CKO Kickboxing signs lease at
Throggs Neck Shopping Center
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D 28 ECEMBER 21-27, 2018 BTR
Action
Association
Simone Development Companies,
a full service real estate
investment company, has
announced that CKO Kickboxing,
a fi tness kickboxing
center, has leased 2,500
square feet at the Throggs
Neck Shopping Center leaving
only 6,400 square feet of
divisible space available for
lease at the center.
Originally started in
Hoboken in 1997, CKO Kickboxing
currently has more
than 65 locations across the
U.S. and has been recognized
in national fi tness magazines
and television programs. Fitness
kickboxing is the number
one fat-burning, cardio
exercise, with up to 1,200 calories
burned during a onehour
class.
Karnit Mosberg and Jeanine
Kemm from Royal Properties
represented CKO Kickboxing
and Joanna Simone,
vice president of Leasing and
Property Management Operations
of Simone Development,
represented the owner/
manager of the center.
“We are delighted that
CKO Kickboxing is joining
the Throggs Neck Shopping
Center. The addition of CKO
Kickboxing further enhances
the outstanding roster of retail
tenants at our center,”
said Joanna Simone.
Located in the Ferry
Point section, the Throggs
Neck Shopping Center is
a 300,000-square-foot retail
center anchored by a
165,000-square-foot Target
Department Store.
Other tenants include TJ
Maxx, Mattress Firm, Petco,
Skechers, Metro Optics, Rite
Check, Covenant Dentistry,
Beyond Vape, Kudos Duo
Beauty Supply, European
Wax Center, Doctors Express,
Boutique Realty, Party
City, Chipolte, Mutz, Havana
Express, Wines & Liquor Superstore,
Applebee’s, Five
Guys Burgers & Fries, Subway,
Sarku Japan, T-Mobile
and Starbucks.
The Throggs Neck Shopping
Center is conveniently
located on Brush and Lafayette
avenues. It is easily accessible
from the Hutchinson
River Parkway and offers 650
free parking spaces.
For further information
or inquiries on leasing available
space, call (718) 215-
3000.
CROWLEY SWORN INTO UNITED STATES
SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL COMMISSION
Congressman Joe Crowley was sworn into the United States
Semiquincentennial Commission at its inaugural meeting on Friday,
November 16. The commission will plan the observances and
activities surrounding the 250th anniversary of America’s independence
in 2026.
(Above) The meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
Photo courtesy of Joseph Crowley
BY FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
If a country with a wholly
opposite view of human
rights, say, the Soviet Union,
Nazi Germany, or present-day
Iran, conquered and occupied
the United States and determined,
within a generation
or two, to completely abolish
American culture and turn
its youth against their own
nation, it could not do a more
thorough job than the combined
devastation wrought by
some within America’s education
system, much of its news
media, and its entertainment
barons.
When will this crisis be
taken seriously?
The level of misinformation
about America’s history,
its role in the world, and its
culture is extraordinary in its
scope and in its utter defi ance
of reality.
Many American students
are told that their founders
were evil men, despite the fact
that their accomplishments
brought more freedom to the
world than any other group of
humans in history.
A growing number of politicians
denounce the nation’s
capitalist economic system,
ignoring the solid reality that
it has produced the greatest
level of prosperity for the
greatest number of people
than anything else ever attempted.
Amazingly, despite
a hundred-year record of utter
failure throughout the world,
socialism is now being advocated
by many prominent fi gures.
It is often stated by those on
the left that the United States’
infl uence on the planet has
been detrimental. The truth,
however, is that in addition to
the infl uence of seminal documents
such as the Declaration
of Independence and the Bill
of Rights, America has produced
more good for more people
across the planet than any
other source. In its key role in
the defeat of Nazis, Fascists,
and the Soviet Union, the nation’s
record is unmatched in
human history.
It’s not that a portion of
America’s people are turning
against what their nation
has accomplished. Too many
youth have been deprived of
the knowledge of those accomplishments,
and that foul
deed has been reinforced by
an entertainment industry
that consistently casts patriotic
Americans as villains,
particularly on television programs,
and a news media that
frequently warps information
against the U.S.
In 2015, ABC’s KSFY affi liate
reported that “the South
Dakota Board of Education
approved new guidelines that
do not require high schools to
teach U.S. history.”
A Nations Report Card
study found that only 18% of
eighth grade students are profi
cient in U.S. history. Similarly,
a worrisome 2014 survey
of 1,416 adults recently conducted
by the Annenberg Public
Policy Center found that:
While little more than a
third of respondents (36 percent)
could name all three
branches of the U.S. government,
just as many (35 percent)
could not name a single one;
Just over a quarter of
Americans (27 percent) know
it takes a two-thirds vote of
the House and Senate to override
a presidential veto; and
One in fi ve Americans (21
percent) incorrectly thinks
that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision
is sent back to Congress
for reconsideration.
Even supposedly well-educated
individuals, such as
Congresswoman-elect Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez seem
uncertain as to the structure
of the national government.
Capitol Times.com quotes
a statement by Arizona state
legislator Steve Montenegro,
a Republican, that “Civics and
Social Studies and History are
being boxed out of the classroom.”
He notes that “96% of a
sample group of high schoolers
in Arizona and Oklahoma
failed to pass a basic test on
citizenship issues.”
Joy Pullman, writing for
The Federalist, reports that:
“U.S. civics education, if it
exists at all, is being transformed
into a political machine
to push left-wing causes,
undermine American government,
and incite civil unrest,
fi nds a 525-page report from
the National Association of
Scholars. NAS The ‘New Civics’
uses attractive, bipartisan
sounding words like ‘civics’
and “service learning”
to trick Americans and their
representatives into allowing
progressive political machinery
to hijack public funds
and young minds, fi nds ‘Making
Citizens: How American
Universities Teach Civics.’…
…A series of surveys of adult
Americans from 2008 to 2011
found that college graduates
tended to know less than the
average American about basic
government functions, although
the average American
failed the test with or without
a college degree. ‘While college
adds little to civic knowledge,
it does seem to encourage
graduates to identify more
strongly with the Democrat
and Liberal ends of the political
spectrum,’ one of these
reports found. Younger students
are no better. Although
the Obama administration replaced
national civics and U.S.
history exams with technology
assessments in 2013, their
results were consistently poor:
“In 2010, the last time the history
test was administered,
students performed worse on
it than on any other NAEP
test. Less than half the eighthgraders
knew the purpose of
the Bill of Rights, and only 1
in 10 could pick a defi nition of
the system of checks and balance.”
In a Fox interview, the late
columnist Charles Krauthammer
said that American students
are being taught “about
all of the pathologies of the
United States and very little of
the glories.’…
Throughout American history,
there has always been
a segment of the population
that has been uncomfortable
with the nation’s foundational
concepts of individual
rights, competitive economic
practices, and frontier spirit.
While always free to advocate
their oppositional beliefs, they
never had the tools at hand
to overturn those basic concepts.
That began to change
in the latter half of the Twentieth
Century, a result of that
group’s realization that they
would not win at the ballot
box and had to fi nd different
levers of infl uence. In that effort,
they succeeded. President
Obama’s promise to “fundamentally
transform” America
was the most overt expression
of this drive.
The hard left attained key
control over much of education,
entertainment, and a signifi
cant portion of the news
media. This allowed them to
obscure the overwhelming
facts which argued against
their positions. Since rational
arguments worked against
their views, the emotional
realm of entertainment allowed
them to replace reasoned
discussion with fi ction.
America now fi nds itself
in an existential battle for the
survival of its basic principles
and culture.