Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr.
Morris High School
1100 Boston Road (at 166th Street)
12 PM, Wednesday, February 26, 2003

I am delighted to come before you today in my second address as President of The Bronx.

It is significant that I've asked you to come to Morris High School. This school with this beautiful auditorium just twenty years ago was going to be closed. People had given up on its potential. The place that had propelled Secretary of State Colin Powell and so many others would be shuttered because some people lost faith in its promise. Just like the Bronx. However, just like the Bronx, there were those who still believed. This community came together with alumni, local residents, parents, and students to save this treasure. Today we sit in a landmark hall in a school that will celebrate 100 years next year. We will be back here next year to celebrate commitment, resolve and vision. Just like the Bronx.

I want to thank principal Jose Ruiz and the Morris High School community for hosting us today. I want to recognize a group of Morris students who are in the audience and who have shown what Bronx kids are made of. Next month, 10 students from the Morris Robotics team will be going to Richmond Virginia to compete in the NASA South Atlantic FIRST Robotics Regional Competition. This is the only Bronx school to compete in this NASA Robotics Regional competition. Even more impressive, they are the only New York City School to compete. This is not unusual for Morris. Last year the team was the only New York City team to compete in the NASA Regional at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Please help me recognize these wonderful students. Since last October the Morris Robotics team has been mentoring students from Intermediate School 162 in the Bronx. On Feb. 1st, the partnership between Morris and I.S.162 resulted in the team winning the most prestigious award, the Director's Award. As a result, they will be the only New York City team to travel to Houston to compete in the First Lego National Competition, in April.

Today I will look back at what we accomplished in the first year of my administration, how we are doing in each of the priority areas I refer to as the three E's - economic development, the environment and education. I will share a vision for a healthier and more prosperous future for The Bronx. The three E's speak to the most fundamental responsibility of government - to create the conditions for people to participate successfully in this democracy and compete in this economy.

Economic Development deals with growing the local economy on several levels. My posture is unapologetic and uncompromising. I want this economy to grow in new and innovative ways while supporting the expansion of the Bronx business communities who have weathered the storm. Together we will look at waterfront development, retail sector growth, and office space opportunities. We will attract the bio-tech, bio-medical industries that Governor Pataki referred to in his State of the State Address, develop a hotel and convention center, build the new Yankee Stadium community, and fill our industrial parks and manufacturing districts with businesses that need an excellent location in this region.

Those of you who have heard me speak on this know that I harp on the fact that the Bronx has the best location in the region for every type of business. This past year we have benefited from the tremendous enthusiasm of the commercial and retail sectors investing in the Bronx. A foundation is now being poured for a large retail center at 225th Street and Broadway where end there will be more than 220,000 square feet of retail and office space supported by 400 jobs. Let me acknowledge Paul Travis and Kingsbridge Associates for their vision. The old Alexander's Department Store building on Fordham Road is now a bustling half million square foot complex of retail and office space, and home to the new CUNY on the Concourse. It is the product of a creative partnership between the public and private sectors to ensure the viability of this historic location. Thanks to the Houlihan family and their business, Houlihan Parnes, this key spot along Fordham Road is once again contributing to our economy.

In the east Bronx, at the Hutchinson Metro Center, my friend Joe Simone is transforming 450,000 square feet of institutional space into a beautiful executive office park and Bronx campus for the expanding Mercy College. Soon there will be an off-ramp from the Hutchinson River Parkway into this new office park. This development will offer its tenants jitney service to and from the subways and railroad station, making it one of the best places to locate your business.

My mother used a phrase when I or someone else attempted to sugarcoat or characterize a situation in any way other than what it really was. Mom said, "You can't hide the sky with your hand." Things are what they are. My friends, colleagues and neighbors, we need to grow the Bronx economy and create wealth and success.
We will not break the grip of poverty and dependency until we create avenues for people to climb up the economic ladder.

In last year's address I emphasized the need to focus on economic development. I argued that we must create an environment of aggressive investment; look to rezone areas of the Bronx that will create conditions for attracting business and support small businesses who as an aggregate create the most jobs in our economy.

