The Environmental Advocates of New York, a nonprofit watchdog group, recognized Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz for his environmental record in Albany.

Last month, the Norwood News talked with Haile Rivera, a University Heights activist who was one of four people picked to have an intimate dinner with presidential candidate Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. on July 10. Rivera was randomly picked to attend the dinner after donating $25 (not a huge contribution but a relatively big chunk of change for Rivera) to Obama’s campaign.

In late July, on a hot Wednesday morning, organizers and youth from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, lamenting chronic overcrowding and its effect on education, stormed City Hall to demand more school seats in the Bronx and citywide.

The city’s Economic Development Corporation will not choose a developer for the vacant Kingsbridge Armory until at least October, said Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner.

The driving range at Mosholu Golf Course has re-opened after being shut down for most of the summer because of safety and liability issues.

Community Board 7 will meet Monday, Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bedford Park Senior Center, 243 E. 204th St. There will be a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 about the rezoning of land at St. James Recreation Center, 2530 Jerome Ave. The following Tuesday, on Sept. 4 at 6:30 p.m. there will be a public hearing at PS 94, 3530 Kings College Place, which will discuss the construction of an early childhood center on the grounds of PS 94. For more information, call (718) 933-5650.

The new Yankee Stadium has 5,000 fewer seats than the old one. Nevertheless, city officials endorse the team’s plan to build four new parking garages, most of them in place of public parks, essentially inviting fans from the suburbs to bring their cars into the area to clog local streets and deposit their exhaust in a community that has among the highest asthma rates in the country.

Building on the success and popularity of 311, Mayor Bloomberg just introduced a radical but seemingly sensible idea – roving units of city employees whose job it is to look for things like potholes, graffiti and darkened streetlights. It’s commendable when citizens call 311 to complain about such things, but, the mayor said, it’s actually the government’s job to identify problems before people complain. He even expressed surprise that the city wasn’t already doing this.

A student worker is pictured here in Poe Park on the last day of the Summer Youth Employment Program on Aug. 16. Thousands of teens were deployed by the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center to fill jobs at local stores, businesses and nonprofits. Twenty-three of these local high school students worked with Mosholu Preservation Corporation (publisher of this newspaper) to improve Poe Park, St. James Park, Williamsbridge Oval and Mosholu Parkway. Led by six mentors from local colleges, the students spent their summer improving erosion control, reestablishing turf, painting park structures and clearing pathways to make Bronx parks better for the entire community.