Twilight in The Bronx

I've gotta believe that the most underappreciated borough in NYC is The Bronx. I've never lived there, but my sister has, and I've spent a lot of time there on my bicycle. Oh, yeah, and I once volunteered for a medical experiment at the Veteran's Hospital up there in which I was injected with testosterone every week. I dunno if it made any difference, but the 300 bucks I made allowed me to eat while I was flat broke in Hell's Kitchen.
But the parks are absolutely the best in the city. Pelham Bay Park is so beautiful, on a Saturday there's a constant stream of weddings, First Communions, Quinceneras, and other celebrations lining up to take pictures. I just took another trip to the Bronx and found out the deli's name that I wrote about before (Barino's Market on Ampere and Research Aves). I also found a lot of crazy stuff I had never seen before. There was an enormous campus that looked like an entire college, all fenced off with No Trespassing signs, identified as the New York Institute for Special Education. What's going on in there?
The other major head-shaker is the house on Pelham Parkway with all the plastic statuary. I have to assume that the woman whom I've spoken to a couple times makes them, but I've never gotten up the nerve to ask. Our conversations have consisted of "is it ok to take a picture? and "wow!"