J. R.Qureshi, 15, now swallows his youthful pride and gives grammar his undivided attention. J.R. may not be fascinated with the present verb tense, but he might have to explain it to a classroom of his peers in the near future – or next week.

Three-year-old Arianna is having a hard time choosing the next game to play at Chuck E Cheeze in Co-op City. After a few minutes of walking around the store, she sticks a red ticket in the slot of a photo booth, poses for the camera, and jumps up and down as she waits for the machine to print her picture. She smiles at the photo, and then turns to her mom, Roxanne Taylor, 32, who hands her daughter another ticket.

Norwood artist Jose Rios has gone from the lows of homelessness to the highs of seeing his paintings showcased in Manhattan galleries, as they will be later this month during his third solo show.

Community Board 7 voted unanimously last week to support a resolution that recommends that meetings of the committee set up to monitor the construction of the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park be open to the public.

Advocates and officials are cautiously optimistic about a new housing inspection program that will target groupings of problem buildings by neighborhood. In its final stages of approval at press time, the program intends to put the squeeze on landlords who fail to correct violations in their buildings.

Several future and impending construction projects, and a handful of motions, were addressed during Community Board 7’s public meeting last week.

Local commuting frustrations started to simmer last week as a major construction project on East Gun Hill Road caused an exit closure and increased traffic congestion.

In the first major housing complex built on the Grand Concourse in decades, a 10-story building will rise where a former school was knocked down at Bedford Park Boulevard.

Major strategies to develop the Harlem River waterfront, from bike lanes to ball fields, were on parade at the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality (BCEQ)’s fourth annual Water Conference. While most projects are slated for communities south of Community District 7, officials also discussed visions for the local area.