News coming out of the Bronx in 2023 ranged in breadth.
From the tale and ultimate death of Godzilla the alligator at the Bronx Zoo in March, to a July proposal for a 34,000-seat cricket stadium in Van Cortlandt Park and a surprising local election outcome in November — the Bronx was anything but short on content last year.
So after a whirlwind 2023, here are the top three Bronx stories to keep your eyes on in 2024.
The rookie Republican and development in District 13
Kristy Marmorato was the Bronx’s, and perhaps the whole city’s, largest upset in the November General Election after she pulled off the unthinkable — unseating incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velázquez for the Council District 13 seat in the East Bronx, and by extension, becoming first Republican from the Bronx elected to the City Council in 40 years.
And while Marmorato’s victory sent shock waves through the city, mostly notably through prominent NYC Democrats, the first-time candidate told the Bronx Times early in her campaign that she never really had political aspirations of her own.
The impetus for her run was her stark opposition to a controversial housing proposal in the district — the Just Home project, which would house formerly Rikers Island-jailed houseless people with medical needs in a vacant building on the Jacobi Medical Center campus in Pelham Parkway.
Opposition for Just Home runs deep in CD-13. Chaos erupted at a Bronx Community Board 11 meeting in September 2022 among people opposed to the Fortune Society project (and later sparked a CB11 ethics committee investigation), about a month before the board ended up rejecting Just Home in an advisory vote in October 2022.
The implications of Marmorato’s opposition to the Just Home proposal (her predecessor Velázquez has said on the record she is also against it) has a lot of New York City’s attention as she takes office. That’s because it could serve as an experiment of whether or not the vast majority-Democrat New York City Council (45 Democrats to just six Republicans) will override council deference and move along with the project, without Marmorato’s support, anyway.
Just Home is one project New Yorkers will keep their eyes on this year in CD-13, and part of what seems to be a larger motif in Marmorato’s campaign — to keep development low density and family friendly.
In another example, the radiologic technologist-turned New York City Council member has indicated she might fight against a casino applicant vying for a spot in the East Bronx’s Ferry Point Park — formerly the site of the Trump Golf Links property, which was was sold to the Bally’s Corporation for $60 million in September 2023. Bally’s — a gaming, betting and entertainment company — aims to put a casino at the location in the park.
During her campaign, Marmorato stated her opposition to the casino — painting it as an “environmental disaster” that would traffic congestion to the area and wouldn’t be smart return on investment for the Bronx.
“We need something that can be used by families — not gamblers,” Marmorato said during a debate before the election. “This [casino] is not what the Bronx needs.”
Development concerns likely contributed to Marmorato’s CD-13 win in a major way, as her predecessor Velázquez’s about-face on the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning project eroded public trust in the Democratic incumbent and probably helped push Marmorato’s campaign to the finish line. The plan, which is set to bring 348 new apartments to Throggs Neck, including units set aside for seniors and veterans, already passed the full City Council in October 2022 — so it’s unclear if Marmorato, who is opposed to the Bruckner rezoning, can or will do anything to try discontinue the project.
The rookie Republican was officially sworn into office on Dec. 6, 2023, and inducted into the council charter on Jan. 3.
Tracking the Penn Access Metro-North project
Four new Metro-North stations are coming to the Bronx, but what will that mean for the neighborhoods getting the new additions? And is the project slated to get back on track, literally and figuratively?
News of the Penn Access project’s progress has already dropped this year — with the Department of City Planning’s first public engagement information session happening Jan. 10. The session is a precursor to the official city Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which is the city’s formal public review of prospective land use and development applicants.
The Penn Access project is a multi-billion dollar feat to construct new Metro-North stations in an effort to cut down commute times to and from midtown Manhattan’s Penn Station by upwards of 50 minutes, and better connect the East and South Bronx with Westchester County and Connecticut. Four neighborhoods in the Bronx — Hunts Point, Parkchester/Van Nest, Morris Park and Co-Op City — will be homes to new Metro-North stations.
Officials broke ground on the first station in Hunts Point more than a year ago and, after a bit of a stall over this past summer, city agencies and stakeholders are ready to get the project back on track and solicit input from Bronxites about the larger implications of the development.
Last May, Penn Access Deputy Project Executive Bradley Knote told the Bronx Times he aims to have a “very light touch” on the neighborhoods that will be undergoing development. But many are still wondering if new housing stock, restaurants, stores, and parking space will come up with the construction? Will Bronx tourism be affected? Will new Bronx jobs open alongside the stations?
The city’s first public information session for the Penn Access Metro-North project is from 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 10 via Zoom.
The ongoing saga that is Bronx Community Board 11
Community boards — local representative bodies with no tangible power besides advisorial status — generally operate quietly and relatively drama-free. But that hasn’t been the case for Bronx Community Board 11.
Encompassing the areas of Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens, Allerton, Bronxdale, Laconia, and Van Nest, Bronx CB11 has made headlines during the past year and a half for its chaotic meetings, conflicts of interest, division and ethics committee complaints, to name a few.
But the most recent headlines have revolved around a string of calls for removal — an unprecedented shakeup in the East Bronx.
The first came in November 2023, when the board voted in executive session to create a committee to potentially strip both board chair Bernadette Ferrara and vice chair Al D’Angelo of their leadership positions.
The effort to remove Ferrara, who is currently the president of Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance (VNNA), comes primarily from critics who claim she neglected her board duties while campaigning for the CD-13 council seat against Velázquez in the June primary — which she went on to lose. Ferrara, however, blamed efforts to oust her on the majority of the board’s “progressive” wing, which consists of seven or eight new board members.
For entirely separate reasons, D’Angelo has also faced intense scrutiny that some CB11 members view warrant his removal as well.
An article published by The City last fall highlighted the column D’Angelo penned in the Bronx Times in April 2023, where he questioned why “Black Americans are the least educated, least healthy and among the most incarcerated ethnic group in the country” and stated that it was time to start addressing the “elephant in the room.”
His critics have called his character into question, accusing him of spreading racist rhetoric that they don’t want to be affiliated with. D’Angelo defended himself at the November 2023 meeting, saying he wrote the letter on behalf of the Morris Park Community Association, and that it had nothing to do with his role as a representative of CB11.
Most recently, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson removed CB11 member Miguel Dyer, who flipped his middle finger at a resident in a remote meeting last spring. Dyer was originally tapped as Ferrara’s treasurer while she ran for council, but resigned abruptly over anti-gay marriage and anti-transgender remarks over the summer.
Gibson, whose office manages all 12 Bronx community boards, attended the November CB11 meeting where members voted on the removal committee and voiced her frustration with the body’s “chaos” and “dysfunction.”
“I don’t see this happening with any other community boards in the Bronx,” she said. “I need your leadership and partnership.”
CB11 District Manager Jeremy Warneke told the Bronx Times after the board’s November meeting that there is currently no timetable for the removal committee to vote on Ferrara and D’Angelo’s fate, as the committee has yet to be formed. If the pair is removed from their leadership positions, it would be the first removal of this kind in CB11’s history.
– Steven Goodstein contributed to this report
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
