Jose Cintron, father of Naiesha Pearson, and sons, at the street renaming ceremony on March 31st. Photo by Joe Hirsch

Residents and officials commemorate slain child

The corner of E. 139th St. and Brook Avenue in Mott Haven was renamed Naiesha Pearson Place on March 31st, in memory of the ten-year-old girl whose death shook the community when she was struck by a stray bullet in September 2005.

Some 100 family, friends, residents and elected officials gathered under a steady drizzle to witness the unveiling of the street sign in her memory. 

“Some believe the right to own a gun is more important than our children,” said Congressman Jose E. Serrano, adding that constitutional rights can still be protected even while stricter standards are imposed on gun owners.

“We have a right to safety,” he said.

City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito said city officials were at first reluctant to allow a street-renaming for a pre-teen without a lengthy list of life achievements. Mark-Viverito said they were persuaded to change their minds, because of “the impact her death has had on this community.”

Every year since Pearson’s death, hundreds have marched through the streets of Mott Haven on Mother’s Day to commemorate Naiesha at the Million Mom March, and to plead with federal officials to tighten gun laws.

Gloria Cruz, Pearson’s aunt, who has organized the march every year since in response to the shooting, told the crowd the renaming will help her niece’s memory live on, while serving as a symbol to help establish momentum to reform gun laws.

“She’s not a file in someone’s office. She’s not a statistic,” Cruz said.

Wallace Hasan, a resident of the Paterson Houses and, like Cruz, a member of the group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said the need to curb illegal guns remains as urgent as ever.

“Every day someone gets shot, if not here in another neighborhood,” he said. “These guns have got to stop.”

Taesha Pearson, Naiesha’s mother, was called on to speak to the crowd, but was overcome with grief as she approached the microphone, and walked away sobbing.

Rene Bonilla, then 20, is serving a sentence of 50 years-to-life for the shooting. He came to the Saw Mill Playground on a September Sunday in 2005 seeking revenge against a man he’d been in a fight with. Bonilla shot and wounded him, but one of the bullets he fired struck and killed Pearson. He was chased into a nearby building by family members and residents, who caught him and turned him in to police from the 40th Precinct.

Ray Figueroa explains how a youth-run greenhouse he wants Mott Haven residents to vote for would operate, if they vote for it as part of a new community budgeting initiative. Photo by Alex Robinson

Ray Figueroa would like to see a solar-powered greenhouse at Millbrook Houses in Mott Haven, with a farmer’s market that would be run by young people from the neighborhood. Some want designated barbecue areas, while others want the streetlights fixed.

These were among dozens of initiatives Mott Haven residents serving as volunteer budget delegates presented at Betances Houses on St. Ann’s Ave. in late February, as part of City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito’s first participatory budgeting project.

The delegates who decided on the projects volunteered last fall to take part in helping decide how to divvy up $1 million in funding for projects ranging from youth recreation to playground renovations.

All of of the delegates live or work in Mark-Viverito’s district. They have been shrinking the list since area residents came up with over 500 proposals in November. A mere 28 project possibilities remain. These are up for a final vote across Mark-Viverito’s district in March, which includes Mott Haven, East Harlem and the Upper West Side.

After the presentations, residents in the small crowd read descriptions of the proposed items on poster boards and had a chance to ask questions.

Other proposals that have survived the cut so far include the installation of security cameras at Millbrook Houses, new recycling bins, and playground renovations at numerous public housing complexes.

Ray Figueroa explained the value the solar-powered greenhouse at Millbrook Houses could have for the neighborhood.

“We’re talking about growing food and growing income; harvesting health and harvesting wealth,” he said.

“The greenhouse is an investment for the future,” said delegate Joe Perez. “It will teach our kids how to grow and how to run their own business.”

Perez said the farmer’s market would keep money in the community because local residents will not have to negotiate with farmers from upstate when they bring in produce.

Adriane Agostini of Mott Haven said she likes the idea of the greenhouse because it will show kids how to grow their own food and give them a safe place to go.

“We need more projects like this to get kids off the streets,” she said.

Perez said he may vote for a streetlight fixing initiative at a public housing complex.

“I’ve seen some of this housing at night and I wouldn’t walk through them unless I had the marines behind me,” he said.

