A Community Saves A Local Restaurant From Eviction

The much loved neighborhood establishment, Coqui Mexicano, has been SAVED! After a court date yesterday to appeal the unexpected eviction notice, community support including letters from local congressman Jose E. Serrano, and Henry Weinstein (owner of the old Bronx courthouse) to name a few, helped save the restaurant from closure.


After much persuasion and the show of overwhelming support from the community, the landlord caved in and generously offered a 6 month payment plan that met the needs of Coqui Mexicano.


News12 the Bronx was at Coqui Mexicano yesterday as well as the Daily News to cover the story which was first heard here and picked up by our friends, the BoogieDowners. The broadcast appeared last night on Bronx Cablevision channel 12 at 10pm.


Furthermore, a writer from the New York Times was there today to write about Coqui after hearing what was going on from welcome2melrose.


So alas, a neighborhood came together to shout out to the world in unison that we were not gonna let one of our own go down without a fight.


A big Melrose THANK YOU to all who came out in support of COQUI MEXICANO! ¡ÓRALE WEPA GÜEY!

Welcome to Melrose Milestone...of Sorts

14 days, 15 entries (including this one) is how long we've been on the web. Yesterday we hit a milestone of sorts...for the first time since starting this blog 2 weeks ago, Welcome to Melrose had over 200 hits yesterday, Wednesday, September 23, 2009 and we could only thank YOU, the followers who continue to read up on Melrose and what we have to offer on a daily basis and spreading the LOVE! Since it's launch we have consistently grown in hits on a daily basis from starting around 70 hits per day to over 140 hits daily especially since our friends The BoogieDowners gave us a nice shout out! (Please do visit their blog as it is by far THE finest blog about The Bronx!)

As Welcome to Melrose continues to grow in readership, I personally invite YOU, the public and citizens of Melrose, to feel free to drop me a note sometime and let me know if there is that special Melrose resident, business or organization that you would like featured.

Once again, a big Melrose THANK YOU to all of you who continue to visit and support this blog.

A special thanks to my fellow BoogieDowners

A little over a year ago I decided that I wanted to let the world know that The Bronx was no longer that nightmare of a place that so many people had believed it to be. Everyone seemed to have given up hope on neighborhoods such as Melrose, Mott Haven, Port Morris and Morrisania but we never gave up on ourselves. Through organizations such as Nos Quedamos/We Stay and local community activists we were able to take control of our destiny as a neighborhood.

Why am I giving special thanks to my fellow BoogieDowners? Well because one fine day as I was searching for other blogs about The Bronx (there are quite a few) I stumbled upon their blog and I was so impressed and HAPPY that someone finally decided to put the word out about what a truly great borough we live in. Thanks to BoogieDowner, we now have a reliable place on the web to go to for what's going on in the northernmost borough of good ol' NYC. It is updated daily sometimes even 2-3 times a day! What's more is that I was IMPRESSED that they ARE NOT BRONX NATIVES!!! "What did you just say?" you ask yourself...so in short, yes, The Bronx is for EVERYONE. It is a borough that has a place for you regardless of your socio-economic background. We are truly an equal opportunity borough!

So a big THANKS to ErLu and crew for inspiring me to pursue a blog of my own!!!