East Bronx History Forum highlights
Map of Country Club 1880 Huntington Free Library collection
BY THOMAS X. CASEY
The Huntington Free Library
and Reading Room announces
the East Bronx History
Forum will hold its 146th
meeting on Wednesday, January
15 at 7:30 p.m. at the City
Island Historical Society and
Museum. All meetings are
free and open to the public.
We will meet at City Island at
190 Fordham Street (left turn
from City Island Avenue).
Call the City Island Museum
at (718) 885-0008 for additional
information, which will open
for the special presentation.
Returning to the East
Bronx History Forum is Angel
Hernandez who was recently
elected president of the
Huntington Free Library. Hernandez
brings his expertise in
Bronx history from his years
as educational director of the
Bronx Historical Society. Angel
Hernandez will draw his
presentation from many historic
images that he has re-
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,40 JANUARY 10-16, 2020 BTR
searched and that many have
not been publicly displayed.
Hernandez has developed and
led many walking tours and
historic fi eld trips throughout
the Bronx and will use his experiences
in telling this story.
Hernandez’s presentation
focuses on the area depicted
in the area known as
the Country Club section of
the Bronx. Pelham Bay Park
and the area nearby were all
part of Westchester County
until 1898. As the 1880 map
depicts, there were many diverse
sporting venues on
the grounds where residential
homes replaced numerous
mansions. Some of these
mansions are still standing
as schools and a rehabilitation
center. The polo grounds
are gone, but was replaced by
a street named Polo Place.
We will meet at the City Island
Historical Society at 190
Fordham Street on Wednesday
January 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Action
Association
BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
020 may be a tough year for
the Northeast Bronx. It has
become obvious that the area
is being utilized as a cash cow
for the City of New York.
Both the mayor, an extremist
who cheered on the Soviet
Union when it placed troops
in Nicaragua in the 1980s,
and the City Council, which
behaves more like a left-wing
debating society than a local
government, clearly see middle
class communities as little
more than ATM’s to fund their
ideological agenda.
Mr. Di Blasio, who has
been rather laconic to the rise
of crime, the terrible conditions
in city-owned housing,
and other key issues, became
enraged at Domino’s Pizza for
overcharging New Years’ Eve
revelers for Pizza. So what else
has city government been concentrating
on?
Starting in 2019, motorists
have been subjected to a program
advertised as a safety
measure but which, in reality,
is a move to glean every cent
possible. So-called “speed”
and “red light cameras” have
been placed all over the area.
To ensure that innocent drivers
are snagged, yellow light
times appear to have been
reduced to produce artifi -
cial charges of light-running.
Some speeding charges are
not justifi able levies against
hot-foot drivers; reduced limits
and ultra-sensitive camera
sensors are rigged to detect
even brief and unavoidable accelerations.
Don’t be fooled into thinking
that this is an environmentally
conscious attempt to
get people into mass transit.
Express bus service for the
area is being reduced, regular
bus service is as bad as ever,
and, thanks to the most antipolice
mayor in New York’s
history, the subways have become
a dangerous arena for
life-threatening crime. It’s
just a cynical attempt to get
cash, cash which, you may
rest assured, will not be used
for your benefi t.
As a way of demonstrating
its utter disdain for the community,
dangerous “road diet”
plans are imposed on key avenues
such as Morris Park
and portions of East Tremont,
despite signifi cant local
opposition. If the city was so
interested in changing the
road-scape, they should put
their efforts into expeditiously
repairing the streets that look
more like lunar craters more
than roadways.
The rapacious nature of
city government is not confi
ned to transportation. Property
“valuations’ have risen,
as a way for the city to collect
more and more tax dollars.
Water rates have become outrageous.
Remember when we
were told that water metering
was only there to promote
conservation, not raise revenue?
Clearly, our elected offi -
cials believe that we have very
short memories.
While having every spare
dime sucked up, the Northeast
Bronx continues to be underserved.
The 45th Precinct, one
of the largest geographically in
the city, continues to be undermanned
and underequipped.
The result, increased levels of
crime, particularly car breakins,
is obvious. Try to protect
your family and property
yourself in the absence of law
enforcement? Good luck. The
city is increasingly subjecting
legal gun owners, and anyone
else who seeks to practice
the right of self-defense, to all
sorts of legal exposure.
Starting this month, the
city will allow not imposing
cash bail on criminals, and
even give them baseball tickets
to show up in court. But
the honest homeowner, motorist,
or shopkeeper subjected to
a ridiculous fi ne gets no such
consideration. Due to an outcry,
it is rumored that this
piece of left-wing lunacy is under
review.
Speaking of overregulation,
consider the plight of local
small business owners,
who continue to face a battery
of unnecessary regulations
and fi nes.
It is not inappropriate to
ask what are our local elected
offi cials doing in response to
all this. Yes, the mayor is an
ideologue who is apparently
disinterested in the needs of
his constituents, a disaster
who is more concerned with
his political career and gleaning
every cent he can from his
position. But throughout the
city there are bureaucrats and
elected offi cials who are apparently
heedless of the situation
or, worse, supportive of it.
Much of the major city media
turns a blind eye towards
all this, failing to expose those
who lie repeatedly, and make
the same insincere promises
each and every election year
which they have absolutely no
intention of fulfi lling.
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