Mark-Viverito said she will use the results of the project as a benchmark to help decide the rest of her budget. Even ideas that do not survive the final vote may get some funding, she said, depending how much she has available in her budget. She added she would consider allocating more of her budget to participatory budgeting next year.

“Looking at the projects people are coming up with and then looking historically at what I’ve allocated money to, I’m glad and comfortable that I’ve been able to put money where people say they want it,” she said.

The Councilwoman’s office has now given the delegates the task of informing residents about the process, and getting out the vote.

All residents of Mark-Viverito’s district who are over 18 are eligible to vote. Voters can choose up to five different proposals on their ballots.

Final voting on which of the 28 projects will get funded is slated to take place on March 31^st between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Betances Senior Center, at 401 St. Ann’s Ave, or during work hours at the Councilwoman’s office at 110 E. 116^th St. between March 25^th and March 31^st.

Minimum wage hike of $1.25 not enough, workers say

Mott Haven residents say a current proposal to raise New York’s minimum wage is welcome, but doesn’t go far enough.

Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) introduced the wage legislation to the state Senate on Feb. 7. Klein’s bill–the same legislation that Democrats brought to the State Assembly earlier this month―raises the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 and bases any future minimum wage increases on the rate of inflation.

If the legislation is passed, New York will have the third highest minimum wage in the country behind Oregon, at $8.80, and Washington, at $9.04. There are four states that tie their minimum wages to inflation rates.

“The New York City economy, especially the economy in the Bronx, is becoming more of a service economy,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Klein. “It’s unconscionable that these people who are struggling and who are working hard every day are getting paid an hour the same as two cups of coffee.”

One of those service workers, Tapia Alfredo, 43, who works in a Subway branch in Mott Haven, agreed that earning $7.15 an hour is just not enough. Alfredo, who moved to the Bronx from Puerto Rico seven months ago, took a short break from making sandwiches to describe all the expenses he is trying to handle: cell phone bills, rent and supporting his 19-year-old daughter who is in college. An increase in the minimum wage would be welcome, he said.

Many of the South Bronx workers interviewed gave a similar response: Of course they want a higher minimum wage, but would $1.25 really make that much of a difference?

“When you think about it, it’s $7.25 to $8.50. Wow, big deal!” said Takera Gweh, 22. She’s worked at CVS Pharmacy for the past seven months part-time earning $7.60 an hour to help pay for her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. Not only is the pay increase small, but she predicted it will just result in employers cutting people’s hours.

Bronx resident Amir Korim said the minimum wage should be at least $10.

“My girlfriend works at Burger King and they’re making millions of dollars a day and they’re paying her $7.25 an hour,” he said as he shook his head. His $8 hourly wage at a newly opened deli on Third Avenue is not enough to cover the increasing cost of rent, food and “other basic stuff,” he said.

Nasir Muhammad, a business consultant in the Bronx and a staunch Republican, said raising the minimum wage could deter some businesses from creating new jobs, since they would have to pay their employees more. And in this tight economy, where jobs are at a premium, he thinks it’s better to focus on job growth than paying workers more.

“At this particular juncture, if small businesses aren’t creating jobs at the level minimum wage is now, I don’t know why you would expect them to be able to afford to pay someone at a higher level,” he said.

Given that many lower-income workers live in the South Bronx, Muhammad said it would be better to get as many people possible into the workforce so they can at least have some sort of income and gain some job experience.

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. (D-Bronx), who represents much of Mott Haven, said conservative warnings that a wage hike will mean fewer jobs are just scare tactics. He wishes elected officials could increase the minimum wage by more than what’s being proposed.

“Adding $1.25 is not enough, but if that’s all we can go, then I will support that with my eyes closed,” he said. “It’s better than nothing.”

The Kingsbridge Armory awaits a developer. Photo by Karsten Moran/The Riverdale Press

The battle to require businesses that receive city subsidies to pay their workers a living wage began with a bang when Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. led a fight to reject the creation of a shopping mall at the Kingsbridge Armory if retail workers weren’t paid enough to make ends meet in this most expensive of cities.

The battle has ended with a whimper.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn has gutted the bill sponsored by Bronx Council members Oliver Koppell and Annabel Palma. Developers to whom taxpayers give $1 million or more will be required to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour. Their tenants, however, can continue to pay $7.25.

So when the Kingsbridge Armory is redeveloped, those who work there will be stuck with the same low wage as before. And citywide, according to Quinn, no more than 500 workers will be helped by the new law.

