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Out & About

By Judy Noy

Onstage

 

• Retro Petro, a one-woman show at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), tells the comedic tale of the life and times of a ghetto matriarch. The show features Elizabeth Marerro, who performs in drag as “King Macha,” and includes choreography and direction by Arthur Aviles of the Bronx’s Typical Theater. BAAD is located at 841 Barretto St. Shows take place at 8 p.m. on Nov. 28 and 29. Tickets are $15 with reservations and $20 at the door. For more information, call (718) 842-5223.

 

• The Bronx Library Center, located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road, presents Doo Wop With the New York Exceptions, Nov. 29 at 2:30 p.m.; and Sonido Costeno, Dec. 6 at 2:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 579-4244/46.

 

• The Lehman College Theater Program presents Our Lady of 121st Street, in Lehman’s Studio Theatre, Dec. 3 and 7 at 3:30 p.m. and Dec. 4, 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10; $8 for seniors and non-Lehman students; and free for all Lehman students, with valid I.D. For more information or to reserve, call (718) 960-8025.

 

• The Mass Transit Street Theater presents Ain’t Easy at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture located at 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street. The piece focuses attention on five Bronx teens who tell their stories about violence and alternative ways to deal with conflict. Performances take place on Dec. 11, at 10 a.m. and noon, and Dec. 3 at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $6. For more information, call (718) 512-8519 or email ainteasy08@gmail.com.

 

• Bronx Museum of the Arts, located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, presents A Musical Tribute to the Forces of Fire and Healing, featuring the Afro-Caribbean group Illu Aye, Dec. 5 from 6 to 10 p.m. in the museum’s south wing, lower gallery. This event is free. For more information, call (718) 681-6000 ext. 120.

Events

 

• The Bronx Museum of the Arts, located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street, presents its free monthly First Wednesday Book Signing, Dec. 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., featuring author Irete Lazo’s “The Accidental Santera,” in the museum’s north building. For more information, call (718) 681-6000, ext. 120.

 

• Bronx Museum of the Arts presents “Los Machos de Mi Vida,” a video installation featuring Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m., through Dec. 20, at the Bronx Museum Project Space, 11 Bruckner Blvd., in Mott Haven. Raimundi-Ortiz will also teach a salsa dance class for Latinas during the the show. For more information, call (718) 681-6000, ext. 120.

 

• The Wave Hill House presents Seasons Greetings, a live-action holiday card workshop, Dec. 6 and Dec. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Kerlin Learning Center. Wave Hill is located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

 

• The Bronx Culture Trolley transports visitors on the first Wednesday of every month (except January and September), to Bronx hot spots, ending at Sweetwaters Bar & Grill. A reception is held at the Hostos Art Gallery, 450 Grand Concourse (at 149th St.) at 5 p.m., followed by three trolley departures at 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The trolley ride is free, and the next trip is on Dec. 3 and features holiday medleys by the ensemble, Bomba Yo. For more information or to confirm, call (718) 931-9500 ext. 33 or log on to www.bronxarts.org.

 

Exhibits

 

• The Bronx River Art Center, located at 1087 E Tremont Ave., hosts Metro Poles: Art in Action, free, through Dec. 6. A talk and screening will be held Dec. 6 from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, call (718) 589-5819.

 

• Street Art, Street Life: From the 1950s to Now, a collection of photography, is a documentation of performances, events, and artwork, on view through Jan. 25, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street. For more information, call (718) 681-6000.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden presents Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum, through Jan. 11, at the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. As part of the exhibit, there will be a 13-piece taiko drumming performance on the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory lawn, and Kiku for Kids, in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

• The Wave Hill Café and Tea Room, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, will feature Naturally Inspired, a selection of art produced in workshops for adults and at the weekly Family Art Project, and Flora & Fauna, an installation of a vine that winds along the wall of the staircase, Dec. 4 through Feb. 22, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

 

• The Neuberger Museum of Art, at 735 Anderson Hill Rd., in Purchase, NY, will exhibit Great Women Artists, featuring two sculptures by Barbara Korman, of Norwood. The show runs from noon to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, through Feb. 22. Meet the artist at the museum on Dec. 7 from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.bkormanstudio.com.

Holiday Events

 

• A Holiday Tree Lighting, sponsored by the Borough President’s Office and Community Board 7, is scheduled for Dec. 11 at 6 p.m., to be held at the center mall at Mosholu Parkway and Bainbridge Avenue.

 

• The Bronx Library Center, located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road, presents A Christmas Carol, Dec. 6 at 2 p.m., for school aged children. For more information, call (718) 579-4244/46.

 

• The Wave Hill House, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, presents Home for the Holidays, with singer Lumiri Tubo and pianist Aaron Diehl, performing a concert of holiday favorites, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for members, $24 for non-members and $21 for students and seniors over the age of 65. Advance purchase is recommended. For more information, call (718) 549-3200, ext. 385.

• The New York Botanical Garden presents Holiday Train Show, featuring large-scale model trains and more than 140 miniature replicas of New York landmarks created from plant parts, through Jan. 11, in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Complementing this show is Gingerbread Adventures, a fun and educational event for children, including hands-on activities, in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. Also scheduled is a puppet show, The Little Engine That Could, directed by master puppeteer Ralph Lee, Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 6 to 21 and daily Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 at 1, 2, and 3 p.m., in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

Learning

The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:

• For children and preschoolers, there is the Preschool Romp, Dec. 4 and 11 at 11 a.m.

• Also, for school-aged children, there are The BLCs, Nov. 29 at 4 p.m.; Theatre Group Meetings, Dec. 1 and 8 at 4 p.m.; Valentine’s Day Card, Dec. 9 at 4 p.m.; and Snowflake, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m.

• Young adults can attend the Halo 3 Tournament, Dec. 1 and 8 at 4 p.m.; Rock-A-Thon!, Nov. 28 at 4 p.m.; Winter Podcast, Dec. 3 at 4 p.m.; and Music Discovery, Dec. 5 at 4 p.m.

• Adults would enjoy MOMA Presents Van Gogh and The Colors of the Night, Dec. 1 at 6 p.m.; and a Resume Writing Workshop, Dec. 6 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 offers Toddler Story Time, Dec. 4 at 10:30 a.m.; and The Skeletal System, Dec. 8 at 4 p.m., for school aged children; and Preschool Story Time, Dec. 11 at 10:30 a.m., for children and preschoolers. Also scheduled is Action Racket Theatre Lab, Dec. 1 and 8 at 4 p.m.; and Make a T-Shirt, Dec. 10 at 4 p.m., for young adults. 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 Break!, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m.; Make Jewelry, Dec. 4 at 4 p.m.; and Photo Frame Creations, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m., for young adults. In addition, there is Toddler Story Time, Dec. 9 at 10:30 a.m., for children and preschoolers. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.

NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by Dec. 1 for the next publication date of Dec. 11.

Neighborhood Notes

By Norwood News

Discount for Food Co-op

The Norwood Food Co-op announces a significant early payment discount for the 2009 season. Save almost 12% off next year’s share price if you pay by Dec. 10. For more information on the early discount and the CSA, visit norwoodfoodcoop.org. Eat better and support local organic farmers without leaving your neighborhood!

Volunteer

To become a New York Cares volunteer, all you need to do is attend a one-time orientation, and then choose from a variety of Bronx projects. Orientation for new volunteers will take place Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Road from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. To register or for more information, visit www.nycares.org or call (212) 228-5000, or Project Sign-up Hotline (212) 402-1156.

Wii Games for Adults and Seniors

On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m., adults and seniors can enjoy free Wii video games at the Mosholu Library, 285 E. 205th St.. To sign up, go to the Adult Information Desk. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

Prevent Cancer

Angela Matotek of the American Cancer Society, will discuss how to help prevent cancer, including: How to have an active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight, and maintaining a healthy diet. The presentation will take place on Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Mosholu Library, 285 E. 205th St. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

Tax Planning and Strategies

Lehman College is holding a Year End Tax Planning and Strategies Seminar to help individuals manage their own finances on Wednesday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the college library. Free workshops will be given on information about tax deductions, the IRS, tax law and small business financial planning. To register, call Nancy Beltrez at (718) 960-8806 or anastacia.beltrez@lehman.cuny.edu.

Information for Parents with Disabled Kids

The Department of Education is providing an information fair for the families of disabled pre-school children who are entering kindergarten in the fall of 2009. The fairs provide information about the change from pre-school to school-aged special education services. In the Bronx, the fair will be held on Thursday, Dec. 4, at PS 85, 2400 Marion Ave., from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, call (212) 374-5141.

Entrepreneurial Workshop

Small business owners are invited to a free entrepreneurial workshop, which includes a chance to meet other business leaders who are surviving the economic downfall. There will also be a presentation on managing your business. The workshop will take place on Thursday, Dec. 11 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Monroe College, West Hall, Room 919, 2467 Jerome Ave. To register, visit www.oedglobal.org/attend/registration/htm.

Free Respite Program

Kingsbridge Heights Community Center (KHCC) is offering free after-school services to families with mentally retarded or developmentally disabled children ages 5 to 21 from 3 to 6 p.m. KHCC is also offering a Saturday Respite Program for ages 15 to 25, and on Sundays another Respite Program is provided for ages 18 to 65. Weekend Respite Program hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They are held at the KHCC, 3101 Kingsbridge Terrace (near Sedgwick Avenue) at West 230th Street. To register or for more information, call Hanna Gabris at (718) 884-0700 ext. 202.

Bronx Forum Panel Discussions

The Bronx Forum will be holding panel discussions on “Youth & Public Safety: Keeping Our Children Safe” on Dec. 9 and “Youth & Education: Keeping Our Children on the Track for Success” on Jan. 13. These events will be held at Hostos Community College, Savoy Building, Multipurpose Room, 2nd floor, 120 Walton Ave. at 149th Street. Registration fee is $10. For more information, call Monica Merlis at (212) 983-4800 ext. 122.

Place for Teens With Problems

The Power Project is a free program for teens ages 12 to 18 who are dealing with substance abuse and other problems. Located at 3464 Webster Ave., Power Project provides case management, individual and group counseling, trips, and is just a place to get away from it all. For more information, call (718) 515-7971.

Preschool New Enrollment

The Mosholu Montefiore Community Center now has more space available for childcare. There are new classrooms for 2- to 4-year-olds at the center, located at 3450 DeKalb Ave. For more information, call (718) 882-4000.

Toy and Gift Drive

JE & ZB Butler Child Advocacy Center is having a toy and gift drive for infants to teenagers. Donations of new toys and gifts for the children can be brought to the Center at 3314 Steuben Ave. For more information, contact Lois Pearlman at (718) 920-7584 or lpearlma@montefiore.org.

Teen Center

The Boys and Girls Club of Mosholu Montefiore Community Center at the Fort Independence Houses announced that memberships are being accepted for the fall Teen Center program for boys and girls ages 12 to 16. The center is open Monday through Friday nights from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and offers a variety of teen activities. For more information and/or registration, call Israel Rosario at (646) 358-6096.

Free After-School Program

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center is accepting applications for its free Fort Independence after-school program, which serves kids in kindergarten through sixth grade, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. The program offers a variety of activities. For more information, call Israel Rosario, (646) 358-6096.  

Learn the Internet

St. James Recreation Center at 2530 Jerome Ave. offers free classes in Microsoft Office, Resume/Cover Letter Writing, Computer Basics, and much more. For more information, call Justin Young at (718) 367-3659.

Adult ESL and Computer Classes

PS 94 on Kings College Place will offer ESL levels 1 and 2 and Computer Skills classes through summer 2009. Both classes meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Computer classes will be taught in English and will include lessons on keyboarding, Microsoft Word and other programs. Registration is first-come, first-served. For more information, call Ms. Seminario, the parent coordinator, at (347) 563-4772 or (718) 405-6345.

Alzheimer’s Support Group

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

Seeking Artists for Aging Project

The Bronx Council on the Arts is seeking artists who are interested in exploring the link between creative expression and the quality of life of older people. BCA is offering unique opportunities in the field of Creative Aging. Send resume and letter of interest to Ed Friedman, Bronx Council on the Arts, 1738 Hone Ave., Bronx, NY 10461 or email: info@bronxarts.org.

English Classes

The New York Public Library is offering free classes in English for speakers of other languages at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. (off Fordham Road). For more information on other locations, call the Library’s Office of Community Outreach Services at (212) 340-0918 or visit www.nypl.org/calendar.esol.html.

Quality of Life Screening

The Psychosocial Oncology Program of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center is conducting a survey study in order to learn about the physical and emotional stresses faced by cancer survivors. Participants will have to fill out questionnaires and have the opportunity to participate in free/low-cost programs and support services within the program. For more information, call (718) 430-2380.

Breast Oncology Program

The Breast Oncology Living Daily Program also known as BOLD living offers a variety of free educational, support, and mind-body workshops. They are designed to empower and nurture breast cancer patients, survivors, and loved ones, but are open to all. For more information or to register, call (718) 430-3613 or visit outreach@aecom.yu.edu.

