WTF on Attempted Abduction?

Why Won’t Community Boot Sex Offenders?

Why do Parents Leave Kids Alone?

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 17- Civic activist Frank Belcher declared, this week, that a child in the community will have to be sexually attacked before members of the Riverbay board take action to bar sex offenders from the local community.

Belcher, who has been waging a prolonged battle to have sex offenders barred from Co-op City, made his comments following last Friday's near-kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy in front of Section 5's PS 160.

“A child or a woman will have to be sexually attacked before Co-op City acts to boot sex offenders from this community,” said Belcher, whose five-year battle to bar sex criminals has been largely ignored by Co-op City officials.

Belcher emphasized, “I don't even know if a sex attack of a child will convince members of the Riverbay board and management officials that they need to take action. I think that someone is going to have to die at the hands of a sexual pervert before the board takes action to do what should have been done years ago --- bar the sex offenders from living in our community.”

Belcher noted that one of the first things the city's police did in their investigation of last Friday's near- kidnapping was circulate photos of the seven registered sex offenders who are living in Co-op City.

Belcher added, “It should be pointed out that three of these registered sex offenders live in Section 5, very close to where the attack on the 6-year-old boy took place last Friday morning. It is unconscionable that neither the members of the Riverbay board nor Co-op City's management officials seem to care enough to take action aimed at barring sex offenders from living in our community.”

The civic activist stressed, “As far as I'm concerned, the powers that be, through their inaction, have shirked their responsibilities to keep shareholders safe in their homes.”

***

Children should not be left alone at their schools

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 17- Civic activists Joyce Wilson and Frank Belcher said, this week, it defies logic for parents to have their young children wait alone at their schools up to an hour before the start of the school day.

Wilson and Belcher made their comments in response to reports that the mother of a 6-year-old boy, who was almost kidnapped last Friday morning, was left in front of PS 160 an hour before the start of his school's breakfast program.

John Vazquez, the custodial worker who foiled the Section 5 kidnapping of the boy, said that the 6 year old was left, unattended, in front of the school at 7 a.m. on a daily basis since the start of the school year in September.

In the wake of last Friday's near-tragedy, the boy's guardians now take the child to school, no longer leaving him unattended, Vazquez said Tuesday.

Wilson. a long-time volunteer at the community's schools, said, Tuesday, “It's just common sense not to leave a 6-year-old child unattended anywhere or any time, especially at 7 a.m. Young children, especially in this day and age, need to be accompanied by adults.”

Wilson noted, “I volunteer at the community's schools even though I no longer have children of school age. I volunteer because I love children. It shouldn't be too much to ask for parents to take their children to school or arrange for someone responsible to take their children to school. There's no excuse for having a 6-year-old child wait, on his own, in front of a school an hour before the start of school.”

Belcher, for his part, called on the city's child-welfare officials to take action against the mother who routinely arranged for her 6-year-old child to be left, unattended, in front of PS 160 on a regular basis.

“You really can't print what I think of this mother,” Belcher stressed. “Parents who neglect their children on a regular basis --- the way this mother did --- deserve to go to jail. We need to send a powerful message that this kind of neglect of children will not be tolerated.”

Wilson, while acknowledging that the 6-year-old boy's mother bears considerable responsibility for last Friday's near kidnapping of the boy, added, “We need to have an increased presence of NYPD officers and Public Safety officers in the vicinity of our schools to guard against this kind of thing.”

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Will New Mall Stem Bronx Depression?

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, May 17- With unemployment in the Bronx reaching 14.1 percent in February, Bay Plaza's new mall promises to be a big economic boon for Co-op City and the rest of the Bronx.

All told, the new mall is expected to generate 3,700 new jobs, 2,000 temporary positions relating to construction of the mall and another 1,700 permanent jobs.

At a time of deep economic retrenchment on a wide variety of fronts, Prestige Properties is planning to spend $270 million on construction of the new enclosed mall.

The new mall at Bay Plaza, in addition to providing greatly expanded opportunities for shopping, is expected to spur a variety of ancillary economic activities and commerce in the area.

Renovations at the existing portion of Bay Plaza have already started. Ultimately, Prestige Properties plans to spend $5 million on renovations of the existing portion of Bay Plaza, which opened in the mid-1980s.

Ultimately, the current and new portion of Bay Plaza will be connected into one enclosed mall.

Joseph Comparetto, senior vice president of Prestige, stressed, in a recent interview, “It is important that a shopping center not look outdated or faded. That's why we're spending an estimated $5 million on renovations of the existing portion of the shopping center.”

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Zoo Crash Could have been Prevented?