To support our efforts, I have instituted an economic development policy that encourages developers to support Bronx businesses. They will support Bronx businesses in their purchase of goods and services. With the 450,000 square-foot Fulton Fish Market project and the 200,000 square feet of retail space at 225th Street, I have asked developers to Buy Bronx, Buy New York City and Buy New York State. If you can't find it at the right price here, you're probably not looking hard enough.

Recently, more than a hundred businesses gathered at the offices of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation to plug into my Buy Bronx program. Today, many of these Bronx businesses are supplying the goods and services for the hundreds of millions of dollars of construction going on in the borough. This means more jobs.

In the past year we have seen an unprecedented level of investment in the Bronx. New stores have opened including:

• Target


• Gristedes


• Home Depot


• PC Richards


• Children's Place


• Washington Mutual Bank


• Hudson Bank.

BOEDC, through the Empowerment Zone and its subsidiary, the Business Initiative Corp., has made 13 loans totaling almost $10M creating 170 new jobs and retaining over 600 more. We are working with the City and Related Retail Corp. to create a 226,000 square-foot office/retail complex between 153rd and 156th Streets, along Third Ave. This development will create 290 construction jobs and 540 permanent jobs. Just recently we secured a $910,000 loan to build a state-of-the-art medical facility on 138th and Willis Avenue, to serve a vastly underserved community.

Let me share a few examples of what BOEDC has done this year:

• A $2 million loan to Nebraskaland, a meat distributor in the Hunts Point Market, to help build a new facility.
• This created 60 new jobs;
• A $3M loan to Murray Feiss, a manufacturer and importer of lighting products, to help relocate within the Bronx.
• This created 15 jobs and retained more than 230 jobs;
• A $1.2 M loan to the SOBRO Venture Center, to help build a small business incubator to nurture the creation of 35 Bronx-based small businesses;
• $1.5 M in grants to not-for-profits to help Bronx residents and businesses;
• A $250,000 grant to WHEDCO, for training micro-enterprises in the home day care business and develop 30 new small businesses;
• A $500,000 Bronx Cultural grant to support a micro loan program to identify art and cultural organizations in need of marketing and technical support in order to build the Cultural Corridor in the Bronx;
• The revival of a small loan fund (loans of up to $7,000) to help startup businesses in community districts 1, 2, 3 and 4 which have historically been denied traditional bank financing.
• This year, with the Consortium for Worker Education, we secured $2M to identify and assist Bronx residents and businesses hurt by the severe economic downturn after the attacks on the WTC.
  

I particularly want to thank Joe McDermott of the Consortium for his invaluable help.

In this past year, together with Congressman Jose Serrano, we developed the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy gives the Bronx access to a $20 million fund for grants to Bronx businesses. None of this would be possible without the sustained partnership of Serafin Mariel and the new leadership of Ray Salaberrios at BOEDC.

This year, I was able to secure additional funds from the City's Department of Transportation to ensure the reconstruction of the commercial hub at E149th Street and Third Avenue. Through the tireless advocacy, and as we say in the Bronx - "Nudging" - of Serafin Mariel, President of NY National Bank, and a budget modification, we were able to move this project forward.

As we transform the urban landscape in The Bronx, I take pride in the development of our own homegrown Downtown Bronx. At the heart of this new downtown, which stretches from the HUB to the Bronx Museum and from Yankee Stadium to Melrose, is the new Bronx Civic Center. This past year I convened a task force with Congressman Serrano and Community Board #4 to help coordinate the vast array of civic projects underway in the area, including the new Lou Gehrig Plaza, the redesign of the lower Grand Concourse and 161st Street underpass, construction of the new East 153rd Street Bridge, the New Criminal Courthouse and High School of Law and Justice complex, streetscape improvements along East 161st Street, additional service at the Melrose Metro North Station and Phase III of Joyce Kilmer Park. These projects will firmly anchor our new Downtown Bronx.

Last year I said I would convene a task force to plan the development of the Bronx waterfront. This group has met and issued a set of recommendations I believe represent the best thinking in our city. I charged the task force with planning for the Bronx waterfront in three parts: The Harlem River, the Bronx River/Hunts Point area and the East Bronx. Here are some the proposals that move us into an exciting future.

