The Bronx Ink

Hoops enthusiasts know that they can catch the best summer basketball action in the Bronx at Orchard Beach. Since it first started in 2000, the Hoops in the Sun (HITS) summer league has grown to 10 men’s teams and 26 youth teams and has become one of the premier summer leagues in the city. Randy Cruz, the man behind the league who hosts a weekly online radio show discussing the local and national hoops scene, discussed his hopes and vision for the future this week with Bronx Ink’s Shlomo Sprung.

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As his arms reach deeper into the canister outside of a pizzeria in Morris Park, Jean Joachim looks away. “Sometimes you see dead rats,” he says. “Not at this restaurant though- they’re pretty good with the oil.” Joachim, a service technician works for Tri-State Biodiesel (TSB), a green energy start-up that collects used cooking oil from restaurants and converts it into biodiesel.

On Wednesday night, Joachim and his manager, Andrew McCloud are harvesting oilcans from Patricia’s. Famous for their brick oven pizza and Tuscan-style fare, the family-owned restaurant also dishes out a healthy serving of grease, 70 gallons a week to be exact. Not to its customers of course, but to TSB, which collects it for free and ships it to a refinery where it gets transformed into biodiesel.

To prevent restaurants from dumping oil into kitchen sinks, New York City requires businesses to install a mechanism to collect grease and provide proof of regular waste disposal through an outside collection service. Restaurants that do not adhere to the rules properly can be fined up to $10,000. [more..]

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By Alex Eriksen
Most of 161st and River Avenue is hibernating. The streets are deserted and the shops are all shuttered. Well, almost all of them.
On the corner of 162nd St. beneath huge portraits of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and CC Sabathia, the lights are on in the Yankee Shop.
It’s the only link in a chain of stores on River Avenue to defy winter and remain open.
Abdulla Abdulla, a twenty-one year college sophomore, is behind the counter. “We thought we’d have a lot of customers like last season, it’s not like last season,” he says.
With the season not set to begin until March, and an average of only six customers a day, Abdulla says his father, who runs the store, is tempted to close until the Bronx Bombers return, and with them, the legions of fans and tourists. [more…]

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By April Warren

Growing up in the Kingsbridge and Fordham sections of the Bronx during the late 1960s wasn’t always easy for Carol Sun, the daughter of immigrants from Shanghai. Street fighting and name calling often reminded her that not too many of her neighbors shared her Asian-American ancestry.

“There was a lot of racism, a lot of people had a lot of hostility because of the Vietnam War,” said Sun, 52, an art teacher at the Bronx High School for the Visual Arts, explaining her Chinese background was sometimes mistaken for Vietnamese. “It was kind of intense, but I survived my childhood.”

Sun, an artist in her own right, uses images from her childhood in her art. [more..]

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Who is your favorite superhero: Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, your older brother? Superheroes fight the good fight and encourage others to do the same. That motivation to inspire children is what prompted the superheroes theme at the latest exhibit on display until March 2 at Casita Maria in the South Bronx, said Sabrina Wirth. Wirth of Wirth Art Advisory, an art consulting firm, curated the show. She said Casita Maria’s location close to the Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists provided the right backdrop for the superheroes theme—schools and superheroes alike encourage students to reach their potential.

“[The superheroes theme is] empowering,’’ said Lyla Rose, visual, performing and literary arts manager at Casita Maria. “It’s accessible and fun and can be elevated to the level of fine art. It has resonance with everyone.” Rose added that students are always excited and surprised to discover what counts as art. [more..]

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It looks like the Jamaican jungle, but it’s actually the Caribbean Garden in the Bronx. The exhibit is at the Botanical Garden until February 27th.

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Bronx residents have mixed feelings about the city’s new smoking restrictions.

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