In the time-honored manner of politicians, Quinn and the proponents of the measure that would have extended a decent wage to retail workers are hailing this travesty as a compromise.

Borough President Diaz’s statements saluting the deal and the revival of talks to develop the armory expose him as an empty suit.

And Speaker Quinn’s measure re-emphasizes how powerless rank-and-file members of the body she heads are. Like Diaz, all they can do is fall into line and issue face-saving press releases.

Hard-working New Yorkers can’t make ends meet. They need food stamps and the help of food pantries.

Small wonder that those who are seriously concerned with the growing inequality in our city stand aloof from conventional politics, and would rather occupy Wall Street than support the occupants of City Hall.

This editorial reflects the opinion of The Hunts Point Express, Mott Haven Herald, Norwood News and The Riverdale Press, and appears in all four publications.

Residents are eager to know how their decisions will impact the spending of $1 million in tax revenue this winter in Mott Haven and Melrose.

Last fall, City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito announced her constituents would be able to decide how the money should be spent, as part of a new initiative known as participatory budgeting. Residents of Mark-Viverito’s district, which includes Mott Haven and Harlem, have met several times since the fall to consider what local projects to finance. 

Proposals can call for capital funding for infrastructure-related projects only, not for expense requests, which would require the city to hire new workers.

About 70 budget delegates have started to sift through the projects residents proposed in October and November public meetings.

“Everybody who’s involved seems very enthusiastic about it and they’re happy to be part a process like this,” said John Johnson, a member of Community Board 1 who was elected by his peers to serve as a Mott Haven budget delegate.

Johnson said he would like to see the money go to an increase of closed circuit cameras in the Millbrook public housing projects to help reduce crime.

Carmen Aquino, a resident who attended the first meeting, said she would be disappointed if the more populous Harlem segment of Mark-Viverito’s district ends up overshadowing Mott Haven initiatives.

“This is a needy community.  We need a lot of services here,” she said.

Aquino said public lighting, increased security and housing for seniors are issues that should be addressed with the new funding.

In all, residents submitted more than 550 proposals, at the meetings and online.

Budget delegates were split into seven different committees at the fall meetings, including parks, education and housing. Since then, committee members have had to consult city agencies to learn which of the proposed projects are eligible for capital funding.

Budget delegates have until early February to finalize the wish list. More neighborhood assemblies will follow, at which the delegates will present their findings, before residents get to cast a final vote on the projects of their choice in early March.

Anyone who lives or works in the area can still apply to be a budget delegate by contacting Mark-Viverito’s office to arrange to attend an orientation session.

Mark-Viverito said her constituents’ proposals don’t differ greatly from projects she considered supporting during last year’s traditional budgeting process. Nevertheless, she said, direct community participation is what makes the new initiative special.

“Seeing people want to be more involved in their community is really rewarding and illustrates why this process is important,” she said.

She said her office is getting to hear from people who wouldn’t have otherwise gone to community board meetings, and that residents will be heard at a time when the public has little faith in government.

“This is a way of saying ‘What you have to say matters. This is your money. You should have a more direct say and involvement in that process,’” she said.

Photo by Alex Robinson Mott Havenites are considering ways to spend $1 million on local projects, such as fixing recreation areas like the basketball courts at St. Mary's Park.

Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito slapped an imaginary $1 million on the table and asked her constituents what it should be spent on.

“Restoring the parks that are here, basketball courts, and sidewalks in the street need to be fixed,” responded Alice Cerezo, 45, a Mott Haven resident.

“I put in for exercise equipment for senior citizens, and movies. I definitely want senior citizens to have somewhere they can come to watch old movies and enjoy themselves,” said 73-year-old retiree Kenneth Moore, who has lived in the neighborhood for 35 years.

Mark-Viverito is one of four City Council members who have turned to the public to decide how the district’s discretionary budget should be distributed this year. The process, known as participatory budgeting, is new to New York City politics.

About 40 local residents split into groups at the Millbrook Community Center in October to exchange ideas about how $1 million in discretionary funding should be spent. Park renovations, new sports equipment for youth programs, and a community space for barbecuing were among the ideas raised.

Funding the entire wish-list would cost far more than the councilwoman has at her disposal, and Mott Haven occupies only a small part of her district, most of which is in East Harlem. Constituents from her East Harlem catchment have held six budget-brainstorming meetings of their own.