After School Child Care

Registration is now taking place for the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center’s after-school childcare programs at 3450 DeKalb Ave., for children in kindergarten through 6th grade. The Discovery Club is offering staff escort from PS 94, PS 280, St. Ann’s, MS 80 and van service from PS 8, PS 94 Annex, PS 56 and 56 Annex, St. Brendan’s, St. Philip Neri, PS 41, Visitation, and PS 95. For complete information or to register, call Ruth Moore weekdays at (718) 944-3207.

Speech Program at Ursula 

The Mt. St. Ursula Speech Center, 2885 Marion Ave., is now accepting applications for its fall program. The center has openings for children ages 2 to 5 who are in need of speech and language services. Medicaid and other insurances accepted. For more information, call (718) 584-7679.

Karate Classes at MMCC

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, located on Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue, will be offering a wide selection of Karate classes for elementary school students, teens, and adults starting in the next few weeks. The classes are offered for all levels on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Classes are affordable and discounts are available. To register or for more information, call Luis Morales weekdays at (718) 944-3290 or MMCC at (718) 882-4000 ext. 0.

Free GED and Business Courses

The State University of New York’s North Bronx Career Center located at 3950 Laconia Ave., at East 224th Street, is now accepting applications for the fall semester. Classes offered are GED Prep and basic to advanced MOS Certification Computer classes, free training in Business Office Technology (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Job Readiness (Resume, Cover Letter, Interview Skills) and Pre-Certification Training in various careers (Child Care, Security and more). All students wishing to apply must meet state income and academic guidelines. This is an HRA-approved program. Classes began in September. To begin the application process or for more information, call (718) 547-1001.

Aphasia Clinic Accepting Clients

The Lehman College Speech and Hearing Center, which provides therapy on a sliding scale payment schedule, is now accepting new clients in its recently expanded aphasia clinic. The clinic will provide individual and group therapy sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 1 p.m. and 2 to 3 p.m.; group therapy sessions also take place on Tuesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. Diagnostic and therapeutic sessions will be supervised by faculty members who are licensed by the NYS Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and certified by ASHA (American Speech Language Hearing Association). For more information, call Wanda Adams at (718) 960-8138.

Epilepsy Seminars

A series of free epilepsy seminars will be held the second Wednesday of every month: Nov. 12 from 3 to 4 p.m. “Epilepsy in the Classroom”; Dec. 10 from 3 to 4 p.m., “EEG Testing: Procedure & Outcomes.” The seminars will be held at the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group; Medical Pavilion, 4256-1 Bronx Blvd. For more information, contact Dawn Brace at (718) 654-6184 or dbrace@epilepsygroup.com.

 

 

Groarke Receives Arts Awards

By Norwood News

Norwood resident Ciaran Groarke, a clerk in Bronx Supreme Court, received two first place awards for his paintings in the New York City Court Employees Arts and Crafts Show on Oct. 29.  His paintings, “Walk on Wate,” and “Boys and Bombs,” each won first prize in the Painting and Graphic Arts categories. Groarke received a $50 gift certificate to Pearl Paint for each of the prizes.

Women’s Forum Honors Local Student

By Jorge Manana

The Women’s Forum, a community of preeminent female leaders in New York, bestowed their prestigious educational award on 10 women this past September, including three students from Lehman College.  

The award is given to women who show a promising future through their dedication to education.

Wanda Vargas, one of the three recipients from Lehman College, overcame great personal odds to pursue her dream. The forum recognized Vargas’ determination and perseverance for overcoming several obstacles. An unstable and abusive childhood led her to sever any and all ties with her family at an early age.

A Bronx native, Vargas grew up fascinated with volcanoes, earthquakes, glaciers and most natural wonders.  

After a 13-year absence from college, Vargas returned to finish her undergraduate degree at Lehman. Vargas is now pursuing a degree in marine geophysics and hopes to further understand deadly geophysical events, like volcano eruptions and earthquakes, so she can help develop better warning systems and evacuation procedures, hopefully preventing high death tolls in the future.

In addition to Vargas, Lehman students Judy Canstrelli and Charlene Corbett-Tosi received the award.

 

Westphal Honored as ‘Living Legend’

By Alex Kratz

Dart Westphal, president of Mosholu Preservation Corporation and publisher of the Norwood News, was honored by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) at its 2008 Living Legends awards ceremony on Nov. 13. The award was bestowed upon “four individuals who have dedicated their lives to making the Bronx a better and stronger place.” In addition to Westphal, CAB gave the Living Legend Award to Eric Soto, director of Bronx public affairs at Con Edison; Verona Greenland, president and CEO of the Morris Heights Health Center; and Fr. John Grange, longtime pastor of St. Jerome’s Church and current pastor of St. Athanasius Church.

The ceremony was held at CAB’s community center on the Grand Concourse.

The Mount Hope-based CAB, founded in 1972, is the largest settlement house in the Bronx and provides numerous services and programs toward its goal of “improving the economic and social well-being of individuals, families and communities who are most in need.”

Preparing for ‘Messiah’

By Graham Kates

A high note bounces off the considerable walls and ceilings of the sanctuary at the Fordham United Methodist Church, reverberating through the room. It hangs for a beat. Soon, more notes follow and the room comes alive as the familiar sounds of Handel’s “Messiah, Part One,” sung by the church’s choir, animate a local institution whose long history nearly mirrors that of the Bronx itself.

“This place has great acoustics,” says Russell Saint John, the choir’s baritone soloist. “This congregation knows its music,” he adds. “They know what’s good, so we have to keep high standards.”

Saint John, like some of the professional singers who perform with Fordham United Methodist’s choir, has performed at some of the world’s great venues, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, the Berlin Opera and the Amphitheater at Pompeii, Italy.

The church’s Pastor, Reverend Leo W. Curry, beams with pride at the sounds emanating from the sanctuary.

“I like to say we have this here, in the Bronx,” says Curry, “this” being the church’s choir, which is composed of 21 singers from the Bronx and Manhattan. “We’re not the Upper West Side. We’re not on Park Avenue, or in Westchester.”

Founded in 1852, the church on Marion Avenue (just off Fordham Road) has always been outstanding, according to Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx’s official historian.

“From the very beginning, all ethnic groups were welcome [at Fordham United Methodist],” Ultan says.

While today the church has a large community of parishioners, Fordham United Methodist’s beginnings were as humble as they were diverse. Ultan describes the original structure as “resembling a small house.” It was a one-story building with a wooden double-door framed by a window on either side.

With a policy of inclusion, during a decidedly exclusionary time, Ultan says, the church quickly expanded. In 1892, the original wood structure was replaced with “a brand new brick church,” Ultan says.

During the early and middle 20th century, the Bronx grew rapidly, and the Fordham United Methodist Church, grew with it.

In 1967, when the 1897 structure was demolished and the church’s current structure took shape, the congregation benefited from its inclusionary policy, as benefactors with surprising backgrounds lined up to contribute to the new facility.

The church’s pulpit was donated by Dr. Daniel Mantoccio, a Catholic, and the front panel was a contribution of Benjamin Boboff, a Jewish man, Ultan says. “That’s the Bronx way of doing things,” Ultan says. “Everybody helps everybody else.”

Peter Derrick, a historian former parishioner who grew up in the Fordham area, has fond memories of spending his weekends during the 1960s with the church’s youth group. Derrick says the church helped keep him off the streets, and provided a “really nice place to go every week.”

As the century progressed, the church never lost sight of the diversity upon which it was built. “When Hispanics moved into the area, the church opened its doors,” Ultan says. In 1976, Fordham United Methodist introduced Spanish-language services.

In 2001, Curry and the church’s musical director, Dr. John Banks, put together the church’s first performance of “Messiah, Part One,” George Frideric Handel’s most famous oratorio. “Messiah” recalls the birth of Jesus, and is considered an annual staple at most churches during the holiday season. The well-known “Hallelujah” chorus is part of “Messiah.”

Curry says that the well-attended and professional-grade performance not only shows how far Fordham United Methodist has come as a church, but also how far the Bronx has come as a borough.

The performance is a testament “that the Bronx is not a cultural wasteland,” Curry says. “The Bronx is building.”

The 21 members of the choir, many of whom have been singing at this church for several years (some of the soloists are paid by the church), complement each other well. When singers arrive before their weekly rehearsal, they are often greeted with exuberant and spontaneous bursts of singing. Harmony quickly ensues.

Banks, who is also director of performing arts at Briarcliff Manor High School, says the performance attracts not only Bronx residents, but visitors from afar as well. Banks’ parents, for example, make the trek from Washington, D.C., to see the show every year.

The picture of confidence, Banks has no worries about how the choir’s eighth performance of “Messiah, Part One,” will turn out.

“This is always a big draw,” Banks says. “We’re always good.”

Ed. note: This story first appeared in the Norwood News Holiday Guide. The Fordham United Methodist Church Choir will perform Handel’s “Messiah, Part One” on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 4 pm. Suggested donation is $50. For tickets, call (718) 367-9347, or visit the church at 2543 Marion Ave.

Don’t Close Senior Centers

By None

The following letter was addressed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

I am a member of the Mosholu Montefiore Senior Center and would like to express my feelings regarding your plan for senior centers.

Closing these centers to handicapped or not handicapped will be a fatal blow. Those who will be deprived of the privilege of this membership will have no place to go. How will the gap be filled?

There seems to be money for everyone else but seniors. They have no bailout. This attempt to save money will end up costing more money for additional nursing homes, hospitals and institutions.

As a member of my senior center, I have learned to respect those of different color and nationalities. This is an important thing to happen and brings friendship and joy to people.

We bailed out the wealthy but do not have enough money for the elderly. Isn’t that a shame? Seniors vote and they will remember those who helped us.

Kate Cohen

In Support of Animal Shelter

By None

I’m writing to support the animal shelter discussed in your recent cover story (“Library to Be Animal Shelter,” Nov. 13 – 26).  It should be noted that the current Animal Care and Control building in the Bronx is a part-time drop-off site that is only open a few days a week.

There are a number of ways it could prove beneficial to the community, including if the city’s Animal Care and Control continues its program of high schoolers working with animals. Having worked with cats and dogs, professionally as an author for magazines, I know my relationship with dogs and cats has improved my life in a number of avenues, especially appreciating the relationship man has with all forms of life.

Furthermore, an animal shelter can actually illuminate awareness on some of the problems that many of us in the animal field have noticed in the Bronx. Noting there are problems with educating folks on the importance of spay/neuter in order to prevent animal overpopulation, it’s very possible that even folks who object to an animal shelter might have a solution that can help solve the problem.    

There are many abandoned animals roaming the streets of the Bronx. This is caused by people either dumping them in the streets or just leaving them in their homes after they move to new homes. With a shelter here, it will be convenient for people to bring them in with the hopes these animals might find a new home.

Having a shelter in the Bronx will also invite potential adopters from this borough and nearby Westchester.  Westchester residents bring more money into our community.

The location of the animal shelter is also desirable, especially for dog walking. New York City’s Animal Care and Control is on a less traveled street, so dogs there have less of an opportunity to socialize with the community.

And finally, there is the hope that a shelter in the Bronx could provide both jobs and volunteer opportunities for people with administrative, health field, and custodial skills. 

There are many activities in the Bronx, and I for one welcome all of them, including ones that can involve the human-animal bond.

Anne Leighton

Norwood

Espada is People’s Choice

By None

I would like to respond to the letter by Patrick Wynne (Nov. 13 – 26) and his derogatory remarks about State Senator-elect Pedro Espada. In the first place, Espada won a hard-fought election against an entrenched Albany fixture, and campaigned throughout the district and in all neighborhoods. His margin of victory was 20 points. With all due respect to Norwood News editor Jordan Moss, for you to state that his spouse, Margaret Groarke, is more representative of the district when she did not campaign or face the voters, is highly presumptuous and speculative on your part. Pedro Espada is the right person at the right time for the job.

Jorge Rivera

Bedford Park

Support Community News

By Norwood News

Nonprofit radio and TV stations, like NPR and PBS, can commandeer the airwaves to prevail upon its listeners and viewers to make contributions to ensure continued broadcasting. Membership drives pre-empt portions of the news and other quality programming for a week at a time or more.

Well, we’re a nonprofit, too, and while we don’t have airwaves, we do have newsprint (and Web pages). And, as you can see, we’re using some of it to invite you to think about the value of the newspaper you hold in your hands as well as our other efforts to bring hyper-local news to your fellow Bronxites in other neighborhoods as well.

With your help, we can create an innovative Network of nonprofit Bronx media that will strengthen existing papers like the Norwood News and Mount Hope Monitor, and eventually leave no neighborhood uncovered. We’re calling it the Campaign for Bronx News Network. We need your help to win this campaign, so please take a look at our letter to readers on p. 3 and send us a contribution today.

Think of what your community would be without the Norwood News.  Many Bronx neighborhoods are in that position.

