Raising up 198th Street Via the Livable Neighborhoods Program

By WENDY JOAN BIDDLECOMBE

It’s past 8 p.m. on a Friday night. But Samelys Lopez, chair of Community Board 7’s Long Term Planning and Community Relations Committee and second vice-chair of the executive board, hits the 198th Street business corridor near the Grand Concourse hoping to entice neighbors to attend an upcoming event. And it’s not the regulars she’s after, but residents who barely make it to community meetings or are simply disengaged. As far as Lopez is concerned, the marginally involved are the ones she seeks the most for a workshop event set for March 26. “It’d be great to get some residents

By NORWOOD NEWS

Jasmine Gomez, one of the longer-serving interns at the Norwood News, is bidding farewell to the community paper and hello to journalism grad school. Her tenure ends a yearlong expedition into the world of community journalism, improving upon her craft while opening doors to other opportunities. Gomez, a Bronx native, was recently accepted to high-ranking Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications on a full scholarship. The Norwood News wants to publicly thank her for her contributions to the publication. Gomez began at the Norwood News on the recommendation of an employee at Mosholu Preservation Corporation. She had graduated from

Hello Faithful Readers! The digital edition of the latest Norwood News, bringing you plenty of Bronx community news you can use, is out and hitting stands as I write. So many stories, it’s hard to know where to begin. We can start at the front page, with a missing persons case that’s rattled Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights and the Bangladeshi communities in the Bronx. Mahfuza Rahman, an aspiring nurse and mother, has not been seen since December. Police are now looking to question the husband, who flew back to his native Bangladesh with their 9-year-old daughter. Find out what representatives from

Eamonn McDwyer celebrated 50 years at the helm of his business, McDwyer’s Pub, at the corner of East 204th Street and Hull Avenue. Some bars in the Bronx have been under family ownership for longer, but McDwyer the barkeep says his is the only one that’s been managed by the same person for five straight decades. Known to regulars as “Eddie,” (Eamonn is Gaelic for “Edward”), McDwyer presides over his low-key, friendly watering hole like a watchful grandfather. He moves slowly from one end of the bar to the other, topping off a Guinness at the tap, and mixing cocktails

By DAVID CRUZ & DANIELA BEASLEY

With the whiny tunes of bagpipes bellowed throughout, Rambling House once again hosted an Irish Heritage Celebration that underscored the Bronx’s Gaelic heritage. [URIS id=20474]

Hearkening Back to a Rail Yards Proposal in Bedford Park That Fizzled

By DANIELA BEASLEY

The Concourse Yards Development proposal is an innovative idea but not the first time that this airspace has been looked at to become something more for the Bronx. For years, a number of projects similar to Diaz’s current proposal languished in development, with starts and stops that cost the city millions, or ignored completely. It’s a fate that could or could not mar the proposals this time around. An original proposal dates back to 1961 when a plan to create a platform over the Concourse Yards in Bedford Park was proposed by Bronx Community College (BCC). The platform would have

By DAVID CRUZ

Zaleen Julia, 12, stood carefully monitoring the group of 10 young girls staring intently at their Dell computers. They sat inside the boxy computer lab at St. James Park Recreation Center in Fordham, learning how to code, or giving a computer program a voice. But the tedious work transformed into a thrilling exercise for the girls, utilizing a program dubbed Python, software that helps visualize the coding process. There were girls as young as 10 years old in the class, all decked out in pink T-shirts. Zaleen, a student at MS 244, wants to be a dancer, but she’s certainly

Senior Homeowners Fair The Parodneck Foundation in partnership with University Neighborhood Housing Program hosts a free Senior Homeowners Fair on March 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Serviam Gardens Bldg., 323 E. 198th St. Seniors can meet with certified housing counselors and attorneys for free financial and legal advice. For more information and to RSVP, call (212) 431-9700 ext. 391. Free Tax Services Councilman Ritchie Torres hosts free tax preparation services for Bronx residents at his office, 573 E. Fordham Rd., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., every day except Thursdays and Sundays; Mondays till 7 p.m. For

By JASMINE GOMEZ

For a few moments, Elizabeth Quaranta sat in the middle of a big pile of dirt where a beloved tree stump once stood. Found along Mosholu Parkway South between Bainbridge and Marion avenues, the tree base once decorated with lilies and other ornaments was removed by the New York City Department of Parks on Feb. 18. The uprooting of the stump, once dubbed by Quaranta as the “Giving Tree,” left many community members mournful. To many, the tree stump served as the communal arbor for neighborhood residents, where many often met up to sit and chitchat. “The community saw it