Editorial: Honoring the Good Guys

The police and community need each other to combat crime and keep our streets safe. It’s a symbiotic relationship that needs nourishing. And the council breakfast helps feed that relationship. It also introduces us to some often overlooked heroism.

Election Day Dispatches: Long, But Efficient Lines at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center

Early this afternoon, there about 15 people waiting in the line to vote outside the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center poll site at the corner of Dekalb Avenue and Gun Hill Road. Not too bad, unless you consider the additional 100 people voting inside.

Election Day Dispatches: Heat and Long Lines at JHS 80

Poll site JHS 80, which is poll site number X0037, located on 149 East Mosholu Parkway, had about 35 people waiting on line to vote. Robert Cruz, a recent voter, is disappointed with the process of voting this site presented him with. He said he waited nearly an hour to be able to vote in a cafeteria lacking air ventilation. “Waiting almost an hour can discourage people from voting,” he says.

Editorial: Three Years Later, Two Viable Armory Options

Whether it becomes a regional ice sport center or an innovative town hall-style marketplace, the coming redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory will be a positive addition to the Bronx landscape.

Editorial: Sector Stats are Back, But Legislation Stalls

Just before the Norwood News went to press for this issue (Oct. 4-17), we received a letter with a packet of valuable information from the New York City Police Department. Almost exactly five months after we filed a Freedom of Information Law request, the NYPD had delivered crime statistics for each of the sectors within the 52nd Precinct, which includes all of the neighborhoods in our primary coverage area — Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, as well as University and Kingsbridge Heights. That means we now have crime statistics on your specific neighborhood, not just the monolithic precinct as a whole. We will be analyzing this data and offering it to you in coming editions of the paper.

Op-ed: Medicare Part D Works

As the founder of Women in Progress, a nonprofit in the Bronx that helps women who are rebuilding their lives, I am greatly concerned about proposed changes to Medicare Part D. This is a program that is not only helping women I serve, but is a crucial benefit that provides for the people that serve as their support system — mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Medicare Part D has radically improved the healthcare of over 43 million seniors in America.

Op-ed: To the Men of the Bronx, Mentors Wanted

For many of us, summer brings to mind childhood memories of baseball games, barbeques and trips to the beach. But for thousands of young people in the Bronx who grow up below the poverty line in single-parent households, summer is just another reminder of what they don’t have.

Passage: Reflecting on My Father in the Bronx

Michael Popowich Sr. was born on March 14, 1944, and lived until June 15, 2012. It is my sad opportunity to share this with his friends and neighbors in the Bronx. Dad grew up in Manhattan, and was raised by my Uncle Walter Kunick, who also lived in the Norwood section of the Bronx by the Reservoir Oval — the same neighborhood where I lived with my father for over 40 years.

Letter to the Editor: Stop “Stop and Frisk”

With respect to the front page story in your March 8 – 21 issue regarding “stop and frisk,” it seems that for a police officer to use his authority to stop and search anyone at random and without cause is truly reprehensible. No one should be subjected to random frisking at the whim of a policeman merely because he can. Ditto for detaining anyone for questioning without any good cause. There have already been numerous stories in the dailies about police overstepping their authority and this issue is no different. There are those who may call this racial profiling, but