Community District # Four is made up of many traditional, strong neighborhoods encompassing East 149th Street on the South, East 174th Street on the North, Harlem River on the West and Webster Avenue on the East. Community District 4 has the largest population in the South Bronx (more than 139 thousand residents). We welcome and celebrate the great mosaic of new cultures, languages, hopes and dreams of the many new Americans making this district their home, from around the globe. We celebrate their distinct and varied positive contributions.

Ours is a great place to visit, work and live. Millions come to see the New York Yankees play at the house that Ruth built, Yankee Stadium. Others take advantage of our other recreational facilities, such as, tennis courts and running track. Still others visit our borough's cultural crown jewel, the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Both public and private sector economic development opportunities are available and many others are still to come. District 4 is an ideal location to do business and reside in. We are at the very center of the metropolitan region, only minutes from Manhattan, New Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester. We are the administrative center of the County, housing the offices of the Borough President, The District Attorney, the Courts and the County Clerk. There is easy access through major rail lines, roadways, and public transit, both surface and underground. We are a community of contrasts. Sleek silhouettes of art-deco buildings are a short stroll away from lovely small homes. Acre for acre (1300 plus) we have more parks throughout our two square miles than any other district. All of our residents and guests get the "green carpet" treatment.

Community District # Four is currently experiencing a commercial, residential and economic revival, making it a very exciting time for us here. We are excited about the roster of ongoing capital improvement projects and other development projects earmarked for our district – projects we have fought long and hard for. Barring any unforeseen funding situation, we are beginning to see urban revival take place and the fruits of years of advocacy are beginning to bear. Many of the capital improvement projects underway or slated for development, are part of Community Board Four’s effort to include budget priority items, year after year, that will benefit the district. An example of such a case is the request to rebuild the East 153rd Street Bridge, a budget priority item set by Board 4 for over twenty years. This project is funded and ready for construction beginning in the fall of 2006.

We are on a plateau of prosperity, but with that prosperity comes the pressing responsibility to ensure that everyone in our district is given an opportunity to partake in the economic and cultural renaissance and receives the services available to them. We will continue to assume our responsibility to monitor and fast-tract the delivery of city services, assure access to municipal government, and inform the public on job and business opportunities with a string of commercial development projects slated for District # Four. We will remain vigilant that community district 4 receives its "fair share" of charter-mandated resources. The service demands each neighborhood and constituency in our district has needs to be matched with the appropriate response from the government for all categories of service and resources to create the right kind of conditions in this
fast-growing community. We have a responsibility to care and plan for every segment represented in our district, including the young, the elderly, the native born, the foreign born, the poor, the disabled and the illiterate.

Community Boards must continue to be a voice for the voiceless and a strong advocate for every constituency. It is the responsibility of municipal government to provide the services and resources to the community districts in this city that will enable them to thrive and meet their goals.

EDUCATION: Technology marches on in a "head spinning" mode. Yet, today, our children lack classroom space, sufficient books, paper, pencils and other scholastic needs, including a great need for additional highly skilled educators. It is for the sake of the children and their future that we must continue to focus our attention on improving the quality of instruction and academic achievement across all of New York City's 1,200 schools. The next generation of New Yorkers must receive the kind of educational tools that would prepare them to participate in our free and democratic society as fully engaged citizens.

We are hopeful that with a change of name, The DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, and under Mayor Bloomberg's leadership, we will see a newly transformed educational system. We commend Chancellor Joel Klein for taking on this huge challenge and for striving to make a difference in our children’s future. We certainly wish him well and much success in this undertaking.

The problems of our educational system are well known, they include: high enrollment rates, class overcrowding conditions (the issue of size becomes extremely important since our school system is responsible for educating 1.1 million students in 1,200 schools), students with special needs, high drop out rates, at-risk youth, and issues with academic under performance in reading and math. We were very pleased that Governor Pataki and the Legislators have seen fit to provide additional funding to meet the need emanating from the renewal of our educational system. The state could no longer continue to shortchange the NYC Public Schools; rather they had to rectify their funding inequity in order to give the children a quality education.

