2010 Year in Review: Local Senior Center Saved From Closure

In June, seniors who frequent Tolentine Zeiser Senior Center were given some devastating news: The center, and dozens of others around in the city, were to be closed because of budget cuts. Staff took the pictures off the walls and filled several cardboard boxes with Christmas lights and other supplies they’d accumulated over the years. And they readied themselves for June 30, the center’s last day of operation. Then the unexpected happened. Tolentine and about 25 other senior centers in the five boroughs, including R.A.I.N Bailey in Kingsbridge Heights, were handed a last minute reprieve when Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speaker Christine Quinn struck a deal to restore funding.

Pedro Espada and Son Indicted on Federal Charges

Controversial State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. was indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on embezzlement and conspiracy charges, along with his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, according to a statement by the United States Attorney’s Office released on Tuesday. Both men are charged with five counts of embezzlement — to the alleged tune of more than $500,000 — and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of embezzlement and five years for the conspiracy count. It could amount to 55 years behind bars.

The Education of a Councilman: Cabrera Makes Strides in First Year

Councilman Fernando Cabrera’s office on the 17th floor of 250 Broadway, a large municipal building across the street from City Hall in downtown Manhattan, is spartan — the walls a blank canvas, the desk tops free of clutter. There are photos on and behind his desk: of a baby smiling, a close-up of a flower, a beautiful landscape. They are not his photos. They came with the frames. The scene is fitting. As Cabrera enters the final weeks of his first year representing the 14th District, which includes Kingsbridge, University Heights, Morris Heights and Mt. Hope, two things have become

DREAM Immigration Bill Waits for Senate Vote

A bill that would provide a long-term path to citizenship for young immigrant residents passed in the House of Representatives on Dec. 8, but has since stalled in the Senate, as its supporters try to drum up Republican support for the bill in the slim hopes of passing it before the year’s end.

Bronx Pols Denounce Bloomberg’s Budget Cuts

It’s looking like it’s going to be a tough budget year for New York City, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg released his updated financial plan for this and the next four fiscal years last month—one that calls for cuts to jobs and services from nearly every city agency and sector. On Nov. 18, Bloomberg announced his latest round of budget gap closing actions, including the loss of thousands of city jobs, measures he says will reduce the budget deficit from $3.3 billion to $2.4 billion for the fiscal year 2012. The cuts sparked backlash from advocates across the city and concern from local representatives.

Editorial: The Armory Vote One Year Later

It’s the one-year anniversary of the nearly unanimous City Council vote that scuttled the mayor’s juggernaut to stuff a cookie-cutter mall inside the landmark Kingsbridge Armory. In that time, the city’s two tabloids, the New York Post and the Daily News, have taken every opportunity to whack at Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. for his opposition to the project, which gave the necessary juice to a community and labor-backed effort to defeat it in the City Council. Regular readers know where we stand on this, but as long as the editorial boards of the city dailies continue to harp on this, we are compelled to reiterate our position. For more than a decade, community organizations led by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition hammered out plans for a remake of the facility that made room for recreation, community programming, small businesses, a movie theater, etc. Related, the city’s chosen developer, never offered details on what it was going to provide except for retail. Despite this and the clear sense that the Armory would be a mall pure and simple, the community’s only firm request in the end was that people had to be paid a living wage, particularly when the developer was going to receive over $70 million in taxpayer subsidies to remake a public landmark. It was hardly an outlandish request. Several other municipalities have enacted wage guarantees on development projects benefiting from taxpayer subsidies.

School Lunch Bill Passed, at Expense of Food Stamps

Lawmakers in Washington reauthorized funding for the Child Nutrition Act earlier this month, a bill that funds and sets the guidelines for a number of child nutrition programs, including how much federal money goes towards school lunches. The legislation, which comes up for renewal every five years, is a $4.5 billion package that included additional funding this year, something health advocates have long been lobbying for. But the extra money comes at a price, as the Senate dipped into $2.2 billion in stimulus funds intended to expand SNAP, the federal food stamps program. The cuts have put anti-hunger advocates in an awkward position, where support for one nutrition program means a major setback for another.

Espada Misses Vote on Housing Bill

State Senator Pedro Espada’s absence at a special Senate session in Albany on Monday was a conspicuous one. The Majority Leader failed to make the trek to the capitol, while the man who will replace him in a month, Gustavo Rivera, did. Also making the journey to Albany? A group of city housing advocates intent on supporting an important housing bill to extend current rent stabilization laws until 2018 — a lobbying effort that ultimately failed, as the bill fell a few votes short of the 32 needed to pass. Espada missed the vote on the bill despite the fact that he, as chairman of the Senate’s housing committee, happens to be the legislation’s main sponsor.

Black is the New Schools Chancellor, Bronx Pols Divided

After much debate and political maneuvering, Cathleen Black, the veteran publishing executive, is the city’s new schools chancellor. She replaces Joel Klein. Black was put forward for the job by Mayor Bloomberg in early November, but her candidacy had been in jeopardy after the State Education Commissioner David Steiner questioned her lack of related work experience. Schools chancellors need a professional certificate in educational leadership and other qualifications. Black has had a successful career in business and publishing — she’s been called the “First Lady of glamorous glossies” — but she’s never been a teacher, and her resume boasts just a single day as a guest principal in the Bronx.