On a Monday in the middle of May, I made my first trip to the Bronx and the Norwood News. It was pouring down rain. The kind of New York City rain an umbrella fails to protect you from no matter how hard it tries. No problem, I remember thinking, I’m from the Pacific Northwest where rain is a way of life. I got this.

The bigger problem, of course, was finding my way to the Norwood News’ office. And this was back in 2006. Before Hop Stop. Before iPhones (yes, it’s true, there was such a time). The News’ headquarters isn’t an easy find to begin with. Located on a one-way, oval-shaped street, even local pizza delivery guys and old school cabbies routinely call us, befuddled with their destination.

But wait, I’m already getting ahead of myself. I needed a job. At the time, I was a broke student living in Washington, DC, working on a masters degree in journalism. While chasing down senators on Capitol Hill, I kept one eye on jobs opening up in New York, where my then girlfriend, now wife, was finishing her own masters at Columbia University. Because she planned on staying in the city to work after graduation, Tessa highly encouraged me to join her (or else, I thought).

While in town for her graduation ceremony, which fell on that fateful Monday, I found an online advertisement for a job opening as deputy editor of the Norwood News. It looked perfect for a hungry, young reporter looking to gain experience in the Big Apple. Only problem was it expired the day of Tessa’s graduation. I needed to act fast.

Fortunately, I’d packed my resume, all my best clips and my best (and only) suit. Based solely on a rough look at a subway map and the News’ proximity to Gun Hill Road, I decided (wrongly) to take the 2 train up to the Boogie Down. (I had yet to discover my grungy, beloved D train or its more scenic sister, the 4 train.)

From the 2, I tucked my precious application papers under my suit, propped up my overmatched umbrella, trudged across the Bronx River and up to the Oval.

Like many people visiting the NN for the first time, I was struck by the pleasant, homey beauty of the gray stone Keeper’s House, which the paper’s publisher, Mosholu Preservation Corporation, restored in the early 2000s.

Inside, I made my way upstairs to the now familiar offices of the Norwood News. It was early, maybe 9 a.m., and Jordan Moss, the paper’s longtime editor, looked harried and almost dumbstruck when he saw me there standing in my nice black suit and tie, shoes soaking, holding onto a manila folder, hoping I wasn’t too late.

“Thanks,” Jordan said dismissively, taking the folder, “I’ll be in touch.” That was it. Hope faded slightly on my rainy trip back to Manhattan. But at least I tried.

Later that day, Jordan called and asked if I could come in for an interview. A week later, as a sort of test run, I reported and wrote my first story for the Norwood News. Not surprisingly, it was about the Kingsbridge Armory. I took the job and a couple of weeks later moved into a house in Bedford Park with a lovely woman named Colleen Kelly and her three precocious kids.

That was almost seven and a half years ago.

Nov. 1 will be my last day as a full-time employee of the Norwood News. It’s a bittersweet ending to the most thrilling, challenging, impactful and rewarding experiences in my life, professional or otherwise.

I love telling the story of how I, a preacher’s mischievous kid from Seattle, ended up running a newspaper in the Bronx. It illustrates the random luck and twists of fate that define people’s lives and make them who they are.

It would be impossible for me to thank everyone who helped, supported and guided me through this long, strange, maddening and fulfilling journey. But there are two people who I need to mention: Jordan Moss and Dart Westphal. They’ve been my dual mentor/uncle/friend throughout this experience. I can’t ever thank them enough for taking a chance on me and filling me with the confidence I needed to produce the very best Norwood News possible every two weeks.

You could say I grew up in Norwood. I came here a single, confused 27-year-old graduate school dropout and emerged a 34-year-old professional journalist, husband and father. I’m extremely proud of the fact that I was able to shepherd this vital community resource through its 25th birthday, which coincides with this edition of the paper.

Here’s to the next 25 years of the Norwood News giving voice to the voiceless and a grand purpose to another editor looking for a job.

Peace,
Alex Kratz

admin

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.