The Bronx waterfront, as has happened with much of our city's 578 miles of waterfront, is a story of missed opportunities. I am presenting a vision for our waterfront that addresses access, economic development, waterborne transportation alternatives, and protection of natural areas, marshlands and bird and wildlife sanctuaries, preservation of our maritime community on City Island, and improvement and expansion of parkland and waterfront esplanades.

Let me take you on a quick tour of our waterfront.
In the northwest Bronx we must preserve the Hudson River waterfront...keep it natural. Along the Harlem River there will be a waterfront park and esplanade from the Target retail development on 225th Street to the area immediately south of the historic Highbridge. We will reopen The Highbridge, a unique piece of urban architecture that should be part of the larger greenway network.

Plans are underway for several hundred units of housing alongside the University Heights Metro North station, 17 minutes from Grand Central.

One of the most prominent areas of economic development opportunity is the Yankee Stadium community. Today I am very pleased to state, without hesitation, after extensive discussions with George Steinbrenner and Randy Levine, President of the NY Yankees that the Yankees are staying home in the Bronx. I am also very pleased to announce that the Yankees will join us in the planning process for the Yankee Stadium area. Last year I said, we need schools not stadiums. I remain steadfast in my commitment to education. We as the host community will work in partnership with the NY Yankee organization to maximize the opportunities that major league baseball, the sports industry and Yankee lore affords us. Simply put, we will plan our future together.

To this end, working with Assemblyman Jose Rivera, other Bronx elected officials and civic and community leaders in the area, I have begun a planning process to develop the Stadium community. I will convene a planning group to look at developing the area around Yankee Stadium with the following elements as building blocks. In order for this host community to even consider a new or made-over stadium, we must develop a complement of uses that will address many of our most pressing needs. Therefore I am insisting that this development include: a hotel and convention center to capture the millions of dollars that the Yankees and their visiting teams now invest in midtown Manhattan hotels; a new expanded ferry landing on the Harlem River waterfront; a new Metro North train station near the stadium; a Yankee Hall of Fame and Museum - maybe a Cooperstown-South; and most importantly, the Bronx High School for Sports Medicine and Sports Industry Careers, linked to a CUNY program leading to professional careers in the multi-billion dollar multi-national sports industry.
This is the constructive partnership we will establish with the Bronx Bombers.

I applaud the Mayor's commitment to ending the 30-year impasse over the Bronx Terminal Market, which would not only help transform the Yankee Stadium Area into an year round venue for commercial, recreational and educational activity, but also open up our waterfront and help transform it from a nineteenth century relic into a twenty-first century public amenity.

As we move further along the waterfront we get to Port Morris. Some say this the new Soho, the new Tribeca, the new Williamsburgh. With loft style buildings, great transportation access and minutes from our city's central business district, this area of the Bronx is ideal for artists and poised for development. In last year's address I said that I would push to expand the mixed-use zone in Port Morris to allow for the development of artist housing and other residential and live-work spaces. Well, today I'm glad to announce that the NYC Dept of City Planning, my old agency, will begin a review of such a plan.

Please help me recognize the good work of the Bronx Office of City Planning led by Purnima Kapur and my Planning Dept led by Wilhelm Ronda. Thanks for the good planning work you are doing.

Part of the area is known as the Harlem Rail Yards. Here I have been in discussions with retailers, distributors, publishers, the NY Stock Exchange, and many others to attract major investment to the area. In the next several months I anticipate an announcement of a major business moving to this area. I look forward to working with the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to create the necessary reasonable incentives to attract these investors and create hundreds of new jobs.

As we move over to Hunts Point, we arrive at the home of one of the largest food distribution centers in the world... produce, meat, soon the region's most important fish market, and let me dare suggest, future home of the New York Flower Market. Today I propose to the Bloomberg administration that I will work with them to relocate and consolidate the flower market to Hunts Point.

