BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ TO HOST FIRST EVER BOROUGHWIDE ECONOMIC SUMMIT

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will host The Bronx Economic Summit: a Blueprint for Success, a full-day event designed to bring business owners and industry experts together to discuss and create an economic plan for the future of the borough.

The summit will examine and discuss important topics such as: the potential areas of growth and large scale developments, including the development of a Bronx marketing plan; how to attract and retain businesses on our commercial corridors, including the critical role of cultural organizations in the borough economy; the opportunities offered by the green economy, including planet friendly transportation and development of vacant land/brownfield; and unemployment factors in the borough, job training needs for future jobs, and that role of start-ups in employment.

Read the press release here.

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BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ ISSUES SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AND SPECIAL NEEDS FACILITIES REPORTS

These reports geographically identify the distribution of the 148 supportive housing developments and 422 Special Needs facilities located throughout the borough by community district.  Borough President Diaz has commissioned these reports to help communities plan for their development.  Although these services play an important role in the life of their residents, communities as well have a responsibility to help plan for their placement according to the city’s fair share principals. 

Download the Borough President's Reports here:
(note: these are large PDF files and may take several minutes to download)

Supportive Housing by Community District

Special Needs Facilities by Community District

BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ,
ASSEMBLYMAN DINOWITZ, COUNCIL MEMBER KOPPELL & CONGRESSMAN ENGEL ANNOUNCE THE REOPENING OF THE KINGSBRIDGE PARKING LOT

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, City Council Member G. Oliver Koppell and Congressman Eliot Engel have jointly announced that the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has agreed to reopen the Kingsbridge parking lot, located at Broadway and West 230th Street, in the coming weeks.

This development comes following months of pleading by these elected officials, Community Board #8 and local business leaders to reopen the lot on a temporary basis. A planned development for the site has stalled, and local businesses have complained that the loss of hundreds of parking spaces has cost them tens of thousands of dollars in business. At a meeting between these elected officials and the NYCEDC on Thursday, the agency announced that it would begin the process of reopening the lot immediately, and expects it to be opened prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

“I am happy that the NYCEDC listened to the community and the local businesses on this issue and acted quickly to resolve this problem. In these tough economic times, our small businesses need all the help they can get, and these parking spaces will be a great help to the local businesses during the upcoming holiday season,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

Read the full press release.

Jamieson Fajardo and Dongsei Kim talked to the Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. about p.U.M.p., the winning project of the competition The Grand Concourse Beyond 100

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. announced the winners of Intersections: The Grand Concourse Beyond 100, an international ideas competition for the future of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx organized by The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Design Trust for Public Space.

Dongsei Kim and Jamieson Fajardo, students at Columbia University, won the competition  with a proposal that calls for a sleek ribbon-like pump device, about as wide as a lane of traffic, to be installed along the Major Deegan Expressway as a way to clean air, provide acoustic buffering, filtrate rainwater, and ultimately provide pedestrian access to a new green waterfront. Called a p.U.M.p. (purifying Urban Modular parasite), the new kind air purification technology would be manufactured in the industrial district adjacent to the Lower Concourse, spurring development of new green industries in the Bronx.

Read the full press release.