Anyone who lives or works in the district can volunteer to serve as a budget delegate, to select from the ideas presented at the brainstorming sessions and put them to a final pubic vote in March.

Mott Haven resident Carmen Aquino said she is worried so many of the budget delegates are from Manhattan.

“How is it going to be fair for us to propose projects? How many of those projects that we are going to propose are really going to get funding?” Aquino said.

Mark-Viverito said uneven distribution of funds is a concern, but she is confident Mott Haven will get its fair share.

“All aspects of the district are kept in mind,” Mark-Viverito said, adding “it’s reflected in what the projects are.”

Last year, Mark-Viverito had $4 million in discretionary funds to disperse. She says she won’t know how much she has at her disposal this year until the city budget process begins, but she has promised $1 million of that amount for the participatory initiative. She declined to say how much of last year’s discretionary budget was spent in her Mott Haven district.

Donna Kerchheimer, a political science professor at Lehman College, said community boards already fulfill a participatory budgeting role in the existing system, through public hearings and by providing funding requests for their districts.

“Wouldn’t you call that participatory budgeting of a certain type?” she asked.

Mark-Viverito said the advantage of participatory budgeting over the traditional process is that anyone can be directly involved.

“The process is very engaging. I really love it because I think it is going to give people a real sense of hope that they can be agents of change in their community,” she said.

Chicago is the only other major city in the country that has implemented participatory budgeting, although more than 1,200 cities worldwide have experimented with the process, according to the Participatory Budgeting Process’ website.

A Chicago alderman last year recounted to New York City Council members how the process has worked in the windy city so far, but only four of the 51 members have chosen to implement it.

Mark-Viverito said the initiative has been a hard sell among Council members because the process chews up time and resources. She added that she and the others who are experimenting with it will create a template by next year to make it less complicated to use.

She hopes that will be enough to encourage more council members to bring it to their own constituents.

Photo by Gwen McClure Local residents have united to oppose development of this site on E. 144th St. into a mental health and social service facility.

A group of Mott Haven residents has organized to protest a proposed housing development for the mentally ill, saying the neighborhood already has far more than its fair share of social service agencies.

The group, called Voices of the People, is frustrated with the influx of social service programs, and adds they were given no advance notice that plans for still another were underway.

“We have so many shelters and programs and they are all crowded. We are hyper-saturated,”said resident Marcelino Sanchez. “I think it is a crime.”

The publicly funded 60-unit doorman facility on E. 144^th Street between Brook and Willis Ave. will include 18 units dedicated to general low-income housing. Another 42 will be for adults and young adults with mental illness. The low-income housing will include studios and one- and two-bedrooms for tenants and will have a minimum income requirement. For those living with mental illness, there will be on-site support including case management and mental-health counselors.

At a community board meeting in October, residents expressed concern that the development would bring back problems their community faced in previous decades.

Dr. Marian Rivas, whose family has owned a home on 144^th St. since 1949, recalled neighborhood safety problems of the 1960s and ’70s. Since then she has seen the area steadily improve, until several years ago when she started to notice increased drug use and loitering, some of which she and other frustrated residents say stems from unsupervised clients from the area’s many social service facilities.

“It looked like Berlin after the war,” Rivas recalled. “We are survivors through the worst. Why should we have to go through it again?”

According to Carlos Garcia, director of residential programs for The Association for Rehabilitative Case Management and Housing, the non-profit that plans to open the site, this isn’t the first time his organization has received resistance from a community based on concerns about the impact.

He said applicants are screened thoroughly for histories of violence and sex offenses and that only graduates of ACMH programs will be housed.

“Typically we are faced with the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ kind of thing,” Garcia said.

He said that stories of people defecating in the streets and exposing themselves were not based in reality. “It’s just like in any neighborhood,” Garcia said. “If you see that kind of stuff, you call the police.”

But homeowners argue that rather than provide housing for deserving low-income residents from the neighborhood, the developments draw people from elsewhere looking for better access to services. Some residents expressed concerns about the safety of their children, fearing the development will draw a dangerous clientele to a neighborhood filled with schools. Others were concerned about decreasing property values.

“Much of their wealth is tied up in their homes,” Rivas said of her neighbors, adding they will urge elected officials to help stymy the project by cutting off the developers’ funding.

