The Bronx

Horace Mann Sex Scandal: Major Questions Still Unanswered Following Prosecutors Report

Even though it was released Friday, we feel the need to revisit Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson's remarkable statement on the results of his investigation into sexual abuse of students by teachers at the prestigious Horace Mann School. Prosecutors say the abuse ranged for 34 years, from 1962 ... More >>

New York Botanical Garden's Orchid Show: Beauty in the Bronx

Though snow continues to fall across the city, spring has finally arrived at the Bronx's New York Botanical Garden, where the conservatory's annual Orchid Show is currently in full bloom. To celebrate, we rode the train uptown, took off our jackets, and spoke with Marc Hachadourian, the manager of t ... More >>

John Liu, Comptroller: City Needs to Analyze Causes of Five-Year Surge in Lawsuits

In on our article this week on the five-year surge in civil rights lawsuits, we pointed out that the city does little to analyze the causes of those claims in an effort to identify problem officers or troubling trends that can be corrected. City Comptroller John Liu also knows there's a problem, ac ... More >>

The MTA's BusTime Will Be Fully Operational Across NYC Next April

In the video featured above, the MTA teaches you, in classic infomercial fashion, how to use their new online service that tells you where the damn bus is anytime and anywhere. The program was started back in January of 2012, in which it was deployed to riders in the Bronx, Queens and strictly on 34 ... More >>

9 People Were Non-Fatally Shot While You Were Stumbling Home On New Year's

As we know, New Year's Eve brings out the worst in people. An hyped-up party atmosphere mixed with thousands of people mixed with alcohol will produce that blowback; on my walk from the Flatiron District to the East Village at around 2am, I witnessed two huge fights, five ambulances and a streaker p ... More >>

TRAIN DREAMS

The NY Botanical Garden makes the city in miniature

Savor the Bronx Restaurant Week

Sandy and a little snow can't stop Bronx restaurants from gearing up for the second annual Savor the Bronx Restaurant Week. Special events begin Monday and more than 35 restaurants in the borough will offer discounted fare. Some restaurants like Riverdale Steak House will give a 15 percent discount ... More >>

Man With Hypodermic Needle Strikes Again in the Bronx

It's one thing getting robbed at gun point. It's another thing getting a knife pulled on you. But having someone threaten you with a hypodermic needle in their hand is a whole other experience.Over the past six weeks, this has been the case in the Bronx. A 39-year-old man, identified as Angel Anthon ... More >>

More Intimidating Robbery Weapon: Gun Or Herpes? Discuss

As a Bronx resident notes in an interview with a local TV station, "anything" could be found in a hypodermic needle, including "AIDS, herpes -- anything!" And nobody -- nobody -- wants either of those stigmatic/potentially deadly diseases.That said, a thief is using the threat of potential herpes to ... More >>

New City Deparment of Education Disciplinary Code Scales Back Student Suspensions, While State School Violence Data Shows Record Highs

It's been an interesting week in the world of crime in schools.Right in time for the new school year, which begins next week, the DOE released their new disciplinary manual, which seeks to minimize suspensions for students who commit "low-level" infractions.As reported by the Times, city schools are ... More >>

Madonna

Fordham Fights Terrible Food By Launching Gluten-Free Menu

Fordham has been getting a lot of bad press for their nasty cafeteria food. We're not sure if a gluten-free menu is going to help or hurt their reputation, but they're launching one anyways. The station offers gluten-free grains such as quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, millet, and teff.

