Two local construction projects have stopped mid-development due to permit problems, violations and inadequate financing. Demolition of the former Grace Lutheran School, located at 2950 Grand Concourse, ceased two months ago, and a construction site at 301 E. Gun Hill Rd. has remained idle for weeks now.

Lest there be a sliver of doubt that the MTA is not prioritizing the rehabilitation of its most dilapidated stations, including the disastrous 205th Street stop on the D line, just consider this: The agency is spending close to half a billion dollars (not a typo) on the South Ferry subway station just so passengers can board or disembark from an additional five subway cars.

… If you’re interested in getting Henry Stern’s newsletter (referred to above), e-mail him at starquest@nycivic.org   … In looking for a last-minute brisket for Passover dinner, we went to the Web site for Fairway, the big specialty food supermarket just down the West Side Highway at 125th Street to see what time they closed. Here’s the information we found there about the communities they deliver to: “$5.25 for deliveries between 181st and 210th streets. Riverdale customers add $4.00 toll. No deliveries to the Bronx area.” Uh, and Riverdale is in what borough? Out of the Woodwork is an occasional collection

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A new program to be implemented at DeWitt Clinton High School as soon as this fall will keep thousands of students from buying lunch and other items on Jerome Avenue.

Navigating the basement of Bronx Community College’s Meister Hall, with its warren of subterranean corridors, could easily give one the jitters. After all, criminal activity, of a sort, does take place there. But have no fear: all the shooting is digital.

Developers are finally well on their way to flipping the stage lights back on at the Loew’s Paradise Theatre after more than a decade of vacancy. Rehabilitation work at the Grand Concourse landmark began again in earnest earlier this year to pave the way for a large-scale theater predominantly showcasing Latino cultural events.

The case of a Chinese food delivery man who was missing for almost four days inside Tracey Towers, only to turn up unscathed in a stuck elevator, has police and local residents scratching their heads.

Youth organizations are anxiously waiting to see if some of their largest and oldest programs will continue under a massive city reorganization of after-school initiatives. The revamp, consolidating three distinct programming areas for kids, sent area providers scrambling to fulfill its new mandates.

J. R.Qureshi, 15, now swallows his youthful pride and gives grammar his undivided attention. J.R. may not be fascinated with the present verb tense, but he might have to explain it to a classroom of his peers in the near future – or next week.