2010 Year in Review: Local Senior Center Saved From Closure

In June, seniors who frequent Tolentine Zeiser Senior Center were given some devastating news: The center, and dozens of others around in the city, were to be closed because of budget cuts.

Staff took the pictures off the walls and filled several cardboard boxes with Christmas lights and other supplies they’d accumulated over the years. And they readied themselves for June 30, the center’s last day of operation.

Then the unexpected happened. Tolentine and about 25 other senior centers in the five boroughs, including R.A.I.N Bailey in Kingsbridge Heights, were handed a last minute reprieve when Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speaker Christine Quinn struck a deal to restore funding.

Councilman Fernando Cabrera said he spoke to Quinn and was “just stubborn about it,” pointing out to her that his district had fewer senior centers than most others.

Tolentine’s seniors expressed relief that their “second home” remains open. But its future is uncertain. The 2011 budget “is going to be even worse,” Cabrera said, and more proposed cuts could be around the corner.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.