The BDC launched the first issue of BDC Focus, a newspaper created by students and teachers of the Bronx Junior Photo League (BJPL), the BDC education program. It is printed in English and Spanish and distributed for free in the South Bronx community.
The editors-in-chief are Ricardo J. Partida, BJPL Coordinator, and Pamela Y. Rozon, a BJPL alumnus who is now studying journalism at Hunter College. This issue features a two-month-long investigation by BJPL students into NYCHA energy waste: the lights stay turned on all day in several NYCHA buildings in the Bronx, violating the housing authority’s own sustainability agenda which focuses on saving energy and making homes comfortable for residents. The reporters calculated that at current commercial Con Edison rates, this amounts to $82,804 in wasted tax dollars. The students interviewed residents, and people at the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality and Environmental Policy Director at New York Public Interest Research Group.