Speaking of working with the Bloomberg administration, we are. In fact, Deputy Mayor Doctoroff and I have met and agreed to work together on a comprehensive development plan for Hunts Point. The Hunts Point Task Force, made up of residents, the business community and local leaders, has met and is putting forth a set of recommendations to make this area work better for its residents and businesses. This means removing the truck traffic from residential streets, creating access to the waterfront, completing the Bronx River Greenway, making the right investments in the infrastructure of the markets, and making Hunts Point safer and more attractive. This partnership will work...we will not back away from this commitment.

As we move further along to the Soundview/Castle Hill portion of the waterfront we have different challenges.
Here our challenge is to improve Soundview Park, creating attractive destinations for families. Working with Assemblymember Ruben Diaz, Jr. and State Senator
Ruben Diaz, we will make improvements to this park that will include a waterfront esplanade, playground and
skate park. In addition to the wonderful new improvements to the Y at Castle Hill, we will continue to work with the residents of Shorehaven Estates to ensure that their issues are addressed and their housing increases, not decreases in value and attractiveness.

Further along the waterfront we come to Ferry Point Park. This area at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge will be the new home of the Ferry Point Park Golf Course, designed by none other than golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
I want to recognize the work of local residents in fighting to ensure that the environmental concerns presented by this site were dealt with in a meaningful way. I also must recognize the work and support of Councilmember Madeline Provenzano and her Chief of Staff Tom Lucania, for their insistence on a speedy resolution of this great opportunity for the Bronx. As you drive into the Bronx over the Whitestone Bridge you will see on your right a world-class golf course where we hope to lure the LPGA and the Senior PGA tournaments. There will be a waterfront park, a first-class catering hall and most importantly, Bronx youngsters holding good-paying jobs.
This is the new Bronx waterfront.

Those of you who know me well know that I have a special affinity for the water. I was a lifeguard, a water safety instructor, I've sailed all the waters in our region, I love to fish and I think we're squandering one of our greatest assets.

This past fall I worked with a group of boaters to reopen Locust Point Marina. I want to thank the Stepping Stone Yacht Club and their commodore, Dominic Monge. Saving such resources is what the City ought to do wherever possible. This time the NYC Parks Department worked with us at lightning speed.

As we go around Eastchester Bay and the Pelham Bay Park area we have a natural area that I am committed to protecting. In order for Throgs Neck and Country Club to remain attractive areas where investment in a home means a sound financial investment for families, we must preserve the ecology and balance of Eastchester Bay.

Finally, we get to one of my absolute favorite places in New York City, let alone the Bronx...City Island. I am working with the concerned citizens of the City Island Chamber of Commerce, the City Island Civic Association, and many of my longtime personal friends on City Island to ensure that City Island is preserved as one of the last remaining maritime communities in this region. I am glad to give my full support to the City Island Contextual Zoning Plan which, when approved will protect the maritime industry, preserve and promote the low-rise housing, and protect the maritime and maritime-related businesses that have made City Island what it is.

This aggressive pro-growth approach to economic and waterfront development requires expanded transportation systems. With federal transportation dollars secured by our Congressional delegation we will see the reconstruction of the lower Grand Concourse, we will look to reduce truck traffic and emissions through the introduction of waterborne freight ferries. We will refurbish rail lines for passengers and for freight. We will create inter-modal facilities at our rail yards near the water, and we will continue to promote alternative and clean fuel initiatives to reduce particulate matter that damages our health. I am also working to open Metro North service at Coop City, Parkchester and Hunts Point. What will this do? It will encourage and support the economic development efforts already underway.

As a bridge to talking about the environment we create in this borough, let me finish this part by announcing the Bronx Gateways Project. This is an aggressive image building campaign that will begin with a clean up and greening of every entranceway and throughway in our borough. Working with NYC and NYS Departments of Transportation, city and state Parks, and Bronx businesses and residents, we will clean up and spruce up. The days of people arriving here and feeling that this place is grimy and unattractive will be over. I want every Bronx resident to feel proud of where they live and businesses to want to continue to locate here. When people visit our home they will leave with a new and fresh impression that the Bronx is UP!!!

Let's talk about the Environment, this place we call home.

