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Land Grab

The city is trying once again to tack on another new and loathsome component to its already disastrous filtration plant project.

It proposes to snatch a chunk of parkland used by local kids to build a parking lot for the new golf course right next to Sachkerah Woods Playground, the only neighborhood benefit of what is shaping up to be the biggest boondoggle in Bronx history.

Because it’s technically for a park use, the city says it isn’t alienating additional parkland.

Maybe so, but after a litany of monumental screw-ups — not least of which is a tripling of the original price tag to around $3 billion —  you’d think they’d shy from riling the community yet again and show a little sense.

And while golf is a recreational purpose, it is barely one that benefits this community enough to warrant slapping down more asphalt. After all, the parking lot is obviously for people who live far away from Norwood.

The city should stick to its original plan and keep the parking lot on the north side, where it is now and was originally slated for after the project’s completion.

But we’re not naïve. We know this will take another push by advocates and elected officials to get the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to do the right thing — like when they stopped the agency from blasting at the Jerome Park Reservoir.

Maybe after taking another drubbing, the DEP will focus on finishing the plant and think twice before springing anything like this on the community again.

We can dream, can’t we?

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.

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