Food delivery giant FreshDirect has announced it will expand service into the Bronx, beginning this week. In addition, the company says it has received government approval to launch a pilot program that for the first time would allow food stamp recipients to use their benefits to order food from online vendors.

Opponents of the deal to move FreshDirect from Queens to the Harlem River Yards in Port Morris have pointed out that while the grocer will bring 2,000 additional truck trips per day to the South Bronx, it did not serve its residents. Only the Northwest Bronx has been included in FreshDirect’s service area until now.

The critics say the added traffic would worsen existing air pollution problems without providing any benefits to residents. FreshDirect is set to receive $130 million in subsidies from the city to move.

In an effort to quiet criticism, in February the company signed a non-binding agreement with the office of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., promising, among other things, to begin delivering to the Bronx.

Diaz hailed the announcement that the company would begin to serve the entire borough.

“Today’s announcement shows that FreshDirect is ready to live up to those commitments ahead of schedule, years before making the Bronx their official home,” he said. “Ultimately, this move will offer residents increased healthy grocery options.”

FreshDirect officials added they will offer 50 percent discounts on certain popular items and discounts of $25 for new customers, to celebrate their service expansion to the borough. Details for implementation of the food stamps pilot project are still being worked out, but the company says they will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Middle school students learn ins and outs of the business world

Brittni Ortiz, 12, arranged fliers neatly on the table as her business partner, Brittany Tirado, 13, pulled out a chocolate frosted cupcake and set it by a poster board.

“Brittany, this is it,” Ortiz said.

After weeks of preparation, students at M.S. 223 in Mott Haven pitched more than 20 different business ideas to their peers, teachers and business people, who acted as judges. The one-day competition gauged which start-ups had the best chance of succeeding. Since the beginning of the school year, all the seventh-graders have been learning about different career options, what their interests are and how to start their own businesses.

“This is Charmed Bake Shoppe and we decided to create this idea because we were upset there’s no Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts or anything like that really close to the school,” Ortiz told a group of students who had crowded around their poster board.

Tirado explained how their bake shop would sell everything from coffee to cupcakes and offer Wi-fi Internet and a quiet place for students to study.

“Is that a real cupcake?” one student asked. “Can I have it?”

Quickly realizing the marketing opportunity, the girls wrote numbers on pieces of paper and handed them out to students so the cupcake could be raffled off later.

M.S. 223 has partnered with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a national program that teaches young people from low-income communities the necessary steps to becoming an entrepreneur. Only one other school in the Bronx uses the curriculum to teach students how to pitch their own business ideas.

“I think our country is founded on entrepreneurship,” said Ramón Gonzalez, principal of M.S. 223. “We want these kids to have experiences where they are not only talking about creating companies, but actually doing it.”

The  ideas students pitched in this year’s competition included removable and machine-washable hat inserts to keep baseball caps clean, waterproof sneakers, a pen mp3 player that plays music while it writes and a mobile app that charges phones and saves battery life.

Business professionals from across the city served as judges, grading each business’s pitch based on the quality and creativity of the pitches.

After hearing Charmed Bake Shoppe’s presentation, two judges grilled the girls on whether they had considered creating a mobile business to avoid the expense of a storefront. They also wanted to know if the café would only serve children, or if adults would be welcome too.

“We want our customers to feel like they’re at home, so no matter what age you are, you can go and you can buy whatever you want because we’re there for you, to please you,” Ortiz said.

Afterward, the judges said they were impressed.

“They’re, what, 12 or 13?” said Mark Stein, who works with Meringoff Properties in Manhattan. “They’re extremely poised and very well-spoken. We asked questions and they responded seamlessly.”

Dennis Miller, an engineer, said, “Now, this is the kind of thing that is probably a lot more useful for the real world than some of the other stuff you get out of textbooks.”

Nicole Lentino, a technology teacher, has run the entrepreneurship program at M.S. 223 for the past two years. She uses the curriculum to teach four different classes of seventh graders.

