Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman is surrounded by her art. Numerous oil paintings of her family decorate the dining and living room walls of her Bainbridge Avenue home and piles of Yiddish children’s books she wrote sit on a small table beside her couch. A CD of traditional Yiddish music she composed lies next to it.

Student volunteers with Fordham University’s Urban Plunge program collaborated with Mosholu Preservation Corporation’s horticulture project two weeks ago to plant a beautiful and diverse garden behind the park house in Williamsbridge Oval. MPC has deployed gardeners throughout the summer to plant gardens at all the park entrances.

Mounds of garbage sat atop trash cans at the intersection of the Grand Concourse and East 192nd Street recently and papers and fast food containers littered the ground surrounding the overflowing receptacles.

Council Member Oliver Koppell teamed up with Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera on Thursday to lambaste the MTA for closing the token booth at the D-train station at 205th Street and Perry Avenue.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has hired a new community liaison for his satellite office at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center. Teri Colon, who replaces Joel Ramos, will staff the office, located at 3450 DeKalb Ave., on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Officials and park advocates gathered on Aug. 11 to celebrate the restoration of the Poe Park Bandstand, which had been the site of popular music concerts from the 1930s through the 1970s.

As if it weren’t enough that the MTA has let the 205th Street D-train station deteriorate into one of the most notoriously dilapidated stations in the subway system, the agency is now depriving the community of its token booth clerk at the 205th Street/Perry Avenue ‘D’ station.

Epiphany Lutheran Church in Norwood has lost its funding for a well-known local program to feed the hungry and homeless. United Way of New York City denied funding to the St. Stephen’s Meals program in a letter earlier this month. The organization’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program rejected the church’s application for funding for the first time in seven years.

As usual, we encourage all of our readers to take part in the democratic process by participating in the primary on Sept. 13, where candidates for City Council, mayor and public advocate will be on the ballot. If you want information about where to vote, call (212) VOTE-NYC. If you are not already registered to vote, you won’t be able to vote in the primary, but you will be registered in time to vote in the November general election if you call the same phone number and ask them to send you a voter registration form.