Norwood News

In the mid-1990s at a meeting about the fate of the then recently abandoned Kingsbridge Armory, we were chatting with School District 10 official Bruce Irushalmi about the new councilman for the area, Adolfo Carrión.  “He could be governor some day!” an impressed Irushalmi said.

You don’t hear that much anymore.  Carrión is still ambitious and may still be headed for the political stratosphere, but it’s been a long time since Bronxites talked like that or rooted for him to be governor or mayor or anything else.

That’s largely because he has promoted large, unpopular development projects by running over community opposition. 
Only three of 18 community groups signed on to the Gateway Mall Community Benefits Agreement because the rest considered the process a sham. 

And he kept his stadium opponents out in the cold (literally, on the occasion of one critical public hearing where supporters were bused in) and then threw those who didn’t do his bidding off the community board.

This brand of leadership is not the kind practiced by Carrión’s prospective new boss, President Barack Obama, who encourages dissent to strengthen his own ideas and programs.  Obama knows he’s smart but also knows he doesn’t know everything.

If Carrión makes it to the White House, we hope and expect that he will be a strong voice for the Bronx and urban needs and that he learns valuable leadership lessons from Obama.

In the meantime, we wish the borough president and his family well and look forward to following his important work at such a critical time in our borough’s, and our nation’s, history.