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1127bxaskthebpbblock

Welcome back to ask the borough president right here on News 12. The Bronx as BP Vanessa Gibson is here with us answering your questions and we're gonna get to those phone lines in just a minute. I do wanna talk to you real quick though. The Bronx Green Action Challenge. This was very cool. Something that happened. The Bronx Community College getting a million dollar award. I mean, not small potatoes here, a million dollars and they definitely earned it. Tell us about the program, what they got here, led by BX CDC and our president Rob Walsh, working with New York Power Authority, $1 million Green Action Challenge grant program. A competition among all colleges, private and public in the Bronx. And we started out several months ago and we were able to get seven proposals around energy efficiency, sustainability. How do we make sure that our campuses are ready for the next 50 years? Right? From an energy efficiency perspective and incredible proposals. Shout out to the seven colleges that did respond and we were able to announce Bronx Community College as the winner with our BX CDC and NYA really grateful. This is the first of its kind. We've never had a Green Action Challenge program before and we're excited about the opportunities and the best is yet to come because we definitely wanna work with New York Power Authority on even more opportunities. And it's a grant, not alone a grant. That's what you like to see. Congratulations. VCC. Congratulations on anything that makes the borough greener is a good thing. That's for shortly. All right, let's get to the phones. We've got callers who wanna talk with you tonight. I wanna go to Kingsbridge first. Uh That's where Susie is tonight, Susie. Thanks for calling in. What's your question for BP Gibson? Thank you. Uh Hi BB Kitson. I'm so excited um to have a woman as a BP president. Um We've been waiting for that for a long time. Uh I live in Kingsbridge Heights on Sedgwick Avenue. I live close to a school. Um I live close to several parks and over the last two weeks, um There have been three city bike stations that have popped up literally overnight and they're taking parking from the neighborhood between the new city bikes now. Like I said, I live by a school on Sedgwick Avenue. One popped up and two popped up on Van Courtland Park South within about two blocks from each other. It's taking parking away from residents, it's taking parking away from the educators um who work at the school. Uh And, you know, we had no prior knowledge that this was gonna happen. Um So between that and all of the, the commercial parking trucks park over here overnight by Jerome Park Reservoir. Um, there are, are RVS that have been parking over here and sort of made their home and there are more of them and more of them over the last few months. So, what can we do about this, Susie? Thank you for the, thank you for the call. A great question and like she said, a lot going on here as well, there's a lot going on. Well, let me say that all of the city bike installations are always uh done by dot Department of Transportation in our borough office, we have a new commissioner, Anthony Perez. Congratulations. And we need to make sure that all residents are connected with their local community boards because there are notifications that are sent out to the local community boards, but not necessarily on every single city bike location. That's number one, number two. If there are uh campers and trailers and these rvs that are parked for a long period of time, that's not legal. And we have to address that because they are taking up valid parking spaces for residents in the community, uh school parking and, and other facilities like parks that are in our neighborhoods. Also, I realize that we have shared streets and we all have a shared responsibility and biking is a new alternative that many are now embracing. But many that have already been embracing. So we support the idea of bike lanes of, you know, just different modes of transportation like city bike because we wanna make sure that people have options. But with everything, it's a balance because more city bike docking stations means less off street parking unless we identify spaces on the sidewalk that still have the same way for people to walk. So what we've always tried to do when I was in the city council working with dot on locations near large parks, large wide sidewalks that can accommodate a city bike station as well as not impede people's ability to walk, pedestrians, people with disabilities. Um And so we can look at these particular locations if we get the specifics on it and identify with dot If there are more coming to the local community uh in Van Courtland, in Kingsbridge Heights because that's something that we are expanding on and that's something I want residents to even be aware of. But I also wanna make sure the community board is notified as well. Absolutely, Susie, thanks for calling and we definitely, we will definitely make sure and check that out for you and get some more information for you. Uh I wanna go from Kingsbridge over to High Bridge right now. I think we have Andrew joining us now. Andrew. Thanks for calling in. It's your chance here to ask the BP. Hey, good evening. All. How you doing MS Gibson? Always a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you. Always a pleasure. Iii I always try to remind you, I'm the young man you met at your grand opening for the Bosco Belt Park. I know you met quite a few. Um Again, we are having a serious problem in the area. That park was just renovated. It's beautiful. I had called in last time about the parking issue. The reason I'm calling back is your, your, I guess the connection with you got some results, but it's kind of withered away. We now have a serious problem with clubs that are now utilizing our street as valet parking. Two weekends ago, I took pictures and sent them to 311. They had cars parked on that sidewalk of that brand new park on the sidewalk going down Bosco Bell leading down to Cedrick from 1 72nd and Ogden in University all the way down to 1/70 and it's going on a blind eye. Only time I get results is when I speak with you. So one of your constituents did reach out to me. Uh, we got a little bit of respite from it. They came out and kind of ramped up enforcement the last six weekends since they, uh, uh, our contact with them in the community. It has been turned all the way up. Ogden Avenue turns into a one way street. University turns into a one way street. There's parking on the sidewalks, Friday Saturday, Sunday. Like it's Madison Square Garden, Seven Seventh Avenue. All right, Andrew. Thank you for that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you a chance to answer that. We have to take a quick break. But again, Andrew, thank you for calling in again and bringing that back to our attention. We're gonna answer, you know the area. Well, I can see the gears turning already so we're gonna have the BP answer that question for you when we come back in just a minute. Also, wanna let the BP, let us know some of the events that are coming up this next month as we approach the holiday seasons, there's a lot going on here at the borough answering for the question and those events coming up, we would come back.

