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Out & About

By Judy Noy

Onstage

 

• Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana’s New York Ensemble presents Flamenco Fiesta, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. with a special performance by the Casita Maria Flamenco Kids, at the Pregones Theatre, 571-575 Walton Ave. Reservations are required for this free show. For more information, call (212) 736-4499.

 

• The Bronx Library Center presents Mariachi Real de Mexico, music and dance on May 31; and the Ray Abrams Big Band, a 17-piece swing band performing June 7; both at 2:30 p.m. The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Road off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

• Lehman College’s Center for the Performing Arts, located at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W., is host to The Lat Pack featuring Gilberto Santa Rosa and Tito Nieves on May 31 at 8 p.m. with tickets from $55 to $85. For more information, call (718) 960-8833.

 

• The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), located at 841 Barretto St., presents the Boogie Down Dance Series, through June 6. Upcoming performances include Bring on the Dancin’ Men featuring all male dancers performing contemporary dance, voguing, hip-hop, and more, May 30 at 8 p.m. ($15); BK in the BX featuring choreographers Malinda Allen, Jonah Bokaer and Baraka de Soleil, and the Haitian dance group La Troupe Makandal, May 31 at 8 p.m. ($15); and “Check Your Body at the Door,” a documentary film that explores legendary NYC house dancers, June 6 at 8 p.m. ($5 suggested donation), followed by a panel discussion and closing night party with music by D.J. Chip Chop. For more information, call (718) 842-5223.

 

• The Mosholu Montefiore Community Center Stagekids present “Into the Woods Junior,” a free musical performance that combines several children’s tales into one, at PS 8’s Beacon, 3010 Briggs Ave., on May 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. For more information, call (718) 329-0595.

 

Events

 

• The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosts free First Fridays of every month. “Everything Remains Raw,” a screening of a documentary on hip-hop culture, followed by a panel discussion and music, on June 6 from 6 to 10 p.m. at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street. For more information, call (718) 681-6000 ext. 120.

 

• Wave Hill has been designated the Culture Spot for May. Visitors can enjoy two-for-one admissions from Wednesdays to Fridays when they present a special coupon at the front gate. Coupons are available throughout May online at nycvisit.com/culturespot. Wave Hill is located at 675 W. 252nd St. For more information and events, call (718) 549-3200.

 

• The Bronx County Historical Society is presenting a Bronx High School Valedictorians Awards Program, June 1 from 1 to 3 p.m., at the Museum of Bronx History, 3266 Bainbridge Ave at East 208th Street. The program honors Bronx high school valedictorians and includes entertainment, food and refreshments, and tours of the museum. Reservations are requested and a tax-deductible donation will be accepted. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

 

Exhibits

 

• Take a peek into the story of Freedomland – New York City’s Disneyland, through Oct. 19, at the Valentine-Varian House or Museum of Bronx History. The exhibition tells the story of the American History-themed amusement park opened in 1960 on the 205-acre site now home to Bay Plaza and Co-op City. The museum is located at 3266 Bainbridge Ave. at East 208th Street. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

 

• Sound the Alarm, an exhibition of photographs, paintings and video of landscapes in distress, runs through June 1 at Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue in Riverdale. Admission is free to members and children under 6, and free all day Tuesdays and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

 

• Inspired by the Feminist Movement, the Bronx Museum of the Arts explores women artists working collectively in new ways in Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community through Aug. 4. Also on view at the museum is Teen Council Presents: Jamel Shabazz through July 27 in the North Wing. The museum is located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street and is open Thursday through Monday from noon to 6 p.m. and Friday to 8 p.m. For more information, call (718) 681-6000.

 

• The Bronx Museum of the Arts will feature How Soon Is Now? presenting artwork by participants in Artist in the Marketplace from June 1 (Open House runs from 2 to 6 p.m.) through Aug. 18. (Closing reception on Aug. 15 runs from 6 to 8 p.m.) Accompanying this exhibition is a Panel Discussion: Grand Concourse: Cultural Crossroads, June 7 at 3 p.m. in the Museum’s North Wing on the 2nd floor ($5; free for Bronx Museum members). A guided walking tour of the neighborhood will start at 11 a.m. promptly on June 7. Reservations are requested at ext. 132. The museum is located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street and is open Thursday through Monday from noon to 6 p.m. and Friday to 8 p.m. For more information, call (718) 681-6000.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden’s Everett Children’s Adventure Garden will host Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, a new interactive children’s exhibit and hands-on program through June 29. Activities include potting a vegetable plant and exploring various bogs. The Garden also presents Henry Moore Sculpture, featuring approximately 20 pieces, through Nov. 2. Children can create their own works of art including a collage and clay sculptures in the Adventure Garden, Tuesdays through Fridays from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Resplendent Roses will be on display throughout June in conjunction with a selection of programs. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

• Bronx Day at the New York Botanical Garden will take place on June 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring lunch and enjoy an afternoon of free musical entertainment, face painting, raffle prizes, and health, finance and education resource information kiosks. Advance tickets are required for admission. For free tickets, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with number of tickets requested (maximum of six) to: Elizabeth Figueroa, Director of Community Relations, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458-5126. For more information, call (718) 817-8990.

 

• Classical techniques of painting and sculpture twist and turn in a new exhibition at the Bronx River Art Center, featuring the works of New York artists Benjamin Entner and Omar Chacón, curated by José Ruiz, through June 6. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.bronxriverart.org.

 

• Critical Resistance NYC presents Prisoner Art Show Exhibit featuring an inside view through May 31 at 976 Longwood, corner of Beck Street in the south Bronx. For more information, call (718) 676-1660.

 

• The Bronx Library Center is hosting Essences Is, a solo exhibition by Moses Ros, on view from June 1 to 29 with a reception on June 7 from 1 to 2 p.m. The work consists of prints and sculpture based on trees. The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

Learning

 

• The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:

• For children and preschoolers, there is Preschool Stories, May 29 at 11 a.m. Also, for school-aged children, there are films on June 4 and 11 at 4 p.m.; Butterfly Boogie, June 5 at 2 p.m.; Bookmark Buddies Making, June 5 at 4 p.m.; and “How the Monkey Tricked the Crocodile and Other Trickster Tales,” June 9 at 4 p.m.

• Young adults can Play Chess! in a workshop with Ramon A. Hernandez on June 2 and 9 at 4 p.m.; and attend Big BLC Battle of the Bands, May 30 at 4 p.m.; Music Discovery: Get an Earful! on June 6 at 4 p.m.; and Turn It Up, on June 11 at 4 p.m.

• For adults, there are free Citizenship Preparation Classes at 10 a.m., Part 3 on May 31 and Part 4 on June 7; and two Author Talks at 6 p.m.: Rebecca Haile discussing “Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia,” on June 2; and Lilia Reyes Spindola discussing “You Have the Power of Attraction…Learn to Use It,” on June 10. The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

• The Mosholu Library presents World Beat and Percussion, for ages 12 to 18, on June 4 at 4 p.m. Percussive instruments including conga drums, rain sticks, cowbells, tambourines, and jingle bells, are provided, and participants can create their own hip-hop, Latin and rock lyrics. Visitors can also enjoy From Italy With Love featuring Dino Rosi performing Neapolitan love songs, arias from Italian opera and Broadway show tunes, June 7 at 2:30 p.m. Admission is free to both events. The library is located at 285 E. 205th St. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

 

• The Jerome Park Library at 118 Eames Place, hosts Manga Drawing Workshops for young adults on June 5, 12, and 19 at 4 p.m. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.

NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by June 2 for the next publication date of June 12.

Neighborhood Notes

By Norwood News

Free Computer Tutoring

The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is offering free computer tutorials to anyone interested. Lessons will cover topics ranging from basic computer skills to Internet navigation. Lessons are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., and on Wednesdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is located at 3400 Reservoir Oval East. For an appointment, call Brenda Lucio or Jennifer Mitchell, (718) 324-4461.

Free Career Seminars

Lehman College’s Office of Continuing Education is offering several free career seminars for its summer 2008 semester. On May 29 at 6:30 p.m., expert guidance will be provided on non-credit Computer Information Technology programs. On June 4 at 6:30 p.m. in Carman Hall 129, desktop publishing, graphics and Web design programs will be covered. On June 6 at 10 a.m., the patient care associate/technician and medication technician programs will hold orientations at CUNY on the Concourse. On June 9 at 2 p.m. at CUNY on the Concourse, information will be provided on free home health aide training. For more information call (718) 960-8512.

Disease Management Workshops

CMO, the care management company of Montefiore Medical Center, is offering health education workshops on chronic health issues such as diabetes and hypertension on May 29 from 10 a.m. to noon at 2532 Grand Concourse.  To register for the program or for further information, call 1-800-MD-MONTE (1-800-636-6683).  

Charter School Applications

The International Leadership Charter School, the only Bronx-based charter high school, is still accepting applications for September 2008 for incoming 9th graders. An Open House meeting will be held on May 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the school, 2900 Exterior St. For an application, call the school at (718) 563-2300 or e-mail llopez@ilchs.org.

Financial Education Seminars

The Ridgewood Savings Bank will be hosting multiple financial education seminars in the next two months from 6:15 to 8 p.m. at various bank branch locations. Topics covered will include the benefits of savings and checking accounts, mortgages, saving for emergencies, financial goals, and retirement. The free seminars, entitled “Money Matters,” will be held on May 30 at 3824 White Plains Rd., (718) 882-2220, and June 10 at 1626 Bruckner Blvd. , (718) 589-1323. For more information or to reserve a seat at a session, call the respective branch.

Lehman College Programs

An Open House to learn more about Lehman College’s “More than a Camp” summer program will be held on Saturday, May 31 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Carman Hall Room 129 on the Lehman campus, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West. Besides the classes for children ages 6-15, which include creative arts as well as reading, math, and writing, Lehman is also offering classes for parents/guardians in computing and math/writing essentials that are scheduled during times the children are in class. All classes are held at either the Lehman College campus or at CUNY on the Concourse. For more information or a catalog of summer classes for adults and children, call (718) 960-8512 or visit www.lehman.edu/ce.

 

Children’s Health Fair

The “Keeping Kids Healthy” Children’s Health Fair 2008 will be held on Sunday, June 1 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center, 3450 DeKalb Ave. at East Gun Hill Road. This year’s fair will focus on health education, safety and community. Families with children 12-years-old and younger are invited to attend this free event, which includes entertainment, refreshments, giveaways and health screenings. For more information, call (718) 920-4011.

Free Composting Event

The Bronx Compost Project at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road, will be hosting a free composting event, “Wild, Wiggly Worms!”, from now through June 1 on Tuesdays through Sundays from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. During the program, children will learn the important roles that worms play in the garden and will have the chance to create a wormy collage and sift nutritious worm compost to take home to houseplants. To register or for more information, call the Compost Helpline at (718) 817-8543 or e-mail bronxgreenup@nybg.org.

Art Near the Park

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park will host “Art Near the Park,” a series of art classes where art teacher Lucy Degidon will instruct participants of all levels on various methods of art inspired by nature. The final session will be Wrap Up on June 2, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Building 9 Community Room, Gale Place off of Orloff Ave. A small material fee will be charged to non-members of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. Pre-registration is required. To register or for more information, call Christina at (718) 601-1460 or e-mail info@vancortlandt.org.

Food & Arts Festival

Bronx-based artists and art groups interested in taking part in the 2008 Bronx Food & Arts Festival must submit a space reservation form with payment to the Bronx Council on the Arts no later than Friday, June 6. The Festival will be held on Sunday, June 22 from noon to six on Mosholu Parkway between Bainbridge and Hull avenues. The Grand Finale of the Bronx Week 2008 celebration will feature a place for artists to display their work in addition to live music, rides, and food from the borough’s most popular restaurants. For more information, contact Phil Cardone at (718) 931-9500 x33 or at phil@bronxarts.org or Kate Shackford at (718) 590-3498 or at kshackford@boedc.org.

Travel Soccer League

The Bronx Bombers girls’ soccer team is looking for 3rd and 4th grade girls, born between Aug. 1, 1998 and July 31, 1999, to join their team. Twice weekly practices and traveling to southern Westchester to play games is required to be on the team. Competitive tryouts will be held on Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m. at Van Cortlandt Park, 251st and Broadway. Applicants must bring a soccer ball, shin guards, and a water bottle. For more information, call Sean Maher at (917) 854-5494.

Spring Flea Market

Vendors are needed for the Church of Holy Nativity’s Spring Flea Market, to be held on June 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 3061 Bainbridge Ave. The cost is $30 per table, cash only. For more information call Janice Pena at (718) 409-6912.

Bronx Kids Golf Classic

Be one of more than 100 golfers and guests to join Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. at his annual Bronx Kids Golf Classic on June 10 at the Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course. To register  contact Kim Patterson at (718) 328-5451 or bronxkidsinc@netzero.net.

Small Business Success

Lehman College is hosting a free course called Creating a Winning Business Plan and Marketing Your Small Business on June 11 in the Lehman Library, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West. The course will teach how to create a business plan, generate financial statements, market and advertise. Pre-registration is required. To register or for more information, contact Nancy Beltrez at (718) 960-8806 or anastacia.beltrez@lehman.cuny.edu.

Family Literacy Celebration

Join Literacy, Inc. in celebrating another year of bringing early literacy success to New York neighborhoods on June 11 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Con Edison Building, 2 Irving Place, Union Square at 14th Street, Manhattan. To RSVP contact Latiya Stanley at (212) 620-5462 or lstanley@lincnyc.org.

PRIDE Health Fair

Montefiore Medical Center’s AIDS Center, together with the Bronx HIV CARE Network, will host their 6th Annual PRIDE Health Fair on Saturday, June 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Gun Hill Road between Bainbridge and DeKalb avenues.  The event will include educational materials on HIV and prevention, blood pressure screenings, musical performances, guest speakers, and free raffle drawings. For more information, call Liz Ruffin at (718) 231-3296 ext. 24.

Seniors to Get Affordable Housing

By Stephen Baron

City officials joined Jewish Home Lifecare representatives at the groundbreaking of a $16 million apartment building for low-income seniors in Kingsbridge on Monday, May 19.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg/ Webb Avenue Senior Residence, with 71 one-bedroom apartments accessible for the physically disabled, will be constructed on the parking lot behind their Bronx campus at West Kingsbridge Road and Webb Avenue.

“We are thrilled to be converting a parking lot into a humane use,” said Audrey Weiner, the not-for-profit organization’s president and CEO. She was joined by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and representatives from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the city Department for the Aging, and Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s office.

“We have a nursing home and senior care center here, so that in five to 10 years from now, the seniors will transition from the building to here,” Weiner said. “It’s a continuum of care, so that people with supportive services can keep living independently for as long as possible.”

The apartment building will be Jewish Home Lifecare’s third HUD Section 202 affordable housing development in the Bronx. Section 202 provides housing grants for buildings serving low-income seniors who are at least 62 years old.  For this year, the maximum incomes allowed were $24,800 for one person and $28,350 for two people. But a majority of residents have incomes between $10,000 and $15,000, said Ken Sherman, senior vice president of the organization’s Bronx division.

Nationwide and citywide there is a crisis for housing for low-income seniors. There are 3.5 million seniors living below the poverty line and there are 10 seniors for every waitlist spot for HUD housing, Weiner said.

Lucky seniors will be chosen in a lottery closer to the completion date, in about 18 to 20 months, according to Weiner. Applications will be available about three months before it opens, and Weiner said her organization will put ads in local newspapers telling seniors how to apply.

HUD provided a $12 million interest-free capital advance to Jewish Home Lifecare, which will own the building after 40 years as long as the building serves very low income seniors for that time. The organization, founded in 1848, also received $1.7 million from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which gives grants to nonprofits for the poor, especially Jewish seniors; $500,000 from the Bronx borough president’s office, and Jewish Home Lifecare put up $1.3 million of its own money.

This comes on the heels of Jewish Home’s $10 million renovation of the 295-unit middle-income Mitchell-Llama Kittay House, completed in February.

