State Senator Adriano Espaillat largely owes his primary victory in the Democratic 13th Congressional District race to the Bronx, which takes up 20 percent of the gerrymandered district that also covers Norwood. Mr. Espaillat took in 15,735 votes over the presumptive frontrunner, Assemblyman Keith Wright, who took in 14,499 votes in a stunning upset. Mr. Espaillat also won the Bronx by 853 votes.

Granted, June 28 did mark a primary, but with the district heavily Democratic, November’s General Election will formally see Mr. Espaillat ascend to the seat.

With that: Mr. Espaillat, please open a Bronx constituent services office. After all, it’s a trend every other congressional lawmaker in the Bronx has followed, and it could help you secure another term in 2018.

For four years, taking a complaint to Mr. Espaillat’s predecessor, the legendary Congressman Charles Rangel, meant trekking to his constituent services office at 163 W. 125th St. That didn’t sound too good for the senior citizen relying on mass transit to get there, or the new immigrant just getting to know how the system works. Issues, unfortunately, were left unresolved.

Mr. Rangel tried to compensate by holding town hall meetings in the Bronx, though they were poorly publicized and didn’t quite generate the attendance that would have benefitted him or his Bronx constituents. Too bad.

Finding an office could be easy for Mr. Espaillat, thanks to the Members Representational Allowance (MRA), the official expense account for members of Congress. Last year, the MRA gave legislators a median allowance of $1.2 million for office-related expenses, which includes rent for office space. Mr. Rangel blamed a Republican Congress for not allocating funds for an office during the 2013 debt-ceiling crisis. But perhaps he figured his retirement made it pointless to open a Bronx office. Too bad. A Bronx office would be money well spent.

While on the campaign trail, Mr. Espaillat stressed his first priority as an elected Congressman would be to open a Bronx office, though no specifics were offered on when and where.

It’s long been claimed that Harlem’s electoral powerbase has whittled down some, thanks to changing demographics in the diverse yet somewhat segregated district. The influence has moved upward to Manhattan’s Inwood and Washington Heights neighborhoods, which, like Mr. Espaillat, is heavily Hispanic, much like the Bronx. A presence, therefore, is certainly needed.

For a constituent services office to succeed, it must be attuned to the issues that the federal government can fix. For the Bronx, issues that require a caseworker include immigration, housing, job recruitment, local economic development, and even inconveniences at the local post office. A report by Office: MG, a think tank group, released a report shortly after the 2014 election and recommended “constituent issues surrounding topics of language” would make for a successful strategy. Bilingual services should also be available.

There’s this prevailing notion that the Bronx is viewed as an afterthought, a borough that “gets no respect,” to quote the late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield. The notion is quite the opposite. Rife with issues of unemployment, healthcare disparities, tenant displacement and hints of gentrification, the Bronx side of the 13th Congressional District is in desperate need of help. For the district to continue deprived of congressional representation would be abysmal.

One more thing about the Bronx: It does not forget. So Mr. Espaillat, remember to open a Bronx office. Your opponents will keep you to your word.

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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.