“Students don’t necessarily see themselves as capable of doing that,” Lentino said of students’ self-perception as business entrepreneurs. “You know, just, environmental factors, home life, whatever the reason may be, they just don’t believe they’re capable of this type of success.”

When the competition was completed at the end of the afternoon, four winning groups from each class were announced. Charmed Bake Shoppe was one of them.

The winning entrepreneurs will apply to compete in a regional competition in June, where they will face other fledgling student businesses from across the city.

“I was so excited,” Tirado said. “I thought it was going to be a close tie between us and the mp3 pen. But I think what put us over the top was the real cupcake.”

City Councilwomen Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Melissa Mark-Viverito say 2000 FreshDirect truck trips per day would add to Mott Haven's existing environmental woes.

Mark-Viverito, Arroyo demand an audit on Harlem River Yards

Two members of the New York City Council want the State Department of Transportation to reconsider the lease of the land where FreshDirect is planning to build its new headquarters.

Melissa Mark-Viverito and Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who represent Mott Haven, have called for a moratorium on all new development in the Harlem River Yards until an audit is conducted on the impact of heavy industrial use of the land on the surrounding neighborhood.

Mark-Viverito and Arroyo sent a letter to DOT commissioner Joan McDonald on May 3, urging the agency to take into account the harmful impact FreshDirect’s 2,000 truck trips per day would have on a neighborhood already heavily burdened with polluting industries. 

The letter asks for the agency to re-examine the lease of the state-owned property to the Galesi Group, a real estate firm doing business locally as Harlem River Yard Ventures Inc. Mark-Viverito and Arroyo say the firm has violated the spirit of the lease by renting parcels to “an array of manufacturing and waste processing facilities that place a disproportionate impact of diesel truck traffic running in and through the South Bronx.”

There are four waste transfer stations on the narrow waterfront strip, which contribute to the area’s sky-high asthma rates, leading the council members to conclude “the tenant is using the property in a manner that is inconsistent with the terms of the lease.”

Since the Galesi Group signed the 99-year lease with the city in 1991, the area adjacent to the Harlem River Yards has been rezoned to allow for increased residential use, and to help bolster local businesses, the council members say.

“Adding insult to injury,” the letter says, “Harlem River Yard Ventures collects approximately $500,000 per month in rent from its subleases while paying only $43,000 per month in rent to DOT for the entire 94 acres.”

Mark-Viverito and Arroyo concluded by suggesting the DOT declare a default on the property and collaborate with state authorities to consider , “taking full account of the socio-economic makeup of the neighborhood and the disproportionate impact” on area residents.

Opponents of the FreshDirect deal, in which the city and state have authorized $130 million in subsidies to help the online grocer move from Queens to Port Morris, hailed the effort. Mott Haven community leader Mychal Johnson echoed the letter, saying, “This is a budding residential area with new developments and loft conversions; it is not an industrial wasteland.” He added, “We need open space and waterfront access and real economic development.”

South Bronx Unite, the umbrella organization that is coordinating opposition to the FreshDirect deal, also applauded the council members’ effort. The organization, which has been holding demonstrations in Manhattan calling for a boycott of FreshDirect (which does not serve most of the Bronx), is also seeking to show that local residents want access to the South Bronx waterfront. It is asking residents to fill out this survey.

Students from International High School learned about compost by doing at Brook Park. File photo by Urban Transformers

Friends of Brook Park is assembling a South Bronx Green Team Collaborative to build a new compost system in Brook Park on East 141st Street and Brook Avenue.

Students between 13 and 19 years old who live or go to school in the 10454 or 10455 zip codes are eligible for the summer jobs, which pay $8 an hour.

Applicants must have good communications skills and be punctual. Each intern will be responsible for sharing his or her experience as a members of the South Bronx Green Team Collaborative with at least one classroom in the South Bronx.

Participants must be available on six consecutive weekends for four hours a day beginning in mid-May.

An application form, due by May 10, can be obtained by sending an email to urbantransformers [at] gmail [dot] com, or an application may be mailed to Friends of Brook Park, PO Box 801 Bronx NY 10454, and should include contact information. Applicants should include a two-paragraph statement about why they are interested in participating in this project.