“We have to ensure that seniors have quality housing,” Carrion said, “so they can live with dignity and respect.”

Puerto Rican Pride at 20

By David Greene

Thousands of Latinos displayed their colors along the Grand Concourse during the 20th Annual Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade, held on Sunday, May 18.

This year, Borough President Adolfo Carrion marched with local officials Councilman Joel Rivera and Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. Invited guests included Comptroller William C. Thompson, Queens Councilman John Liu and famed attorney Norman Siegel.

This year, parade participants consisted of 100 organizations, whose members rode on floats, marched, danced and sang.

Carrion said at the start of the parade, “It’s a terrific celebration of Puerto Rican pride and Bronx pride. The Puerto Rican community is obviously a significant and important segment in the Bronx and in the city. So it’s important to pass on to the children their heritage, who they are, and that they are an important element in New York City life.”

What in the World is ‘Norwood’?

By Alex Kratz

I grew up on DeKalb Avenue, near Mosholu Parkway, graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and then NYU. For me and for all my Diaspora classmates across the U.S. who really want to know, please tell me what in the world does Norwood stand for? No such geographic reference was known into the 1970s. Where did the word come from? Who coined it? It can’t be north of Woodlawn because that would be Yonkers. We referred to our neighborhood as East Riverdale. Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.

David Hubler

Falls Church, VA

A New Weapon Can Protect Peace at Home

By Editorial

With Memorial Day fresh in our minds, we would like to take this opportunity to recognize the heroism of Dino Rossi, a veteran of the United States Air Force.

This story, however, is not about his actions on any traditional battlefield. But make no mistake, Rossi has embroiled himself in a heated and contentious battle, one with severe and life-altering consequences for its underdog stakeholders.

For the past six months or so, Rossi has led an effort on behalf of his fellow tenants at a North Fordham-area building on the Grand Concourse to fight the injustice being done there by building owner Jacob Selechnik. (See previous issue, May 15, “Tenants Stand Up to Landlord’s Bully Tactics.”)

He says the stealth and serpentine Selechnik, often referred to by housing advocates as “Jake the Snake,” with the help of his daughter Ellen, is all but physically forcing residents, through a variety of shameful tactics, out of Rossi’s building, 2720 Grand Concourse. For the Selechniks, it seems to come down to simple math: The more people they can scare away, the higher they can jack up the rents.  

So far, five tenants have left in the past few months, including one woman who suffered a heart attack she attributed to stress from the landlord’s tactics.

While Rossi, a former organizer, is savvy enough to see through Jake the Snake’s tricks, he also recognizes that many other tenants don’t speak enough English or don’t have enough time or money to help themselves. Most of those targeted for harassment have Spanish-sounding last names or darker skin. And Rossi has bent to help every last one.  

“I know prejudice when I see it,” Rossi told us.  

In fact, he knows prejudice all too well. Rossi, who is gay, has routinely been the subject of homophobic slurs by a few of his neighbors. At one point it got so bad, he even filed and won a restraining order against a fellow tenant.

Still, Rossi hung in there, working diligently on behalf of fellow tenants.

That is until two weeks ago.

That’s when mail carriers attempted to deliver mail to 2720 and were nearly eaten alive.

Because Jake had installed non-regulation-sized mailboxes (despite having been told what size the boxes needed to be), the postal service hadn’t delivered mail there for two months. Tenants were picking up mail at a post office a mile away. Many missed timely bills and valuable social security checks. Others failed to receive time-sensitive housing court summonses sent by Jake’s lawyers. They were all frustrated and fed up.

So when an innocent mail carrier showed up at the building, in large part because of Rossi’s efforts, tenants at 2720 were like starving wolves staring down a wounded deer. And they pounced, literally ripping the mail out of the carrier’s hands and bag.

Shaken but unharmed, the carrier escaped. But Rossi had had enough. He told other tenant leaders he could do no more for these disrespectful and ungrateful people.

The landlord’s harassing tactics ultimately pushed these people to the brink and then over it. There is little that gets people where they live more than, well, being attacked where they live. A property owner might be thrilled to see tenants distracted from the source of their problems by attacking mail carriers and calling each other names. He couldn’t be happier seeing them tear down their best soldier.

But New Yorkers have a new weapon they can use to fight for peace at home: A new tenant harassment law classifies harassment as a hazardous housing violation that could be subject to up to a $5,000 fine.

So rather than beating up on each other, we suggest tenants at 2720 channel their frustrations to the source, and use this law against Jake the Snake.

After a week of pleading, Rossi reluctantly agreed to come back and continue the fight, but he’s waning and feels underappreciated. We suggest the other tenants at 2720 do whatever they can to keep their champion on the battlefield.   

 

Nonstop Reading at PS 94

By Graham Kates

At PS 94, some students read a lot, some students read more, and some students like 2nd graders Anamica Saha, Sanjidah Abdullah, Nazeath Emama, and Yakelin Ibarra, read pretty much all the time. The four students won PS 94’s annual reading competition by reading literally hundreds of books in just a 21⁄2-month period.

Nazeath, who read 198 books during that span, said she “read 10 books every day during my [spring] vacation.” She explained that she liked to read books that pique her interest in zoology. “I like when I learn something new about animals,” she said.

Anamica, who led the group in total books read during the 10-week period, with 236, said that out of all those books, it was difficult to choose a favorite, but that “‘The Little Dinosaur’ is probably my favorite out of all of them.” Anamica agreed with Nazeath that books about animals are among her favorites.

For Sanjidah, education is often the impetus in reading books. “I like to learn a lot,” she said.

Nazeath added that one of her favorite aspects of reading is when she encounters a word that she is unfamiliar with. “I like to write big words that I learn, so that I know them,” she said.

Yakelin, who plans to be an artist when she grows up, says one of the things she enjoyed about the books she read were the illustrations.

Overall, the students felt that they had improved their reading skills during the competition. “I read a lot faster now,” Anamica noted.

The four plan on continuing to read regularly, even though they are no longer trying to claim top prize.

Fair and Balanced Reporting at PS 8

By Graham Kates

Where can you get a well written newspaper that includes the latest in science research, in-depth sports coverage and analysis, and intelligent debates on today’s hottest issues? PS 8’s newspaper, that’s where.

In the brand new publication, which debuted on May 16, PS 8’s students showed that good journalism comes in all sizes.

Diamonique June, one of the paper’s student editors, said the production of the inaugural issue of the paper was not without its challenges. The 4th graders, said Diamonique, had to learn how to import image files onto their Microsoft Word document, and then adjust the images to make them fit into the space they were allotted, a task which she said, “wasn’t always easy.”

Still, Keila Reyes, a staff writer for the paper, said the project was “very fun to do.”

Most of the students who wrote for the paper were 4th graders, and Diamonique and Keila said that while in 5th grade, they would be interested in “maybe trying to do this again.”

Robin Rosen, the school’s librarian, who worked with the students on the project, said she “felt there was a need” for the paper at PS 8. Rosen said she, and the students, “wanted to get the word out” about what was going on in and around the school.

While Rosen oversaw the project, it was the students who did everything, she said. “I didn’t know how to use the ‘newsletter’ feature on Microsoft Word,” said Rosen, “but I asked the kids if they could figure it out, and they did in no time at all. They were so determined. It’s a tribute to the human spirit.”

Juan Dalo, who wrote a debate column arguing for the allowance of cellular phones in school, said participating in the paper “was very fun.” Juan said he enjoyed doing research most of all. “I liked best that we got to go on the computers and search for information,” he said.

Also included in the paper was an article about incubated eggs that became chicks, the biological processes which made that happen, and a detailed account of a struggle between the school’s “Blue” and “Black” basketball teams, which battled through a tenuous game which was decided by merely two points. That article’s authors, Jorge Fernandez and Mensur Cekic, noted in the piece, that while the game was a nail-biter, in the end, both teams’ captains “agreed that everyone had fun.”

Principals Scramble to Understand Cuts

By Stephen Baron

By Stephen Baron

City Council members expressed outrage on Tuesday that two of the Bronx’s top-performing high schools may face significant budget cuts if the Department of Education passes its 2009 budget without changes.

At a Council budget hearing, Councilman Oliver Koppell criticized Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s proposal to cut budgets at 74 top performing schools to compensate for a $99 million shortfall, the New York Times reported.

Schools affected include the Bronx High School of Science and the High School of American Studies at Lehman College.

“Chancellor Klein’s proposal verges on insanity,” Koppell said in a statement. “These cuts will have a devastating effect on the quality of education our best schools can provide their children, forcing them to offer only a ‘bare bones’ curriculum that does not provide sufficient challenge or enrichment.”

Based on its analysis of budget figures provided by Department of Education officials, Class Size Matters speculates the cuts would have significant negative effects on maintenance, class size, after-school programs, Advanced Placement courses, SAT preparation, summer school and tutoring.

The exact size of the cuts was unclear to many on Tuesday. For Bronx Science, data provided by Class Size Matters shows that it will face a cut of 5.39 percent, totaling $825,448.

But Principal Valerie Reidy said a figure on the DOE’s Web site showed a cut of 5.7 percent, totaling about $1 million.

For American Studies, Class Size Matters data shows a 5.56 percent cut totaling $167,672.

“At the top schools, most kids are not likely to drop out, but they won’t get as good an education,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the non-profit Class Size Matters, whose mission is to shrink class sizes in public schools. “AP courses are going to be cut way back, as will college counseling. There is no need for education cuts for any school, especially with a $4 billion budget surplus.”

Reidy said she has already met with the school’s administration, and expects to have meetings with the teachers union, the staff and the parents association in coming days. “We’ll look at our budget department by department, but we’ll work from the periphery in so as not to cut core programs,” she said. “When a child wants to grow higher, how can you say no to that? We have students who want to skip lunch to take more courses. We have to be creative and judicious with our budget. I wish I had a magic wand or a pot of gold, but we’re just keeping our fingers crossed.”

Bronx Schools Lacking in P.E. Department

By Alex Kratz

Bronx students aren’t getting enough exercise during school hours because the city’s education department is failing to provide them with access to proper facilities and programs, says a new report released by the Bronx borough president’s office.

The lack of physical education facilities and programs is compounding the borough’s obesity problem, which is the worst in New York City.

Nearly one out of every four elementary school students in the Bronx is obese, according to Department of Education (DOE) statistics, meaning they are extremely overweight. More than two out of every five Bronx elementary students are either obese or overweight.

Obesity can lead to all kinds of health problems from degenerative joint diseases to diabetes. Not surprisingly, Bronx residents suffer from the highest rate of diabetes – 12 percent – of any borough in the city, the report says. Diabetes can then lead to more serious health problems, such as “kidney disease, blindness, depression, amputations and even premature death,” the report says.

In addition to health problems, the report cites several studies linking obesity to academic, social and psychological problems. It also cites studies saying obesity puts a heavy economic burden on our healthcare system and estimates that obesity costs New York state residents more than $6 billion each year.

The report calls on the city’s Department of Education to do its part to help alleviate these problems by providing adequate exercise for Bronx youth. “In order to assure a healthy future for our youth, the DOE must take a proactive role in addressing the lack of adequate physical education in our public schools,” the report says.

The problem, as outlined by the report and a survey of more than 200 Bronx public school administrators, is that “Bronx schools need additional support for their physical education programs such as improved physical education facilities, better implementation of the physical education curriculum and more certified physical education teachers.”

The report compares its survey results with New York state physical education requirements, which says that elementary students must get 120 minutes of physical education each week, not including time for showering and dressing.

New York City standards are more vague. Students don’t have to meet hour requirements, but schools are encouraged to provide daily physical education classes and the DOE recommends using a comprehensive fitness curriculum called “Physical Best: Physical Education for Lifelong Fitness.” Instituting the curriculum earned New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein an award for physical education leadership in 2007.

The problem isn’t the curriculum, Bronx educators say, it’s the lack of facilities and how the programs for the curriculum are implemented.

Here are some of the report’s numbers:

• Over 4,000 Bronx students, in at least 10 schools, do not have any physical education programs.

• 70 percent of Bronx schools surveyed reported that physical education hours didn’t meet the class time required by New York State.

• 91 percent of the elementary schools surveyed said they didn’t provide enough physical education hours to meet New York State requirements.

• 23 percent of schools said they didn’t have a gym.

• 22 percent percent of schools said they didn’t have any outdoor physical education facilities.

A Users Guide to the World’s Best Sport

By James Fergusson

When I “talk cricket” to my American friends, they either look confused or their eyes glaze over. You see, this country is split between those who’ve never watched it, and those who have and think it’s dull and ridiculous.

But cricket, which has more fans than any other sport in the world except soccer, is rarely boring or silly — honest! In fact, it’s hugely entertaining. But don’t take my word for it. Just ask the hundreds of millions of Indians who follow it, or the tens of millions of Pakistanis, or the millions of Australians, Bangladeshis, Brits, and South Africans.

For those new to the sport, the rules —and there are many — can be difficult to comprehend. With that in mind, always remember this: cricket is similar to baseball but the games are longer.

Here are some other basics:

Cricket is played between two teams of 11 players. One team bats and the other pitches (or bowls). The bowler tries to get the batsmen out by bowling the ball at and hitting the stumps — three sticks stuck in the ground. The “in” batsman attempts to defend the stumps by swinging a flat wooden bat at the ball. A run is scored if the batsman hits the ball and runs to where the bowler released it from. If the batsman hits it harder, and the ball runs off the field, that’s four runs; if it exits without bouncing, that’s six.

In addition to the ball hitting the stumps, a batsman can get out in a number of ways: He can be caught (like a fly out in baseball), run out (similar to being thrown out), and lbw (leg before wicket), whereby the ball hits the batsman’s legs and would have gone on to hit the stumps.

When 10 of the batsmen are out, the other team has a chance to bat. If they score more runs than their opponents (before their batsman get out), they win the game.  

Still with me? Good. Now, to complicate matters, not every game follows the same format. At international level, there are three variations: Twenty20, One-Day, and Test Cricket.  

In a Twenty20 game, each team bats for 20 overs (there are six throws, or balls, in an over). In a One-Day game, each teams bats for 50 overs. Test Cricket, on the other hand, lasts far longer — a game can go on for five days. Each team bats twice, and the batsmen, with time on their side, score slowly. And yes, I can see how people might find that tedious.

But most of the time, cricket is a whole lot of fun. A single ball can yield many different results, because there are many ways a bowler can bowl it (fast, swing, spin, etc.) and many ways a batsman can play it (the hook, the pull, the cut, and so on). That’s what makes it exciting; that and watching the top players. Current greats include the Indian Sachin Tendulkar, aka “The Little Master,” a quite brilliant batsman and possibly the most famous person you’ve never heard of.

Still unconvinced?  Well, you’ve come this far, so why not give cricket a chance. Catch a game in a local park or, better still, in cricket vernacular, pad up and head out to the middle. You might find it’s not nearly so boring as you thought.

Ed. Note: Originally from England, James Fergusson is the editor of the Mount Hope Monitor. He is often seen searching in vain for cricket matches on American television.

Fordham Road BID Teaches Healthy Living

By Stephen Baron

More than 700 people attended the first annual Fordham Goes Green Walk and multicultural health fair in Poe Park on Saturday, May 17, the kickoff event of a new environmentally-friendly campaign sponsored by the Fordham Road Business Improvement District (BID).

“It’s great to inform businesses and residents about going green,” said Daniel Bernstein, the BID’s deputy executive director. “We’re the first Bronx BID to do environmentally-friendly programming, and we hope to set a precedent for the rest of the Bronx.”

Supported by chants of “Go Green!” and “Save the Earth!,” attendees followed a marching band along East Fordham Road from Creston Avenue to East Kingsbridge Road. In Poe Park, people lined up for information on environmental issues like recycling and energy conservation, as well as a range of health issues. Passersby could get their cholesterol and blood pressure checked. And local musicians and dancers performed.

The goal, say the event’s organizers, was to show the link between healthy bodies and healthy environments. “If you eat and stay healthy, you should treat the environment healthy,” Bernstein said. Wilma Alonso, the BID’s executive director, added, “Everyone is very glad we did this event because of the high rates of asthma, diabetes and obesity in the Bronx.”

