Editorial

North Central Bronx Crisis

The Giuliani administration is acting irresponsibly with regards to the precarious situation at North Central Bronx Hospital. Rather than make its intentions to close and perhaps sell the facility clear, and permitting a healthy public debate on such a serious matter, the city is clouding reality with official denials and bureaucratic doublespeak. The head of city's hospital system, Luis Marcos, told The New York Times this spring that the city intended to close the facility within a couple of years, but quickly backpedaled when faced with community opposition. Despite the denials, the administration's actions speak for themselves. Closing departments or "consolidating" them with Jacobi on the other side of the borough have the same impact whether or not the city acknowledges its plans in public.

Residents of the northwest Bronx, many of them poor, have come to rely on services North Central provides. Health care is too serious an issue to be toyed with, and the slow, but deliberate, closing of a city hospital without public hearings is wrong and possibly illegal. Luckily, there is a growing local opposition, including elected officials and community organizations, which may succeed in making the city listen whether it wants to or not.

Fairwell, David Nolan

In every neighborhood, there are people who work to make things better. Norwood, Bedford Park and Fordham Bedford are particularly blessed with dedicated citizens committed to community improvement.

Father David Nolan, a priest at St. Brendan's Church, is one of those people. Sadly, for us, he has moved on to be pastor of a parish in Manhattan. Fr. Nolan gave new energy to the church's Teen Club, and was successful at reaching and including young people who others may have considered a lost cause. Fr. Nolan, fluent in Spanish, was also a welcoming presence for the church's growing Spanish-speaking community, a flock he tended to and nurtured with tremendous feeling and dedication.

Norwood will miss David Nolan, but at the same time it's reassuring to know that he leaves behind a legacy as he brings his important work to a new community.

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