The parent or guardian of those selected for an interview will have to sign a permission and waiver form.

A project of Friends of Brook Park and the Urban Transformers, the collaborative is financed by grants from Citizens Committee for New York and Department of Youth and Community Development, thanks to funds from City Council members Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Melissa Mark Viverito.

Sin City on Park Ave. in Mott Haven has been the site of violence and car break-ins, police say.

Strip club violence
Police from the 40th Precinct are keeping close watch on Sin City. The strip club on Park Ave., tucked between a taxi garage on one side and Metro North tracks and a sprawling community garden on the other, has been the site of multiple incidents of violence and theft in recent months.

There have been 14 reported incidents since Jan. 1st directly related to the club, and numerous overnight car break-ins in the vicinity police suspect may also be the handiwork of club patrons. Of those arrested, many have had prior convictions for drug dealing and other felonies, police say.

“The clientele that’s coming to the location is the worst of the worst,” said Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack, commanding officer of the 4oth Precinct, who says he deploys officers needed in other parts of Mott Haven and Melrose to patrol Park Ave. late nights to contend with the problems brought on by Sin City’s customers.

On Feb. 28th, a man left the club after a dispute with management, retrieved a 9 mm handgun from his car and returned to the bar to settle the score. Although no shots were fired, the suspect and another man took off running before police caught and arrested both men.

On March 23rd, Lincoln Hospital staff notified police a patient was being treated for a gunshot wound. Police later found he and another hospital patient receiving treatment had both been shot while clubbing at Sin City that night.

“Mott Haven does not need this,” said McCormack.

Two homicides
On April 15 at 5:15 a.m., Terrence Martin, 26, was found dead in front of 285 E. 156th St. with a bullet wound to the back of the head. No arrests have been made.

On April 16, a 16 year-old boy was beaten to death in front of 700 Morris Ave. and later pronounced dead from multiple injuries. There have been no arrests made in the case.

Cell phone snatchings
On April 18th and 19th, three cellphone thefts were reported on the corner of Lincoln Ave. and 138th St. A young man in his late teens grabbed the devices out of victim’s hands in all three incidences, one on a bus, another at the bus stop and one on the street corner.

Crime by numbers
Of the seven major categories police use to gauge crime in the city, robberies and grand larcenies have shot up over the first four months of 2012 compared with the same period last year. Robberies have increased by roughly 23 percent, from 88 to 108, while grand larcenies have risen from 60 last year to 74 this year.

However, rapes, burglaries and car theft are way down over the same period. There were 58 burglaries reported over the first four months of 2011, compared with 40 over the same period this year, while car thefts tumbled from 34 this time last year to just 20 so far this year.

Next month, Ruben Diaz Jr. will celebrate the achievement of Fat Joe, the rap star who wrote these lyrics:

I never seen an ass like that
no I never seen seen an ass so fat (tat, tat, tat)
I’mma beat it til tomorrow
And all I keep telling her is “shut up bitch, swallow”
Your legs is shaking
I won’t hurt you
Now you can be the star of that new commercial

That’s about as much of Fat Joe’s rap “Porn Star” as we can bear to publish, but if you have the stomach, you can read the rest. He’s selling it as a ringtone, here.

Says the Borough President, Fat Joe “has been an outstanding citizen and a role model to countless Bronxites,” who “has positively represented the Bronx and throughout his music career has helped keep the Bronx on the ‘musical map,’ becoming one of our very own homegrown success stories.”

The rapper, who grew up poor in the South Bronx, has made himself a major commercial success with songs like “Porn Star.” But do they “positively represent” the borough you live in? Do you find them a source of pride?

Are you proud of lyrics that demean women, treating them as little more that inflatable dummies for the rapper’s masturbatory pleasure? Should our borough president be?

In Hunts Point and Mott Haven residents are begging the state to stop licensing strip clubs because they bring prostitution and violence to their neighborhoods. The borough president says he supports those efforts. Yet he salutes an artist who helps foster the very attitudes he says he deplores.