BID officials also announced that more than 90 percent of business owners want to learn more about and be more involved with environmental sustainability, after 25 supervised pre-kindergarten students from the 1199 SEIU Child Care Corporation handed out surveys over the past month, according to Bernstein.

The BID, founded in 2005, is also conducting a pilot program with the Department of Sanitation and the Department of Parks and Recreation in placing two recycling bins at the intersection of Fordham Road and Grand Concourse through the end of June.

Recycling is one of many initiatives in Fordham, which now has new select Bus Rapid Transit bus service, bus shelters and historic streetlighting. There will be a $2.5 million renovation of Bryan Park starting in 2009.

The BID will also be presenting its streetscape enhancement master plan on June 5 at the Bronx Library Center from 9 to 11 a.m. The pre-K students’ science fair projects will be on display at the library through the end of May.

Public and Community Meetings

By None

•    The Community Education Council of District 10 will meet on Thursday, June 19 at 6:15 p.m. in the auditorium of PS 85, 2400 Marion Ave. For more information, call (718) 741-5836.

•    The 52nd Precinct Community Council will meet on Thursday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Ann’s Church, 3519 Bainbridge Ave. For more information, call (718) 220-5824.

•    The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition will host “The Shared Fate Action Forum” on Saturday, May 31 at 11 a.m. at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, at the corner of University Avenue and Fordham Road. Local residents are invited to share their opinions on issues such as education, parks, the Kingsbridge Armory, and the old Fordham Library. Doors open at 10 a.m. To RSVP, contact Laura Vazquez at (718) 584-0515 ext. 212.

 

Serrano Loves Sinatra

By Stephen Baron

Bronx Congressman Jose Serrano’s congressional resolution designating May 13 as Frank Sinatra Day passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 402-3 on May 20. The designation ties in with the release of postage stamps bearing Ol’ Blue Eyes’ face, commemorating the 10th anniversary of his death.

“I carry close to 2,000 songs on my iPod from Sinatra alone,” Serrano beamed after the vote. “Our gossip notes, our water bills, and yes, our love letters will carry the smile of Frank Sinatra for a time to come.”

New GI Bill to Aid 1,700 Bronx Vets

By Stephen Baron

The Bronx’s more than 1,700 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will receive additional money for college as the House of Representatives provided $52 billion over 10 years yesterday in a new G.I. Bill.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act will allow veterans who served a minimum of three months of qualified active duty since September 11, 2001 to receive payments of up to the cost of the most expensive in-state public school — approximately $27,000 over four years in New York. The bill also provides a monthly stipend equivalent to housing costs in the area, books, and other expenses.

In New York City, 8,459 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will benefit from the bill, including 1,710 from the Bronx. The new G.I. Bill, originally cosponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner, also provides a dollar-for-dollar federal match for private universities that voluntarily agree to contribute added tuition sums to veterans who enroll.

The original Montgomery G.I. Bill was not able to keep up with today’s rising costs of education and living, Weiner said. For example, a veteran attending college at New York University would have nearly $150,000 in debt after already sacrificing years of service to the country.

“New York City’s veterans are true American heroes,” Weiner said. “They refused to turn their back when we needed them, and this step shows only the beginning of our respect and gratitude for their sacrifice.”

Dominican President Wins Re-Election

By Stephen Baron

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez was re-elected to his third term in the country’s presidential election on May 16, boosted by New York voters.

Fernandez won 54 percent of the vote, election officials told the Associated Press. His Dominican Liberation Party defeated Miguel Maldonado of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, who won 40 percent.

Fernandez, a progressive liberal who grew up in Washington Heights, faces hurdles with poverty and finishing the country’s first subway line in the capital of Santo Domingo.

Dominicans living abroad have been able to vote in elections since 2004. Figures have not yet been released on the number of abroad voters, but there were 55,992 eligible voters in New York State. There were more than 30 polling sites in New York City, with at least one in the Bronx in University Heights.

Dominican City Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Washington Heights) said there will be “minimal change” with the re-election. “Usually when there is a change in government, many families move back to the Dominican Republic,” Martinez said. “Now everything will stay at its normal pace.”

Martinez speculated that Dominicans in New York may be appointed to a cabinet position or be appointed to the Dominican Consulate.

As of 2000, there were 554,638 Dominicans living in New York City, with about a third living in the Bronx, according to a 2003 report published by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute.

 

Engel Says War No More

By Alex Kratz

Once a proponent of going to war in Iraq, local Congressman Eliot Engel has done a complete 180 and recently voted to cut off funding for the very same war, now in its fifth year.

Engel joined 147 Democrats and two Republicans in voting down a $162.5 billion war package.

“It is time for the U.S. to pull our troops out of this Iraqi civil war. This war was conceived on misinformation, was poorly planned and has been disastrously executed,” Engel said in a statement.

Report Says City and Yankees Deceptively Stole Parkland

By Alex Kratz

The New York Yankees baseball club and city officials are shortchanging residents on public parkland they promised to replace, and even expand, upon completing the new Yankee Stadium, charges a new report released last week by park advocates.

New York City Park Advocates released its report, “Broken Promises: The City’s Replacement Park Scheme for the New Yankee Stadium Project” last Thursday. It says that without a single public hearing, city and state officials alienated 25.3 acres of historic South Bronx parkland and then said it would be returned fully and then some. The report goes on to say that “a close examination reveals” that only 21.78 acres are being replaced.

The biggest discrepancy in the numbers, according to the report, comes down to the fact that a 2.89-acre asphalt baseball field in Macombs Dam Park (which is being replaced) was not considered in the city’s final analysis. City officials said they didn’t consider it a “recreational facility,” even though residents had used it for baseball, football, bike riding and other uses for decades, the report says.   

“The Bloomberg administration’s continued attempts to play a shell game with the replacement numbers is an affront, not only to this impoverished community, but to all who are interested in responsible government and accountability,” said Geoffrey Croft, head of NYC Park Advocates and a co-author of the report, along with Lukas Herbert of the American Institute of Certified American Planners.

The city attempted to further deceive the public by claiming that 12.5 acres of already mapped parkland, or, in one case, a schoolyard, was actually replacement parkland, the report says.

“It is shameful that the city refuses to take responsibility,” Croft said in a statement.

New York City and New York Yankee officials could not be reached for comment by press time.

 

Missing Teen Found 8 Days After Her Disappearance

By Alex Kratz

A 16-year-old Bronx high school student was reunited with her family last Thursday night after mysteriously disappearing for more than a week.

Details remain sketchy on what exactly happened in the eight days that Selena Pruden, a junior at Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, was missing, but she is now safely back home with her family, according to Celia Cruz principal William Rodriguez.

Prior to her disappearance, Rodriguez said, Selena was last seen leaving her Kingsbridge-area home on Wednesday, May 14. She was dressed for school and carrying her viola, which she plays in one of the school’s orchestra ensembles.

Selena’s mother, Geraldine Hoggis, notified the school and police the following Thursday morning when her daughter failed to come home Wednesday night. Then, on Saturday, when she didn’t show up for a school performance, Rodriguez said school officials became increasingly worried about her safety. Failing to show up for school events was not Selena’s style.

“It was really alarming,” Rodriguez said. “She is a great student, on track to graduate, no attendance problems.”

On Thursday, May 22, a full eight days after Selena was last seen, Rodriguez held an assembly to talk about her disappearance and to hand out stacks of flyers with Pruden’s picture on it. Hoggis attended the assembly and spoke emotionally about her daughter, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also called on crisis intervention specialists to help out distressed classmates. Bronx News 12 attended the assembly and broadcasted a story about Selena soon afterward.

“Everyone is very worried, very quiet, very solemn,” Rodriguez said Thursday. “I told them, ‘Let’s be responsible about these flyers. Who knows, where you place it might be the right place it needs to be.’”

On the West Bronx News Blog, where the Norwood News had posted an item about Selena’s disappearance last Thursday afternoon, a commenter who said her name was Sophia and identified herself as Selena’s friend implored people to come forward with any information.

Later that day, according to Rodriguez, someone who saw Selena’s story on television, spotted her in a Bronx neighborhood (it’s unclear exactly which neighborhood) where students had also posted flyers.

Rodriguez said police “interceded” and Selena was safely reunited with her family. It remains unclear if Selena voluntarily went missing or was abducted. Police at the 50th precinct referred the Norwood News to the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information (DCPI), who did not respond to several inquiries. Hoggis did not return several phone calls.

In an e-mail message, Rodriguez said, “She is scheduled to return to school at some point. I asked teachers to consider the circumstances when determining her grade for this term. We are hoping for a smooth transition back to normalcy for her after such an ordeal.”

UN Members Reunite at Lehman

By Stephen Baron

Seated in front of flags of the world in Lehman College’s old gym, Sir Brian Urquhart described the first meetings of the United Nations Security Council there in 1946 as “very exciting and disorganized.”

“It was the first time we had done anything like that,” the former undersecretary general said. “There was universal enthusiasm…for the founding of an organization that everyone in the world wanted to succeed.”

Urquhart and about 100 other former UN officials and staff reunited for a homecoming on May 21. The UN Security Council had met at the then-Bronx campus of Hunter College for five months, from March 25, 1946 to Aug. 18, 1946. The homecoming was also part of Lehman’s 40th anniversary celebration.

The main event was a symposium called “The United Nations: Past, Present and Future,” whose panelists included Urquhart and Margaret Bruce, an original member of the Human Rights Division. Former UN stenographer Betty Teslenko could not attend, but a statement from her was read by Lehman history professor Duane Tananbaum.

Lehman College President Dr. Ricardo Fernandez also rededicated the Peace Grove, planted in 1996 on the 50th anniversary of the UN meeting at the college. Also present were the living members of the Mohicans, the group of roughly 500 original UN staffers.

“As a student, it’s been inspirational to hear from UN members who have been pondering the world,” said Nusrat Chowdury, a senior who aspires to be a math teacher, and who helped rededicate the Peace Grove. “We hope that our efforts can and will help make a better college, community and world.”

Though the UN’s charter was drafted in 1945, the UN’s permanent home in New York was not officially completed until 1951. Mayor William O’Dwyer suggested using Lehman College, which was vacant after having been used by the U.S. Navy during World War II.

In only 15 days, architects and carpenters transformed the gym into formal chambers for the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Delegates and UN officials used the classrooms and faculty offices on the bucolic 37-acre campus.

While in the Bronx, the UN is best known for establishing the Eleanor Roosevelt-led Commission on Human Rights, which adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Lehman College, with students from more than 90 countries, is representative of the global diversity in the Bronx, New York and the U.S. Though the world has changed significantly since the 1940s, attendees agreed that the UN remains as important as ever.

“Students need to look at what the United Nations does in disasters in their home countries,” Urquhart said, citing the cyclones and tsunami that struck South Asia in recent years.

Pratik Shah, a 19-year-old Kingsbridge resident who helped found a Model UN at SUNY Albany, was inspired by the homecoming. “We need more events like this,” he said, “to bring pride to the diverse communities of the Bronx to help solve problems.”

Clinton Wraps Up Inaugural Cricket Season

By Allison Grande

DeWitt Clinton junior Rifat Hussain dreamed about playing competitive cricket in the Bronx when his family left Bangladesh a year ago. He joined informal pickup games in the city parks with his friends.

Then, in early April, he got to put on a uniform and compete, when he and 16 of his classmates played their first match in the inaugural season of the Public School Athletic League’s (PSAL) new cricket league.

“Their needs have been met, and they are having a great time,” said Clinton head cricket coach Ray Ramirez, who grew up playing baseball in the Dominican Republic and had never played cricket before this season. “It’s part of their culture, and they are a lot prouder of themselves.”

Senior and team captain Mohammed Arslan started a campaign to form a cricket team at Clinton two years ago. He had been playing for a team at the Primrose Cricket Club on White Plains Road.

Eric Goldstein, who oversees sports programs for the Department of Education (DOE), noticed the rising number of people playing cricket in the city parks over the past few years. It’s estimated that 650 adults play in the city’s six cricket leagues, and many more play informally.

When this interest was tested at public high schools last year, the DOE found there were enough students to field 15 teams across four boroughs. When announcing the league earlier this year, the DOE said that New York is the only public school system in the nation to offer competitive cricket.

“There was a lot of demand, and I think we tapped into this demand, which really was the result of a lot of new immigrant groups coming to New York,” Goldstein said.

Cricket originated in England and was carried around the world to its colonies in South Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. In New York City, the number of immigrants from cricket-wealthy nations, especially Bangladesh, is on the rise. In fact from 1990 to 2000, the city’s Bangladeshi population exploded by 471 percent.

Bangladeshis are the largest nationality of Asian-born New Yorkers in the Bronx, as well. Many Bangladeshis have been moving to Bronx sections like Norwood and Parkchester for years because, according to Mohammed Kavir, a member of the Organization of Bangladesh Americans, “currently, living in the Bronx is much cheaper than any other borough in New York City.”

The Clinton cricket team has players from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Jamaica. Some have played on the Clinton soccer, swimming, volleyball, or football teams while most are enjoying their first interscholastic playing experience.

“This team is a mix of different people and different cultures all coming together,” said Hussain, a team vice captain.

“It’s a good experience; we’re one big happy family,” said senior Daneon Simpson from Jamaica.

Clinton and Herbert H. Lehman High School are the only two Bronx high schools with cricket teams.

Clinton ended its regular season with an 8-4 record. Clinton received the eighth seed in the playoffs, where last Saturday they defeated the top seeded and undefeated Franklin D. Roosevelt High School from Brooklyn, 116-115. Although Ramirez called the victory “a total team effort” he credited two players, Arslan and sophomore Kamran Chowdhury, with leading the team by scoring the most offensive points in the tight upset. Junior Mohammed Hossain scored the winning run.

The team then advanced to the semi-final round where they took on the fifth-seeded John Adams High School (8-4) Tuesday evening at Baisley Pond Park in Queens. The teams had split their regular season series with one win each. The winner, unknown at press time, advanced to the championship game, which will be played this Saturday.

No matter how their season ends, all involved are happy with the way the first ever cricket season played out.

Said Hossain, “I made good friends, had a good experience, got to know more people, and improved my skills.”

 

District 10 Schools Are Among City’s Most Crowded

By Alex Kratz

Schools in the northwest Bronx are overcrowded and unlikely to get any help in the near future thanks to a flawed construction effort by the education department, according a recently released report from the office of Comptroller William Thompson.

Confirming what local parents, faculty and activists have been saying for years, the comptroller’s report said schools in Community School District (CSD) 10, which includes all the schools in the Norwood News’ coverage area: Norwood, North Fordham, Bedford Park and University Heights, is the third most crowded district in New York City and is operating at 99 percent capacity.

And the district’s elementary schools have it even worse, operating at 109 percent capacity on average, the most cramped in the district, according to the report.

“In October 2006, seven schools were operating in excess of 125 percent of capacity – some as high as 152 percent,” says the report. “All 10 elementary mini-schools were operating above capacity, a few with utilization rates exceeding 160 percent.”

The report blames a flawed school construction effort by the city’s education department for perpetuating the problem. Despite assurances by the School Construction Authority (SCA), which handles all the building projects for the Department of Education, the current five-year capital plan (2004-2009) has so far done little to alleviate overcrowding problems.

Since the capital plan began in 2004, only 300 seats have been added to district 10 schools and no more seats are slated to be completed until at least 2010.

The report also questions the city’s math when it comes to calculating “new seats” in the district schools. For example, the 300 “new seats” already completed for CSD 10 merely replace the seats that were lost when PS 143 was closed for poor performance several years ago. The New School for Leadership and Journalism opened in its place in 2005.  

The city also claims it will add 515 seats to the district with the construction of a new early childhood center on the PS 94 campus. But this project will displace 450 PS 94 students, meaning the net gain for seats will be no more than 65.  

