City Acknowledges New Homeless Taskforce

By DAVID GREENE

The half dozen homeless people who sleep on park benches along Jerome Avenue, near East Gun Hill Road say they were unaware about the city’s new homeless outreach program, acknowledged by officials nearly three-weeks after the program quietly began. The city has so far identified 80 homeless encampments across the five boroughs and has begun to dismantle them, as trained professionals from nine city agencies attempt to assist some of the homeless. The City of New York estimates that 60,000 individuals are currently homeless, and the new program began on August 17, seeking to reduce that number. Jerome Avenue was not identified as an encampment because the closely-knit group has

When a chef and an engineer join forces, it can be a recipe for a rooftop garden. At least, this has been the case in one Bronx nursing home. For about four years, several employees at St. Patrick’s Rehabilitation and Health Center, a skilled nursing facility in Van Cortlandt Village, have grown vegetables and spices out of buckets placed on the roof at 66 Van Cortlandt Park So. The home was founded in 1931 by seven women who would eventually become sisters affiliated with the Carmelite Order. The facility provides 24-hour nursing care and religious support services regardless of a

By DAVID CRUZ

Lehman Center for the Performing Arts will play host to Jazz at Lincoln Center, taking the unusual step in ushering in their season with a one-night performance at the Bedford Park music house. Fittingly, the season will open with a performance by Carlos Henriquez, a Bronx-bred bassist and member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, whose musical flair has taken him to perform in Cuba. Appropriately titled “Carlos Henriquez: Back in the Bronx,” Henriquez is expected to delight an audience with some familiar, velvety tunes alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, and percussionists Bobby Allende

PLAINCLOTHES COPS FROM the NYPD’s Transit Bureau nab Devin Scott, an alleged subway swiper. They say he used a MetroCard to illegally sell admission to the underground subway station at the Bedford Park station on Sept. 4. Locals have long griped over so-called swipers lurking near turnstiles, hoping to convinced hurried straphangers to pay them $2 or more to swipe their MetroCard to let them through. Oftentimes, the MTA crooks deliberately damage a MetroCard dispenser to force customers to a swiper. Photo by David Greene

Bronx Youth Heard: Bolstering Civic Engagement

By DAVID CRUZ

The latter part of the program is spent writing news stories students had developed, incorporating journalistic principles they learned.

After Fix, Smoother Strides on Bainbridge Ave.

By HAYDEE CAMACHO

After reports of numerous falls on the broken sidewalk in front of 2845 Bainbridge Ave., including one of an elderly woman who died there last year, Steven Bussell, vice president of the 52nd Precinct Community Council, was hitting brick walls in his attempts to get the sidewalk repaired. But a call to a local lawmaker kicked the project into gear. The sidewalk had been uprooted by two large trees in front of the property. “Half the people would walk in the street to walk around the trees,” said Bussell. A 42-year resident of the neighborhood, Bussell has been on the Five-Two

Endless summer days just didn’t quit at Williamsbridge Oval Park Aug. 28, thanks to a Summer Sports Jamboree sponsored by the parks department. The Norwood News snapped some photos of young people jumping, running and recreating at the neighborhood park. [powr-image-slider label=”1875957″]

Participatory Budgeting Sessions Begin Mid-September

By DAVID CRUZ

Imagine better amenities for your parks, schools, and streets. Now, imagine being empowered to pump $1 million for those improvements. It’s a mission Councilman Andrew Cohen is trying to achieve once again through participatory budgeting, a process where residents in a Council district decide where a certain portion of capital funds will go towards. Several meetings have now been arranged to hammer out some ideas. In Norwood, residents can gather at MMCC on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m., while Bedford Park locals can offer input at the Bedford Park Senior Center on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. to hash out

By DAVID CRUZ

At Bedford Park Congregational Church, members maintain one foot in the past, and the other in the future. The past: A historic, 124-year-old rustic church at the intersection of East 201st Street and Bainbridge Avenue, whose architecture representing a bygone era earned a landmark designation by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2000. “This is the way it was when I first got here,” said Annette Porter, president of the church’s Board of Trustees, looking back when she first began worshipping at the church twenty years ago. The future: Preserving the past. Such has been the case for