Norwood News

Re: “Norwood Going Downhill” letter in [the Norwood News]Sept. 24 issue, I’ve never had much use for naysayers, and in the almost 40 years I’ve lived in this community, I’ve heard a lot of them.
When I first moved into the neighborhood, it was changing from a mostly Jewish middle-class neighborhood to a mostly Irish working-class neighborhood, and folks were saying, “There goes the neighborhood.”

I’ve heard the “There goes the neighborhood” cry almost every year since, and as far as I’m concerned, while the faces have changed, the languages have changed, and where people get their income has changed, the vast majority of people in this community are still people looking for a decent place to raise their families.

This is not to say that this community isn’t facing some big challenges, and certainly the fact that the city is allowing apartments to be used for the homeless, or for group homes, without concern for the impact on the community is high on the list. This is especially true for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). 

It’s my belief that when you’re looking for the source of a problem, you begin by following the money. The folks described in the letter in the Norwood News don’t have a lot of money or a lot of options. The people who make policy, and the people who profit from that policy, do.

 The city, in the form of DHS, allows their contractors to pay landlords more money than they can get from a regular tenant. They also allow those providers to pay to fix run-down apartments – even when the City (in the form of HPD) has cited the landlord for housing code violations; even when HPD has the landlord in court. 

So, by all means let’s look to make change in this community, but please, let’s focus our energies, on those who are responsible. And that’s rarely poor people.
Sally Dunford

This letter originally appeared as a comment on the Bronx News Network blog (bronxnewsnetwork.org).

Ed. Note: The Norwood News’ Sept. 24 Letter to the Editor author suggests that the Norwood neighborhood is being infiltrated by the influx of “troubled low income people with issues” from the South Bronx, resulting in a “diminishing quality of life.”