Survivor to Survivor: "I know What Your Going Through"

(Construction crews begin setting up a new barrier at the site of the most recent crash.--Photo by Amparo Cruz)

(A classmate of one of the victims speaks to reporter's after a funeral mass for the seven victims at St. Raymond's Church in Parkchester.--Photo by David Greene)

By David Greene

A Bronxite who lost five members of his family as well as a close friend, has reached out to the Soundview family who lost seven members in the latest multi-fatal crash along the Bronx River Parkway.

Dexter Gardiner was hosting a memorial basketball game dedicated to his mother and sister who had passed away in the same year, when a horrific crash on July 9, 2006, claimed the lives of Asia, 6; Dexter's twin Derrick, 40; Jamel, 16; Tuywann, 23; brother in law Brandon Days, 18; and friend Jeremy Blackwell, 23.

The family members had left the game at St. James Park in the Fordham section, and were traveling southbound on the Bronx River Parkwway between the Bronx Zoo and E. 177 Street exits, when their vehicle jumped the center divider and plowed into on-coming traffic.

Gardiner, a Burke Avenue resident recalled, "I visited them the day after the crash. I know what they’re going through right now, so I just wanted to be there to support them."

Coincidentally, Gardiner was driving with his girlfriend when his son called to tell him about the car that flew off the Bronx River Parkway and into the Bronx Zoo on April 29.

The latest crash claimed the lives of Maria Gonzalez, 45; Maria Maria Munez, 39; Ana Martinez, 81; Jacob Nunez, 85; Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10; Niely Rosario, 7; and Marly Rosario, 3.

Recalling getting the tragic news, Gardiner stated, "Oh man, I was devastated. It was like a flashback... it was heartbreaking."

To no avail, Gardiner had reached out to state officials to fix the roadway, that had several major flaws but the State Department of Transportation (DOT) did nothing. In fact, Bronx Democratic District Leader Michael Robles survived when his car flew off the parkway last year and landed in front of a Bronx police station.

At the time the DOT vowed to make a statement, but the call never came.

This past week work crews had finished erecting two new, temporary barriers that will keep vehicles on the roadway in the event of a crash, until repairs cane be made.

Monte Dean, a spokesman for the DOT, stated, "The length of the barrier is about 3,000 feet in each direction. I don't have a cost yet either. No idea."

Asked about another trouble-spot identified by the Cross Bronx Expressway Initiative, which claims another dangerous location exists on the Cross Bronx Expressway near the Sheridan Expressway, Dean replied, "Well the specific conditions of Bronx River Parkway, where it had that shorter curb along the edge, but we're looking along the rest of the Bronx River Parkway, but I don't know if the Cross Bronx or the other roads have that, but I will ask our folks and see what they can tell me."

William Rivera of the Cross Bronx Initiative, who sent a letter to state officials back in November, 2011, fired back, "It sounds like a cliche, but seven people didn't have to tragically die to address unsafe conditions."

Attorney Jeff Korek of Gersowitz, Libo and Korek, who represents the only survivor from the 2006 crash, agreed, offering in a prepared statement, "The Bronx River Parkway has been an on-going problem due to, 'patchwork' and 'band aid," repairs and faulty design. A proper safety review of this roadway would have prevented many deaths, including these latest.   

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Rash of Jumpers?

Two Perish in New GWB Suicides

(Photos by David Greene)

By David Greene

For the second time in less than a month, two individuals have jumped to their deaths within hours or days of each other.

According to the Port Authority Police Department, the first incident was reported at 2:45 p.m., on May 9. The second person was spotted jumping off the bridge on Sunday, May 13, at 3:40 p.m.

Regarding the first incident, PAPD press officer Al Dellafave stated, "Witnesses said they observed him on the walkway, at the rail, and that body has not been recovered as of yet."

"Both times," Dellafave continued, "Harbor patrol and the Coast Guard searched, but still those bodies have not been recovered," and neither victim has been identified.

Dellafave could not recall April 1, when two individuals jumped within hours of each other with one body washing up in Manhattan, the other was discovered floating in the Spuyten Duyvil Creek near the Metro North station in Riverdale.

Dellafave explained, "We have so many, they kind of blend into one another."

Asked if there has been an increase in suicides since Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University student leaped to his death in a highly publicized incident back in September, 2010, Dellafave responded, "No, it's about standard. I don't remember the numbers last year, but we run about eight to fifteen a year."

The press officer continued, "With the George Washington Bridge, the issue there is there is a parking lot and then there's a walkway, so if people have a notion to do that, you can always gain access."

Meanwhile, the FDNY reported a body was discovered in the Hudson River near Battery Park in lower Manhattan at just before 7 a.m. The NYPD reported a second body was pulled from the Manhattan side of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek at 7:30 p.m.

Police say both bodies were too decomposed to be the George Washington Bridge jumpers from Sunday.     

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