We are pleased to share this new LISC white paper by David M. Greenberg that examines how partnerships between Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and community development institutions can scale up and sustain land trusts so as to begin to impact displacement at the neighborhood level.… Read more...
Category: Press
Metropolitics Bronx Article – Whose Bronx?
July 2019
Check out Metropolitics Bronx — Banana Kelly gets a mention in the Decade of Fire article and in the Susan Saegert review of Carol Lamberg’s “Neighborhood Success Stories” (2018) and Harry DeRienzo’s “The Concept of Community: Lessons from the Bronx” (2008).… Read more...
2019 Spring Meet and Greet
2019 Spring Meet and Greet. Thank you to all who attended and supported this event. See coverage from BronxNet… Read more...
Councilman Rafael Salamanca presenting $20,000 check for summer program
Banana Kelly was featured in the Bronx Times! Thank you to Councilmember Rafael Salamanca for his support of our Summer Camp and After School Program! Read the article here.… Read more...
New York Community Trust on BronxNet
BronxNet sat down with Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, Inc. and New York Community Trust to talk about the critical relationship between community groups and the organizations that fund them. Watch Eileen Newman’s interview with Patricia Swann, New York Community Trust; Harry DeRienzo, Hope Burgess, Gregory Jost, Wanda Swinney and Jose Rodriguez here:
Preserving Affordability in the South Bronx with Banana Kelly
Banana Kelly is honored to be featured, along with JOE NYC, in the latest LISC e-newsletter for the recent closing on BK Union HDFC, Please see the article below. We are so very grateful for the support of LISC NYC and the National Equity Fund in the ongoing efforts to preserve affordable housing.… Read more...
$1.65 Million to Support Community Land Trusts
ENTERPRISE AWARDS NEW YORK CITY $1.65 MILLION TO SUPPORT THE FORMATION AND EXPANSION OF COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS Grant awarded to fund four initiatives citywide, including a new CLT to promote affordable homeownership in southeast Queens and Brooklyn
To read the full release please click the link below:
… Read more...First Elevator Building in Bronx Defies History and Completes 25-Year Construction Term
850 Longwood Avenue has a long and varied history. When first built, it represented the best in luxury rental housing that the Bronx had to offer. Built beside the #2 and #5 IRT elevated subway lines, the building boasted spacious apartments, light, air, and the borough’s first elevator building when it first opened in 1925. For decades, the building thrived. But like much of the pre-war stocking stock making up the rental housing sector in New York City, urban disinvestment, redlining, crime, arson, landlord abandonment, and finally the crack epidemic turned this building into a dilapidated hulk, which by the late 1980s housed desperate tenants alogside crack dealers, drug users and prostitutes. Here is how Barry Bearak, in a 1992 Los Angeles Times article, described existing conditions in the late 80s to early 90s:
850 Longwood was described as a “weary old building, “with…mangled front door and paint smeared across…the portico.” He goes on to say that “drug operations thrive…taking grasp like creeping vines and spreading floor to floor. With them follow…fires, vermin and a mortal spray of gunfire.”
By 1987, the crack epidemic destroyed this building and the social norms that existing between and among residents in the same way that crack destroyed the South Bronx (and other urban neighborhoods), along with an entire generation of our youth. By 1990, the local crack dealer who resided in the building was looked upon as the de facto landlord, controlling access and services.… Read more...
Bronx Residents Sue Notorious Landlord, Demand Administrator be Appointed to Make Repairs
Bronx Residents Sue Notorious Landlord, Demand Administrator be Appointed to Make Repairs
919 Prospect Named Worst Building in the Bronx on PA James’ 2016 Worst Landlords Watchlist
NEW YORK — Today, tenants, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, Congressman José Serrano, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Assemblymember Michael Blake, Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association Inc., and the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center announced that tenants of 919 Prospect Avenue will be suing their landlord for a court-appointed administrator to ensure all repairs are made.… Read more...
Banana Kelly Rebuilds Community
- Tenants in Foreclosed Buildings Slam Private Equity Firm for Neglect
- Tenants Push to Evict Landlord
- Melrose Tenants Endure Slum Conditions
- Using Baseball History to Teach Children Big Lessons
- Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network opens a chapter in the Bronx; leader aims to help the borough’s social issues
- NYCT Article Aug 2011
- A Community’s Inspiration
- In the South Bronx, Blight Returns to a Rehabilitated Block
- Response to Daily News Article by Sarah Armaghan: Still a Long Way to Go
- Hunts Point Express Article: Back on Kelly Street for Unfinished Business
- Featured News_ManhattanCollege
- Once-Crumbling Apartment Buildiing Seeks to Add Health Food Store