Meanwhile, since 2004, SCA amendments to the capital plan have slashed nearly half of the original seats slated to be built in district 10, from 4,030 to 2,250, based on dubious population projections done by The Grier Partnership, a DOE/SCA consultant, the report says.

The Grier Partnership projects district 10 enrollment will drop 11.4 percent by 2010 and 16 percent from 2005 to 2015.

But local advocates say that’s impossible. “The idea that [CSD 10] will lose 11 percent by 2010 is not borne out of evidence,” one officer with the district’s community education council told the comptroller’s office. “This is an area that is popular and growing, with continuous flow of both middle and working class families…Bedford Park, University Heights, and Fordham also are growing communities…We have a large number of undocumented immigrants who possibly Grier doesn’t pick up on.”   

The comptroller report noted that Grier and the SCA do not take new housing construction permits into account.

Other than Grier, it’s hard to say how the SCA comes up with its numbers because it keeps its methodology confidential. They say the Grier projections are just one of the factors they take into account.

This notion of secrecy, says the report, “is contrary to a spirit of openness and transparency that should inform fundamental public decisions about the physical and economic future of New York.”

Later in the report, the same education council officer said, “Our schools are not just overcrowded – they are severely overcrowded. So even if we stay the same or even decline a little [in enrollment], we will remain overcrowded if we don’t get more schools.”

All over the district, schools are compensating for the lack of space by reconfiguring the space they have. According to a recent survey compiled by local Council Member Oliver Koppell, PS 8 in Bedford Park eliminated its science lab and divided two classrooms into four. PS 56 in Norwood converted its art, music and science rooms into classrooms. And PS/MS 280, also in Norwood, lacks an art room and doesn’t have enough space for special services such as speech therapy and physical therapy.

The first few lines of the report sums up the bleak overcrowding situation: “The capital planning process for public schools in New York City is broken. There are far too many neighborhoods with overcrowded schools and no hope of relief for at least several more years.”

Out & About

By Judy Noy

Onstage

• JASA Van Cortlandt Senior Center hosts a Mother’s Day Celebration at the Center on May 16 from 1 to 2 p.m. preceded by lunch at noon. Also scheduled at the Center is Tony Terrell and His Caribbean Steel Drum Band on May 18 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. preceded by an ethnic lunch at noon. The suggested contribution for each meal is $3. The center is located at 3880 Sedgwick Ave. For more information, call (718) 549-4700.

 

• The Bronx Library Center presents Doo Wop with the New York Exceptions, May 17 at 2:30 p.m. The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Road off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

• Lehman College’s Center for the Performing Arts, located at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W., is host to Natalie Cole on May 17 at 8 p.m. with tickets from $55 to $85; and The Lat Pack featuring Gilberto Santa Rosa and Tito Nieves on May 31 at 8 p.m. with tickets from $55 to $85. For more information, call (718) 960-8833.

 

• The Lehman College Community Band performs a free concert, Collage: An Eclectic Collection, which will include A Movement for Rosa, written in honor of civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, on May 18 at 2 p.m. in the school’s Lovinger Theatre. For more information, call (718) 960-8247.

 

• The Bronx Arts Ensemble presents pianist Stuart Goodyear performing classical music, in the home of George and Katrin Phocas at 5020 Goodridge Ave., on May 18 at 3 p.m. For more information, call (718) 601-7399.

 

• The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), located at 841 Barretto St., brings us the Boogie Down Dance Series, through June 6. Upcoming performances include For the Love of Dance, featuring various genres of dance, May 16 at 8 p.m. ($12); From the Hip to the Hop, May 17 at 8 p.m. ($15); and Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre Spring Concert, featuring dance works, May 20 to 24 at 8 p.m. ($15 with advanced reservation and $20 at the door). The opening night benefit concert on May 20 at 8 p.m. is preceded by a 6 p.m. dinner. Tickets run from $100 through $250. For more information, call (718) 842-5223.

 

• The Albert Einstein Symphony Orchestra presents an All-Mozart Program on May 18 at 3 p.m. in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Robbins Auditorium in the Forchheimer Building at 1300 Morris Park Ave. Contributions are suggested. For more information, visit Einsteinorch.Tripod.com.

 

• The Riverdale Choral Society, featuring a guest singer, pianist and the Claremont Strings Chamber Ensemble, presents music of War and Peace through the centuries, May 18 at 3 p.m. at Christ Church Riverdale, 252nd Street and Henry Hudson Parkway East. General admission is $15; $13 with the Bronx Cultural Card. For more information, call (718) 543-2219.

 

• The Bronx Concert Singers will perform their annual spring concert, A Wider Baroque World, featuring classical music, May 18 at 4:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1891 McGraw Ave. in Parkchester. For more information, call (917) 743-4641.

 

• The Mosholu Montefiore Community Center Stagekids presents “Into the Woods Junior,” a free musical performance that combines several children’s tales into one, at PS 8’s Beacon, 3010 Briggs Ave., on May 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. For more information, call (718) 329-0595.

Events

• Wave Hill has been designated the Culture Spot for May. Visitors can enjoy two-for-one admissions from Wednesdays to Fridays when they present a special coupon at the front gate. Coupons are available throughout May online at nycvisit.com/culturespot. Wave Hill is located at 675 W. 252nd St. For more information and events, call (718) 549-3200.

 

• The Bronx County Historical Society is presenting a guided tour of a portion of the Bronx’s Grand Concourse focusing on architecture, famous events and residents. Meet at East 149th Street and the Grand Concourse on May 17 at 1 p.m. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

Exhibits

• Take a peek into the story of Freedomland – New York City’s Disneyland, through Oct. 19, at the Valentine-Varian House or Museum of Bronx History. The exhibition tells the story of the American History-themed amusement park opened in 1960 on the 205-acre site now home to Bay Plaza and Co-op City. The museum is located at 3266 Bainbridge Ave. at East 208th Street. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

 

• Sound the Alarm, an exhibition of photographs, paintings and video of landscapes in distress, runs through June 1 at Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue in Riverdale. Admission is free to members and children under 6, and free all day Tuesdays and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

 

• See the Bronx from the perspective of Hunts Point photographers ages 9 to 19, with 35 black and white photos on view as part of I Love the Bronx, until May – just one of many rotating exhibitions at The Point, located at 940 Garrison Ave. at Manida Street. For more information, call (718) 542-4149.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden’s Everett Children’s Adventure Garden will host Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, a new interactive children’s exhibit and hands-on program through June 15. Activities include potting a vegetable plant and exploring various bogs. The Garden also presents Henry Moore Sculpture, featuring approximately 20 pieces, from May 24 through Nov. 2. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

• Classical techniques of painting and sculpture twist and turn in a new exhibition at the Bronx River Art Center, featuring the works of New York artists Benjamin Entner and Omar Chacón, curated by José Ruiz, through June 6. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.bronxriverart.org.

 

• Critical Resistance NYC presents Prisoner Art Show Exhibit featuring an inside view of talented, caged brothers and sisters with live performances by Spiritchild, Freeborn and others, May 17 from 1 to 8 p.m. Food and refreshments are available with donation. Artwork will be shown through May 31 at 976 Longwood, corner of Beck Street in the south Bronx. For more information, call (718) 676-1660.

Learning

• The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:

• For children and preschoolers, there is Preschool Stories, May 15, 22 and 29 at 11 a.m. Also, for school-aged children, there are films on May 21 and 28 at 4 p.m.; Big Jeff Music, May 19 at 4 p.m.; and Plant & Caddy Making, May 22 at 4 p.m.

• Young adults can Play Chess! in a workshop with Ramon A. Hernandez on May 19 and 26 at 4 p.m.; and attend Big BLC Battle of the Bands, May 30 at 4 p.m.

• For adults, there is Author at the Library, presenting Dr. Mario Love, author of “Inmigración y Usted,” on May 16 at 6 p.m.; and Citizenship Preparation, free classes at 10 a.m.: Part 2 on May 17 and Part 3 on May 31.

• The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

• The Mosholu Library presents YTWL: You Talk! We Listen, for young adults, May 21 and 28 at 4 p.m. The library is located at 285 E. 205th St. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

 

• The Jerome Park Library at 118 Eames Place, hosts Circus Tales for school-aged children, May 19 at 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.

NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by May 19 for the next publication date of May 29.

Neighborhood Notes

By Norwood News

Free Computer Tutoring
The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is offering free computer tutorials to anyone interested. Lessons will cover topics ranging from basic computer skills to Internet navigation. Lessons are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., and on Wednesdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is located at 3400 Reservoir Oval East. For an appointment, call Brenda Lucio or Jennifer Mitchell, (718) 324-4461.

Grading Bus Service
From now until Friday, May 23, Bronx local bus customers will be able to rate their rides with Bus Rider Report Cards, which will be distributed during the morning rush hour in Bronx neighborhoods like Fordham Plaza, Kingsbridge, and Van Cortlandt Park. Customers can rate twenty different aspects of service from seat availability to courtesy of bus dispatchers and operators. Riders can also fill out the survey online at www.mta.info. Online surveys are available in English, Chinese, and Spanish and must be submitted by June 27.

Green Campaign
The Fordham Bedford Business Improvement District (BID) is partnering with 1199SEIU Child Care Corp. to host its first ever Go Green campaign on Fordham Road on May 17 at 10 a.m. Earlier this month, the BID and children from Child Care Corp. conducted business and resident surveys to gauge recycling and environmentally friendly practices in the Fordham community. Photos and information from these surveys are currently on display at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Road. Results will be available at the fair in Poe Park on the day of the event. The BID, along with the Department of Sanitation and the Parks Department, will also place outdoor recycling receptacles at select locations on Fordham Road until the end of June 2008. For more information, call (718) 562-2104.

The Spiritual Journey
Yaniris Urbaez will discuss “The Spiritual Journey” on Sunday, May 18 at 10 a.m. at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture Meeting House, 4450 Fieldston Rd. at the corner of Manhattan College Pkwy. The Spiritual Journey will offer group members an opportunity to develop themselves as nurtured and nurturing people, capable of making informed and responsible choices. For more information, call (718) 548-4445.

Applying for Federal Grants
The New York Regional Federal Partners Council, Faith Based and Community Initiative Subcommittee, along with Affinity Health Plan will host a free workshop on “Finding and Applying for Federal Grant Opportunities” on Thursday, May 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Greater Universal Baptist Church, 253 E. 153rd St. Pre-registration by May 16 is required to ensure sufficient materials. RSVP with your name, organization/affiliation, and telephone number with area code by calling Joan Gibson at (212) 264-2890 ext. 102 or by sending an e-mail to joan.gibson@acf.hhs.gov.

Riverdale Choral Society Concert
The Riverdale Choral Society’s 2008 Spring Concert will take place on May 18 at 3 p.m. at the Christ Church Riverdale, 252nd St. and Henry Hudson Parkway. The concert, under the direction of guest conductor John Lettieri, will focus on music of War and Peace throughout the centuries. Guest musicians will include soprano Anne Myers, pianist Mavis Pan, and the Claremont Strings Chamber Ensemble. Admission to the concert is $15 ($13 with the Bronx Cultural Card). For more information, call (718) 543-2219 or visit www.riverdalechoral.org.
 
Disease Management Workshops
CMO, the care management company of Montefiore Medical Center, is offering health education workshops on chronic health issues such as diabetes and hypertension on May 19 from 10 a.m. to noon at Montefiore Medical Group, E. 2300 Westchester Ave; May 27 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Co-op City Community Room,177 Dresier Loop, room #8, 2nd floor; and May 29 from 10 a.m. to noon at 2532 Grand Concourse.  To register for the program or for further information, call 1-800-MD- MONTE (1-800-636-6683).  

Charter School Applications
The International Leadership Charter School, the only Bronx-based charter high school, is still accepting applications for September 2008 for incoming 9th graders. Open House meetings will be held on May 19 and May 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the school, 2900 Exterior St. For an application, call the school at (718) 563-2300 or e-mail llopez@ilchs.org.

Art Near the Park
The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park will host “Art Near the Park,” a series of art classes where art teacher Lucy Degidon will instruct participants of all levels on various methods of art inspired by nature. All sessions will be held on Mondays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Building 9 Community Room, Gale Place off Orloff Avenue. The remaining two sessions will be Craypas on May 19 and Wrap Up on June 2. A small material fee will be charged to non-members of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. Pre-registration is required. To register or for more information, call Christina at (718) 601-1460 or e-mail info@vancortlandt.org.

MetroCard Van Coming
MTA MetroCard buses will make stops in the Bronx on May 23 at Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse from noon to 2 p.m. and in Van Cortlandt Village at 3880 Sedgwick Ave. from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Senior citizens and persons with disabilities may apply for the Reduced Fare MetroCard and obtain applications from the vans. Senior Citizens must present photo I.D. proving they are at least 65. For more information, call (212) METROCARD or visit MTA’s Web site, mta.info.

Free Lecture
The Methodist Home is offering a free lecture called “Learn How the Brain Works as We Age” on May 28 at 6:30 p.m. at 4499 Manhattan College Parkway. The lecture will include an overview of the changes that take place in the brain as we age, the difference between normal aging and dementia, and the warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Reservations are required. To make a reservation or for more information, call (718) 548-5100 ext. 231.

Health Fair
PS 33 and the Youth Development Program will host the 16th Annual Health Fair on Wednesday, May 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at P.S. 33, 2424 Jerome Ave. The event will include clown entertainment, robo media, health and educational agencies, and free giveaways. For more information, contact Helson Santiago or Vilma Pagain at (718) 584-3922 ext. 2035, via fax at (718) 584-7004, or by e-mail at HSantia2@schools.nyc.gov or vtores-pagan@schools.nyc.gov.

Financial Education Seminars
The Ridgewood Savings Bank will be hosting multiple financial education seminars in the next two months from 6:15 to 8 p.m. at various bank branch locations. Topics covered will include the benefits of savings and checking accounts, mortgages, saving for emergencies, financial goals, and retirement. The free seminars, entitled “Money Matters,” will be held on May 30 at 3824 White Plains Rd., (718) 882-2220, and June 10 at 1626 Bruckner Blvd., (718) 589-1323. For more information or to reserve a seat at a session, call the respective branch.

Lehman College Summer Programs
An Open House to learn more about Lehman College’s “More than a Camp” summer program will be held on Saturday, May 31 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Carman Hall room 129 on the Lehman campus, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West. Besides the classes for children ages 6-15, which include creative arts as well as reading, math, and writing, Lehman is also offering classes for parents/guardians in computing and math/writing essentials that are scheduled during times the children are in class. All classes are held at either the Lehman College campus or at CUNY on the Concourse. For more information or a catalog of summer classes for adults and children, call (718) 960-8512 or visit www.lehman.edu/ce.
 
Children’s Health Fair
The “Keeping Kids Healthy” Children’s Health Fair 2008 will be held on Sunday, June 1 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center, 3450 DeKalb Ave. at East Gun Hill Road. This year’s fair will focus on wellness promotion, health education, safety and community. Families with children 12 years old and younger are invited to attend this free event, which includes entertainment, refreshments, giveaways and health screenings. For more information, call (718) 920-4011.

Free Composting Event
The Bronx Compost Project at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road, will be hosting a free composting event, “Wild, Wiggly Worms!”, through June 1 on Tuesdays through Sundays from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. During the program, children will learn the important roles that worms play in the garden and will have the chance to create a wormy collage and sift nutritious worm compost to take home for houseplants. To register or for more information, call the Compost Helpline at (718) 817-8543 or e-mail bronxgreenup@nybg.org.

Travel Soccer League
The Bronx Bombers girls soccer team is looking for third and fourth grade girls, born between Aug. 1, 1998 and July 31, 1999, to join their team. Twice weekly practices and traveling to southern Westchester to play games is required to be on the team. Competitive tryouts will be held on Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m. at Van Cortlandt Park, 251st and Broadway. Applicants must bring a soccer ball, shin guards, and a water bottle. For more information, call Sean Maher at (917) 854-5494.

