Latchmi Gopal Suspends Campaign for District 15 City Council Primary

By DAVID GREENE & SÍLE MOLONEY

Having qualified to be on the ballot in the upcoming June 22 primary election, Latchmi Gopal, a community organizer, former staffer for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and candidate in the District 15 City Council race, suspended her campaign, announcing her decision via an Instagram live post, last month. Gopal thanked her supporters and said running for City Council in the recent March 23 special election in District 15, in the heart of the Bronx, her home, had been one of the greatest honors of her life. “I couldn’t have done it without you all, everything from door knocking, food

By DAVID GREENE

An unidentified cyclist was struck by an SUV on the Norwood-Bedford Park border, with both the driver and the biker blaming each other for the collision. According to NYPD spokesperson, Sergeant Edward Riley, the incident was reported at 1:16 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, at the intersection of East Mosholu Parkway South and Bainbridge Avenue. Riley wrote in an email, “Vehicle 1 stated he was going straight when a bicycle was going at a high rate of speed and tried making a left turn, and collided with Vehicle 1.” He added, “Bicyclist states he was going straight, and

By SÍLE MOLONEY

A woman has been found dead on Jerome Avenue in University Heights. On Saturday, May 29, at around 6.27 a.m., police were alerted to a report of an unconscious female, lying in front of 2301 Jerome Avenue, in the 52nd precinct. Upon arrival, officers observed an unconscious, unresponsive female with no obvious signs of trauma. EMS also responded and pronounced the female deceased. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation is ongoing. The identity of the deceased is pending family notification. Anyone with information with regard to this incident is asked

By SÍLE MOLONEY

District 11 Council Member Eric Dinowitz cast his vote to ban single use plastic straws at a recent City Council meeting. The legislation Int. 936-A was brought up through the Council Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing. The bill would ban food service establishments from providing plastic straws unless an individual specifically asks for one. There are also provisions directing the Department of Sanitation to provide education on the use and concerns of single use plastic straws. “Single use straws very often wind up not in the trash but scattered around our streets and in our waterways,” said

By SÍLE MOLONEY

A building permit application has been filed for a nine-story, mixed-use building at 2069 Bruckner Boulevard in Unionport, as reported by YIMBY. Located between Pugsley Avenue and Olmstead Avenue, the interior lot is near the Parkchester subway station, serviced by the 6 train. Guido Subotovsky, under the Bruckner Affordable Owner LLC, is listed as the owner behind the applications. The proposed 95-foot tall development will yield 280,731 total square feet, with 262,718 square feet designated for residential space and 18,013 square feet for commercial space. The building will have 265 residences, most likely condos, based on the average

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Dear Readers, In 2020, in acknowledgement of the diverse composition of the local communities the Norwood News serves, we updated our website, www.norwoodnews.org, to allow users to read our site in Spanish, Bengali, Arabic, Chinese and French, using a Google Translate function. Readers can translate the site from English into each of these languages by selecting the relevant language from the drop-down menu located in the top, right-hand corner of the home page. As a nonprofit news organization, with limited resources, we decided to include this translation function on our site to help you, our community of readers, access local

By DAVID GREENE

A local gardening group, founded by a former DeWitt Clinton High School teacher, has been ordered to vacate a beloved garden created on the school’s campus a decade ago, much to the dismay of some local student farmers and others in the community. Former English teacher and later DeWitt Clinton sustainability coordinator, Raymond Pultinas, said he taught at the school, located in Jerome Park, for more than 25 years, cultivating the one-acre garden in question and facilitating hands-on work experience for student farmers. Pultinas said he started the garden, a fenced off section of the school’s campus, located

By DAWN CLANCY & SÍLE MOLONEY

This is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition. A Laborers’ union representative is calling out elected officials to address “corporate greed” amid news of an elevator collapse in the South Bronx last week that left one person dead and another critically injured. As reported by Norwood News, the FDNY responded to the collapse on Wednesday, May 19, at a site located at 20 Bruckner Boulevard in Port Morris in the vicinity of dense construction, part of a billion dollar waterfront development in the South Bronx. On arrival, they found one person dead and

By SÍLE MOLONEY

City Councilman Fernando Cabrera, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernández, City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, retired NYPD Detective Sammy Ravelo, and State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda will participate in a debate on BronxNet airing on Monday, June 14, ahead of the June 22 primary election for Bronx borough president debate. Photos via Twitter BronxNet, in partnership with the League of Women Voters, City Limits, Norwood News, Dominicanos USA, Bronx Times and The Riverdale Press is presenting a debate between the candidates for Bronx borough president, as well as another series of debates between the candidates in the 11th, 12th 13th,