Lawyers, judges and tenant advocates say the staggering economy has sent an increasing number of middle-class renters across New York City to the brink of eviction, straining the legal and financial services of city agencies and charities. Suddenly, residents of middle-class havens like Rego Park in Queens and Riverdale in the Bronx are crowding into the city’s already burdened housing courts, long known as poor people’s court.

No one knows exactly how many of those kinds of tenants are facing eviction; the city’s five housing courts, and two smaller community courts that hear similar cases, do not keep data on the income level of litigants. Overall, court records show that the number of cases filed citywide for nonpayment of rent jumped about 19 percent in the first two months of 2009 from the same period last year, to 42,257 from 35,588. Read more..

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Gov. David A. Paterson will step up his efforts this month to orchestrate a rescue of the financially struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a top aide said on Wednesday.

“This is now going to be the governor’s main focus with the Legislature in the next couple of weeks,” said Marc V. Shaw, a senior adviser to the governor.

The governor has endorsed a rescue plan for the authority that was proposed by a state commission that he created, headed by Richard Ravitch, a former authority chairman.

The plan calls for a new payroll tax to be paid by all employers in the 12-county region served by the authority. It also calls for imposing tolls on the Harlem River and East River bridges connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

The authority has said that if the plan is not approved, it will have to raise fare and toll revenue by 23 percent, starting in June, and make deep cuts in service. Both measures are meant to help close a budget deficit this year of $1.2 billion and even larger ones projected in coming years. Read more..

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ALBANY — Pedro Espada Jr. who is expected to become the majority leader of the State Senate in January, owes more than $60,000 in fines to New York City’s Campaign Finance Board, dating to his 2001 run for Bronx borough president. He has appealed the fines in state court.

In addition, state elections officials in Albany say that Mr. Espada did not register his campaign for Senate this year; and he could face more than $6,000 in fines. It is not the first time he has run afoul of the State Board of Elections: His 2000 Senate campaign was fined for failing to submit finance reports.

In 2005, three employees of a Bronx nonprofit health care company run by Mr. Espada, the Soundview HealthCare Network, pleaded guilty to diverting $30,000 from programs for family care and AIDS treatment to one of his campaigns. Mr. Espada was never charged.

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Espada said he had made mistakes in some cases and had been unfairly accused in others. The scrutiny, he added, is part of politics. Read more..

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Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times

Hostos Community College in the South Bronx now offers nursing courses in the evening and on weekends.

At Hostos Community College in the South Bronx, located in what the 2000 census found to be the nation’s poorest Congressional district, 176 people have applied to study nursing this year, up from 135 in 2007. Read more..

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A New Dominican Face in Bronx Politics

Nelson Castro, campaigning in the Bronx for NY State Assembly

Few people inside or outside of Bronx political circles knew much about Nelson Castro just a few months ago. Yet in a short time, Mr. Castro, a 36-year-old former coordinator with a health insurance company, has positioned himself to become the first Dominican-born member of the Legislature from the Bronx.

Mr. Castro was deeply involved in Democratic politics in Washington Heights, the heart of the Dominican community in New York City. He was once chief of staff to Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican member of the Assembly. But he and Mr. Espaillat had a less-than-amicable parting of the ways. He moved to the Bronx three years ago and started to work with civic groups in the University Heights area.

This year, he decided to run for district leader against the incumbent, Hector Ramirez. But before that campaign got off the ground, the Assemblyman in the district, Luis Diaz, resigned to take a community affairs position in the administration of Gov. David A. Paterson.

Assemblyman Diaz had already obtained signatures for his petitions to get on the ballot for the Sept. 9 Democratic primary, when he decided not to run, so that placed the decision about a replacement on the ballot with a committee on vacancies, a five-member panel consisting of people close to the Bronx Democratic organization and its chairman, Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

After interviewing a number of aspirants, the committee selected Mr. Castro.

“I want to continue the work that Luis Diaz did in his years in the Assembly,” Mr. Castro said. “He did a lot of work with seniors and I want to continue that. I also want to develop more programs to keep kids in school and to expand on child care programs for women with kids.”

Of course, it will not be a completely easy run for Mr. Castro. He faces a Democratic primary opponent, Mike Soto. Mr. Soto is the brother of Richard Soto, a politically active business man in the Bronx who has run for office in the past. But Mr. Soto has campaigned little if at all and his telephone number is not accepting messages (the memory is full, the recording said).

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