PRIDE Health Fair
Montefiore Medical Center’s AIDS Center, together with the Bronx HIV CARE Network, will be hosting their 6th Annual PRIDE Health Fair to promote health awareness in the community on Saturday, June 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Gun Hill Road between Bainbridge and DeKalb Avenues, rain or shine. The event will include educational materials on HIV and prevention, blood pressure screenings, musical performances, guest speakers, and free raffle drawings. For more information, call Liz Ruffin at (718) 231-3296 ext. 24.

Food & Arts Festival
Bronx-based artists and art groups are invited to take part in the 2008 Bronx Food & Arts Festival on Sunday, June 22 from noon to 6 p.m. on Mosholu Parkway between Bainbridge and Hull Avenues. This Grand Finale of the Bronx Week 2008 celebration will feature a place for artists to display their work in addition to live music, rides, and food from the borough’s most popular restaurants. A space reservation form with payment is due to the Bronx Council on the Arts from all interested artists no later than Friday, June 6. For more information, contact Phil Cardone at (718) 931-9500 ext. 33 or at phil@bronxarts.org or Kate Shackford at (718) 590-3498 or at kshackford@boedc.org.

Health Center Educates Uninsured on Options

By Graham Kates

An RV, painted white with large blue letters reading “Mobile Mammography,” sat outside the Union Community Health Center on 188th Street and Valentine Avenue on May 1. The truck, which is owned by St. Barnabas Hospital, travels around the Bronx to raise awareness of the need for routine breast exams, and to provide them to the uninsured.

Sister Maureen McCarthy, a nurse practitioner who performs the breast exams in the RV, says Mobile Mammography tries to “aim for the uninsured.” McCarthy added that most of her patients are immigrants.

Earlier this year, McCarthy says, because of a mammography performed in the van, a women was diagnosed with breast cancer, and began to receive emergency treatment soon after.

In addition to the “Mobile Mammography” RV, the Union Community Health Center also had a table set up as part of its “Cover the Uninsured” week. At the table, residents were given information on the early detection of several illnesses, including colon and prostate cancer.

In total, about 75 people visited the table, nine of  whom received free mammography examinations.

Graffiti Your Own House

By None

I just wanted to vent a bit regarding the graffiti problem along Bainbridge Avenue from East 208th to East 206th streets. Do these people graffiti up their own rooms, their mom’s room, their kitchen, living room and bathroom? If so, that’s fine, but why mess up everything outside their own home and ruin it for everyone else in the neighborhood? How do I convince my kids that this is so wrong, when it is in their face, in their building, on their block, all the time? Please tell me this is not a lost cause. 
Annette Melendez

Save the Gazebo

By None

Stonecrest Management is about to demolish the gazebo in the courtyard at 3224 Grand Concourse. I have tried to discuss the matter with building manager Avi Finkelstein, but he refused. I also left messages for building owner Joshua Goldberg, but he has not replied.

I am concerned because the building is in the Grand Concourse Special Preservation District and therefore [the gazebo] should be saved. It has received temporary shoring using stage scaffolding and steel I-beams, so it is in no imminent danger of collapse.

There is no more unique and special architectural component in this part of the Bronx than the gazebo at 3224. The building itself has stood for over 80 years. It was the first multifamily building built in this part of the Bronx. If [the gazebo] were located in another part of the city it would most certainly have been accorded landmark status by now as recognition of its real architectural uniqueness. It would be a crime to allow this act of architectural desecration to take place.

Charles F. Fritsch

Local Resident

Association for Energy Affordability

Why the Sean Bell Killing is Not Just a "Black Issue"

By Tony Richards

Quick, what are the first and last names of the three officers acquitted in the killing of Sean Bell? I’ll give you a few seconds…

Give up? The answer is: Marc Cooper, Gescard F. Isnora, and Michael Oliver. Now, given that Sean Bell was murdered nearly 18 months ago, and that the court case and acquittal of his killers has been a prominent news story for two months, why didn’t you remember these names? Because, whether in the major media or in the courtroom, it was never the three officers who were on trial. It was Sean Bell and his friends.

Before and after the verdict, the legal proceedings at hand were dubbed: “The Sean Bell trial.” This is strange terminology, considering that Bell is the victim. (How many articles have you read about the “Ronald Goldman trial?”)

This language betrays the very reasons that Cooper, Isnora, and Oliver walked out of a Queens courtroom and into the long tradition of officers who have killed unarmed men of color with impunity. When, in November of 2006, news first broke of a 23-year-old black man gunned down on his wedding night by officers who fired 50 shots, it was so clearly heinous that those who are at once rational, empathetic, and unfamiliar with the American legal system could be forgiven for wondering: How are the officers possibly going to get themselves out of this one?

The answer, of course, is that from those initial days after Bell’s murder right up until the recent verdict, the terms of discourse in media and law were deliberately shifted, from discussing how and why yet another unarmed man of color was killed by the police to speculating about what Bell and his friends might have done to cause the officers to find them threatening. Suddenly, the central questions in the newspapers and in the courtroom became: Were Bell and his friends drinking? Did Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield have previous arrest records? Did the officers fear for their lives? Was Guzman impatient with defense attorneys on the witness stand?

Somehow, this is what always happens when it comes to instances of black men murdered or brutalized at the hands of the police. Leading up to the 2000 acquittal of the officers who fired 41 deadly shots at Amadou Diallo, the focal point became whether it was reasonable for officers to mistake Diallo’s wallet for a gun, rather than the massacre of an innocent man.

And in many instances, police shooting cases never even make it to trial. In 1994, Nicholas Heyward Jr.—a 13-year-old boy—was playing with a plastic toy gun in his housing complex in Brooklyn, when a housing officer shot and killed him.

In 2000, Patrick Dorismond—26 years old and unarmed—was walking near Madison Square Garden when undercover officers tried to sell him marijuana. Before long, officers had shot and killed him too.

In 2004, Timothy Stansbury Jr.—19-years-old and unarmed—was walking across a rooftop on his way home when a housing officer gunned him down.

None of the officers in these cases ever faced a criminal trial.

So why do police officers continue to literally get away with murder? A big part of the answer is because white America lets them.

Historically speaking, a major factor in the lack of massive, society-wide outrage over police shootings of unarmed black men is the fact that, as long as it isn’t their own sons, brothers, or fathers who are being gunned down, far too many white Americans are willing to convince themselves that victims of police shootings must have done something to invite their fates.

As a 26-year-old white male, I submit that the murder of Sean Bell is not just a “black issue.” It is a human issue. And it is past time for white Americans to wake up, and to stop operating on the assumption—at once immoral and erroneous—that if they do not speak out against injustice, they will remain safe from it.

In recent days, I have interviewed many Highbridge residents—particularly young black men—who are afraid that what happened to Sean Bell could soon happen to them.

I, in turn, fear their words could be prophetic. Unless people of conscience, and of all races, come together to denounce the profound injustice of Sean Bell’s murder.

No more.

Tony Richards is the editor of the Highbridge Horizon, a community newspaper in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. He can be reached at richardst@highbridgelife.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bronx River Flotilla: More Than Just Rollin’ On a River

By David Greene

Nearly 150 people of all ages, races and backgrounds gathered at Shoelace Park at East 219th Street and the Bronx River to participate in the 9th Annual Amazing Bronx River Flotilla on Saturday, May 10.

The event, sponsored by the Bronx River Alliance and the Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), kicked off with the help of Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who joined Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman Oliver Koppell and dozens of others as they journeyed down five miles of the Bronx River.

Bronx River Alliance’s Mike Mendez and Donovan Goulgourne helped many get into their rowboats, furnished by the Alliance. Additional boats were provided by the Urban Park Rangers, The Point and MPC. Members of Rockin’ The Boat were on hand to offer short boat rides from the flotilla’s end at Riverside Park in Hunts Point.

The journey was not without its challenges. To get past a dam just north of East 180th Street, Alliance members assisted boaters carrying their boats over some rocks, before continuing on the rest of the trip to Hunts Point.

Riverdale resident Jacqueline Taylor said after her journey, “I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, I just wanted the experience and I love the water. At first I was so scared, but after awhile it was very relaxing, and I like the fact that everyone works together.”

Taylor, who was joined by her two young daughters, added, “They loved it, it was wonderful.”

Benepe told participants, “After decades of neglect, the river is now well on its way back to ecological health, thanks to the joint stewardship of the Parks Department, the Bronx River Alliance and partner community groups whose conservation efforts have made the river not only clean enough for us to paddle today, but also cleaner for plants and animals.”

For more information on upcoming sailing events along the Bronx River, log on to the Alliance’s Web site at www.bronxriveralliance.org.

Young boaters catch a wave along the Bronx River (left).   Dozens of boat enthusiasts prepare to go rowing along the Bronx River (right).

 

PS 246 Honors Child Holocaust Victims

By Graham Kates

A thousand index cards, in groups of 10, connected by paper clips, were painstakingly draped from the third floor ceiling of PS 246 in Kingsbridge on May 2.

The index cards were part of an effort by Pedro Cruz’s sixth grade class to honor the lives of children who died during the Holocaust. The paper clips and index cards were donated to Cruz’s class by other classes throughout the school.

Each card carried on it the name, age, place and date of death of a child killed during the Holocaust.

For some, the exact date of death was printed: Freddy Groenteman, age 4, died at Auschwitz on July 7, 1942. For others, less is known: Meyer Brill died in 1945 at age 6.   

Jason Monzon, 12, said that during  his class’s unit on the Holocaust, they watched the documentary “Paper clips,” about a middle school in Tennessee that collected 11 million paper clips, one for every person killed during the Holocaust. The film, said Monzon, “inspired us to do this.”

Cruz said that before the class learned about Nazis, they talked about America’s civil rights movement, so students would be able to make a connection between U.S. history and World War II Germany.

It wasn’t until seeing “Paper clips,” Cruz explained, that his students really began to grasp the magnitude of the number 11 million. The revelation, he said, “was pretty emotional for them.”

After seeing the film, Cruz said a student suggested they research the Holocaust’s effect on children, and in doing so, the class discovered that about 1.5 million children had lost their lives.

 “We thought about how many people died,” said Yeiny Redas, 11, “and it made us so sad and angry.”

Groups of students from throughout the school came to see the display, which snaked its way down the entire length of the third floor hallway right into Cruz’s classroom. Dhiloren Tejada, 10, remarked as she stood amongst the many index cards strung together, “It makes me angry that they [the Nazis] did this, just because they felt like it.”

Earlier this year, another sixth grade class at PS 246 spent time learning about the Holocaust as well. Clara Feldman, a survivor, who spoke of her own childhood experiences in Germany and Italy during World War II, visited students in Melissa Murphy’s class.

Confusion Mounting Over City’s Library Plans

By Stephen Baron

Fordham residents are hoping that community organizations create a unified plan for a youth center at the old Fordham Library within the month, as the city eyes the contaminated building for a possible animal shelter.

Two community organizations, the Sistas and Brothas United (SBU) and Community Action Unlimited (CAU), maintain they are working together to form a plan for a youth center in the 27,400 square foot building that has been closed since 2005.

“Once they form a plan, we’ll get behind it and put it in our capital needs for the 2010 fiscal year,” said Gregory Faulkner, the chairman of Community Board 7. “But if the neighborhood groups are divided, they won’t be effective.”

Over the past year, both groups have held rallies and meetings to discuss the fate of the building, built in 1923. But the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been considering the building for a 15,000-20,000 square foot animal shelter for the “last couple of months,” according to Richard Gentles, the director of administrative services at New York Animal Care and Control, the non-profit organization that runs animal shelters.

Community leaders are against the former library becoming an animal shelter. Though SBU spokesman Jorman Nunez was not aware of the department’s inquiry, both Faulkner and Rev. Fernando Cabrera, the leader of CAU and pastor at the New Life Outreach International Church, agree that a youth center is more important than an animal shelter.

“We don’t hate animals, but there is an absolute need for youth programming,” Faulkner said. “We have two of the most expensive projects going on right now, with the filtration plant and the armory, and our kids can’t get jobs.”

Both organizations are also pushing for increased political support, as Cabrera says he has sent 10,000 signatures from a coalition of 50 Bronx pastors to Assemblyman Jose Rivera, while SBU has sent 5,000. City Councilmen Joel Rivera and Robert Jackson have also supported the youth center plan.

Youth programs are severely lacking in the Bronx. A study by the Bronx borough president’s office in 2007 found that 71 Bronx high schools have no after-school programs; and that without after-school programs, youth are 50 percent more likely to do drugs, 37 percent more likely to become teenage parents and 27 percent more likely to be arrested. In addition, the 2009 city budget slashed 28 percent of funding from the Department of Youth and Community Development.

“There are nowhere near enough services for all the youth,” Nunez said. Census data for Fordham zip code 10458 shows that 40 percent of the residents are under 21. “Youth services are almost nonexistent in Fordham,” he added.

SBU, the youth arm of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, has been spearheading community visioning sessions since last May. SBU has met with Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, churches, Good Shepherd and the Fordham-Bedford Housing Corporation to get their opinions and input.

SBU has also been working with Fordham University and City College to create architectural plans for renovating the library. Their plans include an auditorium, a job training center, recreation space, a health clinic, a senior center, and a music and journalism studio.

CAU’s plans are less detailed, but Cabrera’s church serves about 100 youth per week with tutoring, job placement, HIV peer groups and dance classes. Similar programs could be offered at the youth center. “The youth center would serve the educational, emotional and recreational needs for youth,” Cabrera said.

Two years ago, SBU tried to acquire the library for its school, the Leadership Institute. But an environmental study ordered by the School Construction Authority found that the library was contaminated with Tetrachlorethelyne (PERC), a manufactured chemical used for dry cleaning and degreasing metal. And now, the city cannot figure out how to clean up the mess.

The Norwood News reported last May that the New York Public Library (NYPL), which operates the city-owned building, filed a request to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to decontaminate the site. The NYPL could neither confirm nor clarify the decontamination request by press time.

The DEC could only confirm that there is a “spill” on the site, but could not locate details by press time. NYPL Spokeswoman Gayle Snidle said the “spill” refers to a leaking oil tank in the basement.

Arturo Garcia-Costas, the DEC public affairs manager, declined to give a timeline on decontamination without knowing which chemicals or their amount. In addition, the New York Times reported in August that there is asbestos in the floor tiles, which would be cleaned up by the city Department of Environmental Protection.

Currently, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) is in discussion with the NYPL to transfer the building to another city department, which could in turn sell it to a developer. There is no timeline for choosing the new department, and Mark Daly, the DCAS director of communications, did not know which agencies were considering the building. When asked who is responsible for following up on the decontamination, Daly said, “I don’t know.”

Community leaders’ biggest fear is that a developer will snatch up the property and convert it into retail space. “We want the process to be controlled by the community,” said Nunez.

Faulkner remains hopeful that the two organizations can hash out a plan in the near future. “If we use our elected officials, hopefully we can get a community vision done within the next two weeks,” Faulkner said. “We cannot have another summer of youths getting killed.”

Teen’s Idea for Block Party Draws Hundreds

By David Greene

Several hundred youngsters from PS/ MS 20 and the 52nd Precinct Explorers Program participated in the first-ever NYPD Explorers Community Awareness Day, held along Mosholu Parkway at Webster Avenue, on Saturday, May 3.

Young Bronxites had the street to themselves as they played games, danced, ate and enjoyed inflatable rides during the day-long celebration. Two face painters were on hand as well as members of the NYPD’s Auxiliary force and members of the Guardian Angels.

The event was the idea of Anthony Miller, 15, a member of the Explorers program, who saw it as a way to have fun and raise money.

“Basically, I came up with the idea to raise money so we could go to the Nationals, a military drill competition held in Colorado in July,” Anthony said. He said he hoped the event would also draw more interest to the Explorers program, which now has 35 members.

Anthony’s mother and the event’s organizer, Soniya Miller, who is the PS/MS 20 PTA president, joined together with the Mosholu Preservation Corporation and the Explorers program in making the event happen.

Soniya Miller said after the event, “It’s a huge success, better than I dreamed, we had a lot of support…and the kids had fun.”

