For years, PS 246 held phys-ed classes and recess in a concrete lot behind the school, but on July 24, construction workers broke ground at the school at 2641 Grand Concourse school to make way for a brand new student-designed playground. It’s slated for completion this December.

New York City finally delivered on its promise to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of Kingsbridge Armory last week. The milestone marks the beginning of the end of a 12-year community crusade to transform the vacant 575,000 square foot former military complex into a valuable community resource.

From the time it was clear the state would hand over the landmark Kingsbridge Armory to the city in 1993, it took 13 years for the city to issue a request for proposals (RFP). With the help of the Norwood News archives, here’s a look at what happened along the way.

When the city and local politicians tried to sell Norwood residents on a plan to build the massive Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park, they offered two benefits in exchange for years of traffic interruptions, lost parkland, and increased air pollution – $240 million in Bronx park renovations and the promise of jobs for local residents. The park renovations are under way now.

Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), the nonprofit group that puts out this newspaper, celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. MPC was formed in 1981 by the trustees of Montefiore Medical Center to combat widespread housing deterioration in Norwood.

Following its first-ever graduation ceremony in late June, the Bronx Aerospace Academy, a small military-style high school on the Evander Childs campus, found itself as the poster child for New York City’s education reform plan – a thriving, small, themed, public school, with a low-income minority population, that is taking full advantage of private partnerships.

Though it was slated to be released Sept. 18, the Kingsbridge Armory Request for Proposals, or RFP, has been delayed again as the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) continues to work on language for the project’s design guidelines.

Wilburn, 28, and his buddies, brothers Aniayah and Yeshai Lewi, are drummers with The United Drummers of Israel, a group the dreadlocked Wilburnhelped found. While they occasionally gig at clubs in Manhattan and Queens, subway cars are often their venues, and straphangers their audience.

Spencer Foreman, MD, became a legend in his own time on Sunday, Sept. 17, when Montefiore Medical Center, the massive Bronx hospital he leads, renamed a newly renovated building after him.