City Island News BX: Joel Osteen

City Island News BX: Joel Osteen: Popular Pastor Wins Over Bronx with Message of Hope By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- Joel and Victoria Osteen hosted t...

Joel Osteen

Popular Pastor Wins Over Bronx with Message of Hope

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- Joel and Victoria Osteen hosted their second “America’s Night of Hope” at Yankee Stadium. The iconic venue in the Bronx was filled to capacity to see and hear the very popular televangelist and his wife, their son and daughter and Joel’s mother share uplifting and encouraging words as well as listen to upbeat and modern musical selections from guest vocalists and musicians. 

The rally at the historic stadium was only the centerpiece of a concerted effort to bring help to people in need in New York City. Hundreds of volunteers, many from Houston where their Lakewood Church is located, joined the Osteens in New York to provide assistance to those with specific needs. 

Last Monday, Osteen explained the mission of the Generation Hope Project, “We don’t just come in word. Young people [who will be coming to provide assistance] have a heart to help. They will be here for most of the week, with a concentration of efforts for several days. We know we can’t do everything. It will be symbolic that we leave something with the community.”

The couple told of this year’s theme of assistance, which will be mentoring of young people. They want those not blessed to have family members that encourage and uplift them as children to be given hope for their lives in the future. 

The pastor said, “We all have a responsibility to the next generation.” 

His wife focused in words of how much those who help another gain by that effort, “The people who are serving are being blessed.” 

Saturday’s rally was the sixth annual major event held at a huge athletic facility. It is neither accidental nor coincidental that the Osteens returned to the site of their first event of this magnitude that took place on April 25, 2009 and was the first non-baseball event in the new Yankee Stadium. 

Osteen explained, “New Yorkers are great people. They respond to hope. We didn’t know if they would accept a message from the South.”

The large crowd that attended the pioneer event signified the acceptance they received from residents of “The Big Apple.” Looking back on that day led Osteen to recently proclaim, “Victoria and I love the people of New York. We’re excited to be at Yankee Stadium again, and we believe people will be uplifted and filled with an expectation that their best days are yet to come.”

The Osteens, unlike many representatives of religions, do not have a sectarian outlook or appeal. They have an outlook and manner that transcends barriers of age, politics, socioeconomic class and race. Their universal appeal has much to do with their positive message, “Our message is about empowering and up lifting. We have much in common. It is about a relationship with God. It’s not formal or religious. People come who may not attend church regularly.”

In addition to the Saturday rally at Yankee Stadium, the Osteens were at the stadium on Friday afternoon to meet with clergy from all sections of the nation. At that meeting, Ray Negron, a Yankee executive, has been invited to testify regarding how the late owner of the Yankees, George M. Steinbrenner, changed his life. The extremely articulate Negron will be able to impact his listeners with an example the Osteens are trying to impart in all people. 

City Island News BX: Criminal Element ‘Hijacking’ Community

City Island News BX: Criminal Element ‘Hijacking’ Community: Criminal Element ‘Hijacking’ Community- Activist Says By Michael Horowitz BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12-  A criminal element is “hijacki...

Criminal Element ‘Hijacking’ Community

Criminal Element ‘Hijacking’ Community- Activist Says

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 12- A criminal element is “hijacking” Co-op City and its shareholders, destroying the quality of life that shareholders are entitled to, civic activist Junius Williams charged this week.

The civic activist said that his goal is to assure that Co-op City does not become the nation’s largest urban ghetto.

Williams, the parliamentarian of the Building 21 Association and an unsuccessful candidate in last month’s Riverbay board election, said, “I’m not happy with just heat and hot water. I want the whole enchilada when it comes to quality of life in the community where I live.”

Williams has blamed Co-op City’s Department of Public Safety for the recent shooting of a young man at the basketball courts at Bellamy Loop.

The civic activist noted that the young men, who had been harassing him and his neighbors for close to one year, stopped hanging out at the Bellamy Loop basketball courts after last month’s shooting.

A Co-op City shareholder, who wished to remain unidentified, told the News, this week, that the criminal element, who had been hanging out at the Bellamy Loop basketball courts, are now hanging out in the  vicinity of Building 24.

The unidentified shareholder said that those hanging out there routinely smoke marijuana, and Public Safety officers, despite being called, have done little to stop this infringement on his quality of life.

Williams, for his part, stressed, “I want to make sure that they don’t come back here to destroy my quality of life and the quality of life that my neighbors have a right to enjoy.”

The civic activist said that if Public Safety officers had been proactive in removing the young men who were hanging out at the Bellamy Loop basketball courts on the night of the shooting, the crime would never have occurred.

“I blame the people in charge of management for what my neighbors I have had to live through,” Williams stressed. “I don’t blame my neighbors because I know that they have been proactive in reporting infringements on their quality of life to the people in the Public Safety Department,” Williams stressed.

The civic activist added, “The people in the Public Safety Department seem to think that we have to accept things because we have a large minority community. This kind of thing didn’t happen in Co-op City when people from other races and ethnicities were dominant in this community.”

Williams stressed that it is incumbent upon Co-op City’s shareholders to demand that they have the same quality of life that people on Manhattan’s Eastside and in Riverdale enjoy.

City Island News BX: Bay Plaza

City Island News BX: Bay Plaza: New Mall Under Way On June 6, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. toured the forthcoming "Mall at Bay Plaza" near Co-op...

Bay Plaza

New Mall Under Way

On June 6, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. toured the forthcoming "Mall at Bay Plaza" near Co-op City. Diaz looks out at the construction from the mall's second deck.

City Island News BX: Flying Manhole Cover Kills Driver

City Island News BX: Flying Manhole Cover Kills Driver: Flying Manhole Cover Kills Driver (Photo by David Greene) By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 5- Police and fire officials ...