Our job is to create a healthy set of conditions so that in the end we may fulfill that most fundamental responsibility of government, to prepare people to meaningfully participate in this democracy and compete in this economy. To this end we have much work to do.

In this part of my talk today I will discuss housing, public safety, parks and recreation, youth development, health and wellness, cleanliness and quality of life issues, the role of faith-based organizations and enhancing the lives of our children as they grow up in our borough. The challenge is to create a culture and an environment of wellness. All the wonderful economic development projects I discussed can only work when they are combined with affordable housing in safe, clean and healthy neighborhoods.

Last year I said that I invite and encourage housing developers to continue to look for opportunities in the Bronx. I said that the Bronx is open for housing development ... that we should work to increase the homeownership rate so that it will be more reflective of the rest of the city. Some people were obviously listening.

This year I am proud to announce that almost 800 units of housing in ten neighborhoods throughout the borough are being developed in partnership with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the NYC Housing Partnership.

My direct contribution of $4.6M assisted in the creation of almost 200 new 3-family homes and more than 200 condo-type apartments. We've also made the dream possible for more families working with Habitat for Humanity and South Bronx Churches / Nehemiah Homes. That's nearly 400 families who are fulfilling the American dream of homeownership.

With the assistance of our office we will see the construction of 382 housing units for the elderly, and more than 3,600 units of low, moderate and middle income housing in large-scale residential developments in University Heights, Fordham, Soundview, Melrose and Hunts Point. All of this is possible because of organizations like South Bronx Churches, Nos Quedamos,
Phipps Community Development Corp., Bronx Shepherds Restoration Corp., Mid Bronx Desperados, Belmont/Arthur Avenue Local Development Corporation, RAIN Senior Services, PROMESA, public agencies and officials, and investors from the private sector who have vision and care about our city's future. To all of these folks I say thank you.

By the way, the City administration must hurry up and settle a dispute with the Trump Organization that will make available tax credits that will be used to create more than 350 new units of affordable housing in the South Bronx within 24 months of these credits becoming available.

Our success also relies on public safety... safety on our streets, in our schools, and in our homes. This is why we have strengthened the partnership between the local precincts and the communities they serve. This year we partnered with NYPD to promote the Gun Stop! Program. We shut down the first "hot sheet" motel in almost a decade - and will continue an aggressive campaign to convert these liabilities into assets for our communities. I want to thank all the city agencies involved in the newly created hot sheets motel task force, especially the aggressive work of the NYPD.

We must help to protect the lives of the livery cab drivers who provide an essential service to our borough. This means giving them the tools they need to communicate distress and allow appropriate response by the police. To this end I am reintroducing legislation, with the support of our Bronx Council delegation, to install Global Positioning Systems in the cabs. A cabby will trigger a distress signal that will begin the emergency response at the local level. I have a message for the spineless coward who pulls the trigger, this community will find you and put you away.

This past year violence hit our schools... students and teachers were victimized. I visited one of our high schools where one of the more egregious incidents occurred and met with teachers, parents, administrators and leaders in the community. I made a commitment to them that today I will formalize. We will work with Urban Outward Bound and the Council for Unity and our new Regional Superintendents for Bronx schools to address conflict resolution, intercept gang leaders, and fill our youngsters' lives with positive challenges. We will build character in our young people.

I have a message for the parents. The responsibility for our children begins in the home. Give those kids love and attention. They need to know that you care enough to deny them immediate gratification and provide guidance and discipline.

This year we fought the closing of the fire marshals' office in the Bronx. I remain steadfast in ensuring that we keep the tools we need to fight arson and keep our buildings safe. We will not return to the days when criminal landlords torched their properties to collect insurance. And we are not done fighting the cutbacks.

Speaking of emergency response, the northwest Bronx needs a new EMS station. I want to thank Community Board #8 for understanding this need and fighting for it. However, while I remain committed to building a station, it must be built it in a way that makes sense for the local economy. I want to thank Assemblyman Dinowitz, Councilmember Koppel, Congressman Engel, the Kingbridge-Riverdale- VanCortlandt Development Corporation, Bill Abramson, Chairman of CB#8 and local business leaders for joining a special task force charged with looking at alternative sites. In the coming weeks, I will announce my preference and begin to aggressively address this issue.

