"He knows it's a phony bill; it's never going to go anywhere," said Michael McKee, head of the Real Rent Reform Campaign, referring to Espada's bill that's supposed to freeze rent for 600,000 low-income tenants for five years, calling it really just a pro-landlord bill in disguise. more>

VIDEO :: NY1's Jon Mancini reports that transit advocates have launched a "riders' rebellion" campaign. more>

Two Bronx politicians -- Oliver Koppell and Annabel Palma -- introduced the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act on May 25. This bill would require most development projects receiving city subsidies to pay workers eventually employed there a living wage.

VIDEO :: The Living Wage NYC campaign was launched on May 25th by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., other elected officials and  community groups. more>

With the help of her Bronx community, Edda Lopez struggles to keep her home. Fighting foreclosure and financial-institution-red-tape, her threat of loss is one of many. Since the start of the housing crisis in 2008, over 3000 Bronx homes have gone into foreclosure, and protesters are frustrated that although the taxpayers bailed out the banks, the banks aren't helping struggling homeowners. more>

The only gateway to success is education. Go to school. Learn. Be somebody. How can the youth of New York City become successful when their only ride to education has been taken away? more>

VIDEO :: Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, together with the Chung Wha-Hong, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, Immigration Chair, Council Member Daniel Dromm, Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito, Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and a number of immigration and civil rights advocates, gathered on May 4th to denounce Arizona's Law SB1070 more>

At a recent press conference in the lobby of Montefiore Medical Center's Children Hospital, Dr. Philip Ozuah held up a big bottle of soda. "Everyday in my practice, children come into my office holding one of these" he said. Doctors estimate that drinking one of those bottles each day adds 25 to 30 pounds to an average 9- or 10-year-old per year. more>

"People in the Bronx and New York City need to have a way to pay their bills, and to be able to make a future for their children," said Alba Vazquez, whose life changed when she got a union job and could stop juggling three low-paying jobs to support her family. more>

With high unemployment and a bad economy, many teens are having to work part-time to help their families pay the bills. These teens carry the weight of school, homework, after-school errands and work. Some teens are pushed to steal, or even sell drugs. more>

Even though crime rates have gone down in New York, some communities are just as ravaged by violence as they have ever been, especially considering a recent explosion of street violence in three Bronx communities. While there is no single answer to solving this problem, several ideas are proposed that would help curtail violence.

VIDEO :: From Storm 300 TV, an appeal to stop gun violence in the Bronx in the wake of recent killing of Issy Ariel Dominguez and other young people in that borough. more>

Resident Stephen Hawkins said a man fixing his toilet once asked him for a quarter, which he then wrapped around a pipe with plumbing tape and pronounced the job done. "That's how [the landlord] does things," he said, "if they get around to it." more>

Although hazardous or toxic substances have been found in the park that sits between Lehman College and the Bronx High School of Science, the DEC had not been alerted to the contamination. more>

Since 1994, Gary Axelbank and his top-notch cable TV show, BronxTalk, have elevated the borough's civic dialogue. It has helped bring the mainland borough the attention it deserves. more>

"It's very hard when you go home and your wife asks every day, 'what happened?'" Torres said. "This company knows what they are doing. In the end, they make the community more poor. They are destroying lives. They are destroying families."

VIDEO :: Striking Stella D'Oro workers face the bakeries owners at the National Labor Relations Board on May 13, 2009. more>

In 2008, the food pantry and soup kitchen served a total of 300,000 meals, an increase from the 200,000 meals POTS served in 2005, said Maureen Sheehan, POTS development director.

VIDEO :: Last June, City Council President Christine Quinn spoke at POTS about the situation with food stamps. more>

Parents say a plan to eliminate more than 3,000 kindergarten slots at city day cares is turning out to be a disaster. more>

In response to the economic recession, Manhattan non-profit reaches north. more>

In October, Amanda Texeira, a young single mother wanted her kids to know why they hadn’t seen much of her in the past 10 months and why the fridge was barren, so she took them to the Bronx offices of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal on Fordham Road. more>

The new plan, which the DOE says was contracted due to budget restrictions, does not include any high schools for the Bronx. more>

With 3,443 households per bank branch, the Bronx is the most under-banked borough in New York City. Manhattan, by contrast, counts 1,159 households per branch. Long lines are not the only consequence. more>

The billions of dollars proposed by Henry Paulson to rescue the troubled financial institutions should be used to improve community infrastructures, opines the author. more>

State Senator Efrain Gonzalez’s indictment for fraud has opened the doors for the Bronx’s most heated and contentious political race, which is being fought on multiple fronts — the blogosphere, across two counties, at local meetings, in various court rooms and on YouTube. more>

With limited vending permits and pressure to make a living, many street venders risk running business illegally and being the easy target to law enforcement units. more>

Believe it or not, a recession, slowdown, downturn, or whatever you want to call our sluggish economy, can be a blessing in disguise for a well-managed small business. more>

