Bronx Barriers: Understanding Your Health

By SHANNON MEEHAN of WFUV

The Norwood News and WFUV continue their five-part series profiling ongoing challenges impacting the Bronx. When Dr. Eric Gayle, a family physician, began treating patients in the Bronx 20 years ago, assessing a patient’s ability to comprehend health information, known as health literacy, wasn’t part of his initial health assessment. That changed after a surprising revelation made by one of his long-standing patients. Despite his patient telling him she understood how to read directions he wrote on the back of a prescription, Dr. Gayle soon learned he was misled. His patient didn’t know how to read. “I was stunned,” says

By DAVID CRUZ

The New York State Appeals Court has ruled Junior High School 80 in Norwood receive a $3 million grant that was stripped away by the state last year after officials took the near century-old school off a so-called turnaround list for chronically failing schools. But the grant remains imperiled since the state has one last shot of denying the funds at a hearing in May. JHS 80, resting on a hilltop on Mosholu Parkway North, was part of a class action lawsuit filed last September claiming the state’s budget director illegally froze taxpayer grants intended to improve school performance

Editor’s Pick Free Physical Activities Open House The public is invited to a free Inaugural Adaptive Sports Open House at the Williamsbridge Oval, April 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (meet outside the Recreation Center). Events include hands-on equipment demonstrations, participation in sample adaptive sports sessions, educational health materials, and a 1-mile walk around Oval Park with the docs at Montefiore. Adaptive sports offers physical activity for people with disabilities. For more information, call (718) 547-4940. Onstage The Williamsbridge Oval’s Recreation Center hosts William Shakespeare’s “The Twelfth Night,” April 8 at 1 p.m. RSVP to sarah.bishow@parks.nyc.gov. For more information,

Hello Loyal Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News, covering all things Norwood and its surrounding communities, is out with plenty of news you can use. We begin, of course, with page 1, and a front cover story on issues within the city Education Department’s Gifted and Talented programs. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and his counterpart in Brooklyn, Eric Adams, have a task force underway that’s examining these inequalities. Read the lengths parents are willing to make to ensure their kids are in a program that’s seen as a ticket to specialized high schools, which help pave a

Just more than $3 billion in residential, commercial and institutional projects have been pumped into the Bronx in 2016, according to a newly released report, signaling a continued trend of a Bronx on the mend. But the report hedges its bets somewhat, throwing in its report the Kingsbridge National Ice Center project, which was mired in delays and near extinction last year. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., which drafted the report and presented it at a forum focusing on development projects in the Bronx, included the $350 million project in the report nonetheless. The KNIC project stalled after developers

By DEBORAH CRUZ

Mixed emotions engulfed a recent Community Board 7 Housing/Land Use and Zoning Committee meeting when the Stagg Group, a housing development firm, sat down to present plans for a 13-story building to be built at the crossroads of Norwood and Bedford Park. Mark Stagg, CEO of the Stagg Group, and the firm’s executive vice president, Adolfo Carrion, laid out the plans for the Mosholu Grand, a 153-unit residence to be built at 150 Van Cortlandt Ave. The building gets its name from its proximity to Mosholu Parkway and the Grand Concourse. “We think this is a tremendous opportunity at the

Participatory Budgeting is once again under way in Councilman Andrew Cohen’s 11th Council District, which includes Norwood and Bedford Park, partially shifting a process that’s usually tasked by elected officials in a representative government and placing it into the hands of the electorate. The question posed to the public is simple: If you had $1 million to put towards physical improvements in your neighborhood, what would they be? For the past six months, a handful of residents have bounced that question around, coming up with a list of projects that can benefit their communities. During the last week of March,

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

By DAVID GREENE

With the recent closing of the CVS Pharmacy in Norwood, this week we asked readers their thoughts on the future of brick and mortar business and the impact the Internet is having on local businesses. I’m a cook professionally; businesses are always going to take losses regardless. Even in the cooking industry when you order food, you have to automatically look at that. Yes, businesses are in danger because people rely on technology too much. So what’s going to happen is people won’t be able to take care of their families, because there’s not going to be any work. We’re

Participatory Budgeting Residents age 14 and over, and living within the 11th Council District, which includes Norwood and Bedford Park, can vote for up to five construction projects proposed for the district under Participatory Budgeting. To vote, log on to http://council.nyc.gov/pb/. Immigration Forum The Legal Aid Society will host a Know Your Rights immigration forum on April 3 at 9 a.m. at Montefiore Health System’s Moses Campus, Cherkasky Auditorium, 111 E. 210th St. (East Gun Hill Road entrance). Free Gardening Classes The New York Botanical Garden will host a free home gardening program on April 2 from 9:30 to 11