September
The autumn months in the Bronx began with a breath of fresh air for seven Bronx organizations, who received a total of $28 million in allocated funding in late August for various projects and renovations, as part of the city’s 2024 Fiscal Budget. The seven institutions included the Bronx Zoo, Wave Hill, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx County Historical Society, The Point CDC and Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. The Bronx Zoo received $18.5 million to transform the 120-year old Monkey House structure, which closed in 2012, into a World of Primates exhibit which will feature different species of primates from Africa, South America and southeast Asia.
Approaching the middle of the month, on Sept. 12, Bally’s Corporation a gaming, betting and entertainment company, purchased Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point from the Trump Organization. Bally’s took over the lease of the 18-hole golf course which runs through 2035, after the Trump Organization was granted a 20-year lease of the former landfill by the city in 2012, with the lease beginning in 2015.
Four individuals were arrested in mid-to-late September, in connection to the shocking fentanyl-related death of a one year old at Divino Niño Day Care in Kingsbridge, which was also being used a as a drug operation. Three other children were also hospitalized due to fentanyl exposure at the day care center. Two of the four individuals, Divino Niño Day Care owner Grei Mendez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, were charged federally with a total of 56 counts, including murder, criminal possession of a controlled substance/narcotic drug and endangering the welfare of a child.
Also in mid-September, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that they would no longer pursue a cricket stadium in the borough, after a 34,000-seat cricket stadium in Van Cortlandt Park was proposed by Mayor Eric Adams and his administration in July, which received opposition from residents and organizations in Riverdale and other sections of the Northwest Bronx.
On Sept. 29, a massive rainstorm flooded the borough and much of the New York metropolitan area, causing several transit routes in the Bronx to be shut down, including three lines of the Metro-North, the 6 train, the Major Deegan Expressway, Cross Bronx Expressway, Hutchinson River Parkway and the Henry Hudson Parkway, along with both directions of the Bronx River Parkway.
October
At the beginning of October, Veo, an e-scooter company based in the East Bronx, partially suspended its services after devices were being vandalized and abandoned. Some e-scooters were also found in the Bronx River, which resulted in a no-ride zone along the Bronx River Parkway and Bronx Boulevard.
In mid-October, prayer vigils were held across the borough in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel which began on Oct. 7. The Bronx Jewish Center, among other synagogues in the borough, held a “Prayer for Israel” vigil on Oct. 12 to acknowledge those who were killed or kidnapped as a result of the ongoing war along the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 19, the ribbon-cutting was held for Bronx Point, a 542-unit affordable housing complex located in the Concourse neighborhood along the Harlem River. The 22-story development also includes with a waterfront esplanade and will eventually be the home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum, along with retail and community space. The news was big for the Hip Hop Museum as well as the hip hop community, as the genre celebrated its 50-year anniversary this year. The museum is expected to be completed in 2025.
November
On the first of the month, $4 million in fentanyl-laced heroin was seized and eleven people were arrested in a raid on an alleged drug mill inside an apartment located at 1244 Grand Concourse. Federal, state and local agents recovered as much as 400,000 packages of suspected narcotics at the location.
On Nov. 2, nonprofit organization The Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame held its second annual Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame awards dinner at Villa Barone Manor in Throggs Neck and inducted its 2023 class, honoring 16 of the borough’s all-time greatest basketball players, coaches and influencers, including five women. This year’s inductees included Michelle Roberts, Niesha Alice Butler, Debbie Miller Palmore, Anne Gregory, Jane Morris, Jack Curran, Tom Konchalski, Jamal Mashburn, Howard Garfinkel, Hugh Evans, Johnny Mathis, John Issacs, Cal Ramsey, Butch Lee, Steve Sheppard and Bobby Cremins.
The highlights of November led with the Council District 13 election, where Republican candidate Kristy Marmorato upset Democrat incumbent Marjorie Velázquez on Nov. 7. Marmorato’s victory was the first win for a Republican candidate in the Bronx since 2004. Marmorato was sworn in at City Hall as the new City Council member for the East Bronx on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
On Nov. 21, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation park rangers began offering free education tours of Hart Island, twice a month, after it was mostly closed off to the public since the 1980s. Only accessible by NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) ferry from City Island, Hart Island serves as the resting place for more than 1 million New Yorkers.
On the last day of November, Community Board 11, which includes the neighborhoods of Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens, Allerton, Van Nest and Indian Village, voted to form a removal committee to remove CB11 chairperson Bernadette Ferrara and vice chair Al D’Angelo. CB 11’s vote in favor of forming a removal committee to demote both Ferrara and D’Angelo followed separate incidents that took place within the past year, including Ferrara’s decision to not take a temporary leave of absence from the board while campaigning for the Council District 13 primary election in June, along with D’Angelo’s submitted column to the Bronx Times in April, where he questioned why “Black Americans are the least educated, least healthy and among the most incarcerated ethnic groups in the country.”
December
The month of December got off to a rough start for the borough, after a seven-story building in Morris Heights partially collapsed on the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 11. Amazingly, only one individual was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Upon further investigation, the city’s Department of Buildings concluded that Manhattan-based engineer Richard Koenigsberg had made a critical construction error in diagnosing a weight-bearing column as decorative, adding the incorrect column to the building’s exterior. As a result, Mayor Adams and Department of Buildings made the decisions to immediately suspend Koenigsberg’s authority to inspect exterior walls of the city’s buildings to assess their condition. The horrific incident resulted in the displacement of more than 170 people who resided at 1915 Billingsley Terrace.
Just two days later, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, disaster struck again when a five-alarm fire destroyed multiple businesses on West 231st Street in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, just west of Broadway. The fire was believed to have started inside Cold Cut City Bunny Deli, located at 228 W. 231st St., around 3:30 a.m. that Wednesday morning before the inferno spread to neighboring businesses including New Riverdale Hair & Nail Center, New Sea Win Seafood Market, El Novillo Meat Market and 231st Street Cleaners. One civilian was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
In between the two horrific incidents, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, Schneps Media held its third annual Bronx Power List event at Maestro’s Caterers in Morris Park, honoring some of the most influential individuals in the borough over the past year. This year’s 47 inductees included Rocky Bucano, president of the Hip Hop Museum, Borough President Vanessa Gibson, entertainer Fat Joe, and Bronx Chamber of Commerce president Lisa Sorin, who was also the Mistress of Ceremonies for the event.
On Thursday, Dec. 14, Hush Dispensary became only the second dispensary to open in the borough since New York State legalized recreational use of cannabis for adults in 2021. The borough’s first dispensary, Statis, opened in August. Hush Dispensary’s grand opening took place about four months after it was initially planned, due to a case filed in Albany Supreme Court in August by a group of service-disabled veterans against the state Cannabis Control Board (CCD) and Office of Cannibus Management (OCM), arguing that the licensing rollout violated the state’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).
— Aliya Schneider, Camille Botello, ET Rodriguez and Dean Moses contributed to this report.
Reach Steven Goodstein at sgoodstein@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260–8326. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
