Fernando Cabrera didn’t wait until Jan. 1 to become the councilman for the 14th District. Right after the November general election, without an office, a Council salary or a paid staff, Cabrera attended community meetings and events, met with community leaders, and helped lead the charge for the Bronx delegation in defeating the Bloomberg administration’s plans to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping mall.

The hard work and passion he has exhibited thus far is promising and fills a giant gap left by his predecessor, Maria Baez, who had the worst City Council attendance record and was rarely seen at important community meetings. 

We do worry he will be spread thin by other substantial professional obligations. He is pastor of New Life Outreach International Church on Morris Avenue and he still plans to teach courses on-line for Mercy College, where he has been a professor of counseling.  Only time will tell if he can handle it all, but we hope he prioritizes the position he was just elected to. His constituents are counting on him.

It also troubles us that Cabrera said during a televised debate that he had a good attendance record at Community Board 7 meetings. In reality, for the meetings the Board has records for during Cabrera’s two-year tenure (the Norwood News submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain them), Cabrera attended only half the meetings (seven out of 14). Maybe he’d chalk that up to a harmless campaign exaggeration, but we hope Cabrera will hold himself to a higher standard going forward.

All in all, though, it seems that after too long a wait, constituents of the 14th District will be getting the energetic leadership they deserve.