Bronx News Roundup, Jan. 15

Those who find themselves stuck in toll booth-induced traffic on the Henry Hudson Bridge can look forward to a speedier commute: The M.T.A. is formulating a plan to speed up traffic and reduce car emissions by creating more efficient E-ZPass tolls (no more slowing to a halt, then passing). Staffed booths will be slowly phased out, in the hopes of eventually reaching an all-electronic toll system.

Students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture will be key to the "reinvention" of Fordham Landing. Community Board 7 is asking the students to create a recreational environment out of the truckyard.

A workshop for people over the age of 65 was held yesterday at the Senior Center in Throgs Neck. Attendees were presented the frightening facts: While this age group accounts for 13 percent of New York State's population, they fall victim to over 30 percent of crimes, especially money scams.

Technical schools are being hit especially hard by this year's round of school closings. The South Bronx Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School has responded with a video. Nathaniel Wight, a literacy teacher and one of the collaborators of the project, said, “My own objective was to try to illustrate what would happen if these shop classes that do such amazing things with students were taken away."