We believe that any formula for educational excellence would necessitate the Mayor’s continued support and focus in the following areas: upgrading teacher quality standards, reforming high schools and middle schools, reinforcing math and science achievement goals, implementing major reforms for English Language Learners, providing better "customer service" to parents, enhancing safety in and around the schools, improving the physical and social climate of our schools and cutting unnecessary bureaucracy and administrative costs. We must create appropriate conditions, and provide an attractive compensation package to recruit the best and the brightest teachers in to city’s schools. The Pre-Kindergarten program should be re-evaluated. Our four year-olds need to get on a tract of love for learning, early on, therefore, we need full-day Pre-Kindergarten classes. When we commit ourselves to providing adequate school facilities, adequate educational tools and resources and attract the best educators, then we can say that we have “done the right thing” by our children. They certainly deserve no less.

Chancellor Klein has repeatedly stated that he wants to "hear from advocacy groups, parents groups, community groups and business groups." We urge him to engage us as partners in the educational reform planning process to address some of the school reform issues we referenced earlier. This open and inclusive process will afford the community to contribute to the renewal process. Now that Community School Boards are outdated, the Department of Education must be accountable to parents and community residents by allowing them to play a meaningful role in deciding the future of our educational system. In addition, we need the Department of Education to engage the community boards more fully and to send a permanent liaison to its District Services Cabinet Meetings and Education Committee Meetings.

While the issue of overcrowding still exists, the public safety enhancements in and around our schools must be reviewed to heighten safety measures and to ensure an adequate number of School Safety Officers that provide safety to our city schools, particularly impact schools.

While there is a need for more schools in the district, we have a concern with the siting of schools over brownfield areas. The addition of four new schools over the Old Mott Haven Rail yard, poses a real concern to the surrounding neighborhood. Some of these concerns are health and environmental safety, traffic congestion and the need for additional transportation service . We are particularly concerned with an already congested area that cannot safely accommodate over two thousand students and support staff that will come to this school campus.

TRANSPORTATION: Traffic along the East 161st Street corridor has reached an unbearable saturation point. With the advent of the new Bronx Criminal Court House, the on-going Lou Gehrig and East 161 Street Underpass renovation project, the up coming East 153 Street Bridge project, the up coming new Yankee Stadium project, the up coming new Metro North Station, and the great number of businesses and schools in the immediate area, the situation could only worsen. Transportation and traffic are of particular importance to us since aside from being the "Capitol District" of this County, Community District # Four is also the geographic center of the metropolitan region. We are extremely pleased that after twenty years of advocacy, construction for the East 153rd Street Bridge is scheduled to commence in 2006. We congratulate DOT for having received the Art Commission Award for Excellence in Design for this project and on their inter-agency coordinating efforts for this project. The proposed bridge is a single tower cable stayed bridge, located over the Old Mott Haven Rail yard, connecting Concourse Village West at the west end and Park Avenue at the east end. This will be the first new bridge built in 50 years and it will be the first cable-stayed vehicular bridge in New York City. We believe that when the bridge is completed the traffic congestion along 149th and 161st Streets, as well as the local streets in this neighborhood, will be alleviated. The residents of this community district long ago voiced their anxieties and concerns about today's traffic conditions. No one listened then, and the situation has grown evermore harrowing each day. Consequently, this community is calling for clarity on a traffic reconfiguration plan for the "Court Corridor," which will incorporate the new projects for that area (under construction or proposed), and which will be instituted at the conclusion of said projects. The City needs to place permanent traffic control agents in the “Court Corridor” area for traffic relief assistance. Moreover, the City needs to appropriate funds to include artwork on the eastern portal of the East 161 Street Underpass and put together a cogent maintenance agreement in advance of the completion of the Lou Gehrig Plaza Renovation Project.

We continue to urge the expenditure of increased funds for sidewalk repair for property adjacent to city or federally funded housing, as well as privately owned property that has been abandoned and as a result negatively impacts the surrounding community. Said repairs should occur every two years, as opposed to the current four-year schedule. Funds for sidewalk repair and street repaving are severely restricted, even as the cost of lawsuits increases dramatically the city's need for additional funds to cover that expense. Someone should re-do the arithmetic and start allocating the money as a cost preventive measure, if for no other reason. Because of the many requests for immediate sidewalk repair needs, we want to know the status of the established protocol for "Emergency" sidewalk repairs, with a specific time frame for the completion of such repairs.

