The Bronx

StreetFilms' Clarence Eckerson took these shots yesterday at the Bronx County Courthouse on Grand Concourse, where an area plagued by illegally parked government employee vehicles has been replaced by a public plaza.

L-R: Assembly Members José Rivera and Adriano Espaillat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, MTA CEO Lee Sander and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión at Fordham Plaza today

Even before the NYPD identified a hooded cyclist as the this morning's likely Times Square bomber, two reports of bike commuters being ticketed and harassed by the police have already hit the Streetsblog inbox. Perhaps it's just that the weather's getting nicer and more people happen to be out on bikes but at least one cyclist says an officer told him that the police are gearing up yet another organized "crack down" on cyclists.

"Parking Improvement Districts" could help free up parking space and pay for streetscape improvements and maintenance on commercial strips like Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx.

The New York Post believes a rash of car break-ins in Washington Heights and the Bronx may be related to the recent Bloomberg administration parking placard crackdown.

The recommendation of a modified congestion pricing plan put forth last week by the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission has elicited another editorial from Bronx Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz. Tellingly, the piece, from this week's Riverdale Press, starts off with talking points that fellow Assembly Member Richard Brodsky and "Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free" spokesman Walter McCaffrey have repeated again and again since the TCMC released its recommendation report:

Residents of the Zerega Avenue section of the Bronx are upset that beds for the sick will be putting a crimp in neighborhood parking stock.

The Village Voice is reporting that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion received $30,000 in campaign contributions from a firm that scored a $5 million air rights agreement for a pedestrian bridge to the new Yankee Stadium. 

Streetsblog reader Ed Ravin sends along a photo of a new pedestrian refuge island that has recently emerged beneath an elevated subway platform in the Bronx. While the new sidewalks make bus riders' lives a bit easier (and, perhaps, longer-lasting), Ed also has some ideas for additional improvements. He writes: