Kwanzaa Celebration & Other Bronx Events

A community Kwanzaa celebration is taking place all day today at the Mosholu-Montefiore Edenwald Center, 1150 E. 229th St. The festival will feature food, dancing, arts and crafts, African drumming, live music and storytelling. Check out the flier for more details. Kwanzaa Celebration

Other Bronx events taking place this week are posted in our community calendar, below. Editor’s note: What did we miss?

Residents Split Over Phipps’ Housing Plan

This lot, at East Tremont Avenue and Lebanon Street, is the proposed site of a controversial affordable housing project. (Photo by J. Evelly)

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the December issue of the Tremont Tribune, which is on the streets and online now. By JEANMARIE EVELLY

A not-for-profit developer’s plans to build three affordable housing complexes in the West Farms neighborhood has upset a number of residents who live nearby. The project, approved by Community Board 6 at a tense public hearing on Dec. 8, is planned for lots on both sides of East Tremont Avenue, bordered by East 178th and Lebanon streets, on what was once the site of train tracks owned by the MTA—steel trestles still sit on the property’s overgrown grass lot.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 22

A four-alarm fire that forced the evacuation of a building on the Grand Concourse yesterday was caused by a burnt batch of Christmas cookies, according to a neighbor. Bronx teenager Justin Tavarez, 19, who was charged with a hate crime this weekend after a late night scuffle in a diner, told friends he was provoked by the victim, who was taunting him over a girl.