As Mr. T Once Said, Stay In Milk

Able-bodied Bronx residents can’t get lucrative union jobs promised by the city because they don’t even have GEDs:

When the city decided to dig up Van Cortlandt Park to build a massive water filtration plant, the surrounding neighborhoods were told that putting up with all the dump trucks would bring many of them paychecks.

“The carrot was, ‘If you accept this, you’ll have thousands of jobs for your community,'” said Community Board 7 Chairman Gregory Faulkner.

But while the trucks arrived on schedule, the jobs have lagged, disappointing an already depressed area.

According to U.S. Census numbers crunched by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the district of Community Board 7, adjacent to the work site, has an unemployment rate of 15% — nearly three times the national average. Slightly further from the filtration plant, Boards 5 and 6 have jobless rates exceeding 20%.

While about 20% of filtration plant jobs during early phases of the work have gone to locals, most of those have been relatively low-paying security jobs, not the lucrative unionized construction jobs many had hoped for.

More than 600 locals have shown up at the Department of Environmental Protection’s Community Outreach Office seeking jobs, but most have been turned away as unqualified even for union apprenticeship programs, which require a high school diploma or GED.

Over half the working-age population in the surrounding neighborhood lacks a diploma or GED.