Community Board # Four fully supports the increase of additional Highway Repairers for maintenance in general and for pothole and cave-in repairs specifically. The quality of materials and work should be more consistent, thereby eliminating the immediate reoccurrence of poor road conditions. We request the funding for milling work to support the agency's current in-house resurfacing program. There has been marked improvements to our individual requests for replacement of traffic signs.

However, we would be remiss if we failed to note that our requests for replacement of traffic signals, traffic device maintainers, trailblazer signs and streetlights repair continue to receive the same lethargic response: "at this time the availability of funds is uncertain." We are requesting that additional funds be allocated to increase these much needed services to better preserve a key element of city infrastructure.

A major concern of this community is the lack of adequate parking throughout our commercial districts. We urge that this agency undertake a joint effort to evaluate the crisis being brought about by the ever decreasing parking space, causing a surge in parking fees for motorists, resulting in illegal parking because of the city's failure to put in place a comprehensive plan that addresses both private and commercial parking needs. In many communities, such as Community District # Four, the City’s failure in this regard, results in the loss of residents and businesses due to the economic hardship they have to endure.

Our Municipal Services Committee has been charged with the monitoring of transportation issues/concerns within our community district. One of the major concerns they have encountered is the lack of maintenance of the Safety Pilot Project area on the Grand Concourse between East 165 Street and East 170 Street. Maintenance of The Safety Pilot Project on the Grand Concourse has not been continuously monitored by DOT. Loose and broken concrete slabs, debris, dead shrubbery and broken planters are just some of the problems this community has to contend with. Since the Grand Concourse is our community's major thoroughfare, we urge DOT to review their maintenance procedures for this area and to come up with a mutually acceptable solution. Funding should be provided for improvements in both safety components and aesthetics, to maintain continuity with
the proposed Grand Concourse Restoration project, which is slated for the Grand Concourse, between 161st and 171st Streets. We thank Congressman Jose Serrano for providing 10 million dollars for this project that will dramatically restore and reconstruct this portion of the
Grand Concourse.

There are sixteen "Step Streets" in Community District # Four. As a result, repeated requests concerning maintenance and repairs are received at the district office.
With no clear agency jurisdiction, we are faced with the onerous task of having to "beg and plead" in order to have a given agency address the problem. Accordingly, we are still waiting for the results/recommendations from a NYCDOT funded Engineering Survey & Analysis on the district’s Step Streets, to determine the need for rehabilitation. Additionally, we need to revisit the outdated "Leventhal Agreement," so that a clear determination can be made as to what city agency has jurisdiction over what area and for respective agencies to allocate the appropriate funds and resources to get the job done. In addition, we are making a firm appeal to NYCDOT to fund a traffic study to ease heavy and unsafe traffic conditions in the areas leading to the westbound and eastbound I-95 N/S egress/ingress ramps @ Jerome Avenue and the surrounding area. A bridge or overpass could connect Townsend Avenue South and North and Inwood Avenue South and North over the Cross Bronx Expressway.

MTA-NYC TRANSIT: We urge that special consideration be given to restoring the number of buses that were eliminated on specific bus routes. Community Board # Four, through their Municipal Services Committee, has requested the expansion of service on the BX32 and BX13 buses. This request is because of the increased rider demand to and from three major hospitals; Lincoln, Bronx Lebanon and the Veteran's Hospital at Kingsbridge, and to the Highbridge area. It is considered that any level of expansion on these routes would go a long way to enhance commuter service not only to hospital personnel but also to consumers of health services at these facilities. The response from the MTA is that they do not see a need at this time. We are hopeful that they will look at our request again and take into account the increased ridership demand along these routes.

We celebrate that after so many years, MTA NYC Transit, has nearly completed an extensive rehabilitation project on the Jerome Avenue Line. The $42.5 M project will include 167th and 170th Streets, Mt. Eden and the 176th Street stations. The scope of work includes the elimination of structural deficiencies, providing new lighting, ventilation, public address system, signage throughout the station, artwork and new platform edge safety tiles. At last, these improved amenities would afford our community residents not to feel as though they are second class citizens by having them walk into dark, dread and unsafe stations in their travel experience. Added to all of this wonderful work an allocation of adequate sufficient funding must be allocated for ongoing maintenance and repair work to the subway station’s platforms and tracks. The "outer-boroughs" should receive the same services that are provided in Manhattan because commuters come from all parts of the city to contribute to Manhattan's stability and eventually they must travel back to their particular borough. It is at this time that many of our community residents notice the disparity in the services provided. This fact has been confirmed by the recent cleanliness survey performed on subway stations. The survey indicated that four of the five dirtiest stations are in the Bronx. It is true that people contribute to the litter and debris in our subway stations, but the blame must be shared equally between the rider and the service provider. The difference being that we are not paying the riders to clean the stations. Our community is still very much opposed to the proposed closing of the subway token booth located at East 167th Street. As stated in a letter to the MTA on July 2001, "we fear that this ill advised action will create a devastating impact on the station and the surrounding community, resulting in occurrences of criminal activities and a decrease in rider usage at that site." We were predicting that the closing of this subway booth would create criminal activity and it actually happened.

DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS: Community Board # Four supports funding requests for this agency to maintain and increase safety inspection personnel, improve inspector training and recruitment, with continued expansion of the database and computerization records. The agency’s inspection and enforcement process is an essential support function to local community preservation efforts. The proliferation of illegal construction/parking lots within our community can be directly linked to the sporadic and delayed inspections as well as the fiscally limited enforcement resources and follow-up by the agency.

HOUSING PRESERVATION & DEVELOPMENT: Our community in the past decade has undergone substantive rehabilitation of its housing stock and new housing growth. With this housing boom, we have experienced an influx of new residents to the area. Many of these new residents were either in the low-income range, formerly homeless families or new immigrants. With the influx of new residents is the need to expand services that include access to healthcare, social service delivery, transportation service, classroom space and other community-based resources. These needs will require HPD to carefully monitor all properties falling under their jurisdiction, either directly or indirectly. A comprehensive strategy for the care and disposition of city owned property would strengthen our future stability as a community and protect the significant public investment in housing in Community District # Four.

Accordingly, Community Board # Four has prepared and submitted a Position Paper on vacant land disposition and use, which includes the community's concern for open/green spaces in our community.

THE RATIONALE: Community Board # Four has very little vacant land left, thereby creating a scarcity of land now and in the near future. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to take care of the development of this land in order to meet the needs of a growing and changing community. The new century and changes in technology warrants careful stewardship of our land for the present and future generations. We must not only meet the economic and development needs of Community District # Four residents, but we must protect our environment and ecology as well. In doing so, we provide protection to our children's health.

THE PROBLEM: The disposition of vacant land is not being planned, nor consideration given to the effect on the community's economy and quality of life issues. We must now think of open spaces as key to a healthful environment and economy. The lack of green trees and spaces has affected
negatively on our environment and health, as witnessed by the high rates of asthma in Community
District # Four, affecting all age groups. We must rethink our tradition that every vacant lot must be filled with concrete and mortar. The value of Mother Earth cannot always be measured in dollars and cents. No money can buy the price of humans having the pleasure of open land for aesthetics and recreational use.

We support the development of affordable housing for moderate and middle-income individuals and families. The lack of affordable housing is contributing to the flight of moderate and middle-income people from our district. It is in the interest of our Community District to promote economic diversity within our community. The development of the Bronx Civic Center should go hand in hand with the development of moderate and middle-income housing, which will also provide housing for workers in the Civic Center. We are strongly advocating for city and state funds for the middle-income new construction program. We are calling for new codes for new construction and new codes for existing buildings all for sustainable housing development.


We are specifically focusing on multi-dwellings in the form of rentals, condominiums and cooperatives. Our Housing and Land Use Committee recommends the following sites: the vacant lands at the west side of Grant Avenue, between E. 167th and E. 169th Streets; University Avenue, between W. 167th and W. 170th Streets (including the privately owned vacant land); and Concourse Village West, between E. 153rd and E. 156th Streets. Mayor Bloomberg's Housing Plan calls for $1 billion dollars to be targeted to the new initiatives that will place a greater emphasis on units affordable to middle-income households. We have yet to hear how much of said funding has been earmarked for moderate middle-income housing for the District 4 area. The vacant land along District # Four’s Waterfront provides an excellent opportunity for the development of new middle to moderate income condos and/or co-op apartments along district 4’s waterfront. This area is primed for housing development particularly adjacent to the upcoming Gateway Center and new Yankee Stadium. We urge NYC HPD to aggressively pursue the possibility of building this type of housing along the waterfront. This area represents a unique opportunity for the development of middle-income housing as outlined in the Mayor's Housing Plan.

