The Week in Rewind spotlights some of the editorial work of the Bronx Times for the week of July 17 -21.
Adams taps Bronxite Edward Caban to be new NYPD commissioner, the first Latino to hold the post
Edward Caban will have the “acting” label removed from his job title as the NYPD’s 46th commissioner, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday — less than a month after his predecessor Keechant Sewell abruptly resigned.
With the July 17 appointment outside the 40th Precinct in the Bronx, Adams elevated Caban from his status as acting commissioner to the NYPD’s official next top cop. The Bronx precinct is where Caban made his bones as a rookie in 1991.
Formerly serving as Sewell’s first deputy commissioner, Caban assumed the acting title July 1, after Sewell suddenly stepped down last month over reported tensions between her and the mayor. He makes history as the first Latino to lead the department.
During the announcement, Adams drew a parallel between his own story, of struggling with dyslexia as a child to becoming mayor, and Caban’s.
“I think about every mother, who right now is cleaning someone’s office, cleaning someone’s home, cleaning the streets and hoping one day that this dyslexic child that they have can grow up to be the mayor of the city of New York,” Adams said. “And one day, this young man of Puerto Rican ancestry can go from watching his dad be a transit cop to being the top cop in the city.”
Adams also appointed Chief Tania Kinsella to replace Caban as the new first deputy commissioner of the NYPD. She will be the first woman of color to hold the post.
Caban comes from a police family; as a transit police detective his father served as the president of the Transit Police Hispanic Society. Caban followed in their footsteps when he became a patrol officer in the South Bronx over three decades ago in 1991. He was promoted to sergeant three years later and then again promoted to lieutenant in 1999. Caban continued to rise through the ranks of the NYPD until he became the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner in 2022.
Caban proudly made his return to the Bronx as the highest-ranking police official and as the first-ever Hispanic person to hold the title, something he says is of great significance to him.
Caban, however, also carries a history of misconduct complaints from his many years on the force. The incidents include a 1997 complaint, substantiated by the city’s NYPD watchdog — the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) — that Caban had abused his power by not divulging the identities of two officers a woman was seeking to file a complaint against.
Bull’s-eye: New Target store is coming to Bruckner Commons
In what the popular retail and grocery store chain is calling a bull’s-eye view, Target has announced a new Bronx location.
The new red neon sign is set to go up at 1998 Bruckner Blvd., north of Castle Hill, in the Bruckner Commons shopping center, although the timeline is unclear. Target press officers did not respond to Bronx Times questions about when exactly the new 139,000-square-foot store would open.
The Bronx currently has four operating Targets — according to the company’s store locator — in Concourse, Throggs Neck, Marble Hill and Fordham Heights.
The last one to open on Fordham Road in the fall took the place of Dr. Jay’s, a local urban fashion retailer that closed in February 2020 because of high rent prices. Some expressed concern over that particular location along Fordham Road, mostly because of the business corridor’s seemingly rising crime and petty theft rates.
But nonetheless, the Fordham Road location opened just before last holiday season in October 2022 — with Target employees pledging to cater to the needs of the Bronx community with that store, as well as add 100 team members to the local workforce.
According to prior reporting, Target has a history of donating to the communities it opens businesses in. The company gave more than $600,000 worth of cash and merchandise to area nonprofits and local food banks in the Bronx in 2021.
Target also announced changes to its protocols this spring — according to Staten Island Live — which include plans to launch or expand 10 of its own brands and implement a drive-up return system to allow customers to return merchandise without actually coming into a store.
Developers secure $297M for phase two of The Peninsula, massive Hunts Point development
With financing secured, the second phase of The Peninsula is moving forward to bring more income-restricted apartments to Hunts Point.
The Peninsula is a three-phase, five building development that is meant to transform the former site of the Spofford Juvenile Detention Campus into a mixed-use live-work campus.
Construction for phase two is starting next month, with an expected completion in 2026. This phase will bring two high-rises to The Peninsula campus, which already consists of two buildings. The third and final phase will bring an additional building, which is slated to be complete in 2029.
Financing for the second phase totaled $297 million provided by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Wells Fargo, according to Gilbane Development Company and Hudson Companies, the developers for the project.
“We are thrilled to finalize the financial close on the next phase of this project. It represents the ongoing commitment in our mission to developing dynamic communities and providing the Hunts Point neighborhood with much-needed affordable housing,” said Ed Broderick, president and CEO of Gilbane Development Company. “To us, The Peninsula is not just about putting up buildings; it’s about creating a vibrant community where the Hunts Point community, individuals and families can flourish for many generations.”
Once all three phases are complete, the site will include 740 income-restricted units, 10,720 square feet of retail space, 52,300 square feet of community facility space — which includes an arts facility, a Head Start program and a health and wellness center operated by Urban Health Plan — and 57,000 square feet of open space.
The project is also slated to bring 260 underground parking spaces in total across two garages.
The first phase of the project, which was largely completed in 2022, brought two buildings to the western part of the site, with a light industrial building and a 14-story 183-unit affordable housing apartment building. While the 720 Tiffany St. apartment building welcomed residents in 2022, an arts facility and childcare education center in the same building have yet to open.
Off track: Efforts to keep Metro-North expansion on schedule failed under ‘a problematic circumstance’
Despite efforts to speed up construction, the Penn Access project is still behind schedule, and the MTA blames Amtrak for not providing the resources required to stay on “track.”
The Penn Access project will bring four new Metro-North stations to Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester/Van Nest and Hunts Point, connecting the East and South Bronx neighborhoods — as well as Westchester and Connecticut — to Penn Station on the west side of Manhattan. Most of the project takes place along a 6-mile section of the Hell Gate line, which is owned by Amtrak. The MTA says the $2.8 billion project will have the potential to reduce commutes to midtown Manhattan by up to 50 minutes.
In January, MTA representatives said the project was falling behind schedule and could potentially be delayed by 6-9 months. They blamed Amtrak for the holdup, saying the company wasn’t providing the access or resources that it committed to, particularly service outages needed for construction and “force account” staff, which references Amtrak workers that are supposed to help MTA’s labor force.
Tom McGuinness, the MTA project executive, said in January that he believed efforts between Amtrak and MTA to recover the blow could bring the project back to its original schedule.
But his projection proved to be too hopeful. McGuinness announced on Monday that the recovery plan was unsuccessful and the projected substantial completion has indeed been pushed back to late 2027 from March 2027.
To move forward from the mess, Amtrak agreed to allow track access for workers through a 24-7 track outage that began in March and will continue until September to speed up construction.
While the outage has allowed the MTA to make progress, it won’t be enough to gain back lost time.
With the agency continuing to suffer from a lack of workforce support from Amtrak, the MTA has not been able to take advantage of the round-the-clock access, MTA officials said.
“Each day that goes by, we may lose another day in terms of the schedule because of this,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, the president of MTA Construction and Development. “So it’s a problematic circumstance.”
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