Bronx

City Passes Parks and Beaches Cig Ban

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Soon, you’ll have to think twice before you light up on your local park bench. The City Council voted in favor of a resolution yesterday that will ban smoking in public parks, city beaches and boardwalks.The bill is an extension of the city’s Smoke Free Air Act, which banned cigarettes in bars and restaurants back in 2002. Smokers who take up their habit in public parks, beaches or outdoor plazas could be slapped with a $50 fine from the Parks Department, according to the new law, which goes into affect in 90 days. Supporters of the law are optimistic about how effective the ban will be. “The expectation of the bill’s sponsor and others who voted for the bill is that it will be self-enforcing, as the Smoke-free Workplace Law of 2002 has been,” said David Lehman, manager at Bronx Smoke-free Partnership, in an e-mail.”When it passed 8 years ago, there were predictions of fist fights, high non-compliance and more.

Bronx News Network

2011 Annual Appeal Update: We've Reached 25%

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We’ve officially reached 25% of our goal and we’ve now raised $2,571. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We’d especially like to thank Gregory Lobo-Jost whose donation officially tipped the scales. The Lobo-Jost family has supported BxNN for several years, and we really appreciate their dedication to our programs.We only need $429 to make it to $3,000. Please donate today and help us fund our programs in 2011.In case you missed this week’s videos, here they are again:Donate to BxNN to help the next class of students, like Geovanna Borden, in the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative.

Bronx News Network

Bronx Events: Rooftop Films at the Bruckner Bar and Grill

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Tonight, Rooftop Films will present a screening of the documentary “P-Star Rising,” at the Bruckner Bar and Grill, 1 Bruckner Blvd, at 7 p.m.The film follows 9-year-old rap performer Priscilla Star Diaz, and her single-parent father, as they struggle to make it big in the music business. Both Priscilla and her dad will be at the screening for a special question-and-answer session following the film. See the trailer above or visit Rooftop Films’ site for more details.This and other Bronx events are posted below, in our community calendar.Editor’s note: What did we miss? Send details to bronxnewsnetwork[at]gmail.com.

Bronx News Network

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 3

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Quick Bronx news roundup today as we’re focused on producing the Mt. Hope Monitor, which will hit streets in Community Board 5 tomorrow.Weather update: Sun! Winds could reach 25 mph tonight.The Bronx homeless population has dropped significantly since 2005, when the city began its annual effort to count the population of people living on the streets. Volunteers started tallying homeless numbers again on Tuesday. Wakefield’s Harvest Worship Center is struggling to come to grips with indictment of their pastor, Michael Clare, on rape charges.

Bronx News Network

BxNN's Comment Policy

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Update: As many of you who have been reading the blog in the last few days have noticed, the same commenter has been repeatedly spamming all of our posts. Because of this, we have decided that we will now be moderating comments before they are published. If you don’t see your comment up right away, don’t worry. There will just be a slight delay. We will allow virtually all comments, except for those that are clearly meant to disrupt the dialogue or violate our policy as described below.