3 BRONX WEEKLY January 26, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
Last year’s mischief leaves St. Theresa’s Feast in limbo
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BY STEVEN GOODSTEIN
The future of a traditional
neighborhood event that has
taken place every year for
more than two decades is uncertain.
The St. Theresa Feast,
an almost week-long festival
which started in 1997,
is now in jeoparardy after
last year’s feast resulted in
multiple incidents involving
rowdy teenagers.
The marauding swarms
of teens damaged vehicles,
stores and other property on
Crosby Avenue, Westchester
Avenue as well as on some local
streets near the feast.
What’s even worse, the
‘wilding’ was videoed and
shared thousands of times
on various social media outlets
.T
hese videos brought an
uproar from the community
and were probably partially
responsible for the Community
Board 10 rejection
of this year’s St. Theresa
Church permit.
“Last week, we voted
against approving the permit
for the feast - but there
is still time for Mayor Bill
de Blasio to approve their
permit through the Street
Activity Permit Offi ce,” said
Community Board 10 district
manager Matt Cruz.
The fi nal decision would
be made sometime in the late
spring, according to Cruz.
Another factor that didn’t
bode well for the Pelham Bay
parish and school was the
absence of representatives
of the church at CB 10’s full
board meeting on Thursday,
January 16.
“There needs to be a solution
to this problem - and if
there’s no solution then there
will be no feast,” said local
advocate Dotti Poggi, who
started a petition as well as
a Facebook page along with
other CB10 residents called
‘The Future of St. Theresa’s
Feast Pelham Bay NY’ in attempts
to discuss safety solutions
to prevent the same
scenario at this year’s event,
should it take place.
Specifi c incidents included
girls fi ghting, a
child beaten while a crowd
cheered, cars being vandalized
and broken into, and a
woman who incurred a hand
injury while locking the
door of her laundromat during
the escalating riots.
Another Pelham Bay resident,
Screenshot of a video shot during a riot involving teenagers near
the Buhre Avenue subway station.
Photo/video courtesy of Michael Ingrasci
a single mother with
two children, had to dish out
$2,500 to repair the damage
her car sustained from the
out-of -control teens.
Most of the problems occurred
blocks away from the
actual feast.
Hundreds of youngsters
fl ooded into the streets on
the outskirts of the feast
and overwhelmed the small
number of assigned police
offi cers.
Many believe the teenage
troublemakers came to the
feast looking to cause problems.
If the feast was to go on
several safety precautions
were suggested: increase
the police presence, set-up
baracades for crowd control
outside feast area, assign
Guardian Angels on
inbound and outbound #6
IRT trains, and using only
one subway station for those
attending the feast (Crosby
Avenue is a proposed location).
As of press time, a total
of 316 residents have signed
the online petition which
will be sent to Councilman
Mark Gjonaj once it has 500
signatures.
Some Pelham Bayites
blamed the incidents on the
fact that the feast was advertised
outside the community,
in locations such as
Parkchester and Jerome Avenue,
attracting ‘outsiders’
to the festival.
The annual St. Theresa
Feast is a fi ve-day festival
which includes carnival
rides, game stations, music,
cuisine, vendors and raffl e
prizes.
The fi nal day of the feast
includes the procession
through the streets with the
St. Theresa statue.
The feast was recently
moved to the second-to-last
week in June to improve its
attendance.
The school relies heavily
on the feast’s profi ts to keep
the school affordable to its
middle class families.
The Bronx Times attempted
to contact the
church pastor, Father
Thomas Derivan, but he did
not reply by press time.
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