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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, APR. 8-14, 2022
BXR
BY MARY JANE MUSANO
There will be a very important
meeting on April 19, at 7:30
at St. Benedict’s Church’s Albert
Hall, located at 2968 Bruckner
Blvd. Throggs Neck Associates,
LLC, will present its proposal
of the Bruckner upzoning to the
CB10 Housing and Zoning Committee.
The public is encouraged
to attend. This will be an opportune
time to express your opposition
to this project, that, if
built, will change the face of our
community forever. If passed, it
will set a precedent for other areas
in our community to be upzoned.
Soon, our lovely low-density
community will look like
Manhattan. We need low density
communities just as much as we
need high density communities.
Balance is key.
This upzoning is to permit
the construction of two 8-story
buildings, one 5-story building
and one 3-story building
along Bruckner Boulevard from
Crosby Avenue to Gifford Avenue,
into a portion of Tremont
Avenue. Included are 34 parcels
that will be upzoned so that
more buildings like these can be
built. There are several E-designated
parcels included, meaning
that those parcels have environmental
problems. Parkland is
also included.
As many of you know, our
community was downzoned
in 2004 which made our community
a Low Density Growth
Management Area. This designation
was fought for by former
Councilmember Jimmy Vacca
along with many members of our
community. It took us years to
achieve this much needed downzoning.
Since that time, our community
has grown by leaps and
bounds. We are even more overdeveloped
than we were at that
time and our services have not
kept up with our growth. Therefore,
it makes no sense to upzone
our area now.
The placement of this proposed
upzoning is inappropriate
as it sits along Bruckner Boulevard,
which is a one lane road
and often severely congested
from the constant backups on the
Bruckner Expressway. Crosby
Avenue is often dangerously congested
with parents dropping off
and picking up their children.
Add a project of this magnitude
to this already congested area
and you have a recipe for disaster.
We are a transportation desert
having no immediate access
to the train. If you need to get to
the train, you must take the bus
and the wait now is unacceptably
long. You need a car if you
live here. Most families have several
cars and nowhere to park. If
this proposal is passed, the parking
situation will go from bad to
worse.
If this proposal is granted, it
will decimate our community
and create a dangerous situation.
Our Fire Department and
Police Department will be put in
an impossible situation. There is
no way they would be able to protect
the community they serve.
Our schools are so overcrowded
that PS 14 was enlarged to accommodate
the overflow from
PS 71. If this project is approved
our schools will be unfairly overcrowded,
even more than they
already are. Our hospitals are
at the breaking point. The emergency
departments at both area
hospitals are so overcrowded
that patients are kept there for
many days because there are no
beds for them; patients are also
placed in halls due to the lack of
beds. Our infrastructure cannot
handle the stress this project
would put on it. Right now, we
have sewer backups and flooding
during heavy rains. Storms have
caused such severe flooding that
people have had to spend thousands
to ameliorate the damage
to their properties.
Now is the time to speak up
and protect the quality of life
that we have left. Please attend
this meeting and bring you
friends and neighbors. Together
we can win.
CIVIC CENTER
Waterbury-LaSalle
Association
CIVIC CENTER
East Bronx
History Forum
DOROTHY KRYNICKI
The East Bronx History Forum
and the Huntington Free
Library are pleased to announce
the Forum will hold its 164th
meeting on Wednesday, April 13
at 8 p.m. with a Zoom presentation
by Sergey Kadinsky, “Hidden
Waters of New York City.”
Mr. Kadinsky is an adjunct
history professor at Touro College,
reporter at Queens Jewish
Link, and a contributing writer
at Forgotten-NY for more than a
decade. He paid his way through
college as a licensed and unionized
tour guide, which led to his
documentation of street scenes
around the city. He is the author
of “Hidden Waters of New York
City,” which documents the rivers,
creeks, lakes and ponds that
either still exist or were covered
many decades ago.
The following are examples of
streams in the eastern portions
of the Bronx that will appear in
the presentation: Westchester
Creek, Baxter Creek, Weir Creek,
Hutchinson River, Rattlesnake
Brook, Pelham Bay Lagoon, Baxter
Creek, source of Westchester
Creek and Turtle Cove.
Please join us and find out
about the hidden waters of the
East Bronx. The East Bronx
History Forum will post the
login details on our web page at
BronxNYC.com. Please help defray
the cost of the meetings by
using the donate button.
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