Fresh from the oven There and back again From world-famous purveyors to mom-and-pop stores, Fieldston’s football coach calls on his roots at the school the northwest Bronx has great bakeries, page B1. — and an NFL stint, to lead the team, page B8. Vol. 67, No. 30 Thursday, September 10, 2015 $1.00 Blast won’t Pols unveil delay JFK Broadway opening Nice kids. facelift plan By Isabel Angell By Will Speros [email protected] Good schools. [email protected] After a gas explosion partially de- A busy stretch of Broadway is an- stroyed the sixth floor of the John F. chored by malls at West 230th and Kennedy Campus near the end of Au- West 238th streets, but the space be- gust, all seven schools were on track to tween has lacked a guiding vision for Hard drugs. years. open on the first day of the school year on Wednesday. A group of elected officials an- Following the large, Aug. 20 blast, nounced plans to change that last parents and students worried that re- A Press special report — part one week. pairs would not be complete in time for Bronx Borough President Ruben the start of the school year. Authori- Diaz Jr. and other elected officials ties had blamed a massive explosion at released an analysis of the area with the JFK campus on a worker who lit a recommendations including more match in a room full of natural gas. lighting, graffiti removal, standardized However, the Department of Edu- street furniture and waste bins and the cation (DOE) released a statement creation of new parks and “public inter- saying the building is structurally action spaces.” sound and that air quality tests show “We’ve been able to work in such no possible dangers. School princi- a smart and strategic way, it really pals could return to the building last makes me proud,” Mr. Diaz said at a week, and staff returned on Tuesday. Sept. 2 press conference on West 231st Construction on the damaged floor is Street. “This is what I call planning scheduled to continue throughout the with purpose.” school year, although officials reas- Although beautification strategies sured parents the work would not take are still in the planning stages, the re- place during school hours. port outlines a few aspects of the pro- The DOE held a town hall meeting posed makeover. at the IN-Tech Academy on Sept. 3 to By Isabel Angell Jennifer’s son “Tyler” was going to be The Bronx Revolving Loan Fund address parents’ concerns. Represen- [email protected] a junior at RKA in the fall of 2014. He was has accumulated close to $500,000 in tatives from the department and other taking honors math and was a prolific art- funds for local businesses to put to- city agencies involved in repairing the In the summer of 2014, a mother at ist. Jennifer is a single mother, and she and ward the aesthetic improvement of campus came to give updates and an- the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Tyler were very close. their properties. Property owners are swer questions from the crowd. Academy (RKA) told fellow parent “Jenni- “Who would think that — I mean, you encouraged to contact the NYC Eco- “The building is safe, it is secure fer” that she was pulling her child out of the don’t think that,” she said in an interview nomic Development Corporation and and the air quality is good,” said Lor- school because she had learned of preva- in her Riverdale apartment. “I confronted request free graffiti removal. raine Grillo of the School Construction lent drug use among students, with some my son about it and he just kind of laughed The report calls upon the city to Authority. She explained workers have of them even doing heroin. at me.” add better lighting under the elevated already cleared away debris, demol- “I almost didn’t believe it,” recalled Jen- “But I guess at that point I probably subway track and also to provide new ished any potential safety hazards and nifer, who does not want her real name to should have taken more steps,” she contin- or improved sidewalks to the corridor. closed off the damaged areas. be used due to the sensitive matter of her ued. “I think I let too many things go that Mr. Diaz also cited the desire for a Ms. Grillo also gave an update story. “Not that this woman would be ly- seemed insignificant to me or someone “pocket park” near West 230th Street. about the workers injured in the blast, ing, but you know, sometimes people blow blowing something up out of proportion, “We’ve always talked about doing saying that all three were still in the things out of proportion.” but after all is said and done, I realized that beautification in this area and it is just hospital in stable condition and be- Jennifer said she did not know the wom- they were right.” a