Results tagged “bronx”

   

Now Bronx straphangers know how much longer to boogie down on subway platforms at five stations along the Pelham 6 Line. The MTA has been tweaking the countdown clocks at stations along the L line for about two years now, and the authority plans to roll out the boards at 152 stations on the numbered lines by early 2011. The stations blessed with the slick new "Public Address Customer Information Screens" [PA/CIS] are Brook Ave, Cypress Ave, E.143rd St-St. Mary’s St, E.149th St and Longwood Ave.

Last night, an Amber Alert was issued for 20-month-old Giavonna Vizard, who was last seen in her family's Bronx home with her 13-year-old aunt. But a few hours later, the alert was cancelled, because the baby was found in Queens, as was aunt Lisa Keitt, who was taken into custody. Relatives suspect that the teen took the baby to get back at them for calling the cops. The baby's father Cyrus Smith said, "She ran away from a [group] program yesterday. She came to our door. We called the cops. She showed up again today with three friends."

The Bronx teen who was caught her in the crossfire of a gang shooting is on the mend and home for Christmas, after spending over a month in the hospital. 16-year-old Vada Vasquez was waiting for a bus with a friend on November 16th when she got caught in the line of fire between a baby-faced shooter and his intended target. The bullet entered her brain and she was kept in medically-induced coma for weeks. But now Vasquez is on the mend, and yesterday she spoke for the first time about the shooting:

The Bronx Swamp has finally been drained! The abandoned below-grade rail line that Nate Kensinger photographed earlier this year in all its glowing green goodness, was causing a stink in the neighborhood — and after the landowners were unable to be found, the city took on the task of cleaning it up.

Yesterday a five-alarm blaze that damaged a strip of stores in the Norwood section of the Bronx has residents and business owners—not to mention fire department officials— suspicious. The fire, on East 204th Street near Bainbridge Avenue, is the second in two months for the neighborhood—a five-alarm fire on Bainbridge near East 204th Street also destroyed businesses. One resident told WABC 7, "The first time it was the bakery and now again, it doesn't make sense."

Around 4:30 a.m., huge fire started in a store at East 204th Street near Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx—and it spread to neighboring stores. According to WABC 7, "Heavy flames shot through the roof of several of the businesses. The Foodtown supermarket, American Diner, and Bainbridge Dental Associates were all damaged by the flames." And WCBS 2 reports that there were no injuries but "The early morning wind may have complicated rescue efforts against the blaze." In October, a five-alarm fire damaged businesses on Bainbridge Avenue near East 204th Street for the 2nd time this year.

Near 2:30 a.m., a pipe of a 25,000 gallon water tank on a Bronx apartment building rooftop cracked—forcing all 14 floors' residents to be evacuated. The incident occurred on Holland Avenue, in the Olinville section.

The porn was on, but there was nobody home. An NYPD officer inspecting a Bronx narcotics unit last week found a soft-core porn movie playing on one of the TVs in the facility, sources tell the Post. But there was nobody watching it, because all the officers had left for the day. Poor, lonely, neglected porn! The unidentified movie ("NYPD Blew"?), which was was playing on a satellite-TV premium channel, violates a departmental policy banning such channels at work. Well, at least it wasn't kiddie porn.

After postponing two votes, two City Council subcommittees voted against a $310 million proposal to transform the Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping Mall. NY1 reports, "This is the first time the current City Council, that which was voted into office in 2001, has voted against a major Bloomberg administration proposal."

When parishioners at The Glory of Christ Church in the Parkchester section of The Bronx arrived for service on Sunday morning, they found their church—located in a formerly run-down synagogue that they'd lovingly rescued from decay—reduced to a smoldering ruin. The fire, which broke out around 4 a.m., took 100 firefighters to extinguish and is being investigated as a hate crime. The walls were spray-painted with a pentagram, "666," and "Hail to Satan," along with, "We hate Jews and Christians" and "GET OFF OUR BLOCK." After stealing $300 from the offering box, vandals stacked chairs in the sanctuary and set them on fire.

