Free After-School Journalism Program in the Bronx (Applications Due Friday!)

Above is a link to an interview with me, Bronx Youth Heard Director and Norwood News Editor Alex Kratz, and Lehman High School student Adonis Jimenez for a Bronx 2.0 segment that aired on Bronxnet in February. Everything I talk about in that segment remains true. Bronx Youth Heard is a fantastic program for students interested in journalism or who love to write or who want to have impact on their communities and think (like we do) that journalism is a way to make that happen.

On the Streets: The Prostitution Conundrum

It’s a slow Monday night for Bianca, a transgender prostitute who operates on the corner of East 192nd Street and Davidson Avenue — a quiet residential intersection near St. James Park, a place where the “tranny” sex trade has flourished, to the chagrin of local residents, for more than a decade. “What are you doing here?” Bianca asks a potential customer, smiling coyly. “You’re looking good.”

Venerable High School in Spotlight After Day of Fights

A raucous food fight and student scuffle at DeWitt Clinton High School last month has brought some bad press to the large, century-old institution on the Mosholu Parkway. Police were called to the school on Oct. 1 after fights broke out in the morning during a change of period, said Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg. School staff was low that day because of a severe rainstorm, and while no arrests were made, eight students received disorderly conduct notices and “one student who had an emotional outburst was treated at a local hospital,” Feinberg said. Since the incident, The Riverdale

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, several Bronx politicians, and CUNY officials gathered at Lehman College on Oct. 28 to celebrate the placing of the last beam of steel on the college’s new science facility. The $70 million, 69,000-square-foot building has been under construction since 2008, and is scheduled for completion in 2012.

The High Cost of Undiagnosed Diabetes

When most people find out they have diabetes, it’s in their doctor’s office, following a routine physical exam that reveals their blood sugar is too high. But some people get the news in a more dire way — when they end up in the emergency room. The Bronx has the highest rate of diabetes in the city, with 12 percent of people here diagnosed with the disease. Many more probably have it, but just don’t recognize the symptoms; the city’s health department estimates that some 200,000 New Yorkers are diabetic, but don’t know it.

Williamsbridge Oval Park Rec Center Delayed

The reconstruction of the Williamsbridge Oval Park recreation center is experiencing delays, angering local residents who see the park as their own backyard. Originally scheduled to be completed in spring of 2011, the delays will push the completion date to June 2011, according to the Parks Department. Jesslyn Moser, a Parks Department spokesperson, said the delays are due to permit approvals that take time to process and are out of the Parks Department’s control. “With winter approaching, the schedule may need to be revised to complete the full scope of work,” Moser said in an e-mail. “The contractor will be asked to submit a revised schedule with a plan to recover lost time.”

Everything is Illuminated, Eventually

Over the summer, Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval Park, a volunteer group that advocates for the well being of the park, conducted a night walk around the park and discovered that 21 lights, nearly half of the lights surrounding Oval Park, weren’t functioning. More than three months later, and after several follow-ups by the Friends and media inquiries, the lights were finally fixed. The episode sheds light on the trouble residents have in navigating the city’s vast bureaucracy.

State Senate Still Undecided Two Weeks Later

There were few surprises on the local level in the state’s general election on Nov. 2, but three Senate races from other parts of the state are in dispute, several weeks later, as absentee ballots are still being counted. In the Bronx, every incumbent representative running was re-elected for another term, with the exception of Sen. Pedro Espada, who was defeated in a highly publicized primary in September by political newcomer Gustavo Rivera. Rivera handily won the general election this month in the 33rd District. Meanwhile, three races elsewhere — one on Long Island, one in Westchester and another in Buffalo — were too close to call, and are still being disputed. According to the New York Times, it looks like the Republican Party is poised to overtake the Democrats, who have held a slight majority in the State Senate since 2008.

Bronx Pol Says New Schools Boss is Bad Fit

Add Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson to the growing list of legislators and school advocates criticizing Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of media executive Cathleen Black as the city’s new Schools Chancellor. Joel Klein resigned from the post to take a job with News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.