Public and Community Meetings

By None

•    The Community Education Council of District 10 will meet on Thursday, May 15 at 6:15 p.m. in the auditorium of MS/HS 141, 660 W. 237th St. For more information, call (718) 741-5836.

•    Community Board 7’s Sanitation and Environmental Committee will meet on Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Board office, 229-A E. 204th St. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    Community Board 7’s Education Committee will meet on Monday, May 19 at 6 p.m. at the Community Board Office, 229-A E. 204th St. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    Community Board 7’s Youth Services Committee will meet on Monday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Board Office, 229-A E. 204th St. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    Community Board 7’s General Board will meet on Tuesday, May 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the St. James Rec. Center, 2530 Jerome Ave. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    The 52nd Precinct Community Council will meet on Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Scott Tower, 3400 Paul Ave. For more information, call (718) 220-5824.

•    Community Board 7’s Health/Hospitals Committee will meet on Wednesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. at the Community Board Office, 229-A E. 204th St. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition will host “The Shared Fate Action Forum” on Saturday, May 31 at 11 a.m. at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, at the corner of University Ave. and Fordham Rd. Local residents are invited to share their opinions on issues such as education, parks, the Kingsbridge Armory, and the old Fordham Library. Doors open at 10 a.m. To RSVP, contact Laura Vazquez at (718) 584-0515 ext. 212.

Engel Opposes Deadly Gun

By Allison Grande

Last year, Congressman Eliot Engel introduced legislation to ban the Belgian FN Five-seveN pistol, a weapon that can currently be purchased legally and has the ability to penetrate police bulletproof vests “from two football fields away,” according to Engel. The gun is advertised as being able to cut through 48 layers of Kevlar, the synthetic fiber used in most bulletproof vests, at 50 meters. After the same type of gun was recently used in a Philadelphia shooting in which a man was shot in the hand and a child cut by flying glass near a car detail shop owned by NFL All-Pro receiver Marvin Harrison, Engel renewed his battle to get his legislation, the PLEA Act, through Congress.

“There is no rationale for anyone, except law enforcement officers, to possess this weapon with its devastating penetrating power,” Engel said in a statement. “We can protect our police officers if we have the common sense to act now to ban this deadly weapon.”

Mt. St. Ursula Alumnae Reunion

By Allison Grande

The Academy of Mount St. Ursula hosted a reunion for over 170 alumnae from the classes ending in the 3s and 8s on Saturday, April 26.

The Class of 1973 celebrated its 35th anniversary by raising $6,000 in honor of deceased classmates Regina Lambeau, Kathy O’Shea, Marian Collier, and Mary Smith. The funds went toward the installation of a new bench at the school and the establishment of a scholarship fund in the class name.

The school also presented Dr. Regina Peruggi ’68 and Noreen Culhane ’63 with the Serviam Award for their continued commitment to serving others in need. Peruggi is president of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, and Culhane is an executive at the New York Stock Exchange.

Crowley Helps Suu Kyi Receive Gold Medal

By Allison Grande

U.S. Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY), along with representatives from California, Kentucky, and Illinois spearheaded legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Aung San Suu Kyi, an imprisoned Burmese leader. Kyi has been crusading to end the human rights-abusing military dictatorship in Burma since the 1980s.

In 1988, she helped form the National League for Democracy (NLD), of which she is now the general secretary. The junta has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. The junta offered her freedom if she would leave the country and give up politics, but she refused.

Suu Kyi has received more than 60 international awards for her work in Burma.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the legislation on April 24, and President George W. Bush signed the law awarding Suu Kyi with the Gold Medal on May 6.

Rivera Lobbies for ALS

By Allison Grande

Assemblyman Jose Rivera went to Washington, D.C. this week to attend the national ALS Advocacy Day with his daughter Diane Rivera-Riportella, who was recently diagnosed with the condition. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, affects 30,000 Americans. It damages the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and is fatal, on average, in two to five years after diagnosis.

Rivera recently introduced a resolution to the Assembly urging Governor David Paterson to proclaim Tuesday, July 15, ALS Awareness Day in New York State. The ALS Association has asked Congress to support new proposals, which include legislation that would authorize the creation of a single nationwide ALS registry, funding for ALS specific programs at the Department of Defense (DOD), and the backing of initiatives that would help speed up the development of new treatments for ALS.

“There is no time to waste when it comes to ALS,” Rivera said in a statement. “I will be urging my colleagues at the City, State, and Federal level to approve our request for additional funding and changes in law to increase potential life-saving therapies.”

Koppell Reports Budget Changes

By Allison Grande

In light of problems identified with the City Council’s distribution and designation of “member items,” Council Member Oliver Koppell reported major changes instituted by Speaker Christine Quinn in the Council’s budget allocation process. The “member items” or “initiatives” refer to approximately $200 million allocated by the Council to individual Council members to spend on projects and programs in their district at their discretion.

The highlights of the budget plan include the required screening of grants for more than $10,000 before the funds are issued, heightened disclosure requirements for organizations requesting certain types of funding, the establishment of a new searchable database that would allow the public to see how all “member items” are being used, and the appointment of an Independent Council Compliance Officer to make sure all involved follow the new allocation process rules.

“Although not perfect, the new budgetary practices significantly raise existing standards for legislative fiscal practices by strengthening governmental transparency and accountability,” Koppell said in a statement.

Clinton Tennis Finishes Regular Season Perfect, But Loses in Playoff Quarterfinals

By Graham Kates

DeWitt Clinton’s men’s tennis team finished its season undefeated on May 1.

Going into their final match against arch rival Christopher Columbus High School (9-1 going into the match), Clinton’s players gave some credit to the high school varsity gods, who gave the players an unseasonably windy and cold afternoon that warranted wearing their brand new varsity sweatshirts while they played.

Shawn Kalicharan, who along with Syed Habib, won his doubles match 10-0, said they had hoped that the sweatshirts would help intimidate their opponents.

With the undefeated season on the line, Milton Bilthorn, Clinton’s first singles player, found himself down 9-5, but he rallied back and grabbed the victory from Columbus with an 11-9 victory.

After celebrating the undefeated season with his teammates, Bilthorn acknowledged that while he was playing, his team’s perfect season was on his mind.

“I wanted to send a message heading into the playoffs,” Bilthorn said. “I want everybody to fear us.”

In the playoffs, the team got a bye for the first round and won the second round match with ease, 4-1, against Sheepshead Bay High School. At press time, the team was preparing to play its third round match on May 13.  

Tennis Playoff Update:

Clinton’s season ended on Tuesday night after they lost a hard-fought quarterfinal match to Manhattan Center for Science Math. They finished the season 11-1. 

Clinton Gets Rackets and Wise Advice From Alum

By Graham Kates

DeWitt Clinton’s men’s tennis team roared through its regular season schedule this year, finishing without a single blemish on its record.

The team has managed its incredible run on the backs of savvy play by veteran juniors and seniors, good coaching, and help from an unexpected source – a retired businessman who lives over an hour from the Bronx.

Last year, while retired businessman Michael Schwartz was cleaning out his home in New Jersey, he came upon his cache of 20 tennis rackets. No longer able to use them due to operations stemming from diabetes, Schwartz contacted high schools near him to see if they could use his equipment.

When the schools in Schwartz’s area told him they had no need for the rackets, his wife suggested he try an inner-city school, and he found himself contacting the tennis coach at his alma mater, DeWitt Clinton.

Schwartz says that when he contacted Clinton coach David McDonough, he “jumped at the chance” to get the rackets for his team. A few days later, when the two met for the racket exchange, McDonough offered Schwartz the role of assistant coach of the team. “I figured the guys could really benefit from his experience,” says McDonough.

After playing tennis for DeWitt Clinton and graduating in 1964, Schwartz went to the University of Alabama on combined tennis and ROTC scholarships. Schwartz ultimately went on to become vice president for clothing manufacturer Phillips Van Heusen, and then later, general manager of a Porsche dealership in Long Branch, New Jersey.

The most important lesson that Schwartz says he has been able to bring to Clinton’s players is what he calls the “85 percent rule.” Schwartz explains, “You don’t have to worry about a winning shot, just keep the ball in play. If you hit the ball back over the net 85 percent of the time, you’ll win the point by forcing your opponent to make an error.”

A glance at the team’s statistics over the course of the season reveals that they’ve taken this rule to heart.

In addition to on the court lessons, Schwartz has sought to bring a sense of tradition to the team. At a team meeting before their final game, Schwartz and McDonough presented some of the players with varsity letter sweatshirts. The coaches were unsure how the team would respond when the letters were only given to the team’s captain, and players who had competed in at least five matches.

“The kids who didn’t get letters weren’t envious,” McDonough said. “They understood right away that it was something to work for and earn.”

 

A Bronxite Political Hopeful’s Obama Odyssey

By Alex Kratz

Even when he’s winning, Haile Rivera can’t catch a break. Last week, after helping presidential candidate Barack Obama destroy rival Hillary Clinton in the pivotal North Carolina Democratic primary, Rivera’s rental car blew a tire.

Eventually, Rivera would make it home to the Bronx for a pit stop before moving on to Puerto Rico, for the next round of primaries. Still, nothing comes easy these days for Rivera, a University Heights resident who gave up a relatively comfortable life in the Bronx two months ago to go on the road working for peanuts as a political foot soldier for the Obama campaign.

“It’s tough man,” Rivera said from his cell phone last Wednesday while waiting for a Raleigh, N.C. mechanic to call him back. “I miss my life. I miss the Bronx. I miss my girl and looking out our apartment window at Bronx Community College. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s something I believe in.”

The “it” he’s referring to is the front-running presidential campaign of Barack Obama, a junior senator from Chicago whose message of change resonates with Rivera.

You see, Rivera (no relation to the Bronx Democratic boss and Assemblyman Jose Rivera or his political offspring, Joel and Naomi), is outspoken, to the chagrin of the local political establishment, about the need for change in Bronx political culture. He’s running for Maria Baez’s soon-to-be-vacant City Council seat (14th District) because he says he wants to change the Bronx’s reputation for secrecy and corruption.

He denounced Baez the other day for not saying why she had missed a third of her scheduled meetings and hearings.

Just to let people back home know he hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth, he sent out a mass e-mail on Tuesday saying, “I believe that the time has come to step up to the plate and give my neighbors the opportunity to elect a new kind of leadership. Call it new blood or something else. I call it CHANGE!”

There’s still a long way until the 2009 Council race starts heating up, so Rivera is using this opportunity working for team Obama to hone his campaign skills.

Rivera says he first discovered Obama several years ago when the fledgling politician was just a state senator in Illinois and he’s been following his meteoric rise ever since. Last summer, Rivera sent a $25 donation to his presidential campaign and won an intimate dinner with Obama in Washington, D.C. After dinner, Rivera was convinced Obama was the right man to run the country.

As campaign season kicked into high gear, Rivera, who operates his own tiny nonprofit organization when he has time (Hands on New York gave out 200 turkeys last Thanksgiving), gradually became more involved as a volunteer, even turning his mini-van into an Obama-mobile as the New York primary approached.

Though Clinton trounced Obama in the Empire State and the Bronx (with the help of heavy political support), Rivera was undeterred and began helping out the campaign in other states.

With campaigning taking up much of his spare time (and some work hours), Rivera chose to quit his beloved job with the nonprofit New York Food Bank and join the Obama campaign full-time as field organizer in Philadelphia. Obama did well in Philly, but lost Pennsylvania.

Despite the low pay and long hours, Rivera remained firmly committed and continued on to North Carolina. “We invest more than what we get out of it,” Rivera said after the Pennsylvania primary. “But we’ve got an opportunity to make history here, so it’s hopefully going to work out. You’ve really got love it and be committed to do it.”

His colleague in Philadelphia, Joan Kato, was impressed. “Haile’s a great guy, a hard worker, and does what’s needed to get Obama elected.”

The hardest part for Rivera is being away from his girlfriend (and campaign manager) Cossette Morillo, whom he calls his “partner.” And vice versa. Morillo took bus trips to Philly and Raleigh to be with Rivera every weekend. They spent time together mostly working on the campaign.

“I gotta tell you, it’s really tough,” Morillo says about the distance. “I come home at night and just go to bed. I miss cooking him dinner. But it’s what he loves to do and it’s a great opportunity for him. This is what he wants to do.”

She’s already booked her flights to Puerto Rico.

Tenants Stand Up to Landlord’s Bully Tactics

By Alex Kratz

Lawyers for Maria Garcia’s landlord took her to Housing Court on three separate occasions to force her to pay rent she didn’t owe. In the end, a judge ruled in her favor and against her landlord, telling her not to pay any rent until she received compensation.

For Garcia, a legal U.S. resident who doesn’t speak English, the landlord’s motivation for taking her to court was clear. She told the judge, through a translator, “I feel that the trial was motivated by racism, my not speaking English.”

Garcia’s case underscores what is happening to tenants at 2720 Grand Concourse, a rent-stabilized building owned by Jacob “Jake the Snake” Selechnik, who is routinely listed as one of the city’s worst landlords.

Tenants say Selechnik is harassing them into leaving through a variety of shameful tactics so he can jack up rents in the building to the point (above $2,000) where it will no longer be protected by stabilization requirements.

Neither Selechnik nor his lawyers returned calls seeking explanation.

Already at least five tenants have moved out because of the pressure. Another longtime resident suffered a heart attack that residents attributed to rent worries. The woman’s daughter took her upstate to get away from it all.

Others have discussed leaving, but most are digging in for the long haul.

On Valentine’s Day, tenants stormed Selechnik’s offices in Riverdale demanding he dissolve an exorbitant Major Capital Improvements (MCI) rent increase, which far exceeded the maximum 6 percent allowed in rent-stabilized apartments each year (see “Tenants Send Broken Hearts to Landlord Over Rent Hike,” Norwood News, Feb. 21 edition).

The next day, the city’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), which oversees and grants rent increases, sat down with Selechnik’s management group, 2720 LLC, which is headed by his daughter, Ellen Selechnik, and told them they couldn’t charge tenants more than a 6 percent increase each year.

(The tenants have filed an appeal to have the MCI revoked because there is little evidence any improvements were actually made, but DHCR has not ruled on it yet. Tenants filed Freedom of Information Law requests for the documents pertaining to the MCI approval, but DHCR sent back an obviously incomplete set of paperwork. DHCR did not return calls requesting comment for this article.)

Still, lawyers for 2720 LLC began taking tenants, like Garcia, to court for not paying past due amounts that they didn’t owe.

In some cases, tenants with Spanish-sounding last names have received similar letters have received handwritten notes saying they needed to pay a lump sum of money that should, legally, be paid out over the course of several years, at a maximum of 6 percent per year. The note essentially says, in Spanish, to pay the whole amount or else.

At least four other tenants have been taken to court. All of them are black.

Tenant leader Dino Rossi, who is white, has a veritable forest of documents and paperwork in his living room related to what he considers a systematic attempt by Selechnik to bully residents into leaving.

“I know racism and sexism and prejudice when I see it,” said Rossi, who is openly gay and says he has experienced homophobia in his own building. But while Selechnik’s tactics seem blatantly wrong and in some cases, possibly illegal, it’s not so easy to prove. “They’ve used plausible deniability and taken it to an art form.”

Tenant Association President Mary Corsey, who is black, thought she was smart and tough enough to fight Selechnik on her own, but she was wrong. When facing Selechnik’s lawyers in Housing Court, she said she was badly overmatched. “It was like I had rocks and they had machine guns.”

Afraid of being evicted, Corsey agreed to pay double what she should have. Later, Corsey retained a private lawyer and had the agreement overturned.

Now tenants, with help from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, are trying to consolidate legal representation through the Urban Justice Center (UJC), a nonprofit organization, and fight Selechnik on a united front.

Garrett Wright, a UJC lawyer working on the 2720 case, said what he’s seeing there is consistent with tactics used by other large family operations and private equity firms such as Pinnacle, which was penalized by the Attorney General for rent gouging in 2006 following a series of articles by the Norwood News and other newspapers.

“Landlords have an incentive [to push tenants out], because they want to push rents up past $2,000 to get them out of rent stabilization levels,” Wright said. He added that many of these private equity firms like Pinnacle use these tactics as a “business model” to lure investors.

