Out and About

Cricket: On the Van Cortlandt Park Cricket Stadium Proposal, the Bats are Out

By SÍLE MOLONEY
News of a planned, 34,000-seat, temporary cricket stadium in Van Cortlandt Park ahead of the Cricket Men’s World Cup in June 2024 shook the Kingsbridge community to its core when The City media outlet published details on July 15 of the as-yet, tentative plan for the venue. However, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams struggling to cope with the ever-increasing costs of handling the influx of migrants to the city, private funding from entities such as the International Cricket Council (ICC) for such an event would, no doubt, be considered a welcome investment in New York City’s local economy.

South Bronx: Street Co-Naming Held in Honor of Venancio “Benny” Catala Jr.

By SÍLE MOLONEY
Family and friends of the late Venacio “Benny” Catala Jr., joined together at 166th Street and Teller Avenue just east of Morrisania on Saturday, July 29, as Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson and District 16 City Council Member Althea Stevens hosted a street co-naming ceremony to honor the popular community leader for what was described as his decades of public service and community leadership.

Volunteers Clean VCP Pond as “Daylighting” of Tibbetts Brook Advances

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT
For most of the year, visitors to Van Cortlandt Park’s Hester & Piero’s Mill Pond are usually entertained by throngs of duck and geese flying and landing on the water. However, when the weather gets warm, an unwelcome, invasive guest makes an appearance, hindering the fowls’ routine of take-off and landing. That invader goes by the name “water chestnut.”

Concerns over Trash Around the Reservoir Oval Continue

By SÍLE MOLONEY
Concerns over trash around the Reservoir Oval East in Norwood continue. What appear to be bags of household trash were seen and photographed between parked cars and the retaining wall around the Reservoir Oval by Wayne Avenue on July 7. The discovery follows previous complaints by residents in June of residual trash by the retaining wall seen in the same vicinity of the Reservoir Oval in Norwood which some residents allege is not being regularly swept.

Clean The Bronx and Get Free Yankees Tickets as part of Third Annual Summer Clean-up Series

By SÍLE MOLONEY
Clean The Bronx and get free Yankees tickets! As part of the Third Annual Volunteer Summer Clean-up Series, which begins in the Bronx on July 21, the Sanitation Foundation announced on July 19 that participants at any of the six upcoming summer clean-up events will each receive a voucher valid for two tickets to select New York Yankees 2023 regular season home games.

Sanchez Announces $1 Million in “Participatory Budgeting” Projects

By ARIEL PACHECO
District 14 City Council Member Pierina Sanchez announced a million-dollar investment in various quality-of-life improvements going to schools, libraries, and senior centers in the district on June 20. The funding came by way of New York City Council’s participatory budgeting (PB) process which, according to New York City Council, is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.   According to the council, the concept originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989. Today, there are more than 3,000 participatory budgeting processes around the world, most at the municipal level. PB was launched


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