Schools in the northwest Bronx are overcrowded and unlikely to get any help in the near future thanks to a flawed construction effort by the education department, according to a recently released report from the office of Comptroller William Thompson. more>

Many Bronx youth blame the media for the misconception of what power really is. more>

Leaders at a Norwood-area mosque say their landlord is not only verbally threatening and harassing them, but also using them as a scapegoat for $9,000 worth of repair work that they say they had nothing to do with. more>

This is not the kind of news that makes the front page of the city’s tabloids or the top of the 11 o’clock news (or even the bottom). But it should because it will affect millions of New Yorkers and the city’s civic bloodstream. more>

A new hotel – which residents fear will devolve into a “hot sheet” motel like others across the Bronx River in Wakefield – was not what the Community Board 7 had in mind when it began planning for the future. more>

In the northwest Bronx, foreclosures rose 39 percent in the third quarter of 2007, compared to the previous quarter, according to University Neighborhood Housing Program. more>

The new Yankee Stadium has 5,000 fewer seats than the old one. Nevertheless, city officials endorse the team’s plan to build four new parking garages, most of them in place of public parks, essentially inviting fans from the suburbs to bring their cars into the area to clog local streets and deposit their exhaust in a community that has among the highest asthma rates in the country. more>

Despite earlier assurances in official city documents, the city’s Education Department now says it has no plans to construct schools at the Kingsbridge Armory, citing that there is no need in an area where currently there are only two schools. more>

Due to a severe cut in federal funding, more than 100 after-school programs in New York City, including a handful in the northwest Bronx, will not reopen this fall unless replacement money is found. more>

To penalize rate payers for being conservation-minded, the author said, rates for homeowners and landlords will rise by 11.5 percent in July, and the Board projects similar increases for next year and the year after. more>

Michael Hart, the Liberal Party candidate for state parliament in Burleigh, Australia, “has rejected suggestions that Burleigh is becoming the ‘Bronx’ of the city,” according to a local paper there. “We are certainly having some trouble with out-of-control youth gatherings, but I don’t think we have reached that stage yet,” he told the paper. more>

Since her husband died from stomach cancer three years ago and left her penniless, the Baghdad-turned-Bronx housewife, Alham Mastafa, has faced denials of welfare and rent-subsidies and difficulties finding employment. more>

“For all his emphasis on education, Mayor Bloomberg will leave the city with larger class sizes than when he arrived,” said Leonie Haimson, who heads the non-profit Class Size Matters. “This capital plan proves again that education comes last.” more>

Costs for the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant at Van Cortlandt Park have spiraled out of control – the consequences might be seen in housing affordability and increases in water rates. more>

The day after I arrived, I showed up at the ACORN office to volunteer in their house-gutting program. ACORN is one of a few nonprofits that has taken on the awesome task of ripping hundreds of soggy moldy houses down to their bones in the hopes of one day seeing them resurrected and occupied. It costs about $7,000 to empty and gut a house. ACORN and its volunteers do it for free. more>

In exchange for more autonomy and flexibility, schools will sign agreements that set new performance standards. “It’s an amazing challenge,” a principal says. more>

Locals are concerned that the Project Renewal facility, which will house former drug addicts living with mental illness, might jeopardize the safety of the neighborhood. more>

According to the latest inspection report from the NYS Department of Health, obtained through the Freedom of Information Law, only one local facility, the Jewish Home and Hospital, met all the safety and quality and requirements. more>

Founder of St. Rita’s Center for Immigration and Refugee Services, Sister Jean Marshall, says she is prepared to fight for those she has defended for decades. more>

While the Bronx elected officials hailed a new terminal mall agreement, some advocacy groups are worried about the precedent-setting nature of the pact, saying the deal is a disgrace to the Bronx community. more>

New York City is pressing the state to pay up on the millions of dollars it owes in additional education funds for city public schools. Albany has been dragging its feet since 2003, with the governor having appealed court decisions on the matter for years. But the delay means that some 23 school construction projects remain in limbo because the state has not delivered. more>

The state has found that Pinnacle Group, a management company, intentionally overcharged some Bronx tenants for the purchasing of buildings. The company was caught flouting the legal limit for a rent increase in two cases. Advocates and tenants, however, charge that the practice is rampant. more>

In 1978, when 2674 Valentine Avenue went abandoned and only one tenant was left, residents of its neighbor to the south, 2670 Valentine, came together to help. They paid the fuel bills so the pipes wouldn’t freeze and eventually people moved back in. These old tactics are becoming in handy again in the effort to save the neighborhoods. more>

As two huge city real estate companies shelled out billions of dollars and bought local properties, including more than 30 Bronx apartment buildings, tenants worry that they could face substantial rent hikes. more>

It all started when Serrano heard that Chavez would be in town for a United Nations conference in September. He called Chavez’ people to broach the idea of a Bronx day trip and Serrano said their response was, “This is incredible! We were just going to call you.” more>

Group warns of inflated real estate costs in the Bronx, fueled in part by exploding purchase prices of multi-family houses, is not benefiting the locals. more>