Our borough can offer better, and deserves better.

A crowd of applicants for subsidized apartments began forming before dawn on April 17th on E. 163rd St. Photo by Joe Hirsch

Nearly 200 wait for hours for a shot at a place to live

Police from the 41st Precinct were called to the main office of a housing complex on East 163rd Street on April 17th to disperse an angry crowd seeking to apply for apartments in several Section-8 subsidized buildings in Longwood.

In a sign of the demand for an affordable apartment, many in the line of about 200 that stretched for more than a block between Kelly and Tiffany Streets had arrived at PRC Management’s office during the night to secure a spot near the front of the line. Some cradled wailing babies, while others sat in fold-up chairs they’d brought to brave the long wait.

But when the doors opened at 9 a.m., a staff member told the applicants standing at the front of the line that there were no applications. Instead, they were instructed to send self-addressed stamped envelopes so the company could put them on a waiting list to be considered when an apartment becomes vacant in one of the roughly 400- federally-subsidized units in the eight buildings along E. 163rd and Simpson streets.

Terrence and Selena Brown came to claim their spot at the head of the line at 1:30 a.m. in front of the office doors so they wouldn’t miss their chance to apply when the office opened eight hours later.

“We’re in a shelter, trying to get help,” said Selena Brown, 36. Brown explained that she, her husband and two teenage children were forced to leave their Gerard Avenue apartment in February and move to a shelter in Soundview when the city’s Work Advantage program was slashed. The monthly check they used to receive from that program supplemented their low-wage jobs, helping them pay the rent.

“That’s why we’re number one in line,” said Terrence Brown, 41, who works in maintenance in Manhattan’s West Village. “They just told us you’ve got to beat the crowd.”

Leopole Roberts, 65, said that he had seen a mob of people in front of the building the day before while riding in the back of a car. When he got out to inquire, people told him he would have to come early to get an application.

“There are four people living in a one-bedroom apartment that’s broken into rooms. There’s too many traffic. I can’t live like that,” said Roberts, adding he showed up at 4 a.m. to “beat the hundreds.”

Tempers rose when word fanned through the crowd that there were no applications available. Some tried forcibly to gain access to the building’s main office, and shouted obscenities at staff and a local housing activist who tried to relay the company’s instructions. Security guards kept the crowd out of the office until two police officers arrived and told the group to leave.

David Gartenlaub of PRC Management’s main office in Westchester explained that the company’s local staff had handed out applications the previous day but then, too, some in the long line had become belligerent, so the staff decided to have prospective tenants send requests for applications in the mail instead of getting them in person.

Gartenlaub said a false rumor circulated among the crowd that vouchers for Section-8 housing would be given out, causing many to return to the central office on the 17th, although some applicants insisted PRC staff had sown the confusion by promising to hand out applications the following day.

“I’ve been here since 2:30 this morning,” said Jessica Hernandez, who lives in a shelter in Mott Haven and said she was told by staff while waiting on line Monday to return Tuesday. “I just want them to honor what they said.”

Michael Nowlin, the general manager of the 163d Street complex, said that although there are no apartments currently available, the first 500 applicants will be put on a waiting list.

“One of the things we don’t want to do is have people on the waiting list for 10 years,” he said, explaining that the company’s decision to cap the applicant pool at 500 is due to the sharp increase in the need for subsidized housing. “The demand is so overwhelming,” he added.

Through Section-8, the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development pays private building owners up to  30 percent of tenants’ rents, making up for the portion low-income renters cannot afford to pay.

Those wishing to apply should send a self-addressed, stamped envelope no later than April 27th to: PRC Management LLC, 955 E. 163rd St., Bronx, NY, 10459.

The buildings included in the complex are 975, 985, 995 and 1000 Simpson St., 1075 and 1083 Longfellow Ave, 1076 Faile Ave. and 1240 Westchester Ave.

