The Norwood News took a look back at 2016’s first editorial, “Welcoming 2016 With Predictions on New Round of Stories,” which forecasted stories for the next 12 months. With that, we look back on these predictions and what really happened:

Securing the Oval: 2015 saw more and more police making arrests at Williamsbridge Oval Park, a park frequented by hundreds daily. Fires tormented police for months, but have since subsided. That’s a good thing. Safeguarding the park, a key source of entertainment for a largely working class community, is critical. If a populace fears a park, it will only signal a reduced quality of life. Police have been conducting patrols, and it’s best they adhere to that practice.

Taking Out Gangs/Crews: Tip of the hat to the 52nd Precinct for taking out a massive gang at East 194th Street in August, an area where too many residents are still afraid to walk around at night. The apprehension of 39 gangbangers became a highlight for the Five-Two, inspiring its commanding officer to award some of the operation’s officers with the “Takedown Award” at the 52nd Precinct Community Council’s Fellowship Breakfast. The police won’t say this, but more and more gangs/crews continue to lurk within the 52nd Precinct. They’re in areas like Tracey Towers and within sections of Bedford Park south. It’s only a matter of time before we hear of another arrest.

Kingsbridge Armory: This is perhaps a sore subject for Kingsbridge stakeholders, who thought the Kingsbridge Armory, which was intended for the world’s largest ice skating center, would be shovel ready. Unfortunately, when lawyers get involved, in this case lawyers with the de Blasio administration, it becomes a mess. At the center of this dispute is whether ice center developers have the right financing in place to proceed with the first phase of the project. The city doesn’t think so despite all these assurances from developers that it does. And so it has, for the last year, remained at a standstill with no end in sight. News of an impasse was made more tangible on Dec. 20 when a Bronx judge ruled that the city was right in not releasing a lease to KNIC until it has actual funds in its account. It’s a shame that the project, touted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and given nominal praise by Mayor Bill de Blasio, is frozen. It’s a bad pun, though there’s no other way around it. It’s too bad Diaz can’t use his political juice to grease the wheels more.

Dec. 10, 2016 marked three years since the New York City Council voted in favor of the project. Since then, the Council, including the sitting Councilman for the district that overlaps with the Armory, Councilman Fernando Cabrera, has remained neutral on the matter, which is a shame. Perhaps 2017 will see a shift in tone.

Gentrification: The G-word remained a hot button issue in a borough undergoing changes. The South Bronx, specifically Mott Haven/Hunts Point was chief among those areas gentrified, according to estimates by the NYU Furman Center, a think tank group. Figures show rents have risen by 28 percent in the last 24 years, according to the Furman Center. Meantime, Norwood/Kingsbridge Heights have seen a 17.5 percent increase in the last 24 years, ranking the neighborhood as one of 15 neighborhoods seeing gentrification. All eyes are on the Jerome Avenue stretch, beginning at East 184th Street all the way down to East 167th Street. The idea of an improved neighborhood works, though not at the expense of removing its existing population, which settled in that neighborhood first. The de Blasio administration and the New York City Department of City Planning should constructively consider the people who have carved lives there and consider other forms of neighborhood improvement. Until then, the protests will continue.

Election Races: The election race presented plenty of surprises on the federal level, where the United States now plunges into a Trump presidency that will long be remembered as its most shocking. Trump did not win the popular vote; that went to his opponent, Hillary Clinton, a candidate with so many skeletons in her political closet that it cost her the election. The president-elect is coming into the White House with no political skeletons, but give him time. On a local federal level, 2016 saw Congressman Charles Rangel retire after 46 years in office. Rangel didn’t pay too much attention to the Bronx portion of his 13th Congressional District, which did hurt him when backing Assemblyman Keith Wright to replace him. Wright, the presumptive frontrunner, had lost to state Senator Adriano Espaillat. This led Espaillat to becoming Congress’s first Dominican-born legislator and reflecting a demographics shift in the majority of the district.

On the state level, other races went to the predicted winner. Assemblyman Jose Rivera, whose participation is at times sporadic, once again secured a victory. He faced a formidable opponent in Ischia Bravo, clinching more votes than any Rivera opponent. We missed our prediction that Rivera will give up his seat for his daughter, former Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, but then again, Rivera hasn’t entered his new term yet.

On the other hand, the Norwood News was on point when it predicted a tamer Albany due to the removal of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Tip of the hat to US Attorney Preet Bharara, who stood up to take out the political trash.

So why did we go backwards? The answer: to look forward. In some ways 2016 was a year best described as “two steps forward, one step back.” While there was progress on some fronts, others were just too complicated to proceed. For the Bronx to keep moving forward, it should begin taking risks. We’ll leave it to the reader to decide on those risks.