New York Today: Mr. Lhota’s Neighborhood

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Back in the Bronx: a house where Joseph J. Lhota lived as a child.

Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican candidate for mayor, likes to point out that he was raised in the Bronx. (A long way from Cambridge, Mass., where his opponent, Bill de Blasio, grew up).

On Friday, New York Today strolled through Mr. Lhota’s childhood neighborhood, Pelham Bay.

On East 194th Street stands a two-story brick house that he called home.

A family of cats was lunching out front.

“There used to be a lot of Italians, Irish, Germans,” said Joe Sodano, 51, who has lived in the neighborhood his whole life. “Now there are a lot of Latinos.”

Mr. Lhota, the son of a city police officer, has Czech and Italian roots, as well as a Jewish maternal grandmother.

Pelham Bay has generally been peaceful, but every place has its problems.

A 1964 New York Times article - Mr. Lhota was roughly 10 then - said heroin was spreading among local teenagers.

The civic association sued in 1966 to block a public housing project.

In Mr. Lhota’s childhood house, at No. 2930, lives Jeff Drucker, 32.

“This is the last good neighborhood in the Bronx,” Mr. Drucker said.

Mr. Drucker was asked what he thought of Mr. Lhota, who is far behind in the polls.

He had never heard of him.

Here’s what else you need to know for this soggy Monday.

WEATHER

Fog. Rain. Thunder. Wind. Something for everyone today, unless you want sunshine.

Gusts up to 35 miles an hour, and more than a half inch of rainis expected. Warm, too - high around 76. (We don’t have to tell you to bring the umbrella.)

COMMUTE

Subways: O.K. so far. Click for latest status.

Rails: Metro-North’s New Haven line is back to full service after many days of power-related woe.

Roads: No major delays. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mr. Lhota is on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC at 10 a.m., meets with community leaders in Chinatown, and appears on NY1’s “Road to City Hall” at 7 p.m.

- Mr. de Blasio is on Curtis Sliwa’s show on AM 970 at 7:30 a.m. and on WCBS-880 at 2:10 p.m.

- The schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, and the head of the teachers’ union, Randi Weingarten, are on a panel called “A Reality Check on Testing” at an NBC education summit at the New York Public Library at 9 a.m.

- Miley Cyrus sings in Rockefeller Plaza on the “Today” show.

- State Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney are moving in together, at least politically. They’re opening a joint office on Lorimer Street in Williamsburg at 6 p.m.

- The poet Richard Blanco, who read at President Obama’s second inauguration, reads at John Jay College on West 59th Street. 1:30 p.m. [Free, RSVP recommended]

- More poetry: Justin Marks and Dorothea Lasky read at KGB bar in the East Village. 7 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- You can be charged with criminal possession of a weapon â€" namely, a dog â€" if you sic Fido on someone. [New York Times]

- A third motorcyclist was charged in last week’s attack on an S.U.V. driver on the Henry Hudson Parkway. The police also confirmed that an undercover detective was among the dozens of bikers present when the confrontation began. [New York Times]

- A 3-year-old girl was fatally struck by an S.U.V. as she crossed the street with her grandmother in Queens. [New York Times]

- The Mad magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee is donating his archive to Columbia University. [New York Times]

- Yet another sitcom set in Brooklyn, called “Brooklyn Taxi,” is hitting the airwaves â€" in France. [New York Times]

Michael M. Grynbaum contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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