The Bronx street where police fired 41 shots at an unarmed black man in 1999 has become an unlikely tourist attraction, according to the Daily News.

Today's lesson: If you consumed enough booze to have a blood alcohol level of 0.22—the legal limit is 0.08—you shouldn't be driving! The Post reports, "A public-school teacher whose blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit struck an off-duty cop's car early yesterday in The Bronx, sources said." Plus, cops "found a small amount of marijuana in her purse. Dana Grippon...was [driving] westbound on East 161st Street in Melrose at 5:15 a.m. when she tried to turn onto Courtland Avenue," and ended up colliding with a car going in the opposite direction. The off-duty cop driving the other car "suffered bruises and minor neck injuries." Grippon was charged with DWI and drug possession.

Some more details have emerged about yesterday afternoon's three-car accident on the Bruckner Expressway that claimed the life of a SUV driver and left former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw unharmed but shaken. According to the Daily News, the SUV driver, "A police source said [Suejaes] Estrada, of the Bronx, was speeding. It was unclear whether she was wearing a seat belt."

The four men, arrested back in May for plotting to blow up Bronx synagogues and shoot planes at a National Guard base in Newburgh, NY, will be tried in June of next year. Lawyers for the four defendants had contended that the men were entrapped by the fed's informant, who promised/gave them money and fried chicken dinners, luring them into the plot. But the AP reports the judge "ruled that prosecutors don't have to disclose before trial any payments from a federal informant" to the defendants.

Mayor Bloomberg ignored a letter from an elderly woman begging him to stop the Parks Department from planting two trees in front of her Bronx home, where she's lived for 45 years. 76-year-old Irene McKenzie says leaves from the new trees will be enormous burden, and they'll also aggravate her sensitive allergies when they bloom. But tree-hugging Mayor Bloomberg did nothing to halt the inexorable advance of the trees, and a week before Thanksgiving they were planted, turning her life into a living nightmare:

In the aftermath of three November shootings in which innocent Bronx teens were gunned down, friends of one of the victims are urging witnesses to come forward. Following the death of 17-year-old Issi Ariel Dominguez — who cops believe was not the intended target when a gunman fired into a crowd after a party this weekend — friend Ruthie Gomez told NY1: "You better snitch, we are going to find him. We are going to find whoever did it, I don't care."

While it was previously reported that crack pipes were found in former Knick Dean Meminger's rented room in the Bronx, the NY Post spoke to an FDNY source who said, "We have not found a crack pipe in his room," though the source did acknowledge "at least one crack pipe was found in the building." A four-alarm fire started in the SRO—and later spread to other buildings— and Meminger was found unconscious by firefighters. He is recovering in a burn unit.

This is a pretty crazy time to be a teenager in the Bronx. Another adolescent was gunned down this weekend — this time fatally — with a bullet meant for someone else.

Terrible: Three people were shot when gunmen opened fire in a Bronx store, near East Fordham Road, and it seems that at least one of the victims was a bystander. WABC 7 says the shooting started outside, with two people working inside the florist getting wounded, while the Daily News reports the shooting occurred inside "when the gunman barged in around 6:15 p.m." The store owner's wife was hit in the leg, while a 47-year-old and 25-year-old were also hit. The News adds, "Investigators believe the 25-year-old was the gunman's intended target, a police source said. It was unclear if the two male victims knew each other." No arrests have been made; all victims are in stable condition.

City Island residents have finally gotten rid of the NYPD firing range on nearby Rodman's Neck in the Bronx, which has been disturbing their peace since the Kennedy administration. Last week the City Council approved the site of a 40-acre Police Academy in College Point, Queens, where the NYPD will relocate training to an enclosed firing range. But some residents say their aural nightmare endures!

Police arrested two 3rd graders and a 5th grader suspected of bringing a box cutter and a knife to their Bronx elementary school on Wednesday. According to the Post, a school safety agent nabbed a 9-year-old with a box cutter inside P.S. 2 on Franklin Avenue in Morrisania at around 9:30 am. When questioned, the student ratted out his accomplices — an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old — who reportedly were plotting an assault against a faculty member.

The family of the 15-year-old girl who took a stray bullet to the skull last Monday has something incredible to be thankful for today: doctors expect the teen to make a full recovery. After performing brain surgery to remove the bullet from Vada Vasquez's skull, doctors put her in medically-induced coma and cautioned relatives that she would most likely suffer some degree of brain damage. But now surgeon Narayan Sundaresan believes that although the bullet damaged her left temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for speech, she still "can make a full recovery."

Dean Meminger, the former Knicks great nicknamed "The Dream," is in a burn unit at Jacobi Hospital after suffering injuries from a four-alarm fire in the Bronx. The Fire Department is continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, after reports that crack pipes were found in a building where the fire was started—and some of the crack pipes may have been in Meminger's rented room.

The 15-year-old Bronx girl who was put in a medically-induced coma after taking a stray bullet to the skull has spoken for the first time since the incident, eight days ago. A source tells the Daily News that Vada Vasquez's first word was "Mom." Her condition has been upgraded to stable and a spokeswoman at Lincoln Hospital says, "She's improving. She's in stable condition and recognizes family members."

As dozens of people remain homeless after a Sunday four-alarm fire destroyed homes in the Claremont section of the Bronx, now fire officials suspect the fire began from a crack pipe—and many crack pipes were found in a room of an SRO rented by former Knicks great Dean "The Dream" Meminger. Meminger, 63, suffered smoke inhalation and is in critical condition at a burn unit in Jacobi Hospital.

The mother of the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting a rival gang member and an innocent young bystander gave her first interview with the press yesterday. In a teary sit-down with the Post, Zelita Mighty explained that she tried to keep her son, Carvett Gentles, away from the gang culture that grips the area around East 169th Street and Boston Road—where her own father was shot nine times in the back when she was a teen. But at some point over the summer, she claims "Zico" [Carvett's nickname] went from being an engaged student who would "proudly bring home attendance and science awards" to a distant young man mixing with his older cousins and uncle—members of the Gorilla Stone Blood gang.

A fire broke out in a Bronx home last night around 9:20 p.m. and quickly spread to neighboring homes, becoming a four-alarm blaze. Ultimately, it took over 200 firefighters and three hours to put out the fire on Findlay Avenue in the Claremont section. Now 45 people (and one cat) are left homeless.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was in the Bronx on Friday, to settle his World Series bet with Mayor Bloomberg. The two mayors decided not to do a cheesesteak-cheesecake bet (Senators Schumer and Gillibrand did that with Senators Casey and Specter) and instead agreed "that the losing mayor would travel to the winning city to join the winning mayor in a volunteer service project, while wearing the winning team’s jersey." So Nutter wore a jersey with the number 55—for Hideki Matsui—while Bloomberg wore a #27 jersey (for the Yankees' 27th World Series win) while they painted the halls of J.H.S. 131, the Albert Einstein School.

Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx student who was shot in the head Monday afternoon by suspects targeting someone else, was taken off her ventilator and remains in critical condition. The intended target spoke to the Daily News, "I'm so sad about what happened to her. I feel terrible. She's innocent, like I'm innocent."

Though prosecutors say he gave a written and videotaped confession, the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting two teens on a crowded street Monday afternoon pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday. As his mother wept in the third row of the courtroom, Carvett Gentles and four other young men—all members of the "Gorilla Stone Blood" gang—were arraigned and sent to Rikers Island without bail. Gentles lawyer maintained his client's innocence, insisting, "He does well in school, he comes from a nice family." But some members of this "nice family" happen to be the older gang members who allegedly handed Gentles the gun and told him to shoot—because he was the only one without an arrest record.