Community District # Four has the largest stock of Art Deco buildings in the nation, and we should make it our obligation to preserve them for historical and artistic reasons. Accordingly, we urge NYC HPD to employ the adequate resources available under the Anti-Abandonment Program to preserve and improve the Art Deco buildings in district 4. We also urge HPD to develop an outreach program to the owners of these buildings to encourage them to participate in the varied Rehabilitation Loan Programs. We cannot emphasize enough the need for continued and increased funding for preservation activities and for NYC HPD’s active involvement with the Grand Concourse Historical District Initiative.

DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEV.: We continue to advocate for the increase in funding of Community District # Four's youth programs. However, funding alone will not be sufficient. Adequate monitoring of funded programs is most essential. This agency was created as an adjunct to the other agencies (Education, Parks, etc.) to more specifically zero in on our youth's needs. DYCD’s record shows that it falls short of meeting its mission and
goals. In fact, youth-related concerns continue to go unabated and at times are compounded by new challenges. The current formula determining the Community Share allocation is not adequately addressed. The need for a substantive review of DYCD’s outdated and inappropriate dollar allocation process does not meet the today's needs. This agency's "Youth Fair Share" and Community Development allocations are not sufficient to meet our community's needs for after- school, youth educational, recreational, and cultural enrichment programs. In order to meet current demands for these youth services, we must begin to equitably distribute appropriate dollars to those agencies providing youth services in Community District # Four.

We strongly urge this Administration to take the necessary steps both to assure that DYCD complies with the spirit as well as the letter of the Charter by consulting with Community Boards on budgetary matters. Vocational (Job Training) Programs are often funded with limited or no monitoring. Few of these programs have proven to be successful and even fewer programs are assessed on their record of accomplishment of failure. In some cases, our youth are being trained for jobs that no longer exist or will not exist in the next century. It cannot be stated that our youth are our future and at the same time because of government’s persistent failure to our youth they are not providing them with the economic, educational and social opportunities they need to compete in an ever-changing global market and to remain productive, fully engaged participants in society. The east side of the district is grossly neglected in services and programs for the youth. We need a youth center or a beacon school in the area.

With the increase in population, we are experiencing an influx of youth coming into our district. It becomes our obligation to provide them with the life skills they need to mature into adulthood. Consequently, the lack of adequate funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program is a continual concern for the youth of our district. Year after year, summer job opportunities become less and less, which makes it very difficult to assure teens the life and work experience skills they need to enhance their development. Without these opportunities, our young people will be relegated to hanging out in the streets causing disruption to the quality of life of our community residents. In the end, the cost of addressing problems associated with at-risk youth will be far greater than providing them with the resources they need to enhance their productive growth.

DEPARTMENT FOR THE AGING: Our community is very concerned with the limited resources available to our seniors and the ever-increasing needs for programs and services they have a need of. This district has a high concentration of seniors and we believe that DFTA should aggressively seek and appropriate funding to begin addressing the critical programs our elderly necessitate. The older adults need to be treated with dignity and afforded the opportunities to lead healthy and productive lives. As such, they need senior center programs, lunch programs, home-bound nutrition programs, day-care services, recreational programs, transportation services, home care, housing, and caregiver services, to be enhanced and not diminished. It is in the best interest of society to provide for our seniors and to honor them in the winter of their lives. These seniors are the one single segment of our population who have nothing to prove since they have already earned respect and admiration through their hard work. It is now our opportunity to provide optimal services to them for their contributions to society.

One of the areas DFTA is responsible for is to ensure that seniors receive equitable and quality services. What are DFTA’s short and long-term strategies to better meet the needs of the elderly population, in a changing environment? We kindly request that DFTA formulate and execute a plan to build stronger partnerships with consumers, community partners, advocates, private and public organizations. Sufficient funding must be allocated to service providers to adequately address service demands and to renovate senior service centers, where appropriate. Accordingly, we want DFTA to support all of Community Board # Four’s Budget Priority Requests for senior services.

