Ferrara, D’Angelo stripped of CB11 leadership positions after months of controversy

Bronx Community Board 11 Chair Bernadette Ferrara and Vice Chair Al D’Angelo were officially booted from their positions on the body Thursday night, after being at odds with fellow board members and the office of Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson for months.

A motion to let the pair carry out their terms as chair and vice chair failed during CB11’s full board meeting on April 25, even after the body’s investigation committee recommended the full board let them remain in their leadership positions.

Eliezer Rodriguez, CB11 board member and chair of the investigation committee, said before the vote that the committee met at length three separate times for a total of around nine hours to discuss both Ferrara’s and D’Angelo’s fitness for their positions.

“This was not an easy task,” Rodriguez said. “From my understanding this has never happened before. This is historic.”

Bronx Community Board 11 Chair Bernadette Ferrara, left, and Vice Chair Al D’Angelo, right, were stripped of their leadership positions during a full board meeting on Thursday, April 25, 2024. File photos Aliya Schneider and Jason Cohen

Mental health clinics coming to seven Bronx schools next year

Next school year, the city will open satellite mental health clinics inside seven Bronx schools, Mayor Eric Adams announced last week. The new clinics will serve over 6,000 students between the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn, and the effort more than triples the current number of mental health clinics inside Department of Education (DOE) schools.

At the satellite clinics, students will have access to individual, group and family therapy, as well as crisis management. School staff will also receive guidance and training from clinic professionals with the goal of reducing unnecessary calls to 911 and emergency room visits.

In addition to the school-based clinics, 34 more schools in the South Bronx and Brooklyn will have a pipeline for “rapid referrals” to NYC Health + Hospitals outpatient mental health clinics, bringing the total number of schools receiving increased mental health access up to 50.

Community boards weigh in on Metro-North megaproject

Bronx residents and elected officials are weighing in on the proposed new Metro-North stations coming to the Parkchester/Van Nest, Hunts Point, Morris Park and Co-Op City neighborhoods. While the massive project has gained broad support, not all are on board with the zoning changes likely to accompany it.

The Metro-North proposal would bring one-seat rides from the East Bronx to Penn Station, Westchester County and Connecticut and would provide more open pedestrian spaces, including a plaza at Morris Park. The project has already been in the works for five years and first broke ground in 2022.

But the proposal involves much more than train stations. According to the Department of City Planning (DCP), it would also add about 7,500 new housing units near the Parkchester/Van Nest and Morris Park stations — about one-quarter of which would be designated as permanently affordable housing — along with 2.5 million square feet of commercial space. The plan would also bring an estimated 10,000 jobs across all four new stations.

Advocates, local electeds oppose gas pipeline proposal that may increase emissions in Hunts Point

Environmental advocates and local elected officials are sounding the alarm about a proposed expansion of a gas pipeline, which they say would increase the state’s dependence on fossil fuels and increase greenhouse gas emissions in Hunts Point.

If approved, the expansion — proposed by the Iroquois Pipeline Company — “would be completely undermining” the state’s climate goals, said Emily Skydel, senior NYC organizer for the nonprofit advocacy group Food and Water Watch.

Officially called the Iroquois Company Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project, the expansion would add new compressor stations along its 414-mile route — two in the Hudson Valley region and two in Connecticut — allowing more gas to be pumped into New York via two of its utility customers, National Grid and Con Edison, which has a station in Hunts Point. If approved, the project is expected to be in service by January 2027.

Bronx pol announces building safety legislation inspired by Billingsley Terrace collapse

Nearly four months after the 1915 Billingsley Terrace partial collapse in Morris Heights, Bronx City Council Member Pierina Sanchez on Thursday announced legislation aimed at establishing stricter regulations for apartment building safety and landlord participation.

Sanchez, who represents the Bronx’s District 14 on the New York City Council, stood outside City Hall on April 25 and said more should have been done to prevent the collapse in December, which displaced more than 100 people.

“Questions remain about what the Department of Buildings could have done to prevent this tragedy and whether our systems are doing enough to let us know whether we are doing enough to keep our tenants safe,” Sanchez said. “The reality is that we have a systemic issue here in the city of New York.”