As a group of about a dozen people gathered together for a photo at the local community board office on a sweltering Monday afternoon, Jesse Masyr, who has represented Kingsbridge Armory developer Related Companies for 25 years, looked slightly uncomfortable.

After months of delay, speculation and rumors, city officials confirmed last week that the Related Companies, a major Manhattan development firm, has indeed been selected to redevelop the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory into a retail shopping center.

"Build more schools! Build more schools!" about 100 Bronx residents shouted in unison at a rally on the steps of City Hall on April 24, three days after the city officially announced its selection of Related Companies to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory. They hoped to send the message to the city and developer that a community benefits agreement still needs to be negotiated before construction begins.

Kingsbridge residents and local merchants reacted with mixed feelings last week about the influx of shoppers and activities that the renovated Kingsbridge Armory will bring.

Maybe it's a Bronx thing or an "other boroughs" thing. Apparently up here the city doesn't announce the advancement of huge neighborhood-changing development projects. They just sort of leak them and rumor them and move forward without saying much.

We're talking, of course, about the Kingsbridge Armory, the massive vacant building slated to be renovated sometime in the near future. Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner has said publicly, at a general board meeting, that The Related Companies, whose principal is pals and former business partners with former deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff, has been awarded the contract to revamp the Armory. The Daily News reported the same story using anonymous sources three weeks ago. The city Economic Development Corporation is not denying it, but they're not admitting it either.

How sad. The biggest project to hit the northwest Bronx in generations is limping past a major milestone as if it doesn't really matter. This situation only reinforces the century-old public impression that the city administration, regardless of who is mayor, only really cares about Manhattan.

Fortunately, we are a community that has found its voice and struggled mightily for this project and is now gearing up for face-to-face negotiations with the developer.

Following a story about the Kingsbridge Armory in our previous issue, "Armory Rumors Fly as Waiting Game Continues," representatives from the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) contacted the Norwood News. They wanted to say that, contrary to what Teresa Anderson, the president of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (a member of KARA), said at the time, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión had indeed agreed to meet with them.

Community leaders are getting very tired of waiting for the city to choose a developer for the Kingsbridge Armory.

So are we.

Almost 18 months ago, we celebrated the announcement of the release of the request for proposals by stopping our "Armory Clock," the countdown of days that passed since Governor George Pataki visited the armory in 2005 and announced he would help figure out where to relocate the National Guard units that still occupied the buildings behind the landmark facility, which appeared to be the main stumbling block at the time.

2007 was supposed to be a landmark year for the landmarked Kingsbridge Armory. In the fall of 2006, the city finally announced the release of a request for proposals, a key development the community had waited - and agitated - years for.

Buoyed by a commitment to ensure that a redeveloped Kingsbridge Armory will anchor the community, hundreds of local residents crowded into the Fordham Manor Reform Church last Saturday before marching around the landmark fortress in a cold, driving rain.