Friday, July 6, 2007

The thanks she gets

When Hetty Fox moved back into her devastated South Bronx neighborhood in 1979, she said, "Everyone was leaving."

Urban pioneer's work may go down drain

"It was very intense. Nobody really cared," said Fox, now 67. She stuck it out, fixed up an abandoned house and soon became a neighborhood institution.

But this spring, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development notified her that her building, which she's been trying to buy since 1979, would be sold to the Mid-Bronx Desperados development group to create affordable housing.

Fox already holds a valid bank commitment letter for a loan of $85,000 - the price set by the city in 1999 and confirmed in 2003. But Fox said the city told her it planned to sell the property to MBD for $1.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bloomie's golden rule: People who live in a community should never be given incentive to stay there. Developers must make money above all else.

Anonymous said...

No good deed goes unpunished !

The "Mid-Bronx Desperados......what a name for a "development" company !!!

So.....Jesse James, Billy The Kid and the Dalton Gang were really kin to real estate developers ? !!!

Anonymous said...

The Mid-bronx desperados have been working for almost thirty years to bring back the South Bronx. They were one of the few groups who invested manpower in the neighborhood when so many people, including the city were abandoning it. You should try reading South Bronx Rising by Jill Jonnes and learn more about the work they have done in the Bronx before you start criticizing them for being advocates of overdevelopment and displacement. And no, I'm not a developer nor am I affiliated with a developer.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:
"The Mid-bronx desperados have been working for almost thirty years to bring back the South Bronx. They were one of the few groups who invested manpower in the neighborhood when so many people, including the city were abandoning it."

And, then, what about Hettie?

No kickbacks to be had from a small potato entrepreneur. And, that's what the Commissar is all about.

The Commissar made promises, then stomped all over this Black, retirement aged, woman. Which part of that description did he think he could throw under the bus?

Now, the Mid-Bronx Desperados; they have money streaming in from all over. They can share it with the Commissar and his Special People.

Hettie? She can probably give him a cup of coffee. So, she's a nothing.

Anonymous said...

"Anony-mouse #3".....

I'M FROM THE BRONX......so don't bother giving me a bibliography......I lived right across from the street from the Soundview Projects.....542 Rosedale Ave. to be exact !!!!

And my father grew up around 149th Street and Morris Avenue.....and it doesn't get any more South Bronx than that !
My working class immigrant paternal grandparents ran a hand to mouth business on 149th St. many, many years ago !!!!

So stop jerkin' my chain !

P.S.
Where the hell did I accuse you of being a developer in my post ? You'd better see an Optometrist !

Anonymous said...

What did we say about 'affordable housing?' Just ask the folks fighting Ratnerville, or all that dark talk about moving thousands over the Sunnyside Railyards, by entities whose funding and backgrounds are a bit murky. They may be very clear about 'affordable housing' needs but they are never very clear about the infrastructure needed to support their fantasies (or should we say agendas?