Don’t Dump In, On Or Upstream From The Bronx!

Don’t these towns have water treatment systems? Septic tanks? Of course, there’s little need for such technology when you can just dump shit into the Bronx River:

Four Westchester municipalities — Scarsdale, White Plains, Mount Vernon and Greenburgh — agreed to stop discharging sewage into the Bronx River by May 1, 2007, under a Nov. 28 agreement reached with the attorney general and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Discharging untreated sewage is already against state law, but the prohibition lacked teeth before Spitzer’s office began testing water samples along the river and identifying which towns were responsible for violations. The towns have agreed to improve their storm-water systems and will pay fines for future violations.

“This will help make the river safe and swimmable for those of us downstream,” said Dart Westphal, chairman of the Bronx River Alliance, which oversees the 8-mile stretch of the river from the Westchester County line to where it empties into the East River.

Well, don’t go overboard there . . .

Location Scout: Bronx River.

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.

Dan Rather Might Say That They Beat Him Like A Rented Mule

Unless that letter home influenced like tens of thousands of voters, not only was it expensive but totally unnecessary as well:

Sens. Jeff Klein, Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Suzi Oppenheimer will serve two more years in Albany.

Klein, 46, faced Bronx County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph “Jay” Savino in the 34th state Senate District, with both men claiming they could better represent their constituents.

Klein led Savino by a comfortable margin throughout the night. Klein said his apparent victory was a validation of his first term as a state senator.

I Guess I Suffered A Siginificant Lapse Of Judgment . . . And Did I Add That I’m Quite Penitent?

I guess if you’re going to get fined, the race better be competitive*:

An East Bronx public school principal has been fined $10,000 for endorsing a Democratic candidate in a letter sent home with students the Friday before the election. The Department of Education is also investigating the school’s parent coordinator, who apparently used her city government e-mail address to solicit campaign volunteers for the same candidate, who is running for re-election to the state Senate.

As The New York Sun first reported yesterday, the principal of Public School 71, Lance Cooper, issued a letter praising City Council Member James Vacca and state Senator Jeffrey Klein. The letter encouraged parents to “endorse these Community Leaders when they need our support as a way of saying thank you for always being there for P.S. 71!”

Mr. Klein, a Democrat who represents portions of Bronx and Westchester counties, faces the Bronx Republican chairman, Joseph Savino, in today’s election. Mr. Vacca, a first-term council member, is not up for election this year.

After authenticating Mr. Cooper’s letter yesterday, education department officials consulted with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. The Board determined that Mr. Cooper’s letter violated the Chancellor’s Regulations, which forbids school employees from endorsing a candidate while at work, or in contact with students. Mayor Bloomberg was briefed on the matter, an education department spokesman, David Cantor, said.

In addition to the fine, which will go to the city’s general fund, Mr. Cantor said a letter would be placed in the principal’s personnel file “denoting the unacceptable action that he took.” He added that Mr. Cooper seemed “quite penitent,” and “acknowledged, as soon as we contacted him, if not earlier, that he suffered a significant lapse of judgment.”

But why bother also endorsing someone not even running?

*Competitive? Depends who you ask.

Real Life Terry Malloy Fights For His Right To Enjoy Wildlife

But “wildlife” is obviously in the eye of the beholder:

David Casciello, 39, who has lived on Huntington Ave. in Schuylerville his whole life, has turned his narrow yard into an outdoor aviary, filling feeders that attract hundreds of pigeons, sparrows, finches and even monk parakeets.

“I’ve always had a life-long interest in wildlife and in birds,” Casciello, who cares for his elderly parents full-time, said as he tossed a peanut to a squirrel scurrying at his feet. “The sparrows are my favorite.”

But some neighbors see Casciello’s passion as a major nuisance and health hazard, and they are trying to enlist city officials to stop the feeding frenzy.

“This wacko is a pigeon freak,” grumbled Joe McDermott, 68. “He’s got to be told to take the pigeons to the park or someplace where they don’t do damage to anybody.”

McDermott said he had to close his swimming pool because of bird droppings. He blames his dog’s fleas on the birds.

Other neighbors say the avian visitors make their children sick. They also have to spend hours cleaning bird droppings off their cars and roofs.

Other neighbors seem to have an ulterior motive:

“You could probably eat these birds, that’s how clean they are,” said Alan Roman, 35, a general contractor. “It was sad to see these people gang up on him the way they are. The guy, all he does is care for his birds and make sure everything is clean.”