Dominique Strauss-Kahn is off Rikers Island. Most of the inmates he left behind haven’t been convicted of anything. They’re awaiting trial. And most are waiting behind bars because they can’t afford to be free.
Joy Bryant, Irene Cara, Charles Latibeaudiere and Chazz Palminteri are this year’s Bronx Walk of Fame additions. (Photo courtesy Bronx Borough President’s office)As we mentioned in this morning’s news roundup, the grand finale of Bronx Week took place yesterday, and four successful Bronx natives were honored by BP Ruben Diaz, Jr., with spots on the borough’s walk of fame.This year’s inductees: actress Joy Bryant of the NBC sitcom “Parenthood;” singer and actress Irene Cara, best-known for starring in the 80s hit film “Fame;” Charles Latibeaudiere, a producer for the celebrity gossip show TMZ; Chazz Palminteri, an actor who wrote and starred in “A Bronx Tale.” Street placards bearing the names of the four new honorees, posted along the Grand Concourse, were unveiled yesterday before the big annual Bronx Week Parade.
if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget(‘541ca520-2641-44df-8677-26f325a8569d’); Get the <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/countuptimer”>Count Up Timer 2.0 (Updated Version)</a> widget and many other <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/”>great free widgets</a> at <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”>Widgetbox</a>! Not seeing a widget? (<a href=”http://docs.widgetbox.com/using-widgets/installing-widgets/why-cant-i-see-my-widget/”>More info</a>)Editor’s Note: This editorial appeared in last week’s issue of the Norwood News. We will continue to display this counter (above) until the NYPD releases sector statistics for every Bronx police precinct. Editorial: NYPD Hides Neighborhood Crime StatsThe NYPD has been proud to trumpet plummeting crime stats over the last 15 years or so.
“Aurora,” a wooden sculpture that’s occupied West Farms Square since 2009, was removed on Saturday. (Photo by Fausto Giovanny Pinto)Something is conspicuously missing now from West Farms Square, the pedestrian plaza underneath the No. 2 and 5 train subway platform at the corner of East Tremont Avenue and Boston Road.A hulking wooden sculpture that’s been on display in the center of the square’s brick circle for nearly two years was de-installed on Saturday, to make room for another public art piece to be erected in the same spot over the next few months.”Aurora,” an unpainted wooden abstract by Mexican-born artist Diego Medina, stood over 14 feet tall and was inspired, the artist said, by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1930 poem, “La Aurora de Nueva York” (Dawn in New York).The sculpture was installed by the Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) and the Department of Transportation in August 2009, part of the DOT’s “UrbanART” program. BRAC says a new piece will replace it in the coming months.”Aurora” filled the West Farms Square plaza for nearly two years. (Photo courtesy of BRAC)
Diaz at a rally in Albany last year for former Sen. Pedro Espada’s “rent freeze” bill, which tenant advocates called a “de-control bill in disguise.” (File photo by Alma Watkins)Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. is on the warpath again, this time blasting Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for supporting a same-sex marriage bill when, he says, they should really be focusing on the renewal of the state’s rent stabilization laws, which expire on June 15.But, over the past year and a half, Diaz himself has done his share to divert attention away from the strengthening of rent regulations. “I would love to see Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn set their priorities straight and spend a day in Albany to push for an extension of our affordable housing laws before the deadline passes,” Diaz wrote in a statement sent out last week after Bloomberg and Quinn had trekked to the capitol to lobby for gay marriage. “The Rev” has spent a fair amount of his own time focusing on same-sex marriage – he organized a rally last Sunday against its legalization – but he says that was just in response to other politicians pushing the issue.”I’m not putting [same-sex marriage] as a priority,” he said in a phone interview last week.His priority, he says, is the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, the set of state laws that protect the rent-regulated status of hundreds of thousands of apartments in the Bronx, and about a million across the city. Tenant advocates have been pushing to see the laws not only renewed before the June 15 deadline, but strengthened to close some of the loopholes that landlords use to hike rents in regulated units.Diaz said the mayor and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were ignoring the approaching June 15 deadline, and that, he says, “is a crime.”
Welcome back to the program, ladies and gentleman of the Bronx and beyond. Let’s get down to Bronx business. To the news!Weather: Our first post-Bronx Week day will, unfortunately, be more of the same: cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms – the National Weather Service has issued a “hazardous weather” warning. If we can gut it out until Friday, however, we might see some sunshine. Story of the Day: Bronx Week Honoree’s Life Comes “Full Circle”The 40th edition of Bronx Week ended yesterday with a parade and festival on Mosholu Parkway that featured more than 80 of the borough’s schools and culminated with a performance by rap legend Big Daddy Kane.
New York State prison guards who break the law by having sex with an inmate often receive favorable treatment by juries and light sentences from judges.
Some women who give birth behind bars find new motivation to stay straight. Others continue to wrestle with drugs and the challenges of parenthood.
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