Update: Elections 2021 – Kevin Pazmino on Community, the Economy & Policing

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Freelance filmmaker, business owner, and father, Kevin Pazmino describes himself as someone who has worked hard, evolved, and taken some chances to get to where he’s at right now, in life. He acknowledges having availed of government programs which have facilitated his career progression, yet he is opposed to big government. A supporter of former President Donald Trump, he is the latest candidate to join the District 11 City Council race to fill the seat vacated on Dec. 31 by former City Councilman, Andrew Cohen, and his platform is based around community-based solutions, and community integration. “The thing

By DAVID GREENE

A three-alarm fire in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx has injured one firefighter and destroyed two businesses according to the FDNY. Meanwhile, one of the business owners told the Norwood News that four families living in four, separate apartments, above the damaged businesses, have been displaced. According to the FDNY, the fire was reported at 8.34 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 15, inside the basement of the Katonah Family Deli and Grocery, located at 4293 Katonah Avenue. A fire department official said the fire extended to the first floor of the apartment building, and that 138 firefighters from

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Elisa Crespo, education liaison at the Bronx borough president’s office and candidate for City Council in the 15th District race, for which a special election has been called on March 23, has been endorsed by Samelys López, Bronx community organizer and former Congressional candidate. López, who was profiled last year by the Norwood News, won around 14 percent of the final vote in a crowded 15th congressional district primary race in June 2020 which was ultimately won by then Councilman, and now Congressman, Ritchie Torres, who went on to win the general election in November. López announced her endorsement of

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Bitta Mostofi, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, issued a statement, on Feb. 18, in response to U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) unveiling the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021. The bill would create a pathway to citizenship for approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants, most of whom have been long-standing, essential members of various U.S. communities. The bill also places a strong emphasis on the integration of immigrants by increasing access to citizenship, strengthening labor protections, addressing naturalization and other backlogs, expanding access to legal counsel, providing grants for legal services, expanding caps

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY13), the nation’s first Dominican American elected to Congress, announced on Feb. 18, his endorsement of Oswald Feliz in the upcoming City Council special election for the 15th District in the Bronx. Feliz, a tenant lawyer and Hostos Community College adjunct professor, previously profiled by the Norwood News, served as a campaign aide to Espaillat in the past. Feliz has also received the endorsement of Bronx Assemblyman Victor Pichardo and the Northwest Bronx Democrats. Espaillat described Feliz as someone who has spent his life in the Bronx, and deeply understands the challenges local families face. “He understands the

By DAWN CLANCY

The City’s department of administrative services (DCAS) has proposed to Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) to convert the second floor of the currently vacant Old Fordham Library, located at 2556 Bainbridge Avenue in Fordham Manor, into a new computer-based testing and application center (CTAC), to facilitate more opportunities for a wider number of local candidates to apply for City jobs. At the latest Bronx CB7 housing and land use committee meeting, on Feb. 9, the agency proposed relocating the Bronx’s current CTAC, located at 1932 Arthur Avenue in Crotona, to the Fordham Library location, and judging from the

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

On a cold but bright and sunny afternoon, members of Masjidus Sabur set up a table on Bainbridge Avenue in Bedford Park for their annual winter coat and essentials drive. Masjidus is the Islamic term for mosque. Iman Alprentice Talibudeen McCutchen helped manage the event on Feb. 5 in front of the mosque, located at 2975 Bainbridge Avenue. “In today’s event, we’re giving away [free] coats for children as well as teenagers and adults… and book bags,” McCutchen said. A group of four to five volunteers joined McCutchen in manning a folding table surrounded by multiple boxes of coats

By DAVID GREENE

A couple celebrating St. Valentine’s Day, who wanted to give back to elderly residents of Fordham Manor, spent some of the day attempting to hand out eight $25 gift cards at their local supermarket to surprised and grateful shoppers. Early on Sunday morning, Feb. 14, Joseph Riley and his wife of ten years, Monique Ferguson-Riley, showed up at the Food Universe on East 194th Street, between Marion Avenue and Bainbridge Avenue, and handed out the $25 Visa gift cards to customers walking down the aisles, or at the checkout line. Ferguson-Riley was born in Miami and raised in

By SÍLE MOLONEY

When she was nine years old, Shira Blumenthal, founder of the nationwide anti-bullying movement, #HatNotHate, was a self-described, chubby girl with short frizzy hair, buck teeth, and very little confidence. At the start of fourth grade, she had two friends. “They were a little cooler than I was, but that didn’t faze me,” she writes on her website, hatnothate.org. Then, there was another “cool” girl in her class, who, she wrote, was friends with everyone, boys and girls, and who always wore a bra strap headband, which she told other kids her mother had invented. Blumenthal said she can’t remember