Bronx Prosecutors Kinda Suck At Prosecuting People

Note to self: if you're gonna break the law, do it in the Bronx -- there's a one in four chance you'll walk away scot-free.A recently released/superb investigative report by WNYC shows that the Bronx District Attorney's Office prosecutes criminals at a dramatically lower rate than any other D.A.'s o ... More >>

New York Civil Liberties Union Files Lawsuit Against NYPD Over "Wrongful Arrests and Excessive Force" In City Schools

It looks like it's no longer just Bronx parents asking the DOE and the NYPD: Why so many student arrests?Last month we attended a roundtable hosted by the New Settlement Parent Action Committee and other community organizers that brought together concerned Bronx parents, students and representatives ... More >>

Drink The City: Honoring The Drinks That Make Up New York's History

Sure it may be in the beginning of the week, but it's never too early to go out and grab a drink... especially when there's some sort of historical context attached to the cocktails. There will be a night of cocktails honoring Robin Shulman's new book Eat the City, tomorrow August 7 at 8 pm. The ev ... More >>

Bronx Parents Ask Department of Education, NYPD: Why So Many Student Arrests?

Bronx parents, students, representatives from the New York State Department of Education, and officials from the NYPD School Safety Division had a roundtable Thursday evening to discuss the high number of suspensions and arrests in the borough. The meeting, organized by the New Settlement Parent Act ... More >>

NYPD Ticket Fixing Scandal Mushrooms to Other Police Agencies

It looks like we haven't heard the last of the ticket fixing scandal that roiled the ranks of the NYPD. The Albany Times-Union reports that more than a dozen state troopers and officers in at least six other police departments are also under investigation "on charges ranging from misconduct to tampe ... More >>

3 Good Things: City Island, Fish Sauce, Fino

This fun tour of the seafood offerings on City Island, that hard-to-reach enclave of the Bronx (featured a few years back in an excellent film of the same name). Check out the frozen piña coladas from Johnny's and the baskets of fried clam bellies (one of my favorite summertime snacks). [Gothamist] ... More >>

South Bronxites Sue FreshDirect, City For Ducking Asthma Risk Study

When the city Industrial Development Agency voted back in February to give FreshDirect $128 million in tax breaks and other goodies to move their shipping headquarters from Queens to the Bronx, local residents who were peeved at the prospect of a fleet of produce-laden trucks idling all night -- in ... More >>

Michael Bloomberg's Supersized Soda Ban: Can It Battle Obesity in The First Place?

The Times has a story today about Mayor Mike Bloomberg's battle with supersized sodas and how his fight is playing out in New York's poorest borough, the Bronx. Part of Bloomberg's move, the article explains, stems from the persistence of obesity in the Bronx. Though anti-obesity measures have bee ... More >>

Three Thugs Beat The Crap Out Of 14-Year-Old Bronx Boy *VIDEO*

Three thugs beat the crap out of a 14-year-old Bronx boy Monday afternoon (before stealing his sneakers and sunglasses) and now police need your help in tracking them down.See video of the vicious beating below.According to police, the victim was waiting for the elevator at his Eastchester apartment ... More >>

A Breakdown of the NYC Bike Share Map

The bicycles are comin'! The bicycles are comin'!Yesterday, the New York City Department of Transportation released the initial 420 bike share station locations for the program that will unleash (eventually) 10,000 bikes onto the already crammed streets of New York by 2013. Influenced by NYU's ... More >>

Bronx Advocates Call for Alternatives to Arrests of Students Inside Public Schools (UPDATED)

This afternoon, parent advocates in the Bronx are organizing a march that will start at a transportation hub in the borough, move to a suspensions hearing center onward to an early care education site, and then to an elementary school and a middle school. The final destination of the rally is a juve ... More >>

Twelve Teen Girls Wanted In Subway Assault, French Fry Robbery *VIDEO*

The New York Police Department is asking the public's help in tracking down 12 teenage girls who assaulted a couple of 16-year-olds on a Bronx subway in March. Prior to the assaults, the pack of teens stole the french fries one of the female victims was eating (see video of the assault released by p ... More >>

Once Upon a Time in the Bronx: Theatre of the Oppressed Explores Violence, Family Life

When directors with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC asked a group of teenage girls to strike a pose that they think represents the Bronx, most of them did the same thing: They chose images with weapons. This is how artist Melanie Crean remembers a workshop with around ten teenage girls in the Bronx, ... More >>

"Week of Action" Wraps With Queens Court Singing Protest; 63 Arrested For The Week

