Tag Archives: Bronx

The PA president and the liquor store

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Agustin Rosa in his office at Public School 63. (Photo: Claudia Bracholdt)

While his office is stuffed with orange mini-pumpkins, ghost puppets and artificial spider webs to celebrate the upcoming Halloween holiday, the Parents Association President of Public School 63, Agustin Rosa, has to deal with another spook.

He said he is concerned about a liquor store that wants to open on Franklin Avenue in the Bronx, across from Public School 63 and Public School 2.  The space used to be a Laundromat, which was closed for many years. There have been a lot of problems in the community such as violence and drug dealing, Rosa said. Especially the building, in which the store shall be opened, has caused trouble in the past years.

“We had a lot of teenagers in there drinking every single night,” Rosa said. “We know that they are not only drinking, they are smoking and doing drugs.” A lot of people support his cause, he said.

According to the Daily News, a man has been shot on Franklin Avenue last Saturday. He was shot in the building next to the Laundromat, Rosa said. The victim now is in critical condition. Rosa said there has been enough violence.

Argenis Jabier said he wants to open his store for the community. (Photo: Claudia Bracholdt)

Argenis Jabier, 30, is the owner of the space, in which he wants to open his store. He doesn’t think that the new business will have a bad effect on the area. “It’s a liquor store, not a bar. The people get their alcohol and go home.” He said. “I wanted to be in the area for the community.” Some residents in the area encouraged him to keep fighting, he said.

 

 

Agustin Rosa is still concerned. Below he describes the current situation and how he came to knew about the store.

[audio:http://cdn.journalism.cuny.edu/blogs.dir/383/files/2011/10/liquor-store_normalized.mp3|titles=liquor store_normalized]

Ambient sound in front of the liquor store:

[audio:http://cdn.journalism.cuny.edu/blogs.dir/383/files/2011/10/ambient1.mp3|titles=ambient1]

Social Media Diary

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  • On September 22nd, I posted my question on Twitter and linked to my blog post in the following tweet:

Tweet

I used the hashtags #USPS, #postoffice, #SouthBronx, #Bronx, and #jobs as they seemed like they were the most relevant that would garner the most amount of hits.  I however failed in attracting any response.

After I didn’t receive any reply to this either, I started to wonder if there were better hashtags for the Bronx and the South Bronx, and found out that people use #bx as a Bronx hashtag.

I tried using some other hashtags, and rephrasing my query in order to attract possibly business owners in the South Bronx.  I still did not unfortunately receive any response. Because so much of the South Bronx’s population is living under the poverty line, I think it is safe to assume that a lot of them have very limited internet access. A lot of the unemployed people of the South Bronx (who are the people who I am most interested in speaking with, in all likely-hood do not peruse Twitter).

  • On October 5th, I posted the following on Flickr to promote my question and blog post:

I posted my question and link in the description of the photo, and added relevant tags (Melrose, South Bronx, Post Office, USPS…).

The Bronx has the highest unemployment rate in the state

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In his Labor Day speech, President Obama addressed the recession the country is experiencing at the moment. According to the Employment Situation Summary of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of non farm payroll employment in the US did not change in August. The unemployment rate is currently 9.1 percent. Continue reading →