Thursday, August 16, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW
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The power of good ideas
Forty-three years ago, a young Bronx student at CCNY had an interesting idea. Co-op City was opening up in the northeast Bronx, dropping nearly 60,000 people into the area to further strain meager transportation resources. A look at the maps of the area revealed that an unused rail line, part of the New Haven system, ran right past the massive new housing project. Is it possible to make this happy coincidence work for these underserved commuters, wondered young Andy Wolf at the beginning of 1969. He learned that it was indeed technically possible to run trains from Coop City, maybe even stopping in Parkchester and Hunts Point as well, then crossing over the Hell Gate Bridge, where these trains could be routed to Penn Station via the Long Island Railroad tunnels into Manhattan. Sounds like a long trip, but it would have been the fastest way into Manhattan. Congressman Jonathan Bingham agreed, and became a champion of the concept. He was joined by many of the borough’s elected officials in advocating for the plan. As the 1970s wore on, however, it was clear that this was one good idea that would have to be deferred in the light of the city’s dire fiscal crisis. Bingham declined to run for re-election in 1982, and the plan was seemingly forgotten. Wolf is now the editor and publisher of this newspaper. He was delighted to learn recently that Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., working with two recent additions to the MTA Board, Charles Moerdler and Fernando Ferrer, recently picked up on this concept, now a much simpler proposition: New track capacity has since been added under the East River and technical advances make shorter headways possible, permitting more trains to use these tracks. Do good ideas ever die? Maybe not. And this is one good idea that seems to be on the right track to becoming reality.
Classic cartoon which appeared in the Bronx Press Review in early 1969.
See editorial at left.
Here’s another good idea
Did you know that The Bronx was once home to one of the nation’s most famous and important institutions, a place that to this day still holds the potential of bringing tourists by the hundreds of thousands to our borough? We’re talking about the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, located on a magnificent hill overlooking the Harlem River. It was constructed in 1901 on the Bronx campus of New York University, designed by one of the nation’s most prominent architects, Stanford White. While the edifice still exists on what is now a part of Bronx Community College, it has not been kept up or promoted. In a real sense it has been abandoned. As other Halls of Fame have prospered, this Hall, the very first of its kind, lies crumbling, both physically and spiritually. Once NYU left the borough, the Hall lost its true direction. Misguided officials at Bronx Community College, unwilling inheritors of the shrine, characterized the Hall as some kind of racist enterprise because of the less-than-inclusive membership. This was a reflection of a poor election process, and the time when it was first conceived. The intrinsic value was demonstrated in the early 1970s when Borough President Robert Abrams was summoned to lunch with the city’s then Power-Broker-in-Chief, Robert Moses. Moses tried to get Abrams to agree to have the Hall moved to Manhattan! The incredulous borough president refused, much to Moses’ chagrin. But why did Moses want it so badly? Because he saw its potential, the potential that politicians and college officials have ignored since that proud moment when Bob Abrams had the foresight to just say no. The magnificent building is still there, a new and radically revised election process needs to be put in place, and some funds undoubtedly will need to be raised. A new, expanded Hall could take advantage of 21st century technology to teach our young people not so much the meaning of fame, a concept that has radically changed in the past century, but the meaning of greatness. We can visualize tour buses and school buses driving each day to our borough, and excitement over each new election reverberating throughout America with all eyes focused on The Bronx in the best way possible. That’s the challenge. Do we have the leadership here that’s up to it?
Cops will do anything to write tickets To The Editor: The 50th Precinct is at it again. Previously, police officers in the 50th Precinct were writing traffic tickets for “Improper Turns” which were not turns, until the Bronx Traffic Violations Bureau dismissed these tickets. Now they are writing parking tickets on Sunday for a “No Standing” sign, which sign was completely covered by tree branches. The “No Standing” sign is located at Post Road and 246th Street in Riverdale, off Manhattan College Parkway. It’s on construction stanchions next to a large construction dumpster, which dumpster is moved periodically. Look at the photograph on the right. Can you see the sign? It’s there — just covered by tree branches. Perhaps the 50th Precinct is more concerned with their Precinct traffic ticket quotas rather than the welfare and safety of the people of Riverdale, and the visibility of their traffic signs. Beware Riverdale! Check be-
hind every bush, tree and shrub. There just might be a sign there. And the Police Officers of the 50th Precinct know where all the signs are, obstructed or not. Recently, August 5, I rechecked the sign. Someone or something had broken off one of the main branches covering the sign. Now it’s only half covered by tree branches. Perhaps an-
ANDREW WOLF, Editor and Publisher
Note our new address: 5752 Fieldston Road Bronx, New York 10471 (718) 543-5200 FAX: (718) 543-4206
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STAFF: Robert Lebowitz, Richard Reay, Paulette Schneider, Lloyd Ultan, Daniel R. Wolf
other unlucky Riverdale resident received a “No Standing” sign parking ticket, and broke off a main branch covering the sign. Courtesy, Professional, Respect, and Integrity dictate that no parking ticket should be written for this location until the “No Standing” sign is unobstructed and clear. Ronald N. Ranus
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