No news.

Here’s what it looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, we don’t like it either.

So help us build a groundbreaking news network from the ground up by sending a contribution for whatever you can afford to: Campaign for a Bronx News Network, c/o Norwood News, 3400 Reservoir Oval East, Bronx, NY 10467.

Report Details Reasons for Principal’s Removal

By Alex Kratz

In July of 2007, former PS/MS 280 Principal Gary LaMotta quietly retired from the city’s Department of Education (DOE) amid accusations that were never fully disclosed to the school or the public in general.  

However, the Norwood News recently obtained a copy of the top school investigator’s findings through a Freedom of Information Law request filed with the DOE. Its contents, portions of which were redacted (“to avoid the unwarranted invasion of privacy,” according to the DOE), tell the story of a successful educator whose alleged abuse of authority led to his removal.

LaMotta, whose Norwood school routinely scored, and still scores, higher on standardized tests than other local schools, was abruptly reassigned on Feb. 5, 2007 to the Region One office pending an internal investigation into what DOE officials characterized as allegations of inappropriate behavior and personal misconduct.

DOE officials at the time said the results of the investigation would be made public as soon as it was completed. But LaMotta’s retirement in July put an end to the investigation because he was no longer considered a DOE employee, said DOE spokesperson Marge Feinberg, and the findings were never released.

Meanwhile, rumors about the circumstances surrounding LaMotta’s removal continued to circulate.  

According to the report filed by Richard Condon, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, an investigation was launched following a conversation between LaMotta and Joel DiBartolomeo, then a Local Instructional Superintendant or “LIS,” on Feb. 8, 2006. Months earlier, in the fall of 2005, LaMotta had appointed a female employee (known as “Employee A” in the report) to be a permanent assistant principal at PS/MS 280. But he was having second thoughts and considered rescinding her appointment, he told DiBartolomeo.

DiBartolomeo discussed the situation with Employee A, and “came to believe that the relationship between LaMotta and Employee A extended beyond that of a friendship,” the report says. DiBartolomeo then “advised Employee A that what she was describing could be characterized as sexual harassment and that she was within her rights to file appropriate charges,” according to the report.

When DiBartolomeo told LaMotta the situation was being investigated, the principal said he’d already signed a letter that approved her for the assistant principal position, indicating that he thought the situation was resolved. But the investigation was already in motion.

And, according to the report, on Feb. 8, 2006, the day LaMotta first spoke with DiBartolomeo, Employee A received a letter from LaMotta saying he was “no longer satisfied with her job performance” and that he was going to speak with his supervisors about the assistant principal job.

Employee A told investigators she had engaged in an affair with LaMotta from 2003 to 2005. She said the relationship ended sometime in 2005. During the 2005-2006 school year, after the relationship had ended, Employee A said LaMotta began to harass her and asked her to either resign or transfer. She refused to do so.

Another unnamed employee at the school corroborated much of what Employee A told investigators and said at least 30 PS/MS 280 faculty members had expressed their belief that LaMotta and Employee A were “having an inappropriate sexual relationship.”

Employee A also provided a taped conversation from February 2006 that confirmed three things for investigators: that “there was an inappropriate intimate relationship between LaMotta and Employee A”; that LaMotta had made decisions based upon personal biases, rather than “objective, professional standards”; and that LaMotta had an interest in Employee A’s personal relationships.

Twice in the spring of 2006, LaMotta denied to investigators that he had had an intimate relationship with Employee A and said they had never met in a social setting outside of school functions. He said their telephone conversations were strictly school related.

During the course of the investigation, however, new allegations emerged. One female employee, referred to as “Employee B” in the report, said LaMotta repeatedly propositioned her, touched her inappropriately and made lewd comments.

Another PS/MS 280 female employee stepped forward to say LaMotta had made inappropriate sexual advances toward her that eventually caused her to quit.

Reached by phone at his home this week, LaMotta said he had not seen the investigator’s report and couldn’t comment on its findings. When asked if he attempted to have Employee A’s assistant principal appointment halted, he said he “didn’t try to deny anybody anything.” He wouldn’t comment on whether he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with any employees at his former school and said he retired because he was four years past retirement age at the time.

LaMotta, who became principal at the school in 1991, hired a lawyer shortly after his removal in 2007. When investigators attempted to interview LaMotta about the other allegations later in the spring of 2007, he refused, on advice from his lawyers. On June 25, 2007, LaMotta e-mailed his resignation to superiors.

Feinberg said LaMotta is officially retired and that his name has been placed on an “ineligible” list, meaning he can no longer work for the DOE.

Senior Centers, Libraries Combine Efforts

By Jorge Manana

Bronx senior centers have joined local libraries in a collaboration that will allow centers to use their local libraries to further enrich programming for seniors through activities, book clubs, and even video games.

“It’s awesome,” said Qiawni Micou, a social worker with the Mosholu Montefiore Senior Center in Norwood. “Seniors want to be active so anything to get them out and with the community is great.”

The New York Public Library (NYPL), the Department for the Aging (DFTA) and Bronx senior center directors all gathered earlier this fall for a meeting at the Bronx Library Center on East Kingsbridge Road to discuss this collaboration.

“By 2030, older New Yorkers will constitute 20 percent of the population and baby boomers will outnumber school-aged children for the first time ever,” said Caryn Resnick, a DFTA deputy commissioner. “The seniors of today will want different services than the seniors of tomorrow.”

Resnick said that the primary goal for DFTA and senior centers citywide is identifying solutions that will result in older generations remaining active in the community. The Bronx has emerged as “the lab” in which they have started this approach.

One innovative approach mentioned in the meeting was the introduction of Nintendo Wii video game systems to senior centers citywide.

The Wii system, known for its interactive game play, allows users to mimic various movements as if they were doing the actual activity. Rather than pressing a button to swing the baseball bat, for example, the gamer takes the remote and performs a full swing as if they were holding a real bat. This makes game play with the system a form of physical exercise. The ability to simulate bowling, baseball and tennis are just a few activities the system allows seniors to do.

The DFTA and the NYPL will continue discussions on their collaboration in the coming months, but already the two agencies recently began library card drives in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. David Ferriero of the New York Public Library stated that the NYPL had since registered 521 new seniors.

 

Workshop Highlights Bronx Fight to Save Homes

By Chloe Tribich

Patricia Carron of Morris Park was one of more than 100 distressed homeowners who attended a foreclosure prevention workshop at Lehman College on Nov. 15 hoping to get help. Her monthly mortgage payments have increased from $1,900 to $3,300 in two years, and now she’s worried that she and her 7-year-old daughter could become homeless.

“I had no idea [the monthly payments] would go up like that,” Carron said. “Otherwise I would not have done it. I just want to keep my home.”

By 11 a.m. on that rainy Saturday morning, the college’s Music Room was already packed with nearly 100 homeowners waiting to speak to housing counselors. Some were days away from losing their homes. Others had not yet missed payments, but were there to prevent trouble.

Gracie Watson from Wakefield wanted to renegotiate her interest rate from 8.5 percent down to 7 percent. She is not yet behind on payments, but spends 52 percent of her income on her mortgage. With her husband undergoing chemotherapy, she fears she can’t hold out much longer.

“I want to take care of it now,” she said. “I’m hoping they can work with us.” Several days later, she had not heard her lender’s final decision, but remained optimistic. “I think it will work out,” she said.

The office of the New York City Comptroller, which hosted the event, counted 133 attendees over the course of the day. “We will continue to monitor the progress of these cases to ensure homeowners are afforded every option possible,” said Comptroller Bill Thompson, who hosted a similar event in Queens and will host another in Brooklyn on Dec. 6.

Bronx homeowners have seen their share of hardship. According to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU, the borough’s homeowners have the highest proportion of foreclosures. Out of every 1,000 Bronx homes, 18 have been hit with foreclosure, compared to 16 in Brooklyn and 5.9 in Manhattan.

Under pressure from advocates and grassroots groups, New York State passed a foreclosure prevention bill over the summer. And some banks say they have implemented practices designed to avert foreclosures.

“We’ve helped over 650,000 borrowers [nationwide] keep their home through a whole variety of measures,” said Chase spokesman Mike Fusco. The measures range from proactive homeowner outreach to providing more foreclosure prevention counselors to implementing an independent review process to head off what the bank calls “unnecessary foreclosures.”

Oscar Morillo, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) in the north Bronx, remains skeptical. “The new laws and programs will be helpful,” he said, “but the solution to this problem is to restructure the loan according to household income.” Morillo estimated that only 15 to 20 percent of NHS clients have been able to get their loans modified to fit their income.

Oda Friedheim of New York’s Legal Aid Society cautioned that homeowners in trouble should obtain legal help if possible, partly because “most servicers fail to do appropriate and timely loan modifications, and when granted, modifications are often unaffordable.”

Most experts agree that the peak of the local foreclosure crisis has passed, but it still remains a serious threat. Data compiled by University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP), a local nonprofit research and advocacy group, shows that foreclosures in the northwest Bronx reached a high of 74 during the third quarter of 2007. For the third quarter of 2008, they counted 64.

The future, though, remains uncertain. “We’ve probably seen the peak in terms of bad loan making [which caused much of the crisis], but rising unemployment could worsen the rate of foreclosure,” said Gregory Lobo Jost of UNHP. The Bureau for Labor Statistics reported that in September 2008, the Bronx’s unemployment rate was 7.7 percent. Manhattan’s was 5.1 percent.

Another negative side-effect of foreclosure problems could be banks’ unwillingness to lend to deserving borrowers from poor neighborhoods of color. A recent Furman Center report said that prime loans to black and Hispanic borrowers decreased by 23 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from 2006 to 2007, yet prime loans to white and Asian borrowers increased by 4 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

As the economy continues its downward slide, Jost points out that more local job losses could exacerbate the effects of foreclosures and credit tightening. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “No one knows how bad it will get.”

Bedford Park Murder

By Alex Kratz

Last week, a 39-year-old Hispanic male was shot to death in Bedford Park.

Police received a call for an unconscious male at Pond Place and 198th Street at 3:02 a.m. on Nov. 17. Police discovered the man shot once in the stomach. Medics took him to St. Barnabas where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

It was the first murder in the 52nd Precinct since September.

Police said the victim had 26 prior arrests on his record and that the murder may have been drug related. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

Precinct Council Recognizes Cops and Community

By Alex Kratz

Earlier this year, police officers Carlos Pacheco and Nelfori Ortiz, were working the nightshift in the 52nd Precinct when they received a call from dispatchers saying there had been a robbery in Sector George, a rough area north of Fordham Road and to the east of the Grand Concourse.

Be warned, the dispatcher said, the suspect is considered armed and dangerous.

Pacheco and Ortiz spotted a man running with a gun near 193rd Street and Valentine Avenue. They got out of their patrol car and gave chase on foot.

At some point, the suspect tossed his gun to the side, but the officers continued to give chase, eventually tackling him from behind, and arresting him.

Turns out, the suspect had discarded a high-powered “assault pistol” called an Intratec TEC-DC9, but known on the street simply as a “TEC-9,” loaded with 24 bullets.

Deputy Inspector James Alles, the commanding officer of the Five-Two, recounted this story at the 52nd Precinct Council’s annual breakfast two weeks ago. He then handed each officer a plaque and took a picture with them.

Alles repeated the ritual for eight other officers who either made big busts like Pacheco and Ortiz, or achieved new status, like Kevin Maloney, a longtime Five-Two officer who recently became a lieutenant and now works in Harlem.

Other officers receiving awards included: Erick Acevedo, Dominic Robinson, Michelle Diaz, Steven Irizarry, James Arneth, Thomas Maroney and Joseph Petrillo.

The breakfast is the one time of year the precinct recognizes the good work of its police officers, Alles said. Unfortunately, he added, the only other time New York City police officers usually receive official recognition is when they’ve been injured or killed in the line of duty.

Those are somber occasions. This was a festive affair and it also included civilian awards.

Deputy Inspector David Wong of the 52nd Precinct’s auxiliary force and receptionist Cheryl Hoyte, who you’ve met if you’ve ever walked into the precinct’s historic headquarters on Webster Avenue, both received awards for their service to the precinct. Longtime precinct council stalwart Corinna Casiano-Torres received a much-deserved award as well.

Activist Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter and Roberto Garcia, director of the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District, received awards for their work in association with the precinct.

The most touching moment came when Anthony Miller, 16, a Bronx high school student and a member of the NYPD Explorers youth unit, received an award and a donation for his football team, which is trying to raise money for a trip to Florida. (Garcia and a representative from Montefiore Medical Center each spontaneously ponied up $100 for Anthony’s trip.)

Anthony’s mother, Sonya, cried with pride and joy during the brief ceremony while snapping photos with a digital camera. “Words cannot describe how this feels,” she said. “It’s tough out there with all the problems going on. But all the years of worrying and trying to keep him off the street were worth it because of today.”

