Bronx Documentary Center screens Brazilian director’s film
By the time Maria Carolina Telles’ war documentary “You Are Not a Soldier” premiered in 2021, the War in Iraq (2013-2017) had torn communities asunder and displaced tribes. The Islamic State had writhed in territorial defeat and the parameters of a future insurgency had been laid. Then, “You Are Not a Soldier” was an anachronism for Telles, a retrospective monograph shot by a friend, Brazilian freelance war photographer and Robert Capa Gold Medal recipient André Liohn.
Now, Telles’ patchwork film, constructed from fragments of Liohn’s 140-hour war footage and screened at the Bronx Documentary Center this July 26, is a salient reminder of present-day battlegrounds for Telles. And it doesn’t take lots of finagling to read the film in present context. Liohn’s camera aims: A shrapnel-ridden soldier shuffles to paramedics, a general’s death curbs a guerrilla siege, journalists dodge makeshift projectiles, blood pools on storefront pavements; they’re canonic images on the Gaza Strip.
“It’s almost axiomatic: powerful nations periodically engage in large-scale ‘liberation’ and reconstruction efforts. I see it as a macabre choreography that reveals the grim dance of military power, the brutal skill of trained soldiers, the madness of fanatics in their ideologies, or the thirst for revenge of threatened people,” Telles tells the Bronx Times. Telles captures the choreography of war with this anti-war lens in “You Are Not a Soldier.”
Wide load! Bronx cops cuff 3 drug traffickers found with nearly 360 pounds of cocaine stuffed in truck
Police in the Bronx slapped the cuffs on three men after an investigation led them to seize a whopping 360 pounds of cocaine —- $4.5 million worth — from a tractor trailer in the Bronx, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
The investigation zeroed in on Jeffrey Alcantara, 30, of Manhattan; Karimzhan Ragibov, 28, of Ohio; and Rayimzhon Binaliyev, 37, of Arizona. All three men were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday, Aug. 10, authorities said.
The defendants face charges of first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
The bust occurred during an investigation into interstate narcotics trafficking in Eastchester on Aug. 8 at approximately 8:20 p.m. Authorities uncovered numerous neatly packaged bricks of the deadly substance in the base of the trailer.
NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said the huge find of the deadly drug speaks to the recent rise in cocaine smuggling into the Big Apple.
“It is a dangerous and disturbing trend, especially as we find drugs like fentanyl and xylazine mixed in with cocaine sold on the streets,” Brennan said. “We will continue to work with our partners to disrupt narcotics organizations, seize their drugs and profits, and make our city safer.”
Bronx DoorDash workers speak out against city’s minimum pay rule
Some Bronx-based delivery workers are speaking out against the city’s minimum hourly wage requirement for workers in their industry, which they say has had the unintended consequence of drastically reducing their earnings.
Several voiced their concerns at a roundtable discussion on Aug. 13, when DoorDash workers, local elected officials and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce came together at the Residence Inn on Eastchester Road to address the issue. Several DoorDash representatives also attended.
Ibrahima Magassouba, who lives in the Grand Concourse area, spoke about how he has been a driver with DoorDash (“Dasher”) for about three years and is no longer making as much money since the minimum wage law went into effect. Before the minimum wage rule, he said, he often earned $1,000 per week.
Now, Magassouba said he’s lucky to get half as much. “We’re really, really struggling” — to the point where he is looking for a regular job. Three other Dashers cited similar experiences.
The minimum wage law was hard-won by advocates and delivery workers who argued that app-based work provided inadequate protections for workers, who are mainly people of color and immigrants and were heavily relied upon during and since the pandemic.
City Council passed a series of bills in 2021 outlining various protections and calling for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to produce a study on a potential minimum pay rate and other implications.
Bronx housing plan near new Metro-North stations gets City Council approval
The City Council overwhelmingly approved an ambitious Bronx rezoning plan on Thursday that will bring thousands of new homes to areas around four new Metro-North stations being constructed in the Boogie Down.
The approved Bronx Metro-North Station Area Plan was a total sweep as the council voted 44 to zero in favor of the proposal during a NYC Stated Council Meeting.
The vote does not come as a shock, since the council’s Zoning Subcommittee and Land Use Committee already approved the proposal on Aug. 6.
The MTA plans to build new commuter rail stations at Hunts Point, Parkchester/Van Nest, Morris Park, and Co-Op City — areas often referred to as being a “transit desert.” It is part of a larger, years-in-the-making plan called “Penn Access” to bring Metro-North trains from Connecticut to Penn Station, using railroad tracks currently used for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor service.
This is the Adams’ administration’s first major neighborhood rezoning, and it will include the construction of 7,000 housing units around the Parkchester and Morris Park stations, with 25% of the homes to be considered affordable.
The vote comes as the Adams administration aims to address the housing crisis with the passage of its “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposal.
Lehman College faculty member earns $1.25 million grant
Lehman College announced that Associate Professor and CUNY Institute of Healthy Equity (CIHE) Director Dr. Maria Isabel Roldós has been named the recipient of a five-year, $1.25 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA).
Working in collaboration with Hunter College Associate Professor and Co-PI Dr. Judith Aponte, Roldós will be applying the grant towards developing place-based education initiatives in high schools across the Bronx to address health disparities and train students in health disparities research.
“In the past decade, understanding healthy equity and disparities has become more crucial than ever,” Roldós said. “As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, our campus is uniquely positioned to transform the pipeline of students and professionals entering the research field while also addressing health disparities in our community. I am excited to work with high school students and teachers to create a lasting impact that will help shape the future of health research and open doors to new career pathways and contribute to the science of health disparities.”
The initiative for which the grant is being applied will target the Marie Curie School for Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions to develop and test educational modules centered around research on local health issues, including diabetes, adolescent mental health, sleep disparities and prevention of HIV and STIs, as well as community and population health theory and practicums. Lehman faculty members Dr. Tailisha González, Dr. Mia Budescu and Dr. Martin Downing will be assisting Roldós and Aponte as co-health investigators.
“Lehman College’s Center for School and College Collaboratives looks forward to introducing high school students and their teachers to critical topics in community health,” said Anne Rothstein, founding director of the Center for School and College Collaboratives at Lehman College.
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