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Carrión Predicts Action on Armory

Pronouncing himself “sick and tired of talking about the Kingsbridge Armory,” Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. said he expected “action” in the long-delayed renovation of the Kingsbridge Armory within the next 24 months.

“We need some action, and I think, I am confident, that working with the Bronx leadership, we’re going to be able to, in the next 24 months, see the kind of action we haven’t seen in [a] dozen years at the Kingsbridge Armory to create educational space and retail space and jobs, and construction jobs, and opportunity for the Bronx,” Carrión said in his State of the Borough address at Lehman High School last week.

Carrión did not provide the reasoning behind his new-found optimism regarding the project, which has been hopelessly mired in political squabbles and general bureaucratic inertia since the state handed the vacant landmark over to the city in 1993. Any attempt to redevelop the armory hinges partly on finding a new home for the National Guard, which occupies two buildings behind the armory’s massive drill hall.

But the Bloomberg administration’s indecision on the matter also may be playing a role keeping the facility in mothballs.

The Norwood News reported in the previous issue that administration officials are debating the possibility of moving the police academy to the armory. That prospect is unpopular with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition which, in conjunction with a large real estate developer, has drafted detailed plans that include the same components Carrión delineated in his speech.


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.

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