Every Saturday, The Week in Rewind spotlights a sampling of the wide-ranging editorial work of the Bronx Times.
There’s only two movie theaters left in the Bronx. Does anyone care?
As of 2020, there were 182 commercial movie theaters in New York City with only two of them located in the Bronx — the AMC Bay Plaza Theater 13 and the Concourse Plaza Multiplex Cinemas on 161st Street. However, the general consensus of Bronxites seems to be that the lack of movie theater options in the borough, comparatively speaking, are not missed.
“I don’t think we need movie theaters which is why many are closing throughout the city,” said Roxanne Delgado, who has lived in the Pelham Parkway neighborhood for 20 years. “Now most released movies are streamed.”
Last May, Peter Gennari and his partner and film curator, Jerry Landi, opened the independent movie house, Cinema on the Sound to help mitigate the disparity of theaters in the borough.
“Because movies are communal, it’s much better to watch a film with a crowd rather than by yourself in your home,” said Landi.
Universal Hip Hop Museum, director facing backlash for ties with accused pedophile Afrikaa Bambaataa
A sexual abuse advocacy group called Hip Hop Stands With Survivors is calling for the resignation of Universal Hip Hop Museum’s executive director Rocky Bucano and the end to taxpayer funding for the museum, due to its affiliation with Afrika Bambaataa over allegations he sexually abused and trafficked a minor.
The Universal Hip Hop Museum has been hailed by Bronx politicos and Mayor Eric Adams as a future tourist hub and is slated to receive $9.75 million in city taxpayer funds, on top of the more than $30 million that the organization has received in federal, state and city funding since the nonprofit museum’s inception in 2014.
The rap pioneer Bambaataa is alleged of using his Bronx home as well as his group Zulu Nation’s headquarters to sexually abuse and traffic numerous minors from 1991-1995. In 2021, Bambaataa — real name Lance Taylor — and self-proclaimed hip-hop awareness group Universal Zulu Nation were sued and accused of sex trafficking and prostituting a 12-year-old boy to older men during that four-year span.
The victim claims he met Taylor in 1991 and became a member of the Zulu Nation security as a child.
A city hall spokesperson told the Bronx Times that they were assured Hip Hop Museum had cut ties with Bambaataa when the allegation surfaced in 2016.
However, according to the group Hip Hop Stands With Survivors, Bambaataa spoke openly about “having a museum” and they allege Bucano could not have made it past the first step to making the museum a reality without Bambaataa.
Clark, Cohen vie for borough’s most complex job, Bronx DA, in Dem primary
With the exception of the largely ceremonial Bronx borough president’s position, the Bronx district attorney is the foremost boroughwide elected office. And for the first time in the position’s 109-year history, two women — incumbent Darcel Clark and challenger Tess Cohen — will vie for the Democratic nomination in a summer primary.
Clark, who is looking to win a third term in office, has seen the gradual perception change of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office since she first started there in 1986 as an assistant district attorney. Under then-District Attorney Mario Merola, the Bronx’s approach to the crack epidemic in the 1980s was to “lock people up, hit them with every charge and push for maximum sentences.”
Clark — the first and only Black woman in the state to hold a district attorney post since her election in 2015 — said her approach to the role has been one of empathetic leadership, a difference from her predecessors and the mistakes learned by hyper incarceration.
South Bronx native Tess Cohen spent more than eight years as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where she was assigned to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. For Cohen, criminal justice is in need of massive systemic reform and she wants to make the Bronx DA’s office a place that isn’t just reserved for punishing offenders, but is engaging in community centered work, protecting the rights of those impacted by crime and ensuring fairness for those accused.
One unenviable task of the Bronx DA position is the office’s jurisdictional oversight of the embattled Rikers Island complex, which is housed on an island in the East River, and the Department of Corrections (DOC) officials who work there.
Clark and Cohen both advocate for a timely closure of Rikers Island. Clark is vehemently opposed to the siting of the Mott Haven Jail — one of four borough-based jails meant to replace Rikers by 2027 — opting for the borough’s jail to be in close proximity to the Bronx Courthouse on the Grand Concourse, making it easier for intake, transfer and court proceedings.
The Bronx DA primary is scheduled for June 27, and will not use the ranked-choice method for voting, since it’s a countywide position.
Icehouse Café loses bid to stay at city-owned Hammond’s Cove Marina, owners and community outraged at decision
A 20-year fixture in the peninsular neighborhood of Locust Point, Icehouse Café will officially close shop on April 1 making way for a new Hammond’s Cove Marina concessionaire. But the longtime owners are not going quietly as they weigh whether to pursue legal action against the city, which owns the property.
Hammond’s Cove, which sits near the Throgs Neck Bridge, is the only NYC Parks-owned marina in the Bronx. And Icehouse Café owners Terry and Justin Dambinskas allege the city and NYC Parks of acting in “bad faith” during the request for proposals (RFP) bidding process, while also claiming the city hasn’t given them proper time to move out.
Earlier this month, the city awarded a new vendor contract to Busters Bronx Marina Service, which plans to open a new on-site restaurant and programming this summer as part of a $5 million investment into the waterfront property.
The change in vendors shines a light on a unique wrinkle for concessionaires who operate on NYC parkland and marinas. In lieu of lease agreements, vendors sign long-term license agreements, which upon expiration, open the space up to a wide-open RFP bidding process, which is required by city law.
“For 20 years, we thought we had a good relationship with the city. We closed during the pandemic and made sure our employees were paid. We endured hardships, but we wanted to continue being here for 20 more years because we love this community and the Bronx,” said Justin Dambinskas. “To me, for it to end like this, it’s horses–t.”
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