The "Week of Action" --three foreclosure blockades at the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queen's Supreme Court--finished today with two dozen singing protestors storming Queen's court. Yesterday's action at Brooklyn led to 38 arrests. Unlike the Seabrook incident, most of the interactions between guards a ... More >>

Zero Otto Nove's Bronx Vs. Manhattan Smackdown

In the Bronx, ZON's margherita is one of the city's most perfect evocations of that sainted Neapolitan pie. Today, Counter Culture compares two renditions of Roberto Paciullo's (of Roberto Restaurant fame) Zero Otto Nove: one on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, the other in the Flatiron District in Man ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Zero Otto Nove; Stars for The Toucan and the Lion and Kyo Ya

See what NYC's restaurant critics have been up to this week: In the Voice, Robert Sietsema compares the Bronx and Flatiron locations of Zero Otto Nove: "With the exception of the pizzas--which are not quite as perfect due to the use of less wood in the oven--Manhattan proves it can furnish food ev ... More >>

Legal Loophole OK's Creepy New York Teachers

Nobody likes a loophole - law and order is often thwarted by technicalities, usually favoring the unjust players involved and screwing the rest of us. But what's more frustrating than a legal shortcut? One that involves children.Over the past three months, 14 cases involving 16 different teache ... More >>

Unlawful Pot Busts Boom in The Bronx: Report

Looks like it might be a really bad week for civil liberties. The Bronx Defenders just released a study claiming that 41 percent of pot busts in the borough violated the rights of arrestees during the 5-month study period. Turns out that this practice persisted despite warnings from New York Po ... More >>

Parent Group Visits All Schools In Need of Improvement In Struggling Bronx District

​Juana Gonzalez, 35, standing on a quiet corner outside P.S. 58 in the Bronx yesterday afternoon, said she was feeling a bit nervous. The mother of three, whose two sons attend struggling schools in one of the city's lowest performing school districts, was waiting for dismissal -- but she wasn't ... More >>

Cuban Singer Lubricates Herself In Hotel Bathrooms

Cuban spitfire Margarita Pracatan entertained the crowd of 32-year-old gays at the Laurie Beechman on Friday with her wacky wisdoms and zany song stylings, directed by Zach Udko. At one point, the malapropic marvel revealed that when she leaves the house for some fun, she doesn't want to come back ... More >>

Advocates Rally Against Arrests of Minority Students in Public Schools

Add this to the list of grievances activists throughout the city have with the New York Police Department. Protests of the city's surveillance of Muslims and the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk policies have reached new heights in recent weeks. And today, activists are rallying around anothe ... More >>

This Week In The Voice: Charli XCX Gets Bummed; Jenny Scheinman Innovates

In this week's Village Voice, out now: I preview the upcoming show by the sullen British pop singer Charli XCX (above, singing a stripped-down version of her stunning single "Stay Away") and review last Saturday's freestyle extravaganza in the Bronx, which was topped off by Stevie B; and Benjamin Lo ... More >>

Q&A: Kathleen Adams On Momma's Hip Hop Kitchen And The Fight Against HIV/AIDS In The Bronx

For the last few years, Momma's Hip Hop Kitchen has celebrated the beginning of International Women's Month by bringing some of New York's best female MCs and poets to the Bronx's Hostos Community College, raising awareness for HIV/AIDS and placing before audiences that cross otherwise rigid boundar ... More >>

City Panel Votes to Approve $128 Million FreshDirect Payoff (liveblog)

Last Tuesday, the city Industrial Development Agency announced that it and several other city and state bodies planned to hand over $128 million in grants, tax credits, and assorted vouchers to FreshDirect, which would use the cash to move its headquarters to the Bronx waterfront ... all the way fro ... More >>

House Arrest, Redefined

The NYCLU files suit over the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program for private property

Phone Fiend on the Lose in the Bronx, Cops Say

​A young woman has become another victim of iPhone theft -- through a subway snatch-and-grab. (But hey, at least she didn't get shot in back over it, like this Bronx man.) Cops say that the 26-year-old woman was on the north-bound 6-train, at the Bronx's Whitlock Avenue stop around 8 a.m. ... More >>