I opposed a reduction in services to more than 60 senior centers in our borough and we won the battle when the Mayor restored the funds!

And when our express bus riders in Parkchester, Pelham Bay, Morris Park, Co-op City, and Riverdale - among other neighborhoods - were threatened with loss of weekend service and the potential loss of the best express bus service in the City, we worked with my Bronx colleagues and the Mayor and those buses continue to roll.

I opposed one day a week sanitation pick-ups this year. I argued that this was an unacceptable budget policy decision...we won.

I opposed trucking Queens’s trash to the Bronx, along with our Councilmembers and community board district managers…we won.

We will continue to fight for cleaner and safer neighborhoods...whether it's trash, air pollution, fire safety, policing or anything that impacts our environment. I want to give a special thanks to the district managers and their staffs for the work they do.

Speaking of quality of life, one of the primary reasons families make the difficult decision to leave our city is because of a lack of resources, activities and amenities for their family. We need more events in our public parks like the GHI Classic. We need to continue to improve the parks and the playgrounds around the borough. I am delighted to announce a new plan to build three ice skating rinks in the Bronx by next winter. We will build them as concessions in public parks, thanks to the cooperation of the NYC Parks Department under the leadership of Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Borough Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski. This will generate revenue for the city and provide a sorely needed amenity to Bronx families. When I take my kids for skating lessons or for recreational skating in Yonkers, whom do I see? Bronx families. We are looking to build these rinks in Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, and Soundview Park.


Following up on work that I started while District Manager of Community Board #5, we will create a new Boys and Girls Club in the West Bronx at the former site of the Hebrew Institute of University Heights. It will be called the West Bronx Boys and Girls Club and it will be operated by the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, under the direction of Dan Quintero, and with the generous support of the NYC Housing Authority, and Council Member Maria Baez of my old district. Thank you for bringing this dream closer to reality. I'll see you at the ribbon-cutting.

I've also funded the development of the Mount Hope Community Center and I am working with youth-service agencies around the borough. Their work is critical. Thank you to former Councilman Jose Rivera.

Our children need to be exposed to the world beyond their neighborhoods. I grew up camping, canoeing, hiking, biking, fishing, and spending many summer nights sitting around a campfire. We called it Royal Rangers... part of the church I grew up in. Some others did Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or similar programs. I am committed to providing these experiences to Bronx kids, and so I have entered into a joint venture with the Clearpool Education Center and the Kips Bay Camp in upstate New York. This program will provide a Camp Scholarship Program for Bronx kids.

To instill in our children a sense of pride and ownership of their neighborhood, I am instituting The Bronx Clean Up Your Neighborhood Day. This will be a day in our 61 neighborhoods when we will invite residents, block by block, to come out of their homes and help clean up their neighborhood. We will remove graffiti, clean tree pits, prepare community gardens for spring activities, and anything else that will beautify our neighborhoods. We will do this in partnership with our 12 community boards, churches, block and merchant associations, the NYC Departments of Sanitation, Parks, Environmental Protection, Education, and a new charity for Bronx children.

With the generous help of the New York Power Authority and Governor Pataki we will work through the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation to green residential and industrial areas around the borough. We will fund recreation, education and wellness programs and create an incentive for businesses and residential developers to purchase technologies that promote energy efficiencies and offset pollution in our neighborhoods.

Last year, working with the Bronx Clergy Task Force and the leadership of faith-based organizations in our borough, I set up a faith-based department in my Office. I want to thank Rev. Ray Rivera of the Latino Pastoral Action Center, Rev. Susan Johnson Cook, Rev. Dr. Timothy Burkett and others for their contributions to this effort.

We held the first faith-based initiatives conference at Hostos Community College and held a series of follow-up workshops to build capacity in these organizations to participate in community development. This coming year we will hold our second conference and will aggressively move to create the Bronx Precinct Chaplains program, which will make Bronx clergy available to the police in sensitive situations. As a child of the church, I know how important a role a church plays in community life.