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All right, and we wanna get right to Andrew's question. He was talking about illegal parking in his section of the borough. I wanna give you the chance to answer his question. What do you do about LA? So I'm sorry that the issue has, uh, reappeared but know this area very well. My former council district, it's the 44 precinct community board four. Definitely, it's about enforcement understanding that it's nightlife and we have a lot of clubs and residential communities and what we're now seeing our valet parking added for some of the patrons to even go to these locations. It's not acceptable to Valley Park on sidewalks and at, you know, major intersections like by bus stops and things of that nature. So we will have to have a conversation with the 44 precinct and the owner of this establishment who we know um to make sure that the streets are cleared on Boscobel on University on Edward L Grant, as well as Ogden Avenue because it's a big intersection, but it's right near the beautiful park. We just opened last year and we wanna make sure that the residents of High Bridge are safe and also are able to cross the street and not have to worry about parks, uh, cars parked on sidewalks and other things of that nature. Absolutely. And look, Andrew said last time your office reached out there were results. So you reach out again. We'll get some more results again. So, good job Andrew. Thank you for the call and thank you for being patient. Uh, waiting for the answer. You've got a lot to tell us about. You got a health tip first. Let's get to that. What do you have going on? Yes, December is HIV and A I DS Awareness Month. December 1st is World A I DS Day uh where we work with ending the epidemic and we raise awareness around getting tested, making sure the residents are knowing their status. Uh And we also want to remind everyone the winter season is here and we're asking people to get the flu shot uh as well as COVID-19 vaccine updates, calling 212, COVID-19 for vaccination assistance, calling 988 for free confidential support. If anyone needs help uh help around mental health and mental awareness, we're gonna be working with organizations around raising awareness and knowing your status for HIV A I DS uh for the Awareness Month in December. And those are just a little bit of obviously great thought, but just a little bit of the events you've got going on because I know you have a lot. In fact, starting tomorrow. That's coming up, sir. What do we have coming up in the next? So tomorrow, Tuesday, November 28th at 11:30 a.m. We are raising the Albanian flag at Bronx Borough Hall. We're recognizing incredible leaders from the Albanian community. So we will be at Bronx Borough Hall in the rotunda for the event and outside for the flag raising event tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. And, and it's the winter season. We're gearing up for our winter wonderland extravaganza and tree lighting on Wednesdays of December 6th at 5 p.m. at Lou Garrick Plaza at 1 61st and the Grand concourse. We are working with many organizations to light our big tree that we're getting this week from upstate New York and it's gonna be lit and we're gonna have toys for hundreds of students, gonna have a live band and just a great event. And then we also have our Hanukkah celeb and menorah lighting on Thursday, December 7th, which is the beginning of the Hanukkah season. Uh Thursday, December 7th at 4:30 p.m. at Bronx Borough Hall. We'll be lighting the official menorah at Borough Hall and we are working with our veterans and their families. We're doing a toy giveaway on Saturday, December 16th at 11 a.m. at the Bronx Zoo. Um, and we are inviting all of our veterans and their families and we're gonna have a wonderful toy giveaway to celebrate the holiday season. I feel like this is just a small handful of what we're gonna see. A little bar here, the holiday season. Hopefully the weather will cooper. I know it's already cold out there. Hopefully, we don't see any of that other stuff. It's freezing outside. We don't need to have any more of that. It's freezing out there. It's obviously we gotta make sure everybody stays warm in everybody's history borough president. Thank you so much for being here with us. As always, we really always appreciate the time looking forward to the next month and we will speak with you again before the next round of holidays. So that's gonna be a good time. Thank you everybody for calling in tonight. Great questions. As always, start getting them ready for next month, we'll see you then here on news. 12 Happy Holiday.

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News 12's Kurt Semder sat down with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson to answer YOUR questions on this month's edition of Ask The Borough President. 

Ask the Bronx Borough President: November 2023

News 12's Kurt Semder sat down with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson to answer YOUR questions on this month's edition of Ask The Borough President.

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