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Volume XIX • Number 2 • January 19 - 25, 2012 •
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Board nixes ‘conflicted’ housing plan By BRENDAN McHUGH Bronx Community Board 8 has passed a resolution demanding that housing not be included in plans for development on West 230th Street. After hearing arguments both for and against housing, the board overwhelmingly decided to oppose housing—the same decision they came to in 2005 when the project first came to the community for review. Board members who have been in contact with the city’s Economic Development Corporation say the city is reviewing five proposals and that three of them include plans for some form of housing. Some cautioned against limiting the number of proposals to consider, but most board members believed the site could not adequately support housing. While the board’s vote will have some sway with the city, EDC can still choose a proposal that includes housing. A decision is expected sometime in early February. EDC will not discuss details about the proposals. A small four-person committee of the board made recommendations to EDC late last year opting not to exclude housing but to stress commercial retail as the main component of the development. Most members of the full board decided to exclude housing and created the resolution to do so. Sitting between the famously congested Major Deegan Expressway and a statistically dangerous stretch of Broadway, the pollution, noise and traffic wouldn’t be good homes for families, board members and local legislators said at the January 10 meeting in the Riverdale Presbyterian Church. The Kingsbridge Riverdale Van Cortlandt Development Corporation believes otherwise. They believe the reason the project failed the first time around was because housing wasn’t included and that to limit proposals would be to repeat history. However, KRVCDC initially failed to disclose their financial involvement with one of the hopeful developers, an omission that troubled the community board, which saw a dangerous conflict of interest. “I don’t get why they won’t just say it right away. It’s only hurting their point,” one board member said after the meeting. When pressed, KRVCDC said they are bound by “privacy agreements” not to discuss the specifics of the project. They also wouldn’t disclose whether they stand to profit from the project.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell both refuted the claim that eliminating housing was the reason the project initially failed. Ceruzzi Holdings was prepared to begin developing the land into a shopping center but pulled out of the project before a shovel ever hit the ground. To
say they failed because housing wasn’t included is unfair and inaccurate, the legislators said. Stipulations that the four-person committee made before this resolution include preventing access for loading and unloading on 230th Street, focusing pedestrian access on Broadway, and having the devel-
oper pay for a traffic study around 230th Street to examine the impact of a new development. The committee also asked that the public, mostly merchants and local shoppers, continue to have access to the existing parking lot until construction begins and that the developer use Bronx job programs and hire locally.
Mayoral candidate Stringer stresses his local ties
By BRENDAN McHUGH Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer toured the Riverdale Y last week on his second trip to the neighborhood in less than a month. Following in the footsteps of other 2013 prospective mayoral candidates, Stringer schmoozed with the seniors at the Riverdale Y during their Friday lunch on January 13 with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has toured the facilities with City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, and City Comptroller John Liu has followed Dinowitz through the Y.
But Stringer, a suspected candidate for mayor, has a special connection to the area that his opponents do not: His mother is a Kappock Street resident. Stringer showed off pictures of his fiveweek-old baby, Maxwell, and talked to the seniors about saving critical services in the upcoming budget. “There is a real vitality in the area, especially among the seniors in this community,” Stringer said. “We need to mobilize seniors to prevent budget cuts to vital services.” He quickly won over the crowd, aided by the introduction of Dinowitz, a prominent figure in Riverdale’s senior
community. The assemblyman told the crowd of around 100 that Stringer, a former Assembly colleague, was “a leader on so many issues” while in the state Legislature. Dinowitz said after the luncheon that he was not endorsing the borough president for mayor and that he just “wants people to see what we have going on in our district.” Stringer told the crowd, all seniors, that they are the “backbone of the city” and deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labor without having their services destroyed through budget cuts. Continued on Page 5