Happy Friday and welcome to the Bronx News Roundup. These are the Bronx stories we’re following today.

Bronx-born former New York City Mayor Ed Koch died this morning of congestive heart failure. We won’t pretend to sum up his life here, so we’ll simply lead you to some of the coverage, including: the NY Times’ exhaustive obituary; a Postscript from the New Yorker; a handy timeline from the Daily News; a bunch of Koch-related videos on Capital NY; and an audio piece from NPR.

Koch is credited with helping bring the Bronx’s housing stock back from the extreme devastation of the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1998, Bronx Boro Prez Fernando Ferrer invited Koch back to the South Bronx neighborhoods where his housing initiatives, which invest billions of dollars throughout the Bronx and other downtrodden parts of New York City. The Times’ David Gonzalez, a Bronxite himself, wrote about it, capturing much of the charismatic former mayor’s infectious personality.

Gonzalez, now the editor of the Times’ Lens Blog, writes about the life and career of photographer Librado “Lee” Romero, a former Norwood resident, who retired from the Times. He begins the story with how he met Librado: at an Antonio Aguilar (the “Mexican Roy Rodgers”) show at the Kingsbridge Armory. It also includes a beautiful slide show of Librado’s work over the year.

Community leaders are rallying to keep Council District 8 lines from moving so far into the South Bronx and abandoning parts of East Harlem, DNAinfo reports.

The invaluable Bronx Council on the Arts is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year, NY1 reports. Happy B-Day BCA!

A little more detail on the community benefits agreement talks between the local community groups and the developers looking to take over the Kingsbridge Armory, the Bronx Times reports.

The US Postal Service wants to sell the historic Bronx General Post Office on the Grand Concourse, DNAinfo reports.

Bronx real estate sales spiked in 2012, DNAinfo reports.

Some good juice from Kappy at the Bronx Times on Jeff Klein and the 15th Council District race.

In honor of Friday, some beer-related news, including the opening of a new beer hall on Arthur Ave. (DNAinfo) and a fundraising effort at the bar An Beal Bocht in Riverdale (Riverdale Press), with some fantastic pictures.

And finally, a shout out to my father, whose recent retirement after 27 years of leading the Fauntleroy United Church of Christ was covered beautifully by the West Seattle Blog. Anyone looking to get a better idea of your humble narrator’s background, check this out. Good work, pops!