The old Fordham Library served our community for decades; its proposed conversion into a school would have served the community well as would a proposed community center. Changing a building constructed to serve community residents to sheltering animals is an insult to a neighborhood that has lacked social services and recreational space since the very first private homes and apartment buildings went up. From Fordham Road to 201st Street between Webster Avenue and the Grand Concourse, there is not one playground.
An apt description of the city’s current response to the community’s need for the library building would be “the city is literally letting the neighborhood go to the dogs.”
-Msgr. John Jenik
The writer is pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church in North Fordham. This letter was originally written as a comment on the West Bronx Blog (www.westbronxnews.blogspot.com).

