Borough President Visits Mary Mitchell Center

February 19, 2010

By JEANMARIE EVELLY

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. visited the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center, a neighborhood staple in Crotona, on Feb. 11.

He took a tour of the building, which included a stop to watch an ongoing badminton game and help color a Valentine’s Day card with some of the students at the center’s after school program.

Staff and board members at Mary Mitchell also briefed the borough president on their plans to build a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly community center on two baseball fields on Mapes Avenue, between East 180th and East 181st streets.

Construction of the center—dubbed the Astin Jacobo Center after the neighborhood organizer who created the baseball fields there—will cost them approximately $66 million. Advocates for the plan have hoped to get federal stimulus money to help fund the project and are looking to elected officials, like the borough president, for support.

Diaz, Jr. said he would support Mary Mitchell in their quest, but could not make a concrete financial commitment at the moment. He said their plans for the center are “impressive,” and “everything that I envision for the future of Bronx.”

Congressman Jose Serrano has also backed the project, having provided funds for Mary Mitchell back in 2006 so they could purchase the vacant building next to the ball fields.

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