Public and Community Meetings

By None

•    The Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will not meet in December. The next meeting will be in January. For more information, call (718) 231-8470.

•    Community Board 7 will meet on Tuesday, Dec. 16. Time and location to be determined. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    The 52nd Precinct Community Council will meet on Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the New York Botanical Garden. Special guest speakers will include Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and Chief Thomas Purtell of Patrol Borough Bronx. For more information, call (718) 220-5824.

•    The Bedford Mosholu Community Association Meeting will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. at 400 E. Mosholu Pkwy. So. (Apt. B1 – Lobby Floor).

Join Your Community Board

By Norwood News

Borough President Adolfo Carrion encourages Bronx residents to join their local community board. The office of the Bronx borough president will be accepting applications from residents of all 12 community boards in the bronx. To receive an application or for more information, contact the borough president’s community board office at (718) 590-3914 or visit bronxboropres.nyc.gov. You can also call Community Board 7 at (718) 933-5650.

EBT Cards Being Used at Greenmarkets

By Norwood News

The City Council recently released a report highlighting the success of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card scanners at Greenmarkets throughout the city. Council leaders held up the system’s success at Poe Park as a prime example of how well it’s working.

In 2000, EBT cards replaced food stamps in New York City, making it impossible for people on food stamps to buy goods at farmers markets. But in 2006, the council allocated funds to provide EBT scanners at four Greenmarkets throughout the city, including Poe Park.

EBT sales of fresh food at Greenmarkets exploded this year, doubling sales figures compared to a year ago. This year, Poe Park recorded the highest one day total of any EBT station to date, compiling $2,700 in fruit and vegetable sales.

“Because of the success of this program, we are getting this produce to people that need it and we’re helping our local farmers,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Council member Joel Rivera, chair of the health committee, said Greenmarkets are helping close that nutrition gap that exists in New York City. “Now anyone who wishes to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables, even if all they have are food stamps, can do so at most green markets; and clearly people are taking advantage of it,” he said.

Heastie Ruled Bronx Democratic Party Leader

By Jordan Moss

A State Supreme Court Judge ruled Tuesday in favor of the elected officials challenging Assemblyman Jose Rivera for control of the Bronx Democratic Party.

Barring any additional legal developments — an appeal is possible — Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who was supported by a diverse group of Bronx elected officials will lead the party.

The court case centered on the raucous events of Sept. 28 at the Utopia Paradise Theatre, where both factions held meetings.

Each group’s meeting was challenged as illegitimate by the other.

However, the Rainbow Rebels, as Heastie’s insurgent faction has been dubbed, appeared to have covered their bases by making their supporters sign official registration books provided by the Board of Elections, following meeting rules and employing a stenographer to record the proceedings. The Rebels conducted their meeting following a hastily-staged meeting led by Council Member Maria Baez and other Rivera supporters.

With a week of testimony and expert witnesses from both sides to guide him, Justice Robert G. Seewald wrote in his decision: “… [T]he court finds that the organizational meeting conducted by Heastie as Chair was valid. Heastie’s actions are found to be reasonable under the circumstances and were in accordance with the rules of the Bronx Democratic Party and Robert’s Rules of Order. Heastie acted in a manner to safeguard and not to abridge the voting rights of the County Committee members who came to the Theater to vote.

The Norwood News will report on the decision, which we received at press time, in greater detail in our next issue and on the West Bronx Blog (westbronxnews.blogpsot.com) in the coming days. 

VC Park Paths on Trail of Revival

By Falon Perez

On a cold Thursday morning last week, Christina Taylor, the executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, spread her arms wide as if to encompass one of the biggest parks in New York City, and told the gathered crowd, “This is my office.”

Taylor went on to explain that, with the help of a $57,500 grant from the Booth Ferris Foundation, her “office” would be getting a much needed makeover.

With that money, the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park (FVCP), a non-profit organization founded in 1992, has hired the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference to study trail renovation needs in the park, which at 1,146 square acres is the city’s fourth largest.

“Once we have the plan, then we can start the process of restoring the trails,” Taylor said. “A lot of work can be done with our current staff and volunteers.”

She added that the work would probably begin in the summer, when the Friends will hire 30 teens who have previously volunteered or interned with the organization with funding from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The main trail work will be done in the Northwest Forest, including The Cass Gallagher Nature Trail and the John Muir Nature Trail, which stretches from the northwest side of the park to the northeast side, ending at the Van Cortlandt Park East entrance.

Also needing attention are the south side trails of the park, including part of the John Kieran Nature Trail on the southwest side near Van Cortlandt Lake, and part of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail on the southeast side, close to the new water filtration plant being built along Jerome Avenue.

 “I do not know how long this project will take to be completed, but when it is done the park will be greatly improved,” Taylor said. “The park will hopefully connect different communities and be a place where people can be safe and enjoy nature.”

Due to flooding, the trails, even the newest ones, have begun to deteriorate at an alarming rate, Taylor said. Each year, the park also hosts approximately 2.5 million visitors, another main cause of erosion.

When visitors come and walk the trails, their foot indentations accumulate water, which accelerates the erosion process. Also, due to erosion, the trails have begun to sink in, exposing more rocks.

“This rock looks like it has grown to me,” said Taylor, during a brief trail tour for media. “But I know it is [actually] because of erosion that the soil is going down.”

One of the ways the park is looking to sustain trail maintenance and prevent erosion is by creating a stone step system on the inclines, Taylor said.

Erosion, however, is not the only problem that the park is facing.

Litter and some unruly plants in the park also contribute to cluttered trails.

Since the park has three main highways running along or through it, litter accumulates in the park’s trails.

Some unwelcome plants, such as Mugwort, Japanese Knotweed and Wineberry also clog trails. These plants spread quickly and are a significant threat to the natural ecosystem of the forest, Taylor said.

But with a bevy of interns, grants from Booth Ferris and the EPA, and research from the NY/NJ Trail Conference, the Friends are on their way to restoring and maintaining the park’s magnificent trails.

Taylor has one last item on her wish list, however: funding to hire a trail manager to oversee the restoration.

Ed. note: If you want to help the Friends achieve their goals, visit www.vancortlandt.org or call them at (718) 601-1553.

Modernization’ Plan Could Shut Senior Centers

By Peter Mullin

It’s lunchtime on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and a 100-plus-pound bird sits in the oven. Outside, the dining hall is packed with more than just the usual faces. “We have so much here to be thankful for,” says Lillian Flachofsky, a regular at the Sister Annunciata Bethel Senior Center in Bedford Park. “I’d really miss the center if they closed it. It’s like a family to me.”

But as the November holiday comes to pass, the future of the Bedford Park senior center, and others in the area, is uncertain. Backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, the plan proposed by the Department for the Aging (DFTA) to “modernize” the way the city organizes its senior center budgeting could result in closures of up to 90 centers citywide, a loss of more than a quarter of the city’s 329 centers.

The new plan calls for all senior centers to be divided into two categories: smaller neighborhood centers and larger senior hubs. Neighborhood centers are expected to serve 75 meals a day and offer three daily activity options, all on a yearly budget of $500,000. Hubs will receive twice as much in funding, but with the requirement that they provide 200 meals each day and offer six activity options.

Aside from Bedford Park, which serves, on average, 75 meals to seniors per day, two other senior centers are located within Community District 7, the Tolentine Zeiser Senior Center in University Heights, which serves 70 meals a day, and the Mosholu Montefiore Senior Center in Norwood, which serves 95 meals a day.

At a minimum, the DFTA says it anticipates funding 225 neighborhood centers and 15 hubs.

Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz sees only one possible outcome from the city’s plan. “There’s going to be a whole lot less senior centers,” he said. “The budget of every single center is going to be slashed or cut and that means fewer services for seniors.”

DFTA says it needs to modernize because 44 percent of all the city’s senior centers are underutilized. This statistic is mostly based on how many meals each center serves. Some 25,000 people regularly use the city’s senior centers. Only two percent of the more than 1.3 million seniors living in the city take advantage of the meals offered at centers, according to the DFTA. Last year, eight million meals were served, or one million less than was budgeted for.

“If indeed there are centers that are underutilized, take steps to encourage the use of those centers,” Dinowitz said. “We want to encourage people to go to centers.”

Under the new plan, the process in which the DFTA will award new contracts will require centers to complete a Request for Proposals (RFP) and submit it to the agency by Jan. 23. In each RFP, centers will apply for one of the two proposed categories and outline the scope of the services they will provide to seniors.

To help facilitate the RFP process, a bidder’s conference is scheduled for Dec. 2. The conference is intended to provide bidders (senior centers) with an opportunity to increase networking and the exchange of information.

But coupled with the worsening economic climate, the RFP has everyone involved in senior centers worried about what the future holds for an ever-increasing elderly population.

“They’re all very nervous,” said Councilman Oliver Koppell, referring to the local senior center directors he recently hosted at his office. The prospect of reduced funding is “a very serious problem,” he said.

“The reorganization has created great uncertainty as to what direction the delivery of senior services will take, and whether some senior centers will be forced to close,” Koppell said in an earlier statement. “Balancing the budget on the backs of seniors is unconscionable.”

Bobbie Sackman, the director of public policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services of NYC, wants the RFP rescinded by the city. Believing “the whole process is flawed,” especially the timing, Sackman argued that there should be no rush to conclude any reorganization process. “We’re just saying to [the city] ‘step back and take a deep breath,’” she added.

While Sackman and City Council members work on a plan to prevent the closures of senior centers throughout the city, Flachofsky has already started work on keeping her beloved senior center open and operating. She’s praying.

Flachofsky, who has frequented the Bedford Park Senior Center almost daily for two years, credits the center for keeping her active. In 2000, when her twin sister passed away, Flachofsky became reclusive and suffered from depression.

“At first I didn’t want to come here, but I’m glad I did,” she said. “I pray they keep it open. If you lose this place, it’d be a hurt to a lot of us. It would really be a heartbreak.”

Room for Improvement

By Alex Kratz

Local students who hoped the city’s new school construction plan would alleviate their overcrowding problems may not see any relief until after they graduate.

The Department of Education’s (DOE) latest Five-Year Capital Plan for the years 2010 to 2014, released three weeks ago, calls for the creation of only two new schools in District 10, the third most crowded school district in New York City.

The new plan, which the DOE says was contracted due to budget restrictions, does not include any high schools for the Bronx.

It calls for the creation of 25,000 school seats (a little more than 3,000 in the Bronx). But 8,000 of those seats were rolled over from the previous (FY 2005-2009) plan because construction had not yet begun.

The plan does not specify locations, but it does identify two general areas in need of overcrowding relief — one in Riverdale, and one in the Kingsbridge/Norwood/Bedford Park neighborhoods — where it says the schools will be built. Construction should begin in 2012.  

It will include a middle school and an elementary school for a total of 1,154 additional seats for students in the district.

But that number is deceiving.

In fact, only 399 seats of additional capacity were included for District 10 this time around because 755 seats were rolled over from the previous capital plan.

The previous plan (FY 2005-2009), which the city hailed as its biggest capital plan ever, called for 4,000 new seats in District 10. But 1,500 of those seats were eliminated after a 2006 amendment cited declining local enrollment in the area, leaving a total of 2,500 seats.  

Local students, politicians and education activists cried foul when the seats were cut in 2006 and have lobbied hard since then to have the seats restored as well as the inclusion of additional new seats in the new capital plan.

They say 399 new seats are not nearly enough.

“To do all that work, and to not see them build any high schools in the Bronx is demoralizing,” said local activist Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, whose daughter attends school on the Kennedy High School campus in District 10. “My daughter’s now a senior. This year, they lost the dance program because they lost more space [that needed to be used for regular classrooms due to overcrowding].”  

Pilgrim-Hunter doesn’t buy the DOE’s story about budget woes. “We’ve been fighting for this since long before the current financial crisis,” she said.

Recent high school graduate Jattna Ramirez, 18, who now works as an education organizer for the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, said she spent four years at Bronx International High School (in District 10) periodically taking classes in hallways or leaky portables because there wasn’t enough space.

“And even if we wanted to, we couldn’t take advanced classes,” she said about her high school experience. As for the new plan, she said, “We got two new schools for District 10. It will help, but it’s not enough and we need more.”

Council Member Oliver Koppell, who represents a sizable chunk of District 10, was similarly disappointed.

“While I welcome the acknowledgment by the DOE that additional capacity is necessary in District 10, an argument that many of us have been making for a long time, the addition of two new schools is not enough to relieve severe overcrowding in the District,” Koppell said in a statement.

Bedford Park elementary school PS 8 is a shining example of the district’s overcrowding as 1,147 students are currently crammed into a building with an 800-student capacity. Norwood’s PS 56 is similarly cramped, housing 593 students in facilities designed for 475.  

Marge Feinberg, a spokesperson for the DOE, said in an e-mail: “We are making great strides towards alleviating overcrowding with the current plan.” She added, “More work is needed as indicated by the 1,154 new seats proposed in the new plan [for District 10].”

Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit advocate for smaller class sizes, said that if the DOE is serious about reducing class size, it would need to provide seven times as many new seats as was proposed in the new plan (or a total of 160,000 new seats), according the Department’s own class size goals. Haimson said the lack of high schools, especially in the Bronx where she estimates 16,000 new seats are needed, is glaringly unacceptable.

“The new proposed capital plan is breathtakingly inadequate,” Haimson said in a statement. “The administration clearly does not care enough about providing our students with a decent education, from the evidence provided in this plan.”

Marvin Shelton, a parent and president of the District 10 Community Education Council, said he’s afraid it might be “a case of too little and too late” for many local students. 

In Reversal, Filter Plant Meetings Will Be Open

By Gary Pang

Reversing a previous position, the members of a committee monitoring the construction of the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park have decided to open the meetings to the public.

The public will be permitted to attend, though not to speak, at meetings of the Facility Monitoring Committee, which consists of members and appointees of the three affected community districts and Councilman Oliver Koppell.

There have been two meetings of the committee thus far, one in March and one in April. While Community Board 7 chair Nora Feury originally supported keeping the meetings closed, the Board voted unanimously to support opening the meetings. Feury then took that recommendation to the Committee on April 7.

Saul Sheinbach, a representative of Community Board 8 on the Committee who raised the issue, also supported the change. “As long as these meetings are kept closed, the public is going to think we’re doing secret things there that we don’t want them to know about,” he said.

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) agreed to the change. “The decision is that they’re going to open up future meetings to the public,” said Charles Sturcken, a DEP spokesman. “They can listen and observe.”

Sheinbach said the Committee was going to try to have the meetings in the evening, so residents would better be able to attend.

Sturcken said there were also plans afoot to have a meeting soon where the public could ask questions of the DEP.

The Committee will not have a regular meeting in May, but will instead tour the construction site.

Future meetings will not necessarily take place on a monthly basis, as they have thus far, but only when new stages of construction warrant discussion. The Committee must meet four times a year.

Neighborhood Notes

By None

‘Save Your Home’ Workshop

In an effort to help residents of the Bronx remain in their homes and prevent foreclosure, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. will host his “Save Our Homes” initiative at Lehman College, Music Room, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, on Saturday, November 15th from 10 AM – 3PM.

The free event will provide homeowners with the opportunity to meet with financial servicers and learn ways to avoid foreclosure.

Place for Teens With Problems

Power Project is a free program for teens 12 to 18 who are dealing with substance abuse and other problems.. Power Project, 3464 Webster Ave., provides case management, individual and group counseling, trips, or just a place to get away from it all. For more information, call (718) 515-7971.

Preschool New Enrollment

The Mosholu Montefiore Community Center now has more space available for childcare. There are new classrooms for 2- to 4-year-olds at the center, located on the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Gun Hill Road. For more information, call (718) 882-4000.

Toy and Gift Drive

JE & ZB Butler Child Advocacy Center is having a toy and gift drive for infants to teenagers. The center is asking for donations of new toys and gifts for the children to be brought to the Center at 3314 Steuben Ave., no later than Dec. 3. For more information, contact Lois Pearlman at (718) 920-7584 or lpearlma@montefiore.org.

Body, Mind and Spirit

Methodist Church Home is providing a free workshop called “Staying Healthy in Body, Mind and Spirit,” given by Dr. Solomon Reuben on Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The workshop’s aim is to help individuals with nutrition, exercise, emotional/psychological growth, stress management, relaxation/meditation and spirituality. The Methodist Church is located at 4499 Manhattan College Parkway. Reservations must be made for this workshop. To make reservations or for more information, call (718) 548-5100 ext. 231.

Speech Program at Ursula  

The Mt. St. Ursula Speech Center, 2885 Marion Ave., is now accepting applications for its fall program. The center has openings for children ages 2 to 5 who are in need of speech and language services. Medicaid and other insurances accepted. For more information, call (718) 584-7679.

Teen Center

The Boys and Girls Club of Mosholu Montefiore Community Center at the Fort Independence Houses announced that memberships are being accepted for the fall Teen Center program for boys and girls ages 12 to 16. The center is open Monday through Friday nights from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and offers a variety of teen activities. For more information and/or registration, call Israel Rosario at (646) 358-6096.

Free After-School Program

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center is accepting applications for its free Fort Independence Site after-school program, which serves kids in kindergarten through sixth grade, Monday through Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. The program offers a variety of activities. For more information, call Israel Rosario, (646) 358-6096.   

Learn the Internet

St. James Recreation Center at 2530 Jerome Ave. offers free classes in Microsoft Office, Resume/Cover Letter Writing, Computer Basics, and much more. For more information, call Justin Young at (718) 367-3659.

Adult ESL and Computer Classes

PS 94 on Kings College Place will offer ESL levels 1 and 2 and Computer Skills classes through summer 2009. Both classes meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Computer classes will be taught in English and will include lessons on keyboarding, Microsoft Word and other programs. Registration is first-come, first-served. For more information, call Ms. Seminario, the parent coordinator, at (347) 563-4772 or (718) 405-6345.

Alzheimer’s Support Group

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

Seeking Artists for Aging Project

The Bronx Council on the Arts is seeking artists who are interested in exploring the link between creative expression and the quality of life of older people. BCA is offering unique opportunities in the field of Creative Aging. If interested, send resume and letter of interest to Ed Friedman, Bronx Council on the Arts, 1738 Hone Ave., Bronx, NY 10461 or email: info@bronxarts.org.

English Classes

The New York Public Library is offering free classes in English for speakers of other languages at the Bronx Library Center, 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. (off Fordham Road). For more information on other locations, call the Library’s Office of Community Outreach Services at (212) 340-0918 or visit www.nypl.org/calendar.esol.html.

Quality of Life Screening

The Psychosocial Oncology Program of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center is conducting a survey study in order to learn about the physical and emotional stresses faced by cancer survivors. Participants will have to fill out questionnaires and have the opportunity to participate in free/low-cost programs and support services within the program. For more information, call (718) 430-2380.

Breast Oncology Program

The Breast Oncology Living Daily Program also known as BOLD Living, offers a variety of free educational, support, and mind-body workshops. They are designed to empower and nurture breast cancer patients, survivors, and loved ones, but are open to all. For more information or to register, call (718) 430-3613 or visit outreach@aecom.yu.edu.

After School Child Care

Registration is now taking place for the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center’s after-school childcare programs at 3450 DeKalb Ave., for children in kindergarten through 6th grade. The Discovery Club is offering staff escort from PS 94, PS 280, St. Ann’s, MS 80 and van service from PS 8, PS 94 Annex, PS 56 and 56 Annex, St. Brendan’s, St. Philip Neri, PS 41, Visitation, and PS 95. For complete information or to register, call Ruth Moore weekdays at (718) 944-3207.

Karate Classes at MMCC

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, located on Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue, will be offering a wide selection of Karate classes for elementary school students, teens, and adults starting in the next few weeks. The classes are offered for all levels on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Classes are affordable and discounts are available. To register or for more information, call Luis Morales weekdays at (718) 944-3290 or MMCC at (718) 882-4000 ext. 0.

Free GED and Business Courses

The State University of New York’s North Bronx Career Center located at 3950 Laconia Ave., at East 224th Street, is now accepting applications for the fall semester. Classes offered are GED Prep and basic to advanced MOS Certification Computer classes, free training in Business Office Technology (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Job Readiness (Resume, Cover Letter, Interview Skills) and Pre-Certification Training in various careers (Child Care, Security and more). All students wishing to apply must meet state income and academic guidelines. This is an HRA-approved program. Classes began in September. To begin the application process or for more information, call (718) 547-1001.

Aphasia Clinic Accepting Clients

The Lehman College Speech and Hearing Center, which provides therapy on a sliding scale payment schedule, is now accepting new clients in its recently expanded aphasia clinic. The clinic will provide individual and group therapy sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 1 p.m. and 2 to 3 p.m.; group therapy sessions also take place on Tuesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. Diagnostic and therapeutic sessions will be supervised by faculty members who are licensed by the NYS Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and certified by ASHA (American Speech Language Hearing Association). For more information, call Wanda Adams at (718) 960-8138.

Bronx Forum Panel Discussions

The Bronx Forum will be holding panel discussions on “Youth & Public Safety: Keeping Our Children Safe” on Dec. 9 and a “Youth & Education: Keeping Our Children on the Track for Success” on January 13 of next year. For more information, call Monica Merlis at (212) 983-4804.

Epilepsy Seminars

A series of free epilepsy seminars will be held the second Wednesday of every month: Nov. 12 from 3 to 4 p.m. “Epilepsy in the Classroom”; Dec. 10 from 3 to 4 p.m., “EEG Testing: Procedure & Outcomes.” The seminars will be held at the Northeast Regional Epilepsy Group; Medical Pavilion, 4256-1 Bronx Blvd. For more information, contact Dawn Brace at (718) 654-6184 or dbrace@epilepsygroup.com.

Free Civics Classes

Prepare for the U.S. Citizenship Exam. Classes are free and limited to 20 people. Those interested must register in person and be able to speak English at an intermediate or higher level. Register at the Mosholu Library at 285 E. 205th St. (near Perry Avenue). There are classes on Saturdays, Nov. 1 and Nov. 8. For more information, call (718) 882-8239.

Computer and Job Classes

From November 10 to Dec. 11 Bronx Community College’s Displaced Homemaker Program is offering a beginner/intermediate level computer class with job readiness workshops and job placement assistance. Classes will be held at Bronx Community College on West 181st Street and University Avenue on Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.   

 

Kidney Disease Pioneer Honored

By Falon Perez

Bronxite and former Montefiore Medical Center physician Dr. Ira Greifer (pictured with wife Carol) has worked for over 50 years to improve upon national and international efforts to help patients suffering from kidney disease. Greifer, known as the “father” of Pediatric Nephrology worldwide, has championed the causes of children and those who cannot afford the necessary care through both medical and legislative accomplishments. On Oct. 30, he received the 2008 NephCure Lifetime Achievement Award from the NephCure Foundation. Greifer, who is married and the father of three grown daughters, stepped down in 1998 as the director of the Ira Greifer Children’s Kidney Center at  Montefiore. (Photo courtesy the NephCure Foundation.)

Microsoft Exec Tells Kids to Remember Roots

By Falon Perez

On a Friday last month, Microsoft executive John O’Sullivan led MS 80 as Principal for a Day for the sixth straight year. O’Sullivan not only got to be in charge again, he continued to learn more about the school and explored ways to improve it.

O’Sullivan grew up in Norwood around MS 80 on Decatur Avenue. He went to Mount St. Michael’s Academy for high school, then graduated from Manhattan College. O’Sullivan is now a sales account executive for Microsoft advertising.

He comes back to MS 80 every year to help the school and make a point.

“You don’t have to cut your ties with your community to make something of yourself,” O’Sullivan says. “[Students] need to remember where they came from and help their community.”

PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning), a non-profit organization, established the Principal for a Day program in 1995. Each year PENCIL gathers together business leaders from the five boroughs to involve them in public schools, gain firsthand knowledge of their problems and come up with solutions to help them.

O’Sullivan comes to MS 80 and sees problems that still need to be addressed.

“We have to fix the gang issue around here and protect the students,” O’Sullivan says.

O’Sullivan says he tells students to think out of the box and do something that is important to them. He thinks some of it might be sinking in.

 “I am amazed at what these kids remember from the last time I was here,” O’Sullivan says. “It means something.”

Out & About

By Judy Noy

Onstage

 

• The Bronx Library Center, located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road, presents Bangladeshi Music and Dance on Nov. 15 at 2:30 p.m. and the Orlando Marin Quartet on Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 579-4244/46.

 

• The Lehman Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, located at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W., presents the New York City Opera performing “Looking Forward,” a concert of music by 20th century greats, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. (tickets are $25); Parranda Navideña, a Latino musical Christmas celebration featuring a variety of performers, including Yomo Toro, José Miguel Class “El Gallito de Manati,” and Odilio Gonzalez, on Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. (tickets are $20 to $45); and Ray Castro’s Conjunto Clasico 30th Anniversary Concert. This Latin salsa band will feature many artists, and special invited guest, Johnny Pacheco y su Tumbao, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. (tickets are $45 to $60). For more information, call (718) 960-8833.

 

• The Mass Transit Street Theatre presents Ain’t Easy at Hostos Center for Arts and Culture located at 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street. The piece focuses attention on five Bronx teens who tell their stories about violence and alternative ways to deal with conflict. Performances take place on Dec. 11 at 10 a.m. and noon, and Dec. 3 at 4:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $6. For more information, call (718) 512-8519 or email ainteasy08@gmail.com.

 

• The Wave Hill House, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, hosts pianist Peter Orth performing music by Beethoven, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for members, $24 for non-members and $21 for students and seniors over age 65. Advance purchase is recommended. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 ext. 385.