On top of the suspicious rent increase and legal bullying, 2720 LLC failed to install the correct sized mailboxes, forcing tenants to travel a mile to the nearest post office to retrieve their mail. The mail center on 188th Street and Third Avenue is only open from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. each day, making it difficult, especially for those who work in Manhattan, to get timely and valuable information, including social security checks used for rent and legal documents and court hearing requests.

Tenants who don’t show up to court dates are subject to default judgments that usually rule against them.

Rafael Pimentel, a retired 72-year-old tenant who has lived in the building for 30 years, called the mailboxes just another effort to force residents out. “It’s bologna,” he said. He added that on his latest lease, the landlords left off his wife’s name, the first time that’s happened while he’s been living at 2720. “If something happens to me, then they get rid of me and my family.”

Out & About

By Judy Noy

Onstage

• JASA Van Cortlandt Senior Center hosts several programs in May including Israel Independence Day on May 7 at 5:30 p.m., featuring Israeli folksinger and guitarist Tamar Rosenfeld, preceded by a Middle Eastern meal at 4:30 p.m. Also join a Mother’s Day Celebration at the Center on May 16 from 1 to 2 p.m. preceded by lunch at noon. The suggested contribution for each meal is $3. Also scheduled is a trip to Caramoor Center for Music and Arts on May 14 to see “Carmen” and “La Traviata” followed by a picnic on the grounds and a house tour. The fee of $27 includes the bus, lunch, performance and tour. Reserve by May 7. The center is located at 3880 Sedgwick Ave. For more information, call (718) 549-4700.

 

• The Bronx Library Center presents Sonido Costeno Quartet in Concert, May 3 at 2:30 p.m.; Grupo Caribe in Concert, May 10 at 2:30 p.m.; and Mexican Folklore Dance, performed by the Calpulli Mexican Dancers, May 10 at 6 p.m. The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Road off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

 

• Lehman College’s Center for the Performing Arts, located at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W., is host to Natalie Cole on May 17 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $55 to $85. For more information, call (718) 960-8833.

 

• The Lehman College and Community Chorus, accompanied by the Lehman Symphony Orchestra, presents its annual Free Spring Concert of classical music, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the Lehman Concert Hall. Free tickets will be available at the box office starting at 1 p.m. on performance day. The college is located at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W. For more information and reservations, call 718-960-8247.

 

• The Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra presents a musical, slapstick version of “Sleeping Beauty,” to be held at the New York Botanical Garden’s Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall on May 11 at 1 and 3 p.m., performed by the Children’s Theatre Company at Lehman. For more information, call (718) 601-7399.

 

• The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), located at 841 Barretto St., brings us the Boogie Down Dance Festival beginning May 9, with Made in the Bronx, May 9 at 8 p.m., featuring dancers Bradon McDonald, Nelida Tirado and Jessica Danser. Tickets are $12. For more information, call (718) 842-5223.

 

• The Bronx Opera presents Mozart’s comic operetta, The Impresario, and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, about a clown who discovers his wife’s infidelity, both in English at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W., May 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. For more information, call 718-960-8833.

 

• Wave Hill, located at 675 W. 252nd St., hosts “A Little Romance,” a cabaret performance with Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, on May 4 from 2 to 3 p.m. in Armor Hall. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (718) 549-3200 ext. 385.

Events

• Wave Hill has been designated the Culture Spot for May. Visitors can enjoy two-for-one admissions from Wednesdays to Fridays when they present a special coupon at the front gate. Coupons are available throughout May online at nycvisit.com/culturespot. Wave Hill is located at 675 W. 252nd St. For more information and events, call (718) 549-3200.

 

• A Community Awareness Day Block Party, hosted by PS/MS 20 PTA and 52nd Precinct NYPD Explorers, rocks Mosholu Parkway North between Webster and Decatur avenues, May 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event features cheerleaders and salsa dancers, raffles, vendors and music. Everyone is welcome.

 

• The Bronx County Historical Society is holding a Book Talk and Signing, May 3 at 1 p.m. at the Museum of Bronx History, 3266 Bainbridge Ave. at 208th Street. Prof. Lloyd Ultan will discuss “Legacy of the Revolution.” Also coming up is a lecture by Dr. Gary Hermalyn at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd., May 10 at 2:30 p.m., on Edgar Allan Poe at Fordham, about the poet’s life and time in the Bronx. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

Exhibits

• Take a peek into the story of Freedomland – New York City’s Disneyland, through Oct. 19, at the Valentine-Varian House or Museum of Bronx History. The exhibition tells the story of the American History-themed amusement park opened in 1960 on the 205-acre site now home to Bay Plaza and Co-op City. The museum is located at 3266 Bainbridge Ave. at East 208th Street. For more information, call (718) 881-8900.

 

• Sound the Alarm, an exhibition of photographs, paintings and video of landscapes in distress, runs through June 1 at Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue in Riverdale. Admission is free to members and children under 6, and free all day Tuesdays and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

 

• See the Bronx from the perspective of Hunts Point photographers ages 9 to 19, with 35 black and white photos on view as part of I Love the Bronx, until May – just one of many rotating exhibitions at The Point, located at 940 Garrison Ave. at Manida Street. For more information, call (718) 542-4149.

 

• Inspired by the Feminist Movement, the Bronx Museum of the Arts explores women artists working collectively in new ways in Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community through Aug. 4. Also on view at the museum is Teen Council Presents: Jamel Shabazz through July 27 in the North Wing. His book signing takes place May 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The museum is located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street and is open Thursday through Monday from noon to 6 p.m. and Friday to 8 p.m. For more information, call (718) 681-6000.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden’s Everett Children’s Adventure Garden will host Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure, a new interactive children’s exhibit and hands-on program through June 15. Activities include potting a vegetable plant and exploring various bogs. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

• Classical techniques of painting and sculpture twist and turn in a new exhibition at the Bronx River Art Center, featuring the works of New York artists Benjamin Entner and Omar Chacón, curated by José Ruiz. It opens May 2 with a free reception from 6 to 9 p.m. where the artists will be present. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.bronxriverart.org.

Learning

• The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:

For babies and toddlers, there is Baby and Me Lapsit, May 10 at 11 a.m. For children, there are films on May 7 and 14 at 4 p.m. Also, for school-aged children, there is Songs from the Old School, May 3 at 2 p.m.; Dive to the Deep, May 5 at 4 p.m.; Mother’s Day Card Making, May 8 at 4 p.m.; Big Daddy Z and the Greeks, May 10 at 2 p.m.; Gustafer Yellowgold, May 11 at 2 p.m.; and Multicultural Stories from Around the World, May 12 at 4 p.m.
Young adults can Play Chess! in a workshop with Ramon A. Hernandez on May 5 and 12 at 4 p.m.; attend Music Discovery: Get an Earful!, May 2 at 4 p.m.; and participate in Beautiful Words, Beautiful Writing, to learn calligraphy on May 7 at 4 p.m.
For adults, there is Citizenship Preparation, free class Part 1 on May 10 at 10 a.m.
The Center is located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road. For a detailed schedule, call (718) 579-4244/46 or visit www.nypl.org.

• The Mosholu Library presents YTWL: You Talk! We Listen, for young adults, May 7 and 14 at 4 p.m. Babies and toddlers can attend Toddler Time, May 1 at 10:30 a.m. School-aged children can enjoy Space Oddities: The Moon, May 6 and 13 at 4 p.m. The library is located at 285 E. 205th St. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

 

• The Jerome Park Library at 118 Eames Place, hosts Mighty Action Racket Theatre Workshop, for school-aged children, May 6 at 4:30 p.m. For more information and to confirm, call (718) 549-5200.

A HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL OUR MOM READERS!

NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by May 5 for the next publication date of May 15.

Neighborhood Notes

By Norwood News

Free Computer Tutoring
The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is offering free computer tutorials to anyone interested. Lessons will cover topics ranging from basic computer skills to Internet navigation. Lessons are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., and on Wednesdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The Mosholu Preservation Corporation is located at 3400 Reservoir Oval East. For an appointment, call Brenda Lucio or Jennifer Mitchell, (718) 324-4461.

Block Party
The PS/MS 20 PTA 52nd Precinct NYPD Explorers Community Awareness Day Block Party will be held on May 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mosholu Parkway North between Webster and Decatur Ave. The event is co-sponsored by the Mosholu Preservation Corporation and will include guest speakers, live salsa dancers, the PS/MS 20 cheerleaders, music, and vendors.

Free Tennis Programs
The New York Junior Tennis League (NYJTL) offers a spring and summer tennis program providing free tennis to children ages 6 to 18 at various locations around the Bronx and New York City. The spring session began April 28 and will run through June 20. Parents must register their children in person at a NYJTL site. The summer program will be held at the Bronx International Youth Tennis Center, 754 Thieriot Ave.; Co-OP City, 800 Baychester Ave; Crotona Park, East 173rd St.; and CS 214, 1970 West Farms Rd. For more information call (212) 685-4600.

HIV Rapid Testing
The North Bronx Healthcare Network will offer an “HIV Rapid Testing Day” on Thursday, May 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jacobi Medical Center, 1400 Pelham Parkway South and North Central Bronx Hospital, 3424 Kossuth Ave. The oral rapid HIV test is a simple swab of the gums, and no blood test is required. For more information, call Mike Heller at (347) 992-0862.

Art Near the Park
The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park will host “Art Near the Park,” a series of art classes where art teacher Lucy Degidon will instruct participants of all levels on various methods of art inspired by nature. All sessions will be held on Mondays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Building 9 Community Room, Gale Place off of Orloff Ave. The remaining four sessions will be Still Life on May 5, Clay on May 12, Craypas on May 19, and Wrap Up on June 2. A small material fee will be charged to non-members of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. Pre-registration is required. To register or for more information, call Christina at (718) 601-1460 or e-mail info@vancortlandt.org.

Financial Education Seminars
The Ridgewood Savings Bank will host financial education seminars in the next two months from 6:15 to 8 p.m. at various bank branch locations. Topics covered will include the benefits of savings and checking accounts, mortgages, saving for emergencies, financial goals, and retirement. The free seminars, entitled “Money Matters,” will be held on May 6 at 711 Allerton Ave., May 30 at 3824 White Plains Rd., and June 10 at 1626 Bruckner Blvd. For more information or to reserve a seat at a session, call (718) 881-3430 or (718) 882-2220.

Free Asthma Screenings
The 12th Annual Nationwide Asthma Screening Program will offer free screenings to children and adults in the Bronx on May 9 from 9 a.m. to noon at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, 600 E. 233rd St. New York-area asthma specialists will help find out if breathing problems might be asthma and will help diagnosed-asthmatics take control of their disease. For a list of additional screening locations or for more information, visit www.acaai.org.

Disease Management Workshops
CMO, the care management company of Montefiore Medical Center, is offering a health education workshop on chronic health issues such as diabetes and hypertension on May 19 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Montefiore Medical Group Bronx location, E. 2300 Westchester Ave. To register for the program or for more information, call 1-800-MD- MONTE (1-800-636-6683).  

Health Fair
PS 33 and the Youth Development Program will host the 16th Annual Health Fair on Wednesday, May 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at P.S. 33, 2424 Jerome Ave. The event will include clowns, robo media, health and educational agencies, and free giveaways. For more information call Helson Santiago or Vilma Pagain at (718) 584-3922 ext. 2035, via fax at (718) 584-7004, or by e-mail at HSantia2@schools.nyc.gov or vtores-pagan@schools.nyc.gov.

Summer Youth Employment
Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) applications are now available at the Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center, 3450 DeKalb Ave., for 14-21 year olds. Applications can be picked up and dropped off Mondays through Fridays from 2:30 to 6 p.m. or candidates can apply online at www.nyc.gov/dycd. For more information call (718) 882-4000 ext. 279

Park Stewards
At Van Cortlandt Park, the Southeast Forest Restoration Initiative (SEFRI) Stewards help maintain and inspect newly-planted trees and are given the skills and supplies necessary to adopt a small section of the Southeast Forest for two hours each month. Those interested in becoming a SEFRI Steward must attend a training session on Saturday, May 10 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Southwest Corner of the Shandler Recreation Area Parking Lot. For more information or to register, contact Christina at (718) 601-1460 or Christina@vancortlandt.org.

Free Composting Events
The Bronx Compost Project at the New York Botanical Garden (Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road) will be hosting two free composting events in the next month. “Wild, Wiggly Worms!” is currently running through June 1 on Tuesdays through Sundays at the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden. The “Worm Bins Made Easy” workshop will be held on Wednesday, May 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Watson Education Building, Room 102. All participants will receive the book Worms Eat My Garbage. RSVP is required for the workshops. To register or for more information, call the Compost Helpline at (718) 817-8543 or e-mail bronxgreenup@nybg.org.

Free GED and Computer Classes
The State University of New York’s North Bronx Career Center located off of Eastchester Road is currently offering free day and evening classes for the GED and Business Office Technology to prepare for the GED exam or learn basic to advanced skills in Windows XO, Vista, Word, Excel, and Power Point. Job readiness training is also available. All students must meet state income and academic guidelines. Classes began on April 28. For more information, call (718) 547-1001.

Prenatal Care Assistance Program
The Prenatal Care Assistance Program (PCAP) is now available for women and teens in the Bronx who are pregnant and meet certain income guidelines. The program, offered by the Montefiore Medical Center and New York State Department of Health, provides medical care during pregnancy, delivery, and for at least two months after delivery. The program is available at the Family Health Center, 360 E. 193rd St.; Comprehensive Health Care Center, 305 E. 161st St.; and Comprehensive Family Care Center, 1621 Eastchester Rd. For more information call (718) 933-2400, (718) 579-2500, or (718) 405-8040.

Registration Open for Annual 10k and 5k Runs
The Bronx Community College (BCC) “Run for Fun, Fitness and Health” 10k (6.2 miles) and 5k (3.1 miles) runs, for ages seven to 80, will be on Saturday, May 3 at 10 a.m. at BCC, West 181st Street and University Avenue. To get an entry form, call (718) 289-5989, or download a form at www.bcc.cuny.edu/10krace. Registration can also be completed online with a credit card at www.active.com. Runners should check in from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

FTC Materials Available
The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has Federal Trade Commission (FTC) materials on credit acquisition and protection available to the public or for groups. To obtain copies of any of these materials, call Mr. Kathryn Speller at (718) 365-0910, ext. 133. Materials may be picked up at the CAB office, 2054 Morris Ave., Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call to schedule a pick-up. Materials may also be sent by mail upon request. For more information, visit cabny.org, or call (718) 365-0910 ext. 122.

Methodist Home Art Classes
The Methodist Home will offer art classes every Monday night at 6:30 p.m. The classes will focus on abstract landscape art, and will be suitable for a wide range of artistic abilities. A fee of $5 per class will be charged at the door. To register, call (718) 548-5100 ext. 231. The Methodist Home is located at 4499 Manhattan College Parkway, Riverdale.

Foreign Exchange Students Need Hosts
The Pacific Intercultural Exchange is seeking local host families for foreign high school students who are scheduled to arrive soon. Prospective host families can review student applications and select the perfect match. Interested parties should contact the program immediately. Call toll-free, (866) 546-1402.
AFS, the leading international high school student exchange program, also needs local families to host high school students for an academic year or six months. Students arrive in August. AFS is also looking for volunteer liaisons to work locally with families and their hosted students. Anyone interested in hosting or volunteering should visit www.afs.org/usa/hostfamily or call 1-800-AFS-INFO.

Summer Camps at MMCC
The Mosholu Montefiore Community Center is offering sports day camps this summer. The City Sports Camp teaches skills in baseball, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, kickball, flag football, and other organized games. Boys and girls entering 3rd through 8th grades in September can sign up for a 2-week session, a 4-week session, or a 6-week session. Swim Camp takes place at Fordham University on Monday through Thursday mornings, under Steve Plotsklan, the Head Swim Coach of Fordham. Ages are 5 through 16; for information call Mr. Plotsklan at (718) 817-4256. Karate Camp, taught by Luis Morales, head Sensei at the Center, takes place on Mondays through Wednesdays and Fridays from 12 to 5 p.m. for boys and girls entering 1st through 8th grades. For more information and free brochures, call the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center at (718) 882-4000.     

