Riverdale stars in latest tale of two cities

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Riverdale Country School’s application for $52 million in tax-free city bonds to build an aquatic center and multi-use building has drawn a backlash from people throughout the Bronx. A city board approved the application on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

The saga involving a petition against the application and a heated exchange between a blogger and the EDC seems like a small case study in conceptions and misconceptions about the first word in Riverdale Country School’s (RCS) name.

It all started with an April 8 story on the news site DNAinfo that framed RCS’ application thus:

“The tony Bronx academy, where tuition costs a whopping $45,600, has asked a quasi-city agency called Build NYC Resource Corporation to approve the issuance of $52 million in tax-free bonds.”

The news, subsequently picked up by The New York Post, incensed activist and blogger Ed García Conde. He runs Welcome2TheBronx, a website whose motto is, “You Think You Know The Bronx — But You Don’t!”

The same day he read the DNAinfo article, Mr. García Conde created a Change.org petition urging Build NYC to reject RCS’ bond application. As of Tuesday afternoon, the document had garnered 250 signatures. 

“The Rest of the Bronx needs help .. NOT Riverdale!!! Education and safe buildings for all!!!” wrote one signer.

Mr. García Conde expounded on that idea in a phone interview.

“We have so many schools right now that are in desperate need of money. We have so many schools [where] the infrastructure is crumbling,” he said. “Here we have one of the most elite schools in the country that has access to so much capital. When you look at their financial records, they don’t need this cash.”

To RCS’ Head of School Dominic Randolph, the criticism of his non-profit school’s bond application is based on a big misunderstanding.

“So many other schools and nonprofits applied for bond financing in the same time that we have, and nobody’s paying attention to that,” he remarked.

Riverdale Country School, Ed García Conde, Welcome2TheBronx, Dominic Randolph, , Charles Moerdler, Gary Axelbank, Shant Shahrigian
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