Events

 

• Wave Hill offers up two family art projects: Forest Impressions, to gather twigs and branches from the woods to make a modeled clay tree or other sculpture, Nov. 15 and 16; and Harvest Time Hangings, to gather cones, pods and seed heads to weave them together with other materials to make a wall hanging, Nov. 22 and 23; both in the Kerlin Learning Center, from 1 to 4 p.m. Wave Hill is located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

Exhibits

 

• The Bronx River Art Center, located at 1087 E Tremont Ave. hosts Metro Poles: Art in Action, free, through Dec. 6. A reception will be held Nov. 21 from 6 to 9 p.m. A talk and screening will be held Dec. 6 from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, call (718) 589-5819.

 

• Street Art, Street Life: From the 1950s to Now, a collection of photography, is a documentation of performances, events, and artwork, on view through Jan. 25, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. Suggested admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors and is completely free on Fridays. For more information, call (718) 681-6000.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden presents Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum, through Jan. 11, in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. As part of the exhibit, there will be a 13-piece taiko drumming performance on the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory lawn, and Kiku for Kids in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

 

• n Surprisingly Natural: the Nature of the Bronx, a photography exhibit at Wave Hill, located at West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, through Nov. 30, celebrates the places Bronxites know and love on Sundays, holidays and afternoon walks – the borough is actually 25 percent parkland. For more information, call (718) 549-3200 or visit www.wavehill.org.

Holiday Events

 

• The Bronx Library Center, located at 310 E. Kingsbridge Rd. off Fordham Road, presents Tales of Thanks and Thanksgiving, Nov. 21 at 5 p.m.; and Gobble Gobble, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m.; both for children. For more information, call (718) 579-4244/46.

 

• The Jerome Park Library at 118 Eames Place, hosts Thanksgiving Crafts, for children, Nov. 21 at 3:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.

 

• The New York Botanical Garden presents Holiday Train Show, featuring large-scale model trains and more than 140 miniature replicas of New York landmarks created from plant parts, Nov. 23 through Jan. 11, in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Complementing this show is Gingerbread Adventures, a fun and educational component for children, including hands-on activities, in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden. For more information, call (718) 817-8700.

Learning

The Bronx Library Center has events for all ages:

• For children and preschoolers, there are films on Nov. 19 at 4 p.m.; and Preschool Romp, Nov. 13 and 20 at 11 a.m.

• Also, for school-aged children, there are The BLCs, Nov. 17 and 24 at 4 p.m.; Click on the Web, Nov. 20 at 4 p.m.; Just Like Stained Glass, Nov. 13 at 4 p.m.; Read Aloud: The Remix, Nov. 18 at 5 p.m.; Toddler Two Step, Nov. 22 at 11 a.m.; and Native American Tales, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.

• Young adults can attend Poker Tournament, Nov. 17 and 24 at 4 p.m.; Get Food Smart! with the Conscious Cravers, Nov. 14 and 21 at 4 p.m.; Make a Punk/Goth Belt Buckle, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.; Yu-Gi-Yoh Play!, Nov. 21 at 4 p.m.; and Kawaii Club, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m.

• For adults, there is free Citizenship Preparation Classes, Nov. 14 and 21 at 6 p.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 offers Preschool Story Time, Nov. 13 at 10:30 a.m., and Comic Book Creation, with Mark Z-Man, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m., both for children and preschoolers. 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 Story Time, Nov. 18 at 3:30 p.m., for children and preschoolers. For more information, call (718) 549-5200.

NOTE: Items for consideration should be received in our office by Nov. 17 for the next publication date of Nov. 27.

Citizen Scientists Take Temperature of Bronx Forest

By Susie Campriello

With global warming fast becoming a global priority, thanks to environmental crusaders like former Vice President Al Gore, the science community is enlisting amateurs to make its job easier.

A new program at the New York Botanical Garden is offering volunteers a chance to study climate change while exploring its 50-acre natural forest.

This fall, 30 volunteers signed up for the citizen scientist program and will collect phenologic data that will be passed on to the United States of America National Phenology Network, an organization that helps scientists studying climate change obtain necessary data.

Phenology is the study of the timing of natural events and has been used for thousands of years by people around the globe to note when plants germinate or flower.

“Plants tend to be much more reactive to climate change than animals,” said Jake Weltzin, the phenology network’s executive director. Weltzin works for the United States Geological Survey, which, along with the Fish & Wildlife Service, National Science Foundation and other partners, supports the network.

Plants provide food or shelter to many animals and insects, so a delay in plant growth could be disastrous, Weltzin said. Timing of bud development can also help scientists predict, for example, when plants such as ragweed will bloom and cause allergies.

Monitoring plants in every forest, garden or yard would overwhelm scientists, Weltzin said, so the network relies on volunteers.

A group of seven citizen scientists at the Garden taking a training session earlier this fall included Fordham University students, a semi-retired medical laboratory worker, a former pre-school teacher and a guide at Teatown Lake Reservation, in Mt. Kisco, New York.

Some citizen scientists have years of volunteer service at the Garden, while others, like Fordham University senior Elyse Santoro and recent graduate Krystina Holak, have spent little or no time in the Garden.

Dr. Christina Colon, the Garden’s curator of curriculum development, said that phenology is a good introduction into the science field because it requires no prior scientific education. Once an observer knows what to look for, such as a leaf changing color or a fruit maturing and dropping, spotting changes is easy.

Santoro signed up for the program because she thought that participating might help her understand or connect more with a school project. Plus, she said, monitoring trees would also allow her to spend more time outside.

Holak said that her home state, Nevada, has a much different landscape and tree population than New York.

“This is a completely new experience,” Holak said, as she and James Boyer, the Garden’s director for teacher and professional development, walked through the forest discussing different leaf types.

Boyer, Colon and Daniel Avery, the Garden’s sustainability and climate change program manager, helped the volunteers identify and track changes to the 24 trees selected for monitoring. The compiled data will be entered into an on-line database, which eventually will be viewed by real scientists studying climate change.

If successful, Weltzin said, the Garden’s program could be used as a template for future programs at other botanical gardens across the country.

Boyer said one appeal of the program is that spending time in a natural forest can help people reconnect with nature. “You experience this forest in a way that most people don’t have the opportunity to do,” he said.

Wrong Move on Library, Part II

By None

The old Fordham Library served our community for decades; its proposed conversion into a school would have served the community well as would a proposed community center. Changing a building constructed to serve community residents to sheltering animals is an insult to a neighborhood that has lacked social services and recreational space since the very first private homes and apartment buildings went up. From Fordham Road to 201st Street between Webster Avenue and the Grand Concourse, there is not one playground.

An apt description of the city’s current response to the community’s need for the library building would be “the city is literally letting the neighborhood go to the dogs.”

-Msgr. John Jenik

The writer is pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church in North Fordham. This letter was originally written as a comment on the West Bronx Blog (www.westbronxnews.blogspot.com).

Wrong Move on Library

By None

It has been brought to my attention that the City of New York is once again considering converting the old Fordham Library into an animal shelter. While I count myself as an animal lover, I love the children of the community more.  For over a year now, we have been trying to convince the city to convert this space into a state-of-the-art youth center. We have patiently met with elected officials and collected 10,000 signatures in a concerted effort to help the city understand the need for youth programs in our area. We conducted the largest march on any given issue last summer, focusing on requesting the old Fordham Library to be turned over as a Youth Dream Center. Unfortunately, it seems that the city may have chosen to turn its back on its youth. The city Health Department is still flirting with the inconceivable idea of placing an animal shelter at the old Fordham Library.

As a community, we are not going to tolerate anyone ignoring the critical and urgent needs of our youth in order to place an animal shelter in this site.  It is inconceivable that the message we will be sending our youth is that they are worth less than animals.

I don’t see this as an either/or situation. Community Board 7 has already wisely and strategically indicated that there are better places for the animal shelter other than the old Fordham Library. Presently, there are no local area youth centers which are meeting the needs of the youth in our community.  Our youth are in dire need of recreational, educational and emotional support. 

What we are looking at is more pressure on the family, single parents and those who raise grandchildren, nieces and nephews who will feel the heat of the city taking more money and not giving anything in return. With the added pressure to survive, we can expect to see more and more youth being distracted in school, finding other ways to compensate for the loss of funds in the home. Crime and misconduct could possibly be on the rise. The old Fordham Library is extremely necessary to keep morale and hope alive during these difficult times in our economy not only as a city but as a nation. We can provide a safe haven for recreation, continued education, social services and more physical activities for the youth of this community.

The Department of Health’s own studies show that recreation and sports reduce depression and anxiety in our youth.  In a generation soon approaching 50 percent overweight youth and the health complications it accompanies, how can the Department of Health even suggest having an animal shelter where the youth should be? The community has spoken; the question is whether City Hall is listening. The youth are for a Youth Dream Center. The local officials are for a Youth Dream Center.  The Community Board is for a Youth Dream Center. The religious community is for a Youth Dream Center. The question is whether the mayor is listening.

-Dr. Fernando Cabrera, Ed.D, LMHC

The writer is senior pastor at New Life Outreach International Church in North Fordham.

Seeking Local ‘Change’

By None

While overjoyed at the historic victory of Barack Obama, I am concerned that the change we need has not come to the 33rd Senate District. Voters should have questioned Pedro Espada’s commitment to this district. We need an agent of change. We need someone who will truly represent this district, someone like Margaret Groarke. This past election, I voted for Margaret as a write-in candidate. I hope she will run in 2010. Like Barack Obama, she can go from community organizer to politically astute professor to state senator. Can Margaret Groarke be the change we need? Yes, she can.

-Patrick Wynne

North Fordham

Ed. note: Margaret Groarke, to whom this letter writer refers, is married to Norwood News editor Jordan Moss.

Address School Violence

By None

I am writing this letter to voice my concern about the violence within public schools. There are children who fear going to school due to the threat of possibly being harmed while there. There is no reason for this; school should be like a child’s second home. The children not only have to worry about the general stresses of school but also issues with other students, their teachers, and in some cases even the hired school security guards. I suggest removing as many of those threats as possible, starting specifically with the security guards who are doing more harm than good and hiring ones who will do the job correctly and help the school move forward. Secondly, investigating the teachers who have multiple complaints on their record. Finally, the students who are known to be bullies or problem children should be worked with one-on-one attempting to minimize the chance other problems arising with them.

-Teana Martin

Bedford Park

Out of Touch

By Editorial

The city’s ridiculous decision to put an animal shelter in a former library near bustling Kingsbridge Road and the borough’s state-of-the art library is depressing and heartening at the same time.

Depressing because it just shows that the Bloomberg administration is hopelessly out of touch with the dire needs of its constituents in this area. There is so little space available in our community for new schools, youth recreation and other critical social services and they turn over a centrally located prime piece of public real estate to the animals. A worthy endeavor, but obviously not one that trumps the needs of local humans.

But it is also heartening that several sectors of this community are united in their opposition to this plan and support returning the building to community use. This is a reassuring sign of resurgent civic health — a community able to define and collectively advocate for its needs.

Community Board 7 chair Greg Faulkner is livid as are his fellow board members.

The youth organization Sistas and Brothas United and Pastor Fernando Cabrera of New Life Outreach International Church have collected 10,000 signatures on a petition calling on the city to use the site for youth programs and other social services.

We understand that the Health Department needs to find a place somewhere in the borough to put an animal shelter. But if it thinks it’s going to use 2556 Bainbridge Ave. for this purpose, they have another think coming.

Gifted and Talented Deadline Nov. 19

By Jordan Moss

If you’re interested in enrolling your child who is entering kindergarten through third grade, in a gifted and talented program in District 10 or any other Bronx district, you’d better act quickly.

Parents must fill out a one-page “Request for Testing” form and return it by Nov. 19. If your child is in public school right now, then you can get the form at the school and submit it there. If your child attends a non-public school (say a day care program or a parochial school), then you must submit it in person to a borough enrollment office. Parents can also pick up the forms there or get it on-line at http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/GiftedandTalented/EligibilityApplications/.

Parents in the Norwood News readership area can submit the forms to the DOE office at One Fordham Plaza. You will be given a receipt.

The test, administered in January and February depending on your child’s age, is really two separate tests – the OLSAT (Otis-Lennon School Ability Test) and the BSRA (Bracken School Readiness Assessment). The BSRA, which only takes 10 to 15 minutes to administer, measures “accumulated knowledge,” while the OLSAT tests cognitive and reasoning ability and takes a little longer.

Any child going into kindergarten or first grade who scores at the 90th percentile or above is guaranteed a spot in a gifted and talented classroom in your child’s district (second and third graders are place as room allows). Kids who score at the 97th percentile are eligible to attend a citywide gifted and talented program in Manhattan. The DOE is expanding the citywide program next fall to include schools in Brooklyn and Queens, and in the Bronx and Staten Island the following year.

