The Week in Rewind spotlights some of the editorial work of the Bronx Times for the week of Nov. 3-10.
Velázquez concedes as Marmorato win ends string of Bronx GOP futility
Kristy Marmorato pulled off a surprising victory over Marjorie Velázquez in District 13 Tuesday night — making history as the first Republican elected to the City Council from the Bronx in 50 years.
With her win — it remains unofficial until certified by the city Board of Elections (BOE) — Marmorato will flip the East Bronx seat in an off-year election, removing the one-term incumbent Democrat from office and giving Republicans a small foothold in the heavily blue borough.
The Associated Press called the race for Marmorato on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday evening, Velázquez conceded.
“While this is not the outcome we wanted, I know that if we continue the hard work of organizing for values of inclusion, acceptance, and diversity – this community will ultimately reject fear in favor of hope,” she said in an official statement. “I want to thank my family, our volunteers, my dedicated campaign staff, my brothers and sisters in labor, the elected officials who had my back, our allies at issue organizations doing the hard work every day to make our city a better place, and most of all, my East Bronx constituents.
“I urge my successor to work for all of District 13 – especially those who’ve been underrepresented for generations,” added Velazquez, who won office in 2021 as the first Latina ever elected in Council District 13.
With 98.3% of BOE scanners reported on Thursday, Marmorato had secured almost 53% of the vote, ahead of Velázquez’s nearly 47% — the candidates were separated by 708 votes. Marmorato’s turnout on the Conservative ballot line, where she netted nearly 800 votes, proved vital. That coupled with a poor showing at the polls by Democrats — despite a decided advantage in voter registration numbers — left the door open for the Republican.
Consul General of Italy tours the Bronx’s Little Italy — travel with him through time
A century ago, Lindo and Maria Borgatti packed their bags in Bologna, Italy, and sailed over the Atlantic in pursuit of a new life in the United States.
With them, they took Maria Borgatti’s family recipes, which would serve as the groundwork for the small family business they eventually opened on Nov. 28, 1935 on 187th Street in the Bronx — Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles.
Across the street at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, their son George was having his wedding.
Decades later, both the church and Borgatti’s are still very much so up and running — in fact, on Friday, Oct. 27, they were included in a guided tour that Italian diplomat Fabrizio Di Michele, the consul general of Italy in New York, took alongside Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Alyssa Tucker, executive director of the Belmont Business Improvement District (BID), through the Bronx’s Little Italy.
Di Michele, who was born in Palermo in 1969, came to the U.S. and was named consul general in 2021.
A stroll through the Bronx’s Little Italy — arguably the most authentic of the city’s Little Italies — will not only allow you to savor a wide variety of Italian flavors but also give you a taste of the neighborhood’s rich history.
Peter J. Madonia, chairman of the Belmont BID, described Bronx’s Little Italy as a neighborhood “showcasing some of New York City’s most authentic Italian bakeries, pastry shops, fish markets, delis, and artisan merchants, many of which have been owned and operated by the same families that founded them nearly a century ago, or longer.”
Schumer, Gillibrand announce $1.6B for Penn Access megaproject
Two of the Bronx’s top pols announced a $1.6 billion deal for the Metro-North’s Penn Access project last weekend — a feat that is set to bring four new Metro-North stations to the borough with a goal of reducing commute time to Penn Station and stimulating the local economy.
U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand held a press conference on Nov. 5 announcing the Federal Railroad Administration would be awarding $1.6 billion for the project. The funding is set to go toward rehabilitating 19 miles of the Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line, as well as the construction of the four new stations in Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester/Van Nest and Hunts Point. As part of the deal, the senators also announced a separate $58 million award to replace the existing 115-year-old Pelham Bay Bridge track.
“Transit development equals community development, and now $1.6 billion is on the way to accelerate Penn Station access,” Schumer said. “That means shorter commute times, four new stations here in the Bronx, and more equitable transit. For far too long, the East and South Bronx has been a transit desert.”
The project, which has been in the works for years, will transform Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line from two to four tracks in the East Bronx and Westchester. The line will then connect with the New Haven line in New Rochelle to the new Bronx Metro-North stations, before ending up at Penn Station.
“These are transformational infrastructure projects that will improve safety, quality of life and economic opportunity for countless New Yorkers and in particular, for residents of the East Bronx,” Gillibrand said.
A benefit for Manhattan-bound Bronx commuters is that travel times through existing MTA lines to Penn Station that take an hour or longer will now be cut down by up to 50 minutes, according to officials.
Bronx fentanyl bust turns up 11 arrests and $4 million in laced heroin: Prosecutors
Eleven people were cuffed and some $4 million in fentanyl-laced heroin were seized in connection with the recent raid of an alleged Bronx drug packing mill, law enforcement sources announced Monday.
Federal, state and local agents recovered up to 400,000 packages of suspected narcotics were found inside an apartment at 1244 Grand Concourse during a Nov. 1 raid, New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said. It was the latest narcotics takedown in the Bronx weeks after a 1-year-old child died at a local day care facility after he and other tots were exposed to fentanyl stored at the location.
“Not only is exposure to lethal drugs a risk to innocent residents when a half million small packages of lethal drugs are bagged in a neighboring apartment, but their security may be compromised as well,” Brennan said in a Nov. 6 statement. “Across the city, New Yorkers are suffering the loss of precious lives to deadly drugs, and are fed up with every aspect of fentanyl trafficking.”
Among those indicted in connection with the raid include 11 Bronx residents: Aremedis Rivera, 41; Richard Manuel-Rivera, 28; John Luis-Reyes, 36; Oscar Taveras, 32; Miguel Delacruz, 29; Heriberto Rivera, 43; Ivan Carlos-Serrano, 23; Juan Rivera, 44; Juan Serrano, 26; Kelvin Ledesma, 26; and Luis Ledesma, 38.
Each were charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.
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