breath of fresh air to hear that it’s ac- ginning the process of receiving skin an very well, and while she did not dismiss As the months went by, the problem tually starting to happen,” said Farrah grafts as treatment for their burns. the warning outright, she found it hard to gradually hit home. Rubin, Development Director for the Officials from the Department believe that a good high school in Riverdale, During the summer of 2014, Jennifer Kingsbridge Riverdale Van Cortlandt of Buildings and the Department of of all places, would have a heroin problem. (Continued on page A5) Development Corportation (KRVC). Health and Mental Hygiene echoed Elected officals also stressed the Ms. Grillo’s statements: the engineers need for modernized parking meters found the campus structurally sound along the stretch of Kingsbridge. and tests revealed the air quality is safe “We want [shoppers] to have peace for students. of mind so that they can go from store (Continued on page A4) (Continued on page A11) Charters ‘thank’ Klein with cash for school votes By Will Speros as a battle between those institutions form Now PAC, an advocacy group ganizations. Mr. Klein, whose 34th dis- fundraisers in the state, received far [email protected] and teachers unions rages in Albany. endorsing the principles of charter trict includes the northwest Bronx, did more contributions from pro-charter For instance, Mr. Klein was one of school education. not answer an interview request for school and pro-privatization groups State Sen. Jeff Klein has received only two Democrats to vote in favor of “Charter schools are no longer this article. than any other incumbent state law- more campaign contribu- a March 2011 bill that ruled an experiment. Charter schools are “We are seeing the very direct in- maker. Common Cause defined pro- tions from pro-charter school out seniority as the key crite- the cure,” Mr. Klein said during a fluence of the exponential increase privatization organizations as “PACs and pro-school privatization Editorial ria teacher for layoffs in New pro-charter school rally in Albany in in privatizer political spending in the and coalitions whose central mission is groups than any other incum- comment York — a measure strongly March, according to a news article policies and legislation that are being “education reform,’” particularly those bent state legislator, Com- opposed by teacher unions. cited by Common Cause. introduced and backed by some prom- backing alternatives to traditional pub- mon Cause recently found. Page A10 Common Cause noted that The group found that between inent elected officials,” Susan Lerner, lic education. The good government group shortly after the vote, Mr. 2005 and 2014, the senator received executive director of Common Cause, The next closest officials, Republi- said the donations have influenced Klein’s campaign committee received $293,875 in contributions from several said in a phone interview. can state Senators Martin Golden and him to vote in favor of charter schools a $5,000 donation from Education Re- pro-privatization or charter school or- Mr. Klein, one of the most prolific (Continued on page A4) Young, gifted and not afraid of a long commute By Isabel Angell to the school because of her extraordi- [email protected] nary voice. “It is worth it,” she said of the com- In the days building up to the start mute. “I really like it. I think I’ll be up- of the school year, Lashanique Znya set to leave it this year.” Mourning was looking forward to It’s not all about the performing starting eighth grade — even though arts for Znya — her favorite traditional she has to wake at 4 a.m. to subject in school is math. commute to class. Znya lives with her great- The Ft. Independence A Press grandmother, Sandra Green, at Houses resident wakes up the public housing high-rise at so early because she attends profile 3340 Bailey Ave. Before attend- the prestigious Mark Twain ing Mark Twain, she went to School for the Gifted and Talented, lo- the Milton Fein School (P.S. 7). cated all the way out in Coney Island. Znya, 13, said she started singing The school offers classes in “Talent when she was 5. Back then, she did not Areas” in all sorts of subjects: math know she was special. But adults took and computers, creative writing and note of her talent, and by the time she Photo by Adrian Fussell athletics, to name a few. Znya (as she was about 9, she was getting free voice prefers, the “Z” is silent) was admitted lessons from the Bronx House School ZNyA MourNINg, an eighth-grader with a gift for music, sings as she gazes from a (Continued on page A4) eighth floor window at the Fort Independence Houses after an interview on Sept.