Chancellor Klein revamped the controversial program last year by standardizing the eligibility requirements citywide, rather than allowing individual districts to administer the program as they saw fit. The goal was to increase enrollment and increase the number of minorities admitted to the program, but enrollment declined by half this year. Stiffer enrollment requirements and programs situated too far from eligible students contributed to the problem.

So now the DOE vows to create programs in every district starting with kindergartners. In District 10, a program for first graders at PS 54 on Webster Avenue began last fall, but it was discontinued this year reportedly because of poor participation. The only other program was also for first graders at PS 24 in Riverdale. That school is stretched to the max and the DOE will determine if the program at that school will continue and where else programs may be launched. Previously, parents who wanted to send their eligible kindergartners to a gifted and talented program had to send them to highly-competitive citywide programs in Manhattan.

Will Scarce Bronx Banks Become Scarcer?

By Chloe Tribich

By 9:45 on a recent Saturday morning, the line for the three ATMs at the Washington Mutual branch on East Fordham Road filled the small waiting area. A few blocks west, customer William Koboy expressed his frustration at Chase’s lines. “It’s almost always backed up,” he said. “The line’s usually 10 or 15 minutes.”

With 3,443 households per bank branch, the Bronx is the most under-banked borough in New York City. Manhattan, by contrast, counts 1,159 households per branch. Long lines are not the only consequence.

Advocates point out that lack of bank branches made the borough’s homeowners ripe victims for predatory mortgage lenders. Other Bronx residents without traditional banking outlets endure excessive check cashing fees or pay unnecessarily high interest for loans.

Many worry this bad situation will worsen along with the economy. According to the University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP), a local nonprofit advocacy and research group, the recent merger of the two banks with the largest number of branches in the Bronx — Chase and Washington Mutual — could mean the closure of a handful of branches. A dozen of the merged institution’s 50 Bronx branches are within short walking distance of one another.

“Many banks have closed branches after mergers,” said Sarah Ludwig, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a citywide advocacy organization.  “No matter how you slice it, when branches close, it’s always the neighborhoods that lose.”

Chase has not yet determined the fate of its Bronx branches, according to spokesperson Mike Fusco. It is certain, however, that some locations will be eliminated. “New York is one of many overlapping markets nationwide,” Fusco said. “But fewer than 10 percent of all branches [Chase and WaMu] will close. No decisions have been made yet.” Fusco added that “location and convenience” would be determining factors.

A senior staff person from Washington Mutual said no plans for the Bronx branches have been established.

Bedford Park has no banks at all. South Fordham, Morrisania and Longwood are similarly deprived. Meanwhile, a few commercial strips, such as Jerome Avenue between Mosholu Parkway and Gun Hill Road, host several branches in a small area.

“The problem is both quantity and distribution,” said Gregory Lobo Jost of UNHP. “No matter how you look at it, we have a low branch-to-household ratio, well behind any other county in this area.”

Lack of access to legitimate financial services is not a new challenge for Bronxites. In the 1970s, residents confronted the practice of banks redlining — automatically denying loans to applicants from poor neighborhoods of color — by organizing successfully for passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

As a result, banks can be sanctioned by government regulators for refusing to lend in poor neighborhoods. Enticements, in the form of improved CRA ratings and property tax breaks, encourage banks to expand into underserved areas.

Progress is slow. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which regulates the nation’s banks, in July 1994, the Bronx had 113 banks. As of July 2008, there were 146.

A report by Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Queens) charted the likely effects of the Chase-Washington Mutual merger on low income and working communities across the city. The Bronx proved the most vulnerable, with four communities with incomes below $25,000 — Tremont, Fordham, Belmont and the South Bronx — at risk for branch closures.

“Access to banking institutions and their credit and investment capital is essential to create and retain jobs, develop affordable housing and support small businesses,” Weiner said through a spokesperson. “But banks in this city are disproportionately serving wealthy New Yorkers.”

Closures would hit some areas harder than others. According to the Weiner report, the 70,000 residents of the Tremont neighborhood could be left with only one bank branch. Bedford Park doesn’t have a bank branch, but fewer in neighboring areas would mean longer lines for already frustrated customers.

“I can’t tell you how inconvenient it is now,” said Gus Birru, a longterm Bronxite who now lives in Kingsbridge Heights. “Between Fordham Road and Mosholu Parkway there are barely any branches. I’m spending way more money on ATM fees than I should.”

Joy Cousminer has confronted similar issues before. She founded Bethex Federal Credit Union in 1970 when she recognized poor women of color could not access legitimate financial services. Today Bethex boasts 10,000 members, 75 percent of whom participate in what Cousminer calls the “gray market” — the informal sector that draws its workforce from the undocumented and the poor.

Cousminer reflected that a general economic downturn and a withdrawal of mainstream bank branches could increase Bethex’s membership. “We inherit what others abandoned,” she said.

Local Election Results

By None

These are unofficial results for local elections and include machine ballots only. It does not include absentee, military, write-in and emergency affidavit ballots. The Board of Elections will release official results, including these ballots, in the coming weeks.

Representative in Congress (16th C.D.)

Jose E. Serrano (Democrat)    112,204     96.58%

Ali Mohamed (Republican)    3,979     3.42%

Representative in Congress (17th C.D.)

Eliot L. Engel (Democrat)    127,458     90.87%

Robert Goodman (Republican)    6,098     9.14%

State Senator (33rd Senatorial District)

Pedro Espada Jr. (Democrat)    45,625     97.39%

William J. Sullivan (Conservative)    1,224     2.61%

Member of the Assembly (78th Assembly District)

Jose Rivera (Democrat)    15,870     90.25%

Jose A. Torres (Republican)    1,526     8.68%

Robert Lupo II (Conservative)    188     1.07%

Member of the Assembly (80th Assembly District)

Naomi Rivera (Democrat)    17,482     77.23%

Louise Delucia (Republican)    4,478     19.78%

Patrick McManus (Conservative)    677     2.99%

Member of the Assembly (81st Assembly District)

Jeffrey Dinowitz (Democrat)    25,522     92.96%

Jeffrey Klapper (Conservative)    1,074     4.04%

Public and Community Meetings

By None

•    The Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at the DEP’s community office, 3660 Jerome Ave. For more information, call (718) 231-8470.

•    Community Board 7 will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. For location and more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    The Bedford Mosholu Community Association meeting will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. at 400 E. Mosholu Pkwy. So. (Apt. B1 – Lobby Floor).

•    Community Board 7 will hold its general meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at Glad Tidings Church, 2 Van Cortlandt Avenue E. (corner of Jerome Avenue). For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

•    Community Board 7’s Land Use/Zoning Committee will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Board office. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

Looking Ahead to 2009

By Alex Kratz

Pastor Fernando Cabrera says he feels a little like President-elect Barack Obama these days — he wants to see a change in Bronx politics.

Cabrera, who heads New Life Outreach International Church in the North Fordham area, is throwing his hat into the already crowded ring of challengers hoping to unseat Maria Baez, who is now free to run for a third term, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg’s successful effort to extend term limits for city politicians from two terms to three.  

Cabrera’s not worried about the crowded field of candidates.

He expects candidate Yudelka Tapia, who was counting on support from Baez’s former boss, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, to drop out of the race. He says he’s talked with candidate Hector Ramirez, the 86th Assembly District Leader, about alternatives to their running against each other. And former candidate Haile Rivera, fresh off his successful stint as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Florida, has yet to announce whether he’s getting back into the race.

A couple of weeks ago, Baez ramped up her re-election bid with a fund-raiser. Now, Cabrera’s doing the same. Cabrera said he raised $10,000 at a fund-raising dinner Monday night for 100 supporters who contributed $100 a plate. Two more events before the end of the year are in the works, he said.

Plus, he has a loyal congregation and an activist group, Community Action Unlimited, at his disposal.

“We have the support, we have the troops and we have the money,” Cabrera said.

Dinowitz: ‘Time to Put Up or Shut Up’

By Jordan Moss

Though there are some remaining obstacles (see cover story re: Pedro Espada), come Jan. 1, the Democrats are likely to take control of the state legislature for the first time in 40 years.

That means they will no longer be able to blame the Republican-controlled Senate for stalling legislation and budgets.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, long accustomed to seeing bills passed by his own house disappear into the Senate’s black hole, said there’s “a backlog of years and years of good things that we’ve done that we want to make into reality.” He cited gun control laws, stem cell research, rent protection laws and a new bottle bill.

He also mentioned campaign finance and redistricting reform.

“We won’t be able to blame Republicans if it doesn’t become a reality,” Dinowitz said. “With these huge victories come significant responsibilities for the Democrats. If the Democrats can’t produce, then Democrats will get blamed for not producing. It’s time to put up or shut up, and I don’t like shutting up, so we better put up.”

Accused Slasher Sets Off 13-Hour Police Drama

By David Greene

Last week, a Kingsbridge Heights man went berserk, allegedly slashing his wife’s stomach, before going out on a fourth-floor windowsill, where he kept police at bay for 13 hours.

Police and paramedics were called to 2467 University Ave., at just after 1 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6, where they discovered Carmen Velez, 49, slashed across the abdomen. While they tended to her, her husband, Adolfo Jones, also 49, bolted from police to a back room and climbed out the window.

Several hundred people in and around Devoe Park watched as Jones, a New York City Traffic Enforcement Agent, dressed only in a pair of bloody boxer shorts, hung from the window frame. He often stretched his legs and kneeled for rest.

“They took someone out on a stretcher who was all bloody,” said one witness who watched the real-life crime drama unfold from her Kingsbridge apartment. The witness, who declined to give her name, recalled, “The guys on the corner (of East 189th Street) were yelling for him to jump.”

Police set up a giant airbag on a nearby roof, and a smaller airbag and net in the courtyard below.

Hundreds of people heading to work and school were inconvenienced as police choked off surrounding streets with giant, fortified police trucks, dispatched from all over the city. School buses were not allowed to pick up children and city buses were re-routed away from the area during the standoff.

“I don’t have cable and this is better than CSI,” one local resident confessed.

Just before 2 p.m., two Emergency Services Unit officers rappelled down the face of the building, grabbed Jones, and wrangled him inside the window. The crowds below applauded.

“It was very dramatic,” said Dalconeris Garcia, who lives across the street from the building where Jones lives. “You were doubting if he was really going to jump or not.”

  Jones was taken to a local hospital for psychological evaluation. Velez was reported to be in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital. 

In the Public Interest

By Alex Kratz

Showdown for Speaker

Joel Rivera doesn’t care that he’s not the front-runner in the political jockeying to determine who will be the City Council’s next speaker. At this point, he just wants to be near the top of the list of members politicking for the influential seat.

“If I’m not your first pick, then I want to be your second choice,” Rivera said last week.

That formula, and the sway of the Bronx Democratic Party that his father chairs, worked for Rivera four years ago when he was elected as the Council’s majority leader. But there’s more at stake in deciding the speaker position, which is considered the city’s second most powerful post.

Seven officials have been quietly battling for weeks, well ahead of when the Council’s 51 members vote on the position in January. The private contest essentially amounts to who can butter up the most colleagues, and the county political clubs, through campaign contributions and other favors.

Rivera’s campaign doled out thousands of dollars to five races, none of which are in the Bronx and most involving Hispanic candidates. The recipients were James Gennaro and Hiram Monserrate, councilmen in Queens; Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna, councilwomen in Queens; and Steve Sanders, a Manhattan Assemblyman.

Rivera’s competitors, including Bill de Blasio, Melinda Katz, Christine Quinn and David Weprin, had all raised more campaign money, which they are permitted to lavish on others. Katz, of Queens, led the fund-raising pack at $666,670, according to city campaign finance records. Rivera’s total amounted to $102,032.

He might be an underdog, but Rivera is the Bronx’ only candidate, and he could be the only minority running if the Queens organization backs Katz or Weprin over Leroy Comrie, who is black.

Rivera says his team has been working hard at courting support, and feels somewhat optimistic. “We’ve been in communication with everyone who would be involved in the opinion process,” he said. “Some people have said they would be happy to see me as speaker, but they may be saying that to other candidates as well. It is politics.”

Rivera is running on his ability to unify the Council and fight for more state and city funding. But he acknowledged that issues might not be the contest’s clincher. “I can’t find anything negative to say about the other candidates,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that are similar [between us], some things may be different, but there’s not a lot of difference.”

The candidates will try to stand out during a debate next week sponsored by the Citizens Union and the New York League of Conservation Voters at Baruch College. Organizers hope that the session will make the selection process a bit more transparent. “We thought hosting this event would add a new dimension to the selection process,” said Jaime Strohmenger, a League spokesperson.

The process of picking a speaker may be purely political, but Rivera says his reason for running isn’t. “I will not be running for mayor,” he said, referring to the career trajectories of the last two speakers, Peter Vallone, Sr. and Gifford Miller. “People can find comfort in that.”

Rivera wasn’t so modest in 2002 when he told the Norwood News that he wasn’t sure what public office he’d like to pursue when term limits kick in, but a move to Gracie Mansion wasn’t out of the question: “I don’t know exactly what I would run for, but maybe it would be mayor of the City of New York,” he said at the time.