Religious Leaders and Electeds Protest Mike Bloomberg in the Rain Prior to State of the City

The rain didn't stop a group of religious leaders and elected officials from rallying outside Morris High School in the Bronx today before the mayor's State of the City speech. Around 100 protestors were fenced in a block away from the school chanting under a sea of umbrellas. They had trekked to th ... More >>

Armed Bronx Jacket Thief on the Loose

A man was robbed at gunpoint for his orange Marmot jacket in the Bronx recently, cops say. The sartorially minded scumbag (pictured here) approached a man on the corner of Hunts Point Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard on Dec. 14, pulled out a gun, took the victim's coat and nothing else, and then fled ... More >>

Kirsten Gillibrand Launches 2012 With a Call for Increased Food Stamp Money, Better Access to Fresh Food

Electeds like to talk -- but U.S. Sen. Kirsten ​Gillibrand came to the Bronx today to listen. That's what Gillibrand said at the launch of an event this morning at Hostos Community College, where she joined Rep. Joe Crowley for a "listening session" on an upcoming Farm Bill, which Congre ... More >>

Happy 75th Birthday, Henry Hudson Bridge!

​The double-decker Henry Hudson Bridge, which links Manhattan to the Bronx, is 75 today! Originally designed for a casual jaunt in and out of the suburbs, the bridge became a thoroughfare once commuters started moving north. The Riverdale Public Library is celebrating the bridge's dodrascenten ... More >>

Slick Rick

Saturday's Body Count: 1 Stabbed, 1 Shot (So Far)

​ Saturday's murder count began just one hour and 44 minutes into the day, with the stabbing death of Elmer Augusto Lopez, 24, at 238 Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn, pictured above. The NYPD's bulletin on the incident indicates just one stab wound to the torso, and no arrest has been made. ... More >>

Bronx Restaurant Week Starts; Red Apple Supermarket Opens

​Starting today, The Bronx is hosting its first restaurant week, "Savor the Bronx," which will run for two weeks. [NY Post] Red Apple Supermarket has opened in Downtown Brooklyn after several delays, the first full-service supermarket in the neighborhood in years. [NY Post] Stockbox Grocers ... More >>

Female Subway Slasher Is Attacking 4 Train Riders

DCPI​Cops and commuters are looking for a woman who's been attacking people at random on the 4 train in the Bronx. She's described as black or hispanic, between 17 and 25 years old, 5'5", and 165 pounds. The first reported attack happened on September 6 around 4:20 p.m. The attacker slashed a ... More >>

10 Specials We Hope Bronx Restaurants Will Consider In Honor Of The Big Four's Impending Yankee Stadium Show

Mmm. wingy. ​A week from tonight, four titans of heavy metal—Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer—will come together at Yankee Stadium for The Big 4's East Coast concert. It's going to be great! The Bronx is pretty excited about the impending metal invasion, too, as evidenced b ... More >>

Watch Some South Bronx Teens Make an Excellent Documentary About Bodegas

Bodega Down Bronx from the Center for Urban Pedagogy on Vimeo. Here's a good way to go into the weekend: a funny, engaging documentary about one of New York's most lamented food deserts, made by the teenagers who live there. Through a partnership with the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a group of Sout ... More >>

Police Seek Unsuccessful Bronx Robber

​The NYPD wants the public's help in locating a man wanted in connection with an attempted bank robbery on Friday, August 12 a little before 1 p.m. in the Bronx. The suspect attempted to rob a Capital One bank at 557 Melrose Avenue, where he stood in line for the teller. When he got to the front, ... More >>

Police Seek Man In Bronx Shooting

Cops are seeking the public's assistance in finding a man suspected in an assault in the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx. On Monday, August 8th at around 5:10 p.m., police responded to a call at Freeman Street and Southern Boulevard and found a 22-year-old woman with a grazed gunshot wound to the chest ... More >>