THE WEEK IN POLITICS

POLITICAL ARENA

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Spending in CB 8

When Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. released “Bronx Subsidy Snapshots” of the borough’s 12 community boards and Fiscal Year 2009 projects funded by the City’s Industrial Development Agency, there were some interesting finds in Riverdale. 

The IDA “subsidizes development projects throughout the Bronx, with the goal of creating and retaining jobs in the city,” according to a release posted on the Beep’s website. Mr. Diaz Jr. released them to encourage community boards to work with recipients to help create jobs. 

Maps for projects within CB 8 show that among the eight projects are five private school projects in Riverdale — including the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Horace Mann, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Riverdale Country School.

To see how they spent their money to create jobs (or didn’t), go to the homepage of the Bronx Borough President’s website, at http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/.

Term limit fight cont’d

Tony Cassino, a former Community Board 8 member and Riverdale resident who served on the 2010 Charter Revision Commission, has joined with a broad coalition of civic leaders to sponsor a public referendum on the heels of one that just passed. 

“This past November, voters once again strongly supported a two-term limit for all city elected officials by a margin of 74 to 26 percent.  However, that provision contained an unacceptable exemption for incumbents that needs to now be corrected,” he said. 

But now he wants to give the voters a chance to decide whether or not incumbents should be awarded a term limit exemption. He invites the public to help gather more than 30,000 signatures from voters to place this question on the ballot in 2011.  Anyone who would like to sign or get involved can contact NY Civic at http://nycivic.org or call 212-564-4441.

Trouble recruiting?

Mr. Diaz Jr. recently sent out a citywide call for community board members on all 12 Bronx boards. 

The spots can be hard to fill so new board members must have a connection to the neighborhood they seek to represent but only need to live within city limits. 

Recruiting, however, will not be too hard for Community Board 8, which the borough president’s office said is not usually a problem. 

However, residents in Riverdale, Kingsbridge and Marble Hill who have street credit in other Bronx neighborhoods might think about applying for a board other than CB 8.  

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