Tenant Voting Flap
A long-term campaign to create a federal affordable housing fund was thrown for a loop last month by Republicans, who successfully pushed through a restrictive amendment. Advocates are up in arms over the last minute addition, which would ban funding for groups who help tenants register to vote.

“To come this close to victory, just to have the legislation poisoned by this unfair and unnecessary restriction, is more than disappointing,” said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group, in a statement.

The fund is intended to dedicate a percentage of the profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac federal mortgages to grants for affordable housing organizations. An estimated $500 million would go specifically for construction costs of new projects, with hurricane-damaged buildings given immediate priority.

Republican members of the House stalled on the bill until restrictions were added. The amendment, which groups have dubbed the “nonprofit gag provision,” would deny funding to any organization that has participated in non-partisan voter work in the last year, including keeping voter registration forms on hand. It would also restrict funding to groups that engage in any kind of lobbying, or do not have housing as their primary mission.

“The only conclusion to draw from this action is some members of the majority party are afraid of more low income people participating in elections,” Crowley said.

Congressman José Serrano lashed out at the move. “It is simply appalling and shameful, and possibly even unconstitutional, since it will restrict abilities of the organizations to engage in First Amendment civic activities,” Serrano said in a statement. Congressman Eliot Engel also voted against the bill.

The issue is particularly pertinent in the Bronx, where several nonprofit housing organizations encourage their tenants to become engaged in community affairs.

The legislation now moves on to the Senate, where it faces opposition. The fund is part of a bill meant to strengthen regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after recent accounting scandals.

Rivera’s Queens Office
Council Member Rivera may be a product of the Bronx Democratic organization, but his official campaign office is nowhere near his home turf. For the past two years, city campaign finance records have listed Kew Gardens, Queens as the address for the Committee to Elect Joel Rivera.

The location is coincidentally in the same building as Newsday, where the story was first reported, along with a suite occupied by Congressman Anthony Weiner. But Rivera’s operation is actually located in the law office of James Cullen, an attorney who defended Robert Chambers, better known as the “preppy murderer,” this year. The campaign paid $2,000 to Cullen for rent in July.

Rivera said the office is used because Cullen handles his candidacy’s paperwork. “He’s a good guy,” Rivera said.

Rivera denied that the space was his campaign office, but said the office is used because it is always staffed by someone. “We don’t have the finances to have someone in the office 24-7,” said Rivera about his Bronx operations. “We’re not like the mayor.”

***

In other news involving Joel Rivera, Hispanic Business Magazine nominated him as one of the 100 most influential Latinos last month, joining other officials, business leaders and entertainers in the annual list. Rivera and his influential family members were also recognized by Tempo, a Hispanic review published by the New York Post. The “Rivera dynasty,” which includes father Assemblyman Jose Rivera and sister Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, were listed among 25 powerful Latinos.

School Funds
Council Member Oliver Koppell allocated $213,000 last month to after-school music programs at a number of schools, including PS 8, PS 56 and PS/MS 95. Funds were also issued to the Montefiore Medical Center’s Adolescent AIDS Program and the West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center.

Preaching Change, ‘New Day’ Seeks Active Flock

By Sarah Trefethen

On a Sunday last month, in a temporarily converted funeral home in Bedford Park, the Rev. Doug Cunningham preached about change. Standing without a podium or pulpit and speaking without notes, he talked about changing unhealthy lifestyles, government, public schools, the church’s attitudes toward homosexuality and the changes God can make in your life.

This was the first ever worship service of New Day United Methodist Church, a small but passionate group of Christians in search of a permanent home, an open-minded congregation and every opportunity to bring their justice-based message to the north Bronx.

“Jesus confronted injustice, I think that’s why he was executed,” said Cunningham, founder and pastor of New Day. “The church has been too silent for too long.”

For the past 15 years, Cunningham, 52, has worked as a pastor, first in Baltimore and later in Brooklyn, where his family moved shortly before 9/11. Cunningham started his ministerial career as a human rights advocate and missionary in his wife’s home country of the Philippines.

In November 2006, he submitted a proposal for a new, socially-minded parish to the superintendent of the local district (which includes New York City) of the national United Methodist Church (UMC). “I’ve felt that this is my calling for several years,” he said.

The 2006 proposal set in motion a process of conferences, research and negotiation with UMC leadership, which allowed Cunningham to refine his initial proposal, he said. This past summer, UMC issued grant money to get New Day off the ground.

In search of diversity, New Day leaders reviewed census data and visited neighborhoods around New York City. Norwood and Bedford Park came out ahead of Jamaica, Queens and Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

“The two most striking things about the area were the ethnic and cultural diversity and the number of community organizations,” Cunningham said. “This is not a passive community.”

Last month’s service featured live music performed on a keyboard, drums, cello and saxophone. Song lyrics, in English and Spanish, were projected onto a wall at the front of the room. New Day’s music leader, Jorge Lockward, encouraged everyone to take part even if they didn’t speak the language. “God understands even when you sing ‘la la la’,” he told the room.

Later, Cunningham’s daughter Lisa, who teaches history at a south Bronx high school, performed a spoken word testimonial about the role of God in her life.

Future services will also include “liturgical dance,” or dance for worship. It will be taught by ministerial candidate Sheila Beckford, who, along with Lockward and the Cunninghams, make up the church’s founding team. “Dance is a ministry just as important as sermon or prayer,” she said. “Dance crosses boundaries. You don’t have to speak the same language I speak for movement to move you.”

The 21 people who joined the founders and musicians at New Day’s first service were a mix of local residents and visitors from as far afield as Cunningham’s former parish in Baltimore.

Cynthia Smith, 29, moved to her home on the Grand Concourse four years ago. Since then she has traveled to her former neighborhood in Brooklyn to attend church. She took part in the focus group that helped plan New Day and was posted at the door to greet people for the first service.

“I love the fact that it’s diverse and the fact that everyone’s welcome,” Smith said.

New Day’s fund-raising efforts continue. The church recently received additional sponsorship from the UMC’s General Board of Church and Society, which, according to its Web site, speaks out on a long list of human rights issues, including immigration reform, gun control and AIDS relief worldwide.

Cunningham doesn’t see New Day in competition with the established churches already in the neighborhood. “We’re looking mainly for people who are not going to church,” he said. “We’re looking for boundary-crossing people, not people who will be satisfied in their enclave; people who are progressive, justice-oriented and open to new things.”

Lockward was pleased with New Day’s debut. “I measure a service by how long people want to linger afterwards,” he said. It was almost 1 p.m., an hour after service ended, and he was talking to several people at once and just starting to clean up.

Ed. note: New Day’s next service will take place on Nov. 16 at 11 a.m., in the cafeteria of the Bronx High School of Science. Contact Doug Cunningham at newdaybronx@gmail.com or (917) 669-5803 for more information, or visit the church’s new Web site at www.newdaybronx.org.

Espada Bucks Fellow Dems

By Alex Kratz

Pedro Espada, Jr. emerged victorious in the general election last week to be the area’s state senator on the heels of a bloody primary battle with incumbent Efrain Gonzalez, who was heavily backed by the state’s Democratic leadership.

Now, for Espada, it’s payback time.

Following his recent victory in the 33rd Senate District, Espada, a Democrat, is now withholding support for the Senate’s top Democrat, Malcolm Smith of Queens, after the party wrestled majority control from Republicans last week, ending 40 years of GOP rule in the legislative body.  

Smith, who has been the Democratic minority leader since 2006, is in line to take control of the new majority. But Espada and two other Democrats, Carl Kruger of Brooklyn and Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx, have formed an independent alliance – which Espada is now dubbing the “Three Amigos” – to challenge Smith’s election as majority leader.

Democrats will hold a slight 32-30 advantage, but only if the Three Amigos vote with their party.

Espada said he’s still upset that Smith spent $250,000 of the party’s money in an attempt to defame him and label him a Republican. (In 2002, as state senator in the 31st District, Espada flirted with the idea of becoming a Republican, but remained a Democrat.)

“I’m a Democrat,” Espada said. “I’m going to support a Democrat. But not Malcolm Smith.”

Espada explained that the party went too far in trying to block out his independent voice. “You diverted all that money to intimidate and defeat an independent minded thinker,” he said. “That is the politics of the past. It’s not what we need from our leadership.”

Many political observers believe he’s holding out for a plum committee assignment or other leadership position. Hiram Monserrate of Queens, who was once part of Espada’s crew (it was then known as the “Gang of Four”) dropped his opposition to Smith over the weekend in exchange for chairmanship of the Consumer Affairs Committee, the Daily News reported.

Espada, however, said he’s already “been offered everything” and is still maintaining his stance. He says he wants to set up a new “bipartisan template” that goes beyond party affiliation. Still, state leaders say that with a Democratic governor, Assembly and now Senate, this is a prime opportunity for legislators to get things done after years of partisan bickering and stagnation.  

While negotiations continue, politicians are stepping gingerly and hoping for the best.

State Senator Jeff Klein, an ambitious Bronx Democrat who is deputy minority leader, is on record saying he fully supports Smith and his spokesperson said the senator hopes the situation can be resolved soon.

Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz was somewhat blunter. “The Democrats elected a majority,” he said. “I certainly expect every Democrat to be a Democrat. We’re not going to be able to change New York if the Republicans continue to control the Senate.”

Espada said he and the other Amigos plan to sit down this week to plot their next move. 

Library To Be Animal Shelter; Leaders Outraged

By Alex Kratz

[Story Updated, Nov. 17, 2008, 5:03 p.m.]

For two years, local leaders and residents have demanded the vacant old Fordham Library building be turned into something that benefits the underserved and densely populated community. But recently, the city quietly gave control of the 27,400-square-foot structure over to the Health Department for use as an animal shelter.

Community leaders are not happy, saying they feel the city went behind their back without consulting anyone locally despite being well aware that residents wanted the building for community space.

“This is outrageous and a slap to the community,” said Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner, whose board has made the library renovation its number one budget priority for the past two years. “We won’t accept an animal shelter at that location.”

Since the library closed in 2005, local groups have consistently pushed for control of the building, saying the area had a serious lack of community space for vital after-school and youth programs.  

Over the summer, Health Department officials floated a plan to turn the old library into an animal shelter, but the community widely denounced it.

Mark Daly, of the Department of Citywide Administration Services (DCAS), said the building was turned over to the Health Department on Oct. 1 after that agency requested the building.

Two weeks ago, a month after gaining control of the building, Health officials sat down for a meeting with Faulkner and CB7 District Manager Fernando Tirado. Faulkner said he bluntly told them the Board would not support an animal shelter at the old Fordham Library and offered up an alternative site, an old Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) building on Webster Avenue.

The Health Department confirmed it has procured the property and planned to turn it into an animal shelter. Health Department spokesperson Celine De leon said the agency was mandated by a City Council resolution passed in 2000 to operate a full-service animal shelter in every borough. There is currently no full-service shelter in the Bronx, she said.

De leon maintained that it was DCAS’s job to scout any potential issues with the site, including the fact that it has been highly coveted by local groups and residents.

The Health Department says its plan is contingent upon City Council and community board approval, which  will be difficult to obtain considering Faulkner’s stance and City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera’s consistent support of the library becoming community space, such as a youth or senior center, a hub for social services, a job training facility or a free computer lab.

Jorman Nunez, of the youth group Sistas and Brothas United (SBU), said the news came as a shock to his group, which has fought for the space for two years. SBU recently submitted 10,000 petition signatures to the city in support of reenlisting the building for community use.

Last Friday, Faulkner, Nunez and Rivera’s staff were still trying to find out how this had happened without anyone being notified.

Nunez said he’s not sure it’s a done deal. He said SBU would work to ensure that the City Council and community board would reject the shelter plan if it comes before them.

Faulkner couldn’t contain his frustration. “The city has done something completely dishonest,” he said. “We made it clear [making the library community space] was our number one priority. If this is how the mayor does business, then we will take that into account when other big projects come through our area for approval.”

Pastor Fernando Cabrera of New Life Outreach International Church, and his activist group Community Action Unlimited (CAU), staged a huge rally at the library last fall. He said the city wouldn’t try something like this in a more affluent neighborhood. “There’s a certain level of respect that we’re obviously not getting,” said Cabrera, who’s running for City Council next year. “All we’re asking for is equity for our youth.”

Over the summer, in collaboration with SBU, Cabrera’s church and activist group collected more than 10,000 petition signatures in support of reenlisting the building for community use. They submitted them to Rivera’s office this fall.

With the economy crashing, Cabrera said the city should want to secure a place like the old library that would be dedicated to uplifting, educating and training our youth and unemployed. He said his group would work with elected officials, CB7, SBU and local churches to fight the proposed animal shelter.  

For Nunez, the vacant library is a scarce commodity. “We need to keep the community space we have because the city’s not going to be building us any more in the near future,” he said.  

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