Reggie Jackson Can Surely Explain The Convoluted Parkland Exchange And Why The Team Feels It Needs To Build More Parking

What, the Yankees think they can trot out Reggie Jackson and then all of the sudden everyone will want to sink millions into infrastructure improvements? Yes, yes they do:

Reggie Jackson was Mr. March for the Yankees yesterday as he helped pitch the Bombers’ planned new ballpark at a City Council hearing — but the proposal got a Bronx cheer from opponents.

The Yankees want a new $800 million stadium on parkland near their current home but the plan has drawn fire from Bronx residents and officials upset over the loss of green space.

“I am first a minority,” said Jackson. “The Yankees weren’t always really a good partner in the Bronx.”

But Jackson, a paid adviser to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, argued the team is now reaching out to the community — and urged Council members to forge a “partnership” agreement with the Boss.

Mr. October was told his sales pitch before the planning subcommittee was “a day late and a dollar short” by Councilwoman Helen Foster (D-Bronx), who has been a sharp critic of aspects of the stadium plan.

Hello, I Exist You Know — That Little Drumstick-Shaped Plot Off Of Pelham Bay Park!

Time was, City Island didn’t show up on MTA subway maps. The Bronx Times Reporter, uh, reports that this will soon change:

Beginning this month, newly printed maps of the city’s subway grid will showcase that familiar, drumstick-shaped plot of land along the borough’s eastern coast, replacing either empty space or an informational box about transfer options at the Westchester Square station of the No. 6 train, depending on the map.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s pocket-sized foldout maps will be the first to showcase City Island, with full-sized posters and other maps to follow as they undergo their own redesigns, said Paul Klein, vice president of the City Island Chamber of Commerce, which advocated for the change.

MTA officials did not return calls for comment, so it is unclear whether City Island, which has no subway stops, will be labeled on the new maps. But even if it is not, Klein said, its presence will at least provide a frame of reference to potential visitors.

“We’re just trying to let people know that we exist, trying to get more traffic up here,” Klein said. “We need to get some shoppers, some more people spending some money on City Island.”

The Bronx Is Up . . . Way Up!

Buried way deep in the Times’ weekend piece on the booming Bronx was something I hadn’t heard before:

Sometimes large-scale development has been greeted with praise. In Kingsbridge, a proposal to build a 207,000-square-foot shopping mall has received wide support among residents, even though some shops that the developers are in talks with, like Whole Foods, have higher prices than residents in the nearby housing projects are used to. [Emph. added because this is the fucking Bronx we’re talking about!]

Anarchy In The Bronx: Day Three

The Co-Op City police strike continues:

Life went on at Co-op City yesterday as a strike by its private police force and lobby attendants entered its second day.

But at least some elderly people among its 50,000 residents were on edge.

“I don’t feel safe, but what can you do?” said Grace Lucas, 90, a resident on Dreiser Loop since 1969, shortly after the giant Mitchell-Lama cooperative opened.

“I have my home aide with me, and I just go for exercise, that’s all. But I come home as fast as I can,” said the retired nurse’s aide.

Lucas said she has seen more regular city police cars on patrol since the strike began.

“But I haven’t seen any in the building up the back steps. That’s where the robbin’ is done,” she said. “People come in and wait in the back stair, waiting to hear people walking back and forth. We just have to be careful until the strike is over.”

Anarchy In The Bronx, Or Why That Strange Taylor Law Might Make Sense

The private police force that patrols Co-op City has gone on strike:

The 35-building complex, which has its own police force, saw the officers walk off the job Wednesday morning after their union failed to reach an agreement with management.

The union says the two sides are far apart on issues such as pension benefits and work rules.

“They refuse to give the lobby attendants a pension,” said Co-Op City PBA president Joseph Monahan. “They refuse to give them any increases on their longevity. They refuse to make any movements on personal days. The public safety officers — they want to rewrite the whole contract. They want to take the foundation of the contract that’s been in effect for 25 years and just throw it out in the street.”

“All we want is basic job security,” said Co-Op City police officer Edwin Lucca. “We want a contract that has certain protections to protect us from mismanagement. All I want to do is provide for me and my family.”

After initial radio reports that the NYPD would take up the slack — wouldn’t that amount to crossing a picket line? — NY1 makes it sound unclear:

The NYPD says it doesn’t know if it will assign extra patrols to the area, but that officers will continue to answer any and all calls from the complex as usual.