State Senator Jose M. Serrano attended the meeting to discuss other matters, but soon found himself fending off criticism from the group directed towards him and other elected officials for not defending residents’ rights.

“When you have an over-concentration of social services in one community, you have to ask why,” Serrano responded, admitting he knew nothing of the project before hearing the group complain at the October meeting.

“So why don’t we have these facilities on 72^nd and Park Avenue?” he said, adding, “these services can be spread out.”

Community Board 1 district manager Cedric Loftin said the number of units for low-income residents is too small to offset changes he believes will occur in the neighborhood such as an increased police presence and an increased feeling of insecurity. He said the community board will work with the governor’s office and other elected officials to try to get funding reallocated to a project elsewhere.

“The location is bad and it needs to be looked at from the perspective of the community that’s going to be impacted,” said Loftin.

The citizens group has met with elected officials who have vowed to help them fight the project, including Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo.

Daniel Johansson, CEO of the site developer, cited a study done by the Furman Center at NYU in 2008, which found that property values actually increased when supportive housing was developed in the area. He said the area was chosen because of a partnership with Lincoln Hospital and a need for supportive and low-income housing in the area.

“There are so many folks that end up being re-hospitalized in the Bronx who have a mental health issue,” he said. “Once you have a roof over your head it’s so much easier to get your life together.”

]]> http://motthavenherald.com/2011/11/03/residents-rail-against-new-social-service-development/feed/ 2 http://motthavenherald.com/2011/08/21/from-the-editor-say-no-to-an-incinerator/ http://motthavenherald.com/2011/08/21/from-the-editor-say-no-to-an-incinerator/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:29:05 +0000 Bernard L. Stein http://motthavenherald.com/?p=3947 Twelve years ago, a huge crane pried the stacks off the South Bronx Medical Waste Incinerator on the eastern end of 138th Street where it meets the East River. Hundreds of Bronxites who had protested that it was poisoning the air they breathed cheered as the last incinerator in New York City was dismantled.

Now a multinational company owned by some of the wealthiest investment houses on Wall Street wants millions in taxpayer subsidies so it can build new incinerators. If the company succeeds, you can be certain that its smokestack will tower over a poor community, and the South Bronx will be in the bullseye.

Will an incinerator like this on in Hempstead rise in the South Bronx?

But an incinerator is not a solar panel. Burning at high temperatures concentrates toxic substances, including cancer-causing dioxins, lead, arsenic and mercury. Some of this rises in minute particles from the smokestack, and later lodges in the lungs.

Despite the claims of the industry that filtering systems minimize the impact of burning on air quality, sulfur from incinerators contributes to acid rain, and nitrogen oxides cause breathing problems and trigger asthma attacks.

The more efficient the filters, the more toxic the ash left after burning, which must be transported to landfills, where its poison may leach into the water supply.

Moreover, to be profitable, incinerators need a large and continuous supply of garbage, so they become competitors for the metal, glass, paper, wood and plastic targeted by recycling programs. Since recycling holds the promise of green jobs for residents of communities like ours, inflicting an incinerator on our neighborhoods would do double injury.

When millions of dollars in government subsidies and contracts are at stake, political payoffs are inevitable. The Hempstead incinerator that Covanta points to as a model of what it hopes to build in the city was born in cronyism, its path to approval greased by Senator Alfonse D’Amato and his Republican machine after the developer hired the senator’s brother Armand as a lobbyist.

So it’s important to let elected officials and regulatory agencies know that we’re watching them, and we expect them to safeguard us, not the profits of Sam Zell, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and the other big stockholders in Covanta.

The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, an umbrella organization that includes Nos Quedamos, The Point Community Development Corp., and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, has already spoken out. Its efforts deserve widespread support.

The lesson of the South Bronx incinerator is that when ordinary residents come together and stick together, they can change things. But the work is hard and long. So it would be best to start now.

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr.

“In matters involving intimacy and human sexuality, parents have the right and the responsibility to be the primary educators,” the senator, who is also a Pentecostal minister, said in a statement. “Many parents teach their children that these are private topics not to be discussed casually or in group settings.”

His position puts him at odds with his son Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who told the staff of The Hunts Point Express that he was a strong supporter of sex education in the schools, said he wished his parents had been more open about sexual issues and said he had made a point of teaching his two sons about safe sex and birth control.