POLICE DEPARTMENT: We applaud the efforts of the Officers and Leadership of the 44th Precinct, who have been a vital part of the crime reduction efforts. As one of the most populous Bronx districts, we continue to urge that our need for Public Safety be measured against our service area and high-density population. It is with this thought in mind that we place as our #1 priority the budget request for additional Police Officers to serve the Community District # Four area. Particularly, because of our unique status as the "Capitol District," we house Yankee Stadium, the Civic Center, several commercial strips, and more, which adds to an unusual and extensive drain on city resources. We were pleased with programs that brought about the crack down on drug related activities. The curtailment of illegal drug sales has always been a top priority for this community district, and we are now once again faced with the reappearance of drug and gang activity. We believe that it is time for a repeat of the saturation strikes previously performed so effectively by the Drug Enforcement Initiative.


We should be aware that apprehension and arrest is only part of the solution in eliminating drug-related crime. With gang activity on the rise, it becomes imperative that sufficient funding be provided to place additional School Safety Officers in the confines of the 44th Precinct. We also need to ensure that all of the School Crossing Guard slots are filled and we need to look at schools that do not have School Crossing Guards.

We thank Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly for their “Operation Silent Night” initiative. It was started as a pilot program here in District # 4, and the benefits were exceptional. However, other areas of our district are also eager for some peace and quiet. Thus, we request the expansion of Operation Silent Night to cover sections of Walton Avenue, Marcy Place, Jerome Avenue and Carroll Place. With the advent of the East 153rd Street Bridge, the area will soon be primed for construction for the much-needed new POLICE ACADEMY. These times of expanded training needs call for a more modernized and technologically appropriate facility to meet the new demands imposed on the New York City Police Department. We continue to support this location as the ideal site for the new Police Academy.

We commend 44th Precinct Commanding Officer, Inspector James Essig for responding to our community’s repeated appeals for Community Policing, thereby providing a heightened safety factor for our community residents. This action will serve to enhance the partnership between the community and the police. This is what is most needed now and what has proven to be the most effective "weapon" that NYPD has.

This community is "alive" with activities, events and programs that take place on an almost daily basis. As a result, the burden placed on our 44th Precinct Community Affairs Unit has increased as our population continues to grow. To improve communication between our agencies and to provide better outreach to our community residents, we ask that this agency consider the necessity to provide funding for technological and other upgrades for improved operational efficiency in the 44th Precinct Community Affairs unit. We also urge Inspector Essig to assign at least one additional officer to the Community Affairs Unit and to increase the number of Youth Officers now serving that unit. Additionally, we are requesting funding to support the Cadets and other youth-oriented programs.

FIRE DEPARTMENT: We continue to strongly support an appropriate increase in NYFD & EMS personnel as well as additional equipment and protective clothing (smart coats, etc.). It has often been said that because of the inadequate communications equipment during the 9/11 tragedy, this failure resulted in the loss of a great number of Fire Department personnel. These men cannot have died in vain, rather, we must learn from the mistakes that contributed to their demise. Thus, we urge and support the upgrade of the Fire Department's communications system citywide that includes Radio Repeater Systems to enhance radio communication in high-rise buildings. We are also requesting adequate funding for terrorism training. We wholeheartedly support funding to the NYFD for the equipment needs they are demanding from the City, i.e., a second defibrillator for engine units, gas detectors for ladder companies, etc., to improve service delivery to our community. In questioning as to why people still die today for the same reason they died 60 years ago, the response that has been given, is the lack of proper fire education. People need to know how to recognize fire hazards and how to eliminate them.


F.E.M.A. reports that there is an absolute correlation between public education and fires. More recently, we were advised that there are only 35 staff members involved in education for the entire city. In Municipalities with higher percentages of their budgets dedicated towards education, deaths by fire are less. Community Board #4, through its Municipal Services Committee, concurs that funding is needed to expand fire safety education and to duplicate additional learning centers for our borough. We call on the City to allocate adequate funding for FDNY public education programs that includes CPR training and to purchase smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to distribute yearly to the public. Accordingly, we request the establishment of a "Fire Safety Learning Center" for the Bronx, to be located within Community District # 4's Civic Center.

In January 2003, the Bureau of Fire Investigations Bronx-based Office was closed. All Fire Marshals and investigations were moved/transferred to the Queens Base. We subsequently learned that the intent is to close the BFI Queens Command and move all operations to the Brooklyn Base. The ability of Fire Marshals to investigate fires in the Bronx, already jeopardized by the initial move, will now be further impaired. We sense that initial response will be slower and follow up investigations will be more difficult. As a result, we request that this agency provide us with a full statistical account on the impact these actions have had on Fire Marshal operations here in our district, with a view towards increasing Fire Marshal personnel to our community.

