Webster Re-Zoning Moves Ahead

Community Board 7 members voted unanimously on Nov. 16 to approve re-zoning changes for Webster Avenue and select blocks in Norwood and Bedford Park. The borough president’s office will hold its own public hearing on the zoning changes on Thursday, Dec. 2 at Borough Hall, 851 Grand Concourse. “This has been a long four-year project,” said Fernando Tirado, district manager of Community Board 7. “We hope that with the help of City Planning we can turn this [stretch] into an inviting area for people to come in.”

After 7 Months, Telco Calls It Quits

Telco Department Store, on the corner of East Fordham Road and Marion Avenue, opened seven months ago. In October, there were still “Grand Opening” signs in the storefront. But now, Telco is planning to clear out and close up shop following the holiday shopping season. “We spent a fortune to get this store running here and now we are leaving,” said Telco manager Ahmed Wahman, 50, as blaring speakers promoted the liquidation sales. After opening its first store in 1972 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Telco expanded to various outer-borough locations across the city. Their core customers were middle-class families, Wahman said. In the Bronx, however, people weren’t buying, Wahman said.

Giving Thanks By Giving Back

Several local groups and churches brought Thanksgiving to the less fortunate last week. Last Wednesday afternoon, Epiphany Lutheran Church in Norwood held its annual Thanksgiving meal in the basement of its church. On Thursday, Part of the Solution (POTS), the area’s sole soup kitchen and multi-service center provided a free feast at Our Lady of Refuge Church. On Wednesday night, at the Monte Carlo Room, a nightclub in the shadow of the Kingsbridge Armory, a small non-profit called Hands On New York gave away more than 100 frozen turkeys.

Neighborhood Notes

A listing of programs, services, events, announcements, support groups and more for all of our readers in the Bronx and beyond.

Out & About

A listing of arts, entertainment and recreational events for all of our readers in the Bronx and beyond.

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.