The elder Diaz criticized the Department of Education for reinstating required sex education classes in all middle schools and high schools. “There is no formal arena for formal parental input. There is no opportunity for public hearings. There are no requirements that these regulations be open to public review and comment,” he said. “No accountability to the public, to the parents, and certainly not the children.”

Evelina Antonetty raises hell at a Bronx school board meeting in the 1970s.

It was 1974, and a group of South Bronx residents were looking for someone to fill a vacant seat on the state Assembly. The pick from the community was nearly unanimous: It would be Evelina Antonetty, surely.

But public office was of no interest to the forty-something activist. Instead, she told her supporters to get behind a young man named José Serrano.

Serrano, now the representative of New York’s 16^th Congressional District, went on to win that Assembly seat, was later elected to Congress and—influenced by the woman who had helped him years earlier—funneled millions of federal dollars toward rebuilding the South Bronx. He has never forgotten the way Antonetty changed his life.

“When she said it, it was a done deal,” Serrano said. “She was always interested in promoting younger people. She saw something in me.”

An activist, community organizer, and a mother, Evelina Antonetty was, above all, a driving force behind some of the changes that have reshaped the South Bronx.

On July 6^th, almost 30 years after a heart attack cut her life short, the woman everyone called ‘Titi’, or ‘Auntie,’ was honored by the community she fought for, with the renaming of Prospect Avenue and 156^th Street as “Dra. Evelina Antonetty Way.”

“Everybody called her that, because whenever she saw a need for anything, she tried to help,” said her daughter, Anita. “I’ve had people tell me if it wasn’t for her, they wouldn’t have gotten their start in this country.”

Antonetty, born Evelina Cruz, grew up in the small city of Salinas in the south of Puerto Rico, in the 1920s. She was the oldest of three children, born to a single mother. She came to the U.S. around the age of 10, alone, on a boat trip that took weeks. She arrived at South Street Seaport, where her aunt Vincenta came to meet her.

“The desperation there must have been, to send your child alone on a boat,” Anita Antonetty said. “This was during the depression.”

Growing up in East Harlem during the Depression, Evelina saw firsthand how the tough economic times affected New Yorkers. She worked for Congressman Vito Marcantonio and labor leader Jesús Colón while in her teens, getting her first taste of community activism.

In the early 1940s, Evelina moved to the South Bronx, where she went to work for District 65 of the United Auto Workers, helping prepare people without jobs for the workforce.

“She was a conduit in that position, helping people to get started in the United States,” Anita Antonetty said.

When she settled down with her second husband Donato Antonetty in 1955 on Jackson Ave, she chose to stay home to raise her three children. But she was still Titi to people from the neighborhood who stopped by regularly for help and advice.

When Anita started school in 1962, Evelina joined PS 5’s parents association, where she began the work that later led her to form United Bronx Parents.

Antonetty fought for school issues big and small for her new organization, from the quality of lunches to decentralization, pushing always for increased community involvement.

Perhaps her biggest impact came from her fight for bilingual education. Dr. Vicky Gholson, a former United Bronx Parents board member, says the scale of Antonetty’s work was massive.

“To just say she was a community organizer in the South Bronx is erroneous,” Gholson said. “She was the spirit and the force behind bilingual education in the United States, to put it simply. It would not have happened in the quick form and fashion that it did if it were not for her energy and her organizing.”

Gholson is also Harlem’s first Ph.D. in Communications, an honor she says is due in no small part to Evelina.

She isn’t the only one Antonetty helped inspire to lofty goals. Federico Perez, the director of special projects and events in Rep. Serrano’s office, met Antonetty when he was 27. He was applying to Bronx Community College, but says he was being denied because of discrimination.

So Antonetty stepped in: She pushed him to persist, and pressured the administration to let him in. He was eventually accepted, went on to earn a Masters Degree in Education, taught for 23 years and became a member of the City Council.

“She was my mentor and teacher,” Perez said.

Toward the end of her life, the struggle continued. In 1984, the year of her death, Ronald Reagan was running for his second term. She organized voter registration, inspired people to vote, and worked on Reverend Jesse Jackson’s campaign.

Twenty-seven years after her death, Antonetty’s legacy lives on, through the United Bronx Parents and other community organizations that use her work as a model.

Now it also lives on on a South Bronx street corner, where children looking up at the street sign can ask their parents who she is, and maybe learn a little about the woman called Titi.