Eleven pre-teen girls in Ballet Hispanico’s Spanish dance class stand at attention at one edge of the room, heels up, ruffled skirts pulled at the hip and chins pushed forward. While some faces betray intense concentration, others are ready to go ahead and charge.

“I want bullfighter girls,” cheered their teacher, Sandra Rivera, before starting their Paso Doble music. “Let me see a beautiful position… Enjoy yourselves!”

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A new 11-story building overlooks the river on 140th Street in West Harlem. It has a rooftop terrace, new Energy Star appliances and its very own library. It also has its very own clientele: More than half of the apartments are reserved for ex-convicts.

Published in Amsterdam News

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After three frigid days of Thanksgiving week without heat, residents at Lafayette Gardens housing development welcomed news that their heating system was back online Friday, November 26. But as winter’s chill has set in over the last week, the tenants of the New York City Housing Authority complex say their heating problems are far from fixed. Co-written with An H. Phung for The NY Times Blog – The Local, Fort Greene

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Two of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s largest Catholic churches are ending the year in a period of financial scrutiny. To deal with a running deficit, the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Strategic Planning Commission and Parish Task Force is in the midst of a review of the 197 Catholic churches in Brooklyn and Queens, according to its Web site.

Published at The NY Times Blog – The Local, Forte Greene

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Published at Our Town Press, Photo By Andrew Schwartz

Heidelberg Restaurant is reminiscent of grandma’s living room—warm and cozy, speckled with holiday decorations, and filled with people so at ease they must all be related.

Against an influx of box-stores and high-rises, Heidelberg has remained a stalwart reminder of Yorktown’s more German-populated days since the 1930s.

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For Rita D. Strickland, April 1st, 2005 was not just another April Fool’s Day. It was the day of her re-birth. She received a heart transplant, and this nurse and nurse educator took her experience and transformed it into a story she shares wherever she can. Her mission – to dispel health myths in the minority community and decrease the fear of organ donation.

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