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MMCC Hit Hard By Government Budget Cuts

Major cutbacks in government spending, on both the local and federal level, have left several community centers in the northwest Bronx struggling to make ends meet this year.

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) in Norwood, which runs dozens of after-school sites, a senior citizen center, and other programs serving more than 28,000 Bronxites each year, has been appealing to neighbors for donations over the last few months in an effort to keep the center afloat.

“Bottom line, we are probably close to a million dollars in cuts,” said Executive Director Donald Bluestone. “We’ve been closing programs, laying off staff. It’s a serious problem.”MMCC relies largely on funding from legislators and government agencies that have seen their budgets slashed in the face of ballooning deficits.

“The staff here didn’t have a raise last year, and we’re probably looking at the same situation this year,” Bluestone continued. “It’s just a very bad time.”

The center is losing out this year on federal funding in the form of member items or earmarks — money provided by legislators to projects or organizations in their home districts — an act banned this year by Congress in an effort to cut back on spending.

That means MMCC won’t receive the $375,000 it relied on from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to run its teen center in Co-Op City.

Former Gov. David Paterson also vetoed member item funds from state senators and assemblymembers from the budget during the last fiscal year.

This upcoming year may not be any better, as new Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget has most state agencies operating on a shoestring—ultimately meaning less money for local community programs.

“These budget cuts have hit everybody,” said Angel Caballero, executive director at Davidson Community Center, on Davidson and Burnside avenues, which runs a senior program and offers housing help and childcare, among other services.

“We’ve had to close programs and or do them with volunteers,” Caballero said, adding that the center has been forced to lay off three staff members. “We don’t have an afterschool program anymore—that got cut last year.”

“We’re trying to do the same amount with less money,” said Bernie Hernandez, who runs an MMCC afterschool center at PS 86 in Kingsbridge Heights.

“We don’t have equipment,” he said.  “When you have so many kids but only one basketball, it’s not going to work.”

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.

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