Ludger Balan, executive environmental program director for the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy brought birds to Get Green 2010. File photo by Nick Loomis

For the fifth year, South Bronx residents will mark Earth Day with a festival in St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven on Saturday, April 21, from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

The free South Bronx Earth Fest combines family activities with entertainment and environmental exhibits at the park on St. Ann’s Avenue and 146th Street.

More than two dozen local businesses, community organizations, ity agencies and not-for-profit groups are participating in the 2012 GetGreen festival. Event goers will enjoy music and dance performances with a “green” theme, free boat rides, “Recycling Olympics” games for youngsters and special appearances by eco-superhero Global Man and friends. In addition, GetGreen organizers plan to plant a tree in St. Mary’s Park to commemorate the event’s fifth anniversary.

Longtime neighborhood activist Anna Vincenty, formerly of Nos Quedamos and now community liaison for Congressman Jose Serrano, will be honored with a 2012 GetGreen environmental leadership award, along with city officials.

The public is invited to bring unwanted electronics, including TVs, radios, cell phones, computers and printers, and unwanted textiles, such as matched shoes, belts, towels, and clothing, to the event for recycling.

GetGreen organizers include the Betances Center, Bronx River Alliance, City Matters LLC, LAS Consulting, Materials for the Arts/NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, GrowNYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, The POINT, the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO), Sustainable South Bronx, NY Cares and Waste Management of New York.

In the event of rain, activities will be held at Betances Community Center, 547 East 146th Street.

Mott Haven resident Maria Ojeda decided what initiatives to vote for, with help from her children. Photo by Sean Carlson

Playground repairs and public housing security cameras win

Millbrook Houses in Mott Haven will get long-awaited improvements to its playground on St. Ann’s Avenue, and public housing projects across the neighborhood will receive new tamper-proof security cameras as part of the city’s first-ever participatory budgeting initiative.

Over 1,000 voters in Mott Haven and in the Manhattan portion of City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito’s district turned out to vote on March 31 for neighborhood projects they wanted to see funded with the $1.1 million she set aside for an experiment in participatory budgeting. In all, there were 29 projects on the ballot, ranging from playground upgrades to a solar-powered greenhouse. Each voter was allowed to vote for up to five items.

Maria Ojeda smiled as she checked off her ballot and handed it to election staff at the Betances Senior Center, where Mott Haven residents voted. Although the minimum voting age was 18, her two children, a boy and girl, whispered suggestions into her ear.

“To know what the people want is so important,” said Ojeda, who lives across the street from the senior center on St. Ann’s Avenue, where she cast her vote. “For me, education is the key. My kids are on the honor roll.”

The voting, which took place over the course of a week and ended on the last day in March, gave Mark-Viverito’s constituents in Mott Haven, the Upper West Side and East Harlem a chance to choose where a portion of their council representative’s budget will be spent.

Along with the Millbrook playground, transportation services for seniors in East Harlem, including a Meals-on-Wheels delivery van, and playground improvements at an Upper West Side housing complex rounded out the top three projects selected to get funding.

But Mark-Viverito had a surprise for her constituents as she announced the winners at an event in East Harlem after the votes were tallied. The Councilwoman pledged to fund the projects that came in fourth, fifth and sixth places, along with the top three vote-getters.

“It’s been great to see some of the creativity in these projects,” said Mark-Viverito. “This is democracy in action.”

An ultrasound system for the Metropolitan Hospital Center, new technology for the Aguilar branch of the Public Library and construction of a youth development headquarters and the DREAM Charter School in Harlem were the other three projects she approved funding for.

Even those whose projects were not voted in saw value in the process.

Community activist Ray Figueroa served as a budget delegate, helping organize the initiative locally and explaining the process to residents at various stages of the campaign. He also pushed a plan for the building and opening of a solar-powered greenhouse in Mott Haven. The project would have grown food that would then be sold at a farmer’s market run by young people from the neighborhood.

“We are not unhappy,” he said of the fact that his project will not be funded. “Mott Haven as a community is benefiting tremendously as a result of this process. Participatory budgeting is a great lesson in social responsibility.”