In the area of health and wellness, we must come to terms with some very serious problems. In a recent report presented by the NYC Health Commissioner on the health status of New Yorkers, Bronxites fared the worst by most health measures. We have the highest percentage of smokers in the city, the fastest growing rate of new AIDS infection, the highest percent of obesity, the highest teen pregnancy rates, the highest rates of diabetes, and the highest asthma rates.

My friends, we must accept responsibility for those things that we can affect and begin to implement change in our lives. Our children are not well served by denial. Our kids learn from our actions and they are inheriting our denial and our refusal to choose healthy lifestyles ... whether it's fast food, smoking, alcohol or drug abuse just to name a few. The premature death rates and debilitating illnesses among residents of certain neighborhoods is literally killing off a generation.

I am prepared to face the music with the communities of this borough. To that end, this year we will begin the Healthy Bronx Campaign, in partnership with our Bronx health care providers, not-for-profit organizations and health advocacy groups, including the New York Blood Center and American Cancer Society. The goal will be to promote healthier lifestyles through the education of
our residents. We will challenge Bronxites to take responsibility for their family's health by making responsible choices.

We have a problem. Obesity and diabetes are of epidemic proportions. I am gratified to be able to announce that my office will work with the American Diabetes Association to enhance the current initiatives that are already in place, such as hospital-based diabetes clubs and support groups, "Diabetes Sunday" programs in both African American and Latino churches, summer programs for children with diabetes and participation with diabetes coalitions like Bronx Health REACH.

To focus on the overall heath of Bronxites, we will implement the Borough President's Fitness Award, a challenge program, which will be modeled after the national program created by President Kennedy.
Bronx residents will be challenged to set specific health improvement goals and will be rewarded for achieving them.

We also have begun to address another scourge in our borough, domestic violence. According to figures gathered by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, nearly 1/3 of women report being abused by their husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. 76% of reported rapes and physical assaults of women over 18 were committed by intimate partners. In 1996, among all female murder victims, 30% were killed by their husbands or boyfriends. Most sobering of all, a child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from generation to generation. This must stop.

Last year, in conjunction with the Bronx District Attorney's Office and the Jewish Board for Family and Children Services, I announced that I had applied for funds to combat domestic violence. I am proud to report to you today that we were successful in securing $1 million in grants from the federal Violence Against Women Office.

I also provided from my capital budget $1 million to help New Destiny build Bronx House, a 27-unit transitional residence for survivors of domestic violence. I am glad to report that we are now addressing the specific needs of Bronx domestic violence victims in the only domestic violence integrated court in New York City, and one of five in New York State, where one judge hears criminal and family law cases together. We are also disseminating information about the services and providers available to them. I have entered into discussions with a developer to reuse a property once a blight on the community and convert it into 43 additional units for victims of domestic violence.

In the next year we will begin to address the other side of this scourge ... dealing with the batterer and breaking the cycle of violence. We will do this in conjunction with the schools in our borough. I will work through the offices of our new regional superintendents in the NYC Department of Education, using the grants we have secured. We will also produce informational pamphlets in as many languages as needed.

I want to publicly thank my friend, the Bronx District Attorney, Robert Johnson, the Jewish Board for Family and Children's Services, Sanctuary for Families, the Bronx County Integrated Domestic Violence Court, Chief Judge Judith Kaye, Judges Collins and Esposito, and my staff for all their dedication to this effort.

Let me be very clear. If you victimize another human being, this community has resolved to deal with you. We will not tolerate abuse.

On a happier note, I am very proud to announce that I have launched a non-profit foundation called Bronx Kids, Inc., a fund for enhancing the lives of Bronx children. Bronx Kids, Inc. will use charitable contributions to fund after-school programs, weekend educational, cultural and athletic activities and summer camp. Today we are joined by three founding members of the board of Bronx Kids, Inc. - Dr. Delores Fernandez, Dr. Carolyn Williams and Paloma Hernandez.

You should know that today the NY Yankees made an initial commitment of $100,000 to BxKids, Inc. Please help me thank Yankee President Randy Levine. Another donor, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has donated $250,000. Chris Daley, of the Sheldrake Organization, has pledged $10,000 for starters and the Bronx Realty Advisory Board is making BronxKids, Inc. one of their favorite charities of choice.