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS: Community Board # Four has always been in the forefront of advocating and supporting the enhancement of cultural and community programs. The Bronx Museum of the Arts is one of the great assets of our district as well as of our entire Borough. We continue to urge a review and revitalization of all of their cultural programs by DCA to enhance the cultural life of our community and develop a broader and more varied outreach.

DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS: We are pleased to see that this agency is no longer the "invisible" agency. Their current efforts on behalf of our district must be noted. However, they must return to their stated responsibilities, such as complaint mediation, education, and agency wide initiatives, which are not evident in this district. We request an enhancement of their programs with expanded outreach to our community residents.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: This agency has been unable to reach a highly successful level of water conservation through its Hydro-Lock program. This summer, we again witnessed an excessive number of open fire hydrants dispensing huge quantities of water. As a result, we have repeatedly advocated for the local police precinct (44th) to be in possession of the "special" wrenches so that they may expeditiously close all open hydrants. In the past, when contacting the agency we were advised that the agency's policy is to distribute these wrenches ONLY to the Fire Department. NYC DEP has acquiesced to our wishes and allowed a mere two wrenches to be placed at each Bronx Police precinct. This does not make sense since there is a far greater presence of Police Officers that can handle this issue. We recently learned that the Police Department had wrenches but that they had received orders from 1 Police Plaza not to engage in the process of closing open fire hydrants but to leave that responsibility to DEP and the Fire Department. We need clarity on this issue and will like to know what steps DEP will take to prevent the public from opening fire hydrants. Improved technology is needed with the installed hydro locks-they are not working. The effective closure of these fire hydrants can assist in water waste and water pressure preservation, critical to putting out fires.

Community Board # Four urges an increase in field operations personnel in order to meet the current need for service delivery. We also ask that DEP be provided with additional equipment for the Bureau of Water Supply and Wastewater collection related to the delivery of service to district 4, including: jet flushers, catch basin machines and degreaser trucks. We request at least one additional inspector to respond to noise complaints generated by discos, bars, grocery stores and rowdy neighbors. We are requesting that adequate funds be allocated to hire additional Enforcement personnel to identify and initiate action against violators of the air pollution code. There is a need for additional inspectors to provide weekend enforcement of noise codes, as well.

DEPARTMENT OF SANITATION: We are pleased to observe that our Scorecard ratings have significantly increased. Yet, in order to maintain our current standing and to upgrade our cleanliness level, we continue to strongly advocate for the restoration of the "Clean Team” as a permanent addition to Community District # Four. After all, the cleanliness level, or lack of in our streets, characterizes our district. We want to ensure that our image is a clean one. As such, we urge the restoration of D.O.S. personnel, including "hand" cleaners, to adequately maintain our streets and sidewalks.

We are pleased with the restoration of the recycling program and we commend the agency for their outreach efforts and public education campaign highlighting the benefits of recycling. Yet, we need DOS to continue reminding city residents and property owners about the recycling program in effect, through a sustained public education campaign.

Community Board # Four experiences difficulties having no regular cleaning and maintenance schedules for the extraordinary number of underpasses, step streets and sitting areas. The problem is the need for clarity in agency jurisdiction. Our repeated requests have been that DOS revisit the “Leventhal Agreement”, which is ambiguous at best, so that a clear determination can be made and funding allocated accordingly. Additionally, we request the funding for additional Sanitation Enforcement Personnel and Sanitation Police.

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS SERVICES/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.: Our community has a good number of small businesses but those numbers are dwindling. We strongly believe that those city agencies responsible for business development need to provide the kind of leadership, technical assistance and funding sources to improve the commercial landscape in our district and to assure the success of our merchants with their businesses.

We are delighted that the Bronx Terminal Market property has been acquired by the Related Companies. We consider that Community Board # Four can be instrumental in the success of this project. However, at the beginning stages of this project we believe that the following concerns must be addressed by both of these agencies:

The upcoming development of this area into a regional retail center will generate hundreds of jobs for Bronx residents. Community Board # Four believes that the development of the Bronx Terminal Market will result in the following benefits and opportunities: