Riverdale restaurant week coming up April 15-22

In these post-Covid times, many greater Riverdale restaurants are still struggling to meet the bottom line. To help those eateries that have survived, the organizers of Riverdale Restaurant Week are back for an encore.

This year’s event, which is sponsored by Dine Out Riverdale, will take place April 15-April 22. The 4Bronx Project and its founder Laura Levine-Pinedo and Mike Gabert and his marketing company Flexis Media operate Dine Out Riverdale.

In an email announcing this year’s event, Levine-Pinedo pointed out how important it is to support local restaurants now so soon after the pandemic.

“Restaurants are closing at an alarming rate,” she wrote. “We lost two of our original restaurants from October (restaurant week) — Blue Bay and Madison’s. We are trying to help so there are no more closures.”

She stated the Bronx got the short end of the stick with PPP (federal Covid loans) that was promised last September. “Many restaurants in the borough lost out,” she said.

This year 33 restaurants are participating in the event. Those businesses include: An Beal Bocht, Aroma, Baby Crab, Barbecue Pit, Beccofino, Bella Notte, Blackstone, Bronx Alehouse, Bronx Burger House, Cocina Chente, Downey’s, El Tina, Estrellita Poblana, Frida Tacos, Bronx BX Steakhouse, Jake’s Steakhouse, KaiFan, Kingsbridge Social Club, La Villa, Liebman’s Deli, Mamajuana, Metate, Neem, Palace of Japan, Riverdale Steak House, Santa Fe, Spanglish, The Bronx Public, The Last Stop, Tijuana Nites, Tin Marin, Tobala, and Yukka.

With the assistance of Art for AID coordinator Rick Feldman, the event will include art projects and fun for children and adults. It is also designed to bring awareness to hunger in the community with all leftover proceeds going to The Friendly Fridge Bx. For more information about the restaurant week, visit DineOutRiverdale.com

RNP annual meeting April 20

The Riverdale Nature Preservancy’s annual meeting will take place April 20 from 7 p.m.-to-8:30 p.m. a the Riverdale Y at 5625 Arlington Ave.

The theme of the meeting will be success stories in preservation.

Speakers will include Jessica Haller, president of the preservancy, who will speak on special natural area district enforcement; Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, who will speak about daylighting the Tibbetts Brook; Nick Dembowski, president of the Kingsbridge Historical Society, who will speak about the Edgehill Church; and Councilman Eric Dinowitz.

To RSVP, go to bit.ly/RNP2023

Con Ed rate hearings Thursday

The New York State Public Service Commission will hold virtual public hearings on March 30 regarding proposed rate changes to the delivery rates and practices of the Con Edison utility.

The hearings will start at 1  and 5 p.m. Anyone who wanted to comment on any aspect of the proposal had to pre-register by March 28. However, the public can listen to the hearings through a webex virtual connection. To do so, viewers can go to webex.com and type in 2338 087 0427 for the event number and Mar30-1pm for the password for the 1 p.m. hearing.

The log-on information for the 5 p.m. hearing is 2339 174 3964 for the event number and Mar30-5pm for the password.

The trial staff of the DPS on Feb. 16 filed a joint proposal seeking approval to increase ConEd’s annual electric and gas delivery revenues over three years. The proposal also includes new electric and gas rates for ConEd starting Jan. 1, 2023 and ending Dec. 31, 2025.

Cumulatively, gas bill delivery rates would go up 20.2 percent and electric rates would increase by 12.5 percent, according to a DPS release.