This editorial is about one of those chronic neighborhood injustices that drives us nuts. We’ve written about it before and we’ll write about it again. In doing so, maybe we can collectively figure out how to address it. As many of our readers know, we (Mosholu Presevation Corporation, the nonprofit that publishes this paper) have been working on beautification efforts for a long time. So have lots of other people. The Jerome-Gun Hill BID, the new Fordham BID, Montefiore, local elected officials, businesses and citizens spend lots of time cleaning up litter and graffiti and trying to make this area nicer and more attractive.

On the first day of school on Sept. 5 in Norwood, PS 94 Principal Diane Daprocida laid down the law for a few boisterous, wayward students wandering the halls. "Where do you think you’re going?" she asked a sheepish youngster who promptly started walking slower and with purpose.

If State Senator Efrain Gonzalez is found to have defrauded the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, as a recent indictment alleges, he didn’t have to go very far to do it. In July, Gonzalez sat down for an interview with the Norwood News in a virtually empty two-room suite on the same floor of his district office on the Grand Concourse. Paintings of him as a stately, younger, slimmer lawmaker adorn the wall along with framed logos of his Dominican cigar company.

Democratic anti-war candidate Jessica Flagg is dead broke. She has no job. Four months ago, she was almost kicked out of her Riverdale apartment. She’s borrowing money from her family just to survive and keep her shoestring Congressional campaign afloat.

Local residents and activists are still keeping their fingers crossed that the city will soon release a request for proposals (RFP) for the Kingsbridge Armory. The RFP will give potential developers design guidelines to use when creating their visions for the Armory.

Janice, 57, discovered she was HIV-positive in 1991. "It was a big shock," said the Fordham resident, a quiet-spoken woman with a kind smile, who asked that her last name not be used. "At that time you were handed a death sentence."

The posters say it all. On a window outside of a Norwood bodega, surrounded by beer and cigarette ads, campaign posters for Democratic candidates in the 80th Assembly District, Naomi Rivera and Joe Thompson, square off.

In this issue, we give significant play to two Democratic primary races – one for the state Assembly and the other for Congress. In both races, the challengers barely have enough money to print up campaign literature much less to do the kind of direct-mail and get-out-the vote operations that would give them a prayer of victory.

It’s hard to know whether to be inspired or depressed by Rafael Rivera-Viruet’s fascinating documentary focusing on the development of Puerto Rican politics in New York City, "Politics con Sabor," the first installment of which was shown to a small audience at Hunter College last week.