Brust Park could expand by 15 feet

Timber Equities’ attempt to build an apartment building at 3893 Waldo Ave., could face a new obstacle if a pair of lawmakers succeed in convincing the city’s parks department to expand Brust Park.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Andrew Cohen wrote a letter to parks commissioner Mitchell Silver asking him to annex a strip of land between the park and the proposed apartment project.

That 15-foot-wide land was intended to be West 242nd Street, but was never constructed. Yet that undeveloped land is now buffering the Waldo Avenue project from technically bordering a park, which would create new restrictions on what could be developed on the property.

“Brust Park is a beautiful park in our shared district that provides refuge for many Bronxites who seek brief respite from the seemingly omnipresent concrete jungle that encompasses our city,” according to the letter. “This park has incredible old-growth trees, a rocky stream, and is full of animal life that often makes you forget you are in the city.”

A number of neighbors oppose the project, saying not only will construction disrupt the peace in the neighborhood, but that it also would cast new shadows on Brust Park, potentially creating environmental problems.

Timber Equities is the same developer that started demolition of the 1920s-era Villa Rosa Bonheur in Spuyten Duyvil last year before city buildings department officials stopped it.

More tolerance here

A group of lawmakers, including state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, are pushing for the passage of the Child Trauma Response Act to help the more than 2,300 children they say have been separated from their families at the border.

The bill would provide a range of services to those children being held in New York, including legal representation, health care, education and language services.

Bills in both chambers remain in committee as the legislative session draws to a close.