At 30, Lehman Center Mixes Old School Values With New School Outlook

Eva Bornstein is enjoying one of her finest and most successful seasons at the helm of the Lehman Performing Arts Center. It is the center’s 30th anniversary and Bornstein was just featured in the New York Times’ Sunday Metropolitan section. Attendance is up during a down economy. Life is good. But she is concerned. The antics of madcap actor Charlie Sheen are consuming all the country’s media attention. “It’s disgusting,” she says, both of the coverage and Sheen’s behavior. “We are from the old school,” she says, attempting to explain her disgust.

Vagabond New State Senator Rivera Doing Business on the Run

State Senator Gustavo Rivera, the new representative of the northwest Bronx’s 33rd District, called a reporter last week from his cell phone while sitting in an office in downtown Manhattan. That’s life for a vagabond freshman politician in the senate’s minority party who is still trying to nail down a district office more than two months into his term.

State of the Borough: Diaz Praises ‘One Bronx’

In response to recent derogatory portrayals of the borough by “American Idol” and Glenn Beck, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. went on the offensive last month, highlighting the positives and success stories of the Bronx during his second state of borough speech. While continuing to press his mantra of borough residents and workers coming together to form “One Bronx,” or “Un Solo Bronx,” Diaz spent a great deal of his nearly 90-minute speech at DeWitt Clinton High School hyping his accomplishments and all of the great things the borough has to offer. “It is time to let the world

MMCC Hit Hard By Government Budget Cuts

Major cutbacks in government spending, on both the local and federal level, have left several community centers in the northwest Bronx struggling to make ends meet this year. Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) in Norwood, which runs dozens of after-school sites, a senior citizen center, and other programs serving more than 28,000 Bronxites each year, has been appealing to neighbors for donations over the last few months in an effort to keep the center afloat.

New DOE Plan Could Ease Crowding

The Department of Education’s revised five-year plan for school construction includes an increase of more than 1,600 new seats within School District 10 in the northwest Bronx. But it is yet to be determined where the remaining seats will go.

Webster Ave. Rezone Now in Hands of Council

The rezoning of a long, auto shop-strewn stretch of Webster Avenue between Fordham Road and Gun Hill Road is now moving into its final stage — scrutiny from the City Council, which must sign off on the plan.

Norwood Home to ‘Weekend Walks’ This Summer

This summer, East 204th Street, from Bainbridge Avenue to Hull Avenue, will be closed to cars for three consecutive Sundays as the area will host Weekend Walks, a program co-sponsored by Community Board 7 and the Department of Transportation.

Arsenal Found in Villa Ave. Drug Raid

A raid organized by the NYPD’s gang unit has shut down a Villa Avenue drug distribution operation, police said, taking a cache of dangerous weapons off the streets of Bedford Park in the process.

Editorial: Foodtown’s Welcome Return

The absence of Foodtown in Norwood for the last 15 months has been deeply felt by thousands of local residents. The elderly, who were able to walk to the supermarket before the store burned to the ground in December 2009, were particularly burdened by the loss. But the store has emerged bigger and better with a much wider array of offerings and more room for residents with walkers, strollers and shopping carts to maneuver.