Angel Molina, a Mott Haven resident, also served as a delegate.

“The community knows what its problems are,” said Molina. “And because of that, they also know the solutions.”

The budgeting initiative was also implemented in three other city council districts, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens.

Community Voices Heard, a development organization with chapters across the state, was instrumental in persuading Mark-Viverito and three other council members to try the participatory budgeting experiment. Members of the group helped organize residents in the participating districts, and staffed some of the polling stations.

“A lot of people feel that the government doesn’t hear them,” said Stephen Bradley, an organizer with the group, who helped run the polling station at the Betances Senior Center. “But who knows what’s better for the community than the people?”

Participatory budgeting was first implemented in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in 1989. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars from that city’s budget have gone to fund local initiatives through the process. Over 1,000 cities throughout the world have since initiated similar programs.

Cezar Busatto, who works for the city department in Porto Alegre that administers participatory budgeting, toured the polling stations in Mark-Viverito’s district on March 31st. He was impressed with how the process was being carried out in the U.S.

“People are conscious of what they need,” said Busatto. He noted that the most popular participatory budget projects in Porto Alegre were to improve housing, education and healthcare, particularly for the elderly.

“The community should be able to put public money to use to benefit them,” he said. “It’s just so exciting to see this happening in New York.”

The Harlem River Yards in Port Morris, where FreshDirect plans to move. Photo by Joe Hirsch

Worried members say Mott Haven will suffer

Community Board 1 condemned the deal to move online grocer FreshDirect from Queens to Port Morris without community consultation after a heated debate at its March meeting.

The board passed a resolution authored by board member and activist Mychal Johnson, who charged Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and city and state officials had deceived South Bronx residents by pushing through the $123 million package of subsidies to the company too quickly, without allowing community input or considering the negative effects that added truck traffic and waste could have on Mott Haven and Melrose, which already suffer from some of the country’s highest asthma rates.

The city’s Industrial Development Agency approved the subsidies in February, after New Jersey tried to lure FreshDirect and its 2,000 jobs across the Hudson River. 

“We all want our constituents to have the best and not to be dumped upon,” Johnson said, adding he had received confidential data showing that FreshDirect plans 2,000 truck trips per day–far more than the company has publicly acknowledged–once it completes its move to the Harlem River Rail Yards.

District Manager Cedric Loftin strongly disagreed, saying a memorandum of understanding negotiated by the borough president in answer to critics of the deal, showed that the borough’s highest-ranking official was taking local citizens’ concerns to heart.

“I understand people should have been brought to the table,” Loftin said, but added, “I don’t think the door is closed” for further discussion.

“There’s going to be an opportunity for many jobs here,” Loftin continued. He added that he thought Diaz would meet with the board to answer concerns that FreshDirect will not comply with the agreement. In it, FreshDirect promises to try to fill about 200 of the 600 new jobs the company says it will create with Bronx residents and to build a cleaner-running fleet of trucks. The company is also scheduled to meet with borough president’s office in June to discuss expanding its service to the Bronx, where it currently delivers only to Riverdale and Woodlawn.

Critics call the agreement toothless, saying there are no sanctions if FreshDirect falls short on its promises, and say that the additional garbage and the air pollution from increased truck traffic far outweigh any benefits to the neighborhood.

“What happens to the jobs after they get the money?” Johnson asked.

“I’m not here to rubber stamp that,” said Land Use Committee chairwoman Arline Parks of the city’s deal. “I’m not saying it’s not a good deal, but the fact they didn’t come to us is a problem.”

Parks criticized the Galesi Group, the real estate developer that leases the rail yard and will be FreshDirect’s landlord, saying it has imposed burdens on the neighborhood without corresponding benefits. “The giveback has not been there in exchange for what they’ve gotten,” she said.

Community board members “often find out after the fact,” she added. “We need to hold them more accountable.”

The board agreed almost unanimously to a motion Johnson presented, condemning the process by which the city deal was done.

“There has to be a point at which we say ‘basta,’” Johnson said, to loud applause.