As you can tell this has been an extraordinary year. It has been marked by new friends, new partnerships, and all for the benefit of community. I believe it's because we have built a bank of goodwill by being transparent and connected. We've used television access to communicate with our constituents. We've transformed our conference table to a round table where disparate interests can air their differences.

While we are facing another spring without our Yankees on the tube, we are pleased to have been the catalyst for a dialogue. It says that the Bronx is open. That transparency and connectivity are essential to make any progress in the difficult days ahead on the difficult issues that confront,
and would divide us.

So let's address the final and most important E... education. The most compelling challenge for our nation, our city and our community is to educate the next generation of individuals to participate and compete in the economy, or otherwise become a burden to themselves and all of us.

You have heard me time and time again expound my belief that education is what holds together our free and open democratic society. It is my belief that education determines our national security, our competitiveness in the global economy, our health and wellness, and ultimately, the quality of our lives. It is in this matter of education that the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. come alive when he suggested to us that our destinies are inextricably linked.

We must create a culture of fierce attention to education. We must infuse the next generation with a passion for life-long learning so that they will share those values with their children. To succeed in this, we must have a partnership of government, school, student, and family. Our job, as government, is to ensure that the school is accountable for its side of that partnership. A year ago, I dedicated my administration to battling for a better public education system in the Bronx. I have waged this war on behalf of the borough, the city and the state. We cannot relent.

On governance I argued before the State Legislature that we needed meaningful parental involvement in governance. Just last week the legislative task force on school governance announced its proposed plan to create parent councils in all school districts. These parent councils would be, as I proposed, elected by their peers in the school community. I vow to keep fighting through this process.

Also last year we reached out to parents at the first "Making the Grade" conference to inform them and empower them to get the services they were entitled to receive from the New York City public schools. We developed a report card for them to use to evaluate their child's school, because we needed them to understand that they have choices to make on behalf of their children. That no matter what else is going on, no matter that there is not enough money - again, the parents have to engage the schools on behalf of their children. It's the only thing that always works.

The attention of the parent makes a difference. Kids learn that there is an adult, a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a pastor, or a neighbor who cared enough about their future to go to bat for them. They learn that they too need to care, and they must persist. We are in this school today because some people went to bat for it. It was going to be written off... too expensive, too run down, too much trouble to fix. But the community held out. They persisted and only after they waged a fight for its existence did the money come. And now we have a model school that is fulfilling its destiny as a place where the dreams of children are developed. This is a time when the fight for our children's future is on us. I challenge the parents to engage on behalf of their children. We must engage the system to build more schools to reduce the overcrowding and to create the environments for success.

Educating our students in the Sciences is essential for their growth and progress. That's why it was so important to me to be able to fund portable science carts for every Bronx high school, with technology not found in any other school in the City or the country. Today students are performing lab experiments in all four schools within Morris. Nothing makes me more proud than to be able to say that I expect to find the funds to expand this program to the other high schools that will open in September. We must do this.

We must stop treating the education of our children so casually. I will continue to fight for the schools in the Bronx. I will work with the City to identify private partners that will develop schools as they pursue housing and other commercial opportunities in our borough like the Kingsbridge Armory. And I will continue to work with parents, using community organizations, faith based organizations, and educators to engage... engage... and engage until there is an open parent organization in every school in this borough. Until there is a pool of parents ready to take their place on active school leadership teams. Until every child in this borough has an advocate and a partner in their education.

We will create strategic partnerships for the empowerment of families. One such partner will be the NY Stock Exchange and its Chairman Richard Grasso. We will develop The Bronx Wall Street Financial Education Program for Bronx Families. We will get our youngsters to work in the financial industry. We will get our families to invest and save. And we will get our family finances in order.

My friends, we are in this special place. A place that was about to be abandoned and given up for lost. A community never gave up. And as a result, this beautiful institution survives. We cannot succeed without commitment. This does not work if any of the partners - government, community, and individuals - deny responsibility for their actions. We are all responsible for doing what we can.