Welcome to another thrilling edition of the Bronx Breakdown. This week we talk about the real state of the Bronx, hypocrisy in the FreshDirect deal, an ongoing racism problem at Fordham University and one ridiculously sad crime story and what you should do this weekend. Let’s break it on down.

The State of the Borough: 12.4 Percent Unemployment
I did not attend Ruben Diaz, Jr.’s state of the borough speech yesterday — though I followed along on our Twitter feed thanks to superstar reporter Jeanmarie Evelly’s deft thumb work in the darkened auditorium at Harry S. Truman High School — but I know, from reading the transcript of the speech, that he declined to mention the Bronx’s unemployment rate, which sits firmly above 12 percent. And that doesn’t even include those existing on welfare programs who have given up looking for work.

It was probably a smart move. At a whopping 12.4 percent in December, that’s 2.2 points higher than the next highest New York county, Oswego (10.2 percent).

Diaz spent much of the speech talking about all of businesses he is ushering and enticing into the Bronx and that will help. (How much it helps is, of course, up for debate. Diaz’s “strong written agreement” with FreshDirect guarantees Bronxites nothing.) And the construction projects will keep construction workers, at least some from the Bronx, working.

But it’s not going to solve the Bronx’s intractable unemployment problem. Not by a long shot. The truth is that nothing a politician can do will solve the problem.

The speech Diaz gave yesterday highlighted everything he is doing to help, but it did not tell us the state of our borough. 12.4 percent unemployment. That is the state of our borough.

Harlem River Hypocrisy
New York Times columnist Michael Powell did a fantastic job highlighting the hypocrisy of giving FreshDirect, an online grocer that relies on trucks to deliver goods to people in Manhattan, a money location on the Harlem River Yards. Gov. Mario Cuomo gave the Galesi Company a 99-year lease on the 104-acre location between the Willis Avenue and Robert F. Kennedy bridges to, ostensibly, make using the rails easier to transport goods around the city.

That, Powell points out, never happened. Instead, Galesi just rents out the space to city-subsidized companies, a list that now includes FreshDirect. The Yards were supposed to make the city less reliant on trucking. Now there will be an massively increased truck presence coming in and out of there for the foreseeable future. This is in a borough already being choked by sky-high asthma rates.

On top of that, a path through the area is supposed to connect a greenway for walkers and bicyclists that traverses the entire Bronx and connects to Randall’s Island. But that would require another deal with Galesi. Biking activists and members of the Harlem River Working Group have been working on making this path happen since the mid-1990s. Their question for city officials: How can we push through this FreshDirect deal, but not one that would connect Bronx bicyclists to Randall’s Island? Bike’s don’t pollute.

Racism at Fordham University
Earlier this month, on Feb. 7, somebody wrote the “N” word on a black students’ door. This, apparently, is not an isolated example of the racism that exists at the venerable Bronx Jesuit school. Somebody or some group carved racial slurs into a slab of wet concrete. And for Halloween, some bright young mind decided to go dressed in black face. Boo! That’s some scary stupidity.

Recently, a group calling itself the Collective of Concerned Students of Color and Anti-Racist Allies (they are concerned with brevity) posted a petition on change.org to condemn the acts and to “urge student accountability to our community and expect our fellow students to speak up about any forms or acts of prejudice, discrimination, and injustice at Fordham. We ask administrators to take affirmative steps to acknowledge, condemn, and correct these acts of prejudice and hate by continuously reflecting upon and assessing Fordham’s policies, practices, and structures that may disenfranchise, marginalize, or disregard any of our community members.”

If you’re a member of the Fordham University community and care about its reputation, I urge you to sign this.

Ridiculously Sad Crime Story of the Week (that fortunately has a somewhat happy ending)
This week’s winner: The shooting of 8-year-old Armando Bigo who was shopping for candy at a bodega with his mom when a bullet flew through the store and lodged in his chest. On the plus side, Armando is well on his way to recovery, while police say they have identified a suspect in the shooting.

What you should do this weekend
Go to the Bronx Parks Speak Up at Lehman College on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.