By Ian Koski
Managing Editor

Diane Foster's City Hall inauguration was more than the celebration of a newly elected councilmember.

It was a celebration of feminism, a celebration of the political progress of African-Americans, and a celebration of faith in God. Ms. Foster was praised as the embodiment of all three by a procession of speakers, headlined by U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

More than 150 supporters filled the Council chamber in City Hall for the Jan. 25 ceremony, which was Ms. Foster's third swearing-in ceremony. The oak desks and leather chairs that normally fill the chamber were pushed to the walls to make room. Her first swearing-in, with the rest of the Council, was performed on New Year's Day to make her election official and allow her to begin work. The second was held in the neighborhood on Jan. 13 in the SCAN-NY Mullaly Center at 164th Street and Jerome Avenue.

Ms. Foster was elected in November to the 16th District City Council seat previously occupied by her father, the Rev. Wendell Foster, for the last 24 years. A new term limits law forced him and 35 other members off the Council in one of the city's most historic election years.

Rev. Foster emceed his daughter's third swearing-in, at times ignoring the program and clearly relishing his final opportunity to speak at a City Hall lectern. Several of the other speakers used the opportunity to praise Rev. Foster and express their gratitude for his years of service.

The Allen ARC Choir, the Mt. Carmel B.C. Children's Choir and a pair of students from C.I.S. 339 sang a total of seven songs during the 75-minute ceremony. Their harmonies poured out of the chamber and into the marble rotunda, echoing through the corridors of City Hall.

Not the candidate backed by the Bronx Democratic Party, Ms. Foster said in her inaugural address that she felt the campaign was a constant uphill battle. While not outright saying her gender was the reason, Ms. Foster certainly implied it. "When men drew a circle counting me out, God drew a bigger circle and counted me in," she said. "I don't have any ill will against the [Bronx Democratic organization], because in good time, things that go around, come around."

Her only mention of public policy was an emphatic statement against building a new stadium for the Yankees in Macombs Dam Park using city tax dollars. "I will never work for an $800 million stadium in one of the poorest districts in the city," she vowed. "Instead, the money should be used to build new housing and improve public schools," she said, adding that the Yankees were especially unworthy of such an expense because of the team's indifference to the neighborhood.

Ms. Foster used the rest of her address to thank her supporters, particularly the 62 pastors who backed the campaign, and to avow her commitment to her constituents. She pledged to always speak the truth and to ask "what about the Bronx?" whenever money was allocated to the other boroughs.