Pre-K and Kindergarten Registration
Registration for Pre-K and kindergarten at PS/MS 20 is currently underway. To pick up an application for Pre-K or register for kindergarten, go to the school’s main office from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. For more information and a list of what is required for kindergarten registration, call Mrs. Ryan in the main office at (718) 515-9370.

Research Patients Needed
Doctors at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center are looking for women ages 18 to 50 with a vaginal herpes blister or sore to undergo a gynecologic exam for a research study. A free, confidential screening will determine eligibility. Participants need to attend 3 visits in 2 weeks, and monetary reimbursement will be given for each visit. For more information, contact Julie at (718) 430-3253, Tara at (718) 430-3061 or e-mail Microbicide@aecom.yu.edu.

Fresh Air Camps Registration
The Fresh Air Fund is currently registering New York City boys and girls, ages 6 to 12, for free vacations in country and small-town communities. The program gives inner-city children from low-income communities a chance to experience the country at one of five Fresh Air camps or with a volunteer host family. For a referral to a participating agency or for more information about the program, call (212) 897-8900 or (800) 367-0003, or visit www.freshair.org.

Food Drive
The Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture is seeking canned food donations to benefit the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill Food and Hunger Project, Inc. The food drive is ongoing. Please leave food donations at the Society, 4450 Fieldston Road, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. No perishable foods accepted. For more information, call (718) 548-4445.

Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group
The Alzheimer’s Association’s New York City chapter provides a support group for Spanish and English speaking caregivers who have relatives with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia in Norwood. The support group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month from 5 to 6:15 p.m. For exact location or more information, call Mark Goodwin at (718) 920- 7377.

Free Programs for Cancer Patients
The Albert Einstein Cancer Center is offering two free research programs for patients with cancer. The Yoga-Based Cancer Rehabilitation Program includes 12 weeks of yoga classes as part of a research study to see if yoga can help patients with breast, lung and colorectal cancer. The Mind-Body Cancer Program includes eight weeks of mind-body groups as a part of a research study for patients with most types of cancer. Some restrictions may apply and both programs are taking place in the Bronx. For more information or to find out if you are eligible, call (718)-430-2380.

English, Civics and Computer Classes
Mosholu Montefiore Community Center offers free English as a Second Language classes (ESL), and civics and computer classes Monday through Saturdays. To apply, visit the Center at 3450 DeKalb Ave. (corner of Gun Hill Road). For more information, call (718) 882-4000, ext. 216.

ESL and GED Classes
Fordham Manor Reformed Church is offering free ESL and GED classes at its building on 2705 Reservoir Ave. The ESL classes will be held on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the GED classes are on Monday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The ESL class requires a 15-minute test for enrollment. A longer three-hour test is necessary to take part in the GED class. For more information, call (718) 796-4980 ext. 16.

Citizenship Test Preparation Course
Two Bronx High School of Science seniors and a student in the Macaulay Honors Program at Lehman College are offering a free Citizenship Test preparation course. The course will be held in Room 131 of the Bronx High School of Science, 75 W. 205th St. on Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call Andrew Levin at (917) 532-7727.

Adult ESL and Computer Classes
Now through June, PS 94 at 3530 Kings College Place is offering beginning and intermediate ESL classes as well as beginner computer classes. All classes will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information or to sign up, go to room 105 or call the parent coordinator, Ms. Seminario, at (347) 563-4772, (718) 405-6345 ext. 1050 or (718) 863-4057.  

Housing and Job Help
National Student Partnerships provides no-cost help with job searches, housing searches, education, job training, resume-writing, childcare, legal services and much more.  There are no eligibility requirements, and all services are completely free.  NSP is located at 2715 Bainbridge Ave. at East 196th Street. Call (718) 733-3897 to set up an appointment. You do not need to be a student to obtain services. Se habla espanol.

Foster Parents Needed
The Foster Care Network currently has an urgent need for adults who want to become foster parents for the hundreds of area children who need a home. For more information, call (800) 454-3727 ext. 110.

PRIDE Health Fair
Montefiore Medical Center’s AIDS Center, together with the Bronx HIV CARE Network, will be hosting their 6th Annual PRIDE Health Fair to promote health awareness in the community on Saturday, June 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Gun Hill Road between Bainbridge and DeKalb Avenue, rain or shine. The event will include educational materials on HIV and prevention, blood pressure screenings, musical performances, guest speakers, and free raffle drawings. For more information, call Liz Ruffin at (718) 231-3296 ext. 24.

New Korean BBQ in Town

By Jennifer Mitchell

Food is a way to cultural understanding, says Eunju Baek Kim, a native of Korea and owner of KBBQ on West Kingsbridge Road.  

Think about it, we all have to eat. Why not explore other cultures by trying their food?  

Before opening KBBQ last fall, Kim worked for the Korean government for 10 years, researching ways to introduce Korean food to the rest of the world.  In other words, she not only knows authentic Korean cuisine, but she’s trained to bring her country’s food to Bronxites.  

When you walk by KBBQ, succulent-looking barbeque chicken and ribs are on display in the window, enticing you to come on in. Inside, the restaurant décor is very tasteful. The dark wood tables and black leather chairs make the narrow space seem larger than it is, and elegant.  There are also plenty of stools to sit on at the bar, a highly-recommended seating options, as Ms. Kim has plenty of stories about Korean food to tell.

The dining room smells fantastic – slightly sweet and smoky, with a faint whiff of sesame oil.  To the left when you walk in, the restaurant has a display featuring a hot and cold buffet of Latin and American food, including everything from plantains, beef and chicken to cold macaroni salad.  

None of those items, however, explain the aroma. It is then that you notice the cheery chalkboards that tout Korean fare. That day’s lunch special: bulgogi, bibimbap or japchaebap.  

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Kim appears and smiles. “Have you been here before?  Have you ever tried Korean food?” she asks. With her warm welcome and the intoxicating smell, the real question is:  how could a person resist?

The first dish I tried, bulgogi, is Korean barbecue and is considered a national dish. It is a thinly sliced beef that is typically marinated in a soy sauce, sesame oil and green onion sauce before it is grilled or cooked on the stovetop. Kim’s is sweet and smoky and melts in your mouth.  

The second dish, bibimbap, is a version of stir-fry with rice. Kim’s is a beautifully displayed mixture of carrots, zucchini, squash, shitake mushrooms, mung beans, ground beef and rice, sautéed in sesame oil.  It is served with a generous side of gochujan, a spicy Korean condiment that Kim has altered to suit the American palate. Americans tend to like things more sweet than spicy, she says.

If you are not yet convinced to try Korean fare, don’t worry, there is a large menu of familiar American breakfast, lunch and dinner items. You will find sandwiches, wraps, quesadillas, salads, a variety of chicken, pork and beef dishes, a juice and smoothie bar, and breakfast items from bagels and cream cheese to omelets.

When you visit, ask Kim about Korean Space Food. You’ll learn about kimchi, the traditional Korean staple that is eaten with nearly every meal, and how, last month, it accompanied the first Korean astronaut into outer space.

KBBQ is located at 119 W. Kingsbridge Road.

Local Colleges: It Can Be Easy Being Green

By Jennifer DeYoung

Students and staff at two Bronx colleges are looking to change the world for the better, one low-energy light bulb, one newly planted tree, one recycled shopping bag at a time.

With numerous new programs emerging at Bronx Community College and Monroe College, these schools are at the forefront of the fight for energy preservation here in New York.

At Monroe College, green initiatives are a part of the school’s yearlong 75th anniversary celebration. To start, the college has plans to place recycling bins around campus and to replace bottled water with filtered water dispensers in the cafeteria. Environmentally friendly light bulbs will be installed in main buildings, and numerous greens will be planted for spring.

In addition, the school hopes to plant 75 trees around the six Bronx campus buildings on Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue, according to a college spokesperson. The school bookstore will sell re-usable shopping bags, and bicycles will be available for students to share at the dormitories on the college’s New Rochelle campus.

The college’s Environmental Club is also doing its part, too. Members are planning to visit P.S. 73 to talk about public health and environmental issues, and then plant a tree at the school.

But the biggest green initiative at Monroe is its new Ustin Hall at 184th Street and Jerome Avenue. The roof will be entirely solar paneled to “support our energy requirements” in the building, said Axelbank. The building is slated to officially open on April 22, and the roof is expected to be operational two months after that.

Meanwhile, in an effort to expose as many students as possible to the concepts of renewable energy and climate change, the college has invited Kevin Doyle, president of Green Economy, a Boston-based training, consulting, and research firm, to speak about “green careers” on March 19.

At Bronx Community College, the City University of New York’s Center for Sustainable Energy started the Change a Light, Change the World program this past fall. So far, 10 students have been trained to become energy advocates; each one is expected to make presentations to fellow students on the use of energy-efficient lights. The primary goal of this initiative: to put energy concepts into the education of students, and to help them take action.

The center has received a donation of 300 compact florescent lights (CFL), and it hopes its newly trained energy advocates can help put them to work, by convincing 300 BCC students and their parents to take a pledge to change at least one CFL in their house.

“In this manner, we will directly impact upon 300 households and help change energy consumption patterns in the Bronx,” said CSE spokesperson Laurie Reilly.

The center was started in 2003 to promote the use of renewable and efficient energy technologies in urban communities through education, training, workforce development, research, and project facilitation. Based in a borough where truck traffic is among the heaviest in the nation, helping contribute to high rates of asthma, acid rain and ground level ozone, the center has devised numerous approaches to solving the Bronx’s environmental crisis.

For starters, CSE is helping create and provide training for “green collar” jobs. In December 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the city would create 5,000 such jobs as part of his PlaNYC 2030, which aims to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 30 percent.

The center also partners with other schools to further the development of photovoltaics, a technology that converts light directly into electricity. One such partnership is the Solar Energy Consortium, which includes CUNY, Cornell University, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, Binghamton University, and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

In June, the center will host the annual New York City Solar Summit, a conference that will include walking tours of prominent downtown solar installation sites and presentations on the latest solar technology developments, policies and green collar training programs.

Students Raise Thousands for Cancer

By Jennifer DeYoung

By Jennifer DeYoung

Eager students can’t wait to talk about the project they have helped run at PS 94.

Many of the school’s students helped raise money and awareness for Pennies for Patients, a three-week project for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, a charity that helps children diagnosed with blood cancer.

This is the third year the school has run the project, and each year the students have surpassed the goal set of how much money they will raise.

The first year, the students raised $1,200. This year, they collected $3561, far above their goal of $2,500, said Angela Marinez, the campaign coordinator.

“Everyone really comes together as a school community for this,” said Marinez.

To make this happen, students, led by the fifth graders, organized bake sales, put collection boxes in the cafeteria, and hung posters to encourage donations.

One particularly innovative idea, called A Quarter and a Quote, was a hit among the students. For a quarter, students could write an inspirational message that would be hung up on the walls all over the school.  

Marinez said that the teachers also helped a lot, contributing donations through raffles for the faculty. The Norwood Dunkin’ Donuts on Jerome Avenue also donated money for the cause.

Courtney Roosa, the Pennies for Patients coordinator for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, said that she was very impressed with the students and all the work they did. The money raised, she explained, goes towards patient services, financial aid for patients and their families, and research for a cure to blood cancers.

“We’re so grateful for the help,” she added. “Blood cancer is the most common kind of cancer in young kids, so it’s great that these guys are helping people their own age.”

While the whole school contributed in big ways, there was one classroom in particular that helped hit and extend the goal. The first graders of Ms. Josiah’s class raised $200 on their own, the largest amount for a single classroom during the project.

“It’s a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun, too,” said fifth grader Rudy Pena.

Prep Senior Blogs PGA Tour Event

By Alex Kratz

Fordham Prep senior Philip Spano flew to Miami last month to get a behind-the-scenes look at professional golf and write about his experiences on a daily blog.

“One thing was: It was pretty awesome,” Philip said in an interview the day after he arrived back in his home in the east Bronx.  

The young golf fan, who participates in the First Tee program at Mosholu Golf Course, was one of four high school students chosen to attend the 2008 CA Championship at the Doral Golf Resort in southern Florida, a PGA (Professional Golfers Association) event featuring all the big names, including Tiger Woods.

With his extra ticket, Philip chose to take his favorite golf partner, his father, Michael Spano, who erupted in joy after finding out his son had won a trip to a PGA tour event in Florida.

“I think he might have been more excited than me,” Philip said.

For Philip, however, the awesomeness began almost immediately after he and his father arrived at their hotel. “When I got there, I saw the pool, and wanted to jump in,” Philip said. But first, he noted on his initial blog post on PGA.com, he needed a nap.

After catching up on some rest, Philip spent his first day meeting with pro golfers and other tour professionals. He spent a great deal of time picking the ear of Donald A. Parker, who fixes golf clubs for tour players. The meeting was enlightening.

He wrote in his blog:

“When I saw what he did and how much he enjoyed his job, I saw a new possible career path for myself…When I left his work-space, I kept picturing myself coming up with new golf club designs and sending them off to be created. My ideas materializing into something tangible really intrigued me.”

Later in the week, Philip had his golf swing analyzed by pros who hooked him up to a series of electrodes, which projected his three-dimensional image onto a monitor. They concluded his swing was “pretty good,” but that he pulled back too much on his back foot, causing his motion to be uneven.

Other highlights included meeting Phil Mickelson (a lefty like Philip), sitting in on a live broadcast and being a standard bearer (workers who display the score for spectators) on the 18th hole, otherwise known as the “Blue Monster” because of its treacherous water traps.

Next fall, Philip will attend Manhattan College and study engineering with an eye on designing more advanced and aerodynamic golf clubs and balls.   

 

Sprucing up the Neighborhood

By None

In celebration of Arbor Day, SoBro’s Green-Jobs and Greater Environment (GAGE) participants plant trees with Parks Department gardeners Ida Levy at St. James Park (pictured above). Two days later, they did the same at Williambridge Oval Park. The Norwood News applauds these efforts.

Mother’s Day: A Different Point of View

By Judy Noy

With all the hearts and flowers and loving sentiments issued on Mother’s Day, it has occurred to me as a mom that I wouldn’t be celebrating this special day if it weren’t for my own two kids … and the journey they traveled to make this happen.  

With this in mind, I was inspired to write the following, dedicated with love to my daughter Maya and my son Gideon, which presents Mother’s Day from a different point of view.

It seems ages that I’ve been cooped up in this small dark wet space. I don’t even know how I got here in the first place, but the longer I’m here, the less room I seem to have. I can hardly get around. I used to be able to stretch out, move around, punch, kick, do whatever I felt like, but I can’t anymore. I used to like it here; no one bothered me, I ate and slept whenever I wanted, I had no one to answer to. Even though I couldn’t see very well, I could, nevertheless, hear light pleasant sounds.

But now I just want to get out of here as soon as possible. I feel, after all this time, like a guest who has overstayed his welcome. I also get the feeling that if I don’t leave on my own, and soon, that somehow I’ll be forced to go. The time has come for me to leave this comfortable place I’ve called home for so long.

I find myself now being pushed through a long dark tunnel, ready or not. The tunnel seems so tiny and narrow that I find myself straining with the effort of getting through, squinting into the darkness and hoping I’ll get through safely and with no complications. I’ve never been on a journey that is taking as long as this one. There’s no way I can turn back, but really I can’t wait to reach the other end after such a struggle, no matter what lies in store for me.

At last, when I think I’ll never get there, I burst through into a world full of light, so bright, that I need to squint, and even close my eyes for a while. I feel cool and dirty after such a long trip, but I’m lucky because in an instant I find I’m being cleaned and wrapped up so that I feel comfortable again.

And low voices all around me are whispering, “What a darling baby! It was certainly worth the nine month wait.”

And my first Mother’s Day was born.

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