leaders are putting a positive spin on a Bronx councilman’s homophobic statements. It’s no secret that Bronx Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr., who in the past has compared homosexuality to beastiality, harbors controversial views, but the former state senator and pentecostal reverend’s homophobic comments on a Spanish radio station on Feb. 8, have […]

Garbage workers demand back pay from Sanitation Salvage on MLK day

On Martin Luther King Day morning, as the temperatures dropped below 6 degrees Fahrenheit, Kenneth Hernandez was bundled in a black puffer coat outside of the Manida Street headquarters of Sanitation Salvage, the controversial Hunts Point trash hauler that shuttered in November. Hernandez, 27, is a former driver for Salvage. His face fell as he recalled years […]

NYPD sting puts 10 alleged drug dealers behind bars

Detectives from the 40th Precinct arrested 10 suspected drug dealers last week, capping a year-long investigation. Deputy Inspector Brian Hennessy made the sting and subsequent busts public at a community briefing Friday evening. The takedown took place at Perry’s Diner on Third Avenue on Jan. 8. Detectives charged 10 dealers loosely associated with the Latin […]

Mayor comes to Mott Haven to celebrate housing policies

Mayor Bill de Blasio came to Melrose on Wednesday to tout what he said was a record breaking year for the creation of affordable housing in the city. At a press conference at Borinquen Court, a complex built last year on 138th Street with 145 fixed-income apartments for elderly and/or physically handicapped people, de Blasio boasted that […]

NYPD’s arrest of activist shrouded in mystery

The co-owner of La Morada Mexican restaurant on Willis Avenue and her lawyer say she was unlawfully detained by undercover NYPD detectives last Friday evening after they saw her videotaping an alleged sting operation next door. Yajaira Saveedra, who has co-run the restaurant with her mother, sister, and brother since 2009, has earned a reputation […]

Workers, advocates rejoice as Sanitation Salvage announces it will close

Embattled trash hauler’s truck killed two in six months Environmental and labor activists hope that the surprise closing of a controversial, private trash collecting company based in Hunts Point, is a first step to reining in the city’s private trash haulers. Once Sanitation Salvage’s trucks stop rumbling through the South Bronx’s streets, they say, those […]

Tenants fight protracted legal battle with landlords

Soon after reporting a leak in the sink in her apartment at 386 E 139th St., Blonnie Rodgers, 63, said she heard an aggressive knock at her door. When she opened the door the building’s managing agent, Sam Rosen, was standing outside. “He told me, ‘You better watch whose toes you’re stepping on,’” she recalled […]

NYCHA no more: Betances Houses officially converted to RAD housing

The Betances Houses in Mott Haven as of Friday are no longer Section 9 public housing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference at the complex on Monday. The 40 buildings stretching from from 136th Street to 145th Street were converted to the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which means they will […]

Public discussion over community land trusts sparks protest

By Rachel Rippetoe and Charlie May on September 25, 2018 at 9:19 am Prominent local businesswoman’s push for “self-gentrification” fuels neighborhood rift Shouting protestors drowned out the advice of bank representatives and developers at a public meeting on Sept. 6, as homeowners in Hunts Point gathered to learn about profiting off their homes amid a swath of […]