With the rehabilitation project of the South Ferry subway station, doubling service will come at a cost of half a billion dollars. Riders in other neighborhoods wonder if the money can be better spent on more down-at-the-heels stations. more>

According to a study issued by the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) last month, over the past decade, state support for city and state universities plummeted while tuition rose sharply. Students are footing the bill. more>

Information is the lifeblood of our democracy. Yet, too few citizens know that they have the right to see much of the information that our government produces. The American Society of Newspaper Editors and dozens of other press organizations hope to change that with the introduction of Sunshine Week on March 13. It can’t come soon enough, as more and more public information is being declared off-limits by government agencies, especially at the federal level. more>

Scores of Bronx tenants lost their rights over the last year and they probably didn’t even know it. That’s because a Bronx Supreme Court judge, Sallie Manzanet, prevented community organizers from entering five neglected buildings, negotiating with banks to enforce the good repair clause of mortgage contracts, or even discussing the problem buildings with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). more>

The feds plan to move outpatient services from the Manhattan VA hospital to both the Bronx and New Jersey. Advocates say that the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Road facility is already too strained to absorb the flow. more>

Besides bringing the river back to health, a coalition of community activists, the Bronx River Alliance and the Parks Dept. are having boardwalks built so park visitors can access the river even when the regular walkways are flooded. more>

An increase in value that is not based on a solid economic foundation could cause big problems for certain neighborhoods in the Bronx. Recent research and other published reports suggest that they are in the midst of a speculative real estate bubble that will surely burst. more>

Some Bronx social service agencies are charging that the city's reorganization of the Meals on Wheels program for homebound seniors will leave unionized workers – and the local agencies that employ them – out in the cold. more>

Two landlords of six buildings linked to Frank Palazzolo have sued two Bronx community organizations and secured a temporary restraining order to keep their tenant organizers away from the properties. more>

A community board manager discovers that 311 hurts her ability to help her constituency because she no longer hears what issues concern them most. She sees it as a threat to the boards' power and the direct relationship with the constituencies they represent. more>

On June 25, the University Neighborhood Housing Program in North Fordham, celebrated its 20th anniversary in helping community groups purchase residential apartment buildings. But the mood wasn’t all celebratory, as the nonprofit took the occasion to issue a warning about a serious vulnerability in the borough's housing market. more>

This year, the Bangladeshi English as a Second Language (ESL) program at PS/MS 20 celebrated its fifth year of success in helping local kids like Susanna, who are fluent in English, preserve their heritage, and communicate with their immigrant parents. At the same time, it has been instrumental in helping Bangladeshi-born kids learn to speak and write English. more>

This August will mark one year since 7-year-old Jashawn Parker died in a fire in his apartment on DeKalb Avenue in Norwood. We wish we could say the city moved swiftly to ensure that this never happens again. more>

Tenants from the North Bronx took their landlord, Frank Palazzo—the owner of more than 60 buildings, most with housing code violations—to task in his own neighborhood. The approximately 40 Bronx residents who protested in front of Palazzo’s own palace in Westcheter aren’t the only ones watching him; the city is also planning to litigate over offenses ranging from stealing city funds to not fixing leaking faucets and broken intercoms. more>

Police cooperation with the Bronx “feeder march,” to the Feb. 15 protest in midtown Manhattan is a model for how the demonstration should have been handled downtown. At the 125th St. subway station, where the police left us, we thanked and applauded the officers for their cooperation and a couple of people even chanted, “Money for cops, not for war!” more>

At least once a week, Chris Rambarran volunteers his time to make Norwood a better place to live. Chris is not your usual community activist—he’s a seventh-grader. He, and fellow members of the Norwood Action Club, volunteer after school to fix broken lights, improve buildings, and help solve other problems around their neighborhood. more>

Faced with a growing homelessness crisis, New York City is paying Park Avenue prices to some of the worst landlords to house people it cannot fit into its exploding shelter system. The result, tenant activists and housing advocates say, is a topsy-turvy system that encourages landlords to flout housing codes and drive long-time tenants out. more>

Jashawn Parker submerged himself in a bathtub to stave off the fire in his apartment, but that quick thinking wasn’t enough to protect him from years of landlord neglect. The landlord, Eric Gladstein, is currently on probation for stealing funds from a government program that provides rent money to poor tenants; an accomplice awaits sentencing on related charges. more>

Kenidia Gomez, a Bronx mother of five, was nearly illiterate when she signed up at the Center for Reading and Writing (CRW) at the Fordham Library a year ago. Of all the hurdles that come with that handicap, the most difficult was in her home. "It was very hard because my kids would say, 'Read me a story' and I would say I couldn't," she said. "Now, I can read them a story at night." more>

Local housing, day care and school programs will be hit hard if Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget is adopted. more>

Tenants in several severely neglected Bronx buildings owned by Frank Palazzolo are now pressuring Washington Mutual, the bank that holds the mortgages on more than 60 of the landlord's properties, to use its power to bring the buildings back up to code. more>