Food Giveaways Continue as Food Insecurity Remains a Concern for Bronxites

By SÍLE MOLONEY & JASON GONZALEZ

As the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, public officials are listening to constituents’ concerns, and walking the talk when it comes to addressing ongoing food insecurity. A number of food drives have been held all across the borough by various elected officials in recent months, and appear set to continue as Bronxites struggle to cope with the ongoing economic crisis. The New York Times reported on July 7 that “the City’s unemployment rate is hovering near 20 percent — a figure not seen since the Great Depression.” In conjunction with the Bronx Parent Housing Network (BPHN), a

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Local residents, Mahfuja Chadani, Madiha Madani and Nusrat Tasnim, took a stroll through Williamsbridge Oval Park on July 31 to celebrate the Muslim holy festival of Eid al Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. This year, the holiday was observed from sundown on Thursday, July 30, to sundown on Friday, July 31. Chadani said typically the Muslim community have two big celebrations each year. The earlier festival of Idul-Fitr (Eid Al-Fitr) is celebrated among friends and family to mark the end of Ramadan, a month-long period during which Muslims fast during daylight hours, while offering up additional

By SÍLE MOLONEY

The New York City Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance to help identify the individual depicted in the attached video and photos, who is wanted in connection with a random, unprovoked assault on an elderly man which occurred within the confines of the 52nd precinct. It was reported to police that on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020, at approximately 1p.m., at the intersection of Mosholu Parkway and Webster Avenue in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, a younger man approached a 73-year-old man and punched him twice. The younger man then fled on foot to parts

By SÍLE MOLONEY & ISAIAH MATHEWSON

Friends of Mosholu Parkland and local volunteers braved the early evening summer heat to join Members of the City’s Parks’ department and some elected officials for a clean-up of the parkland on Monday, July 20. A group of about 30 people, young and old, met at Mosholu Parkway subway station where masks, bags, gloves and tools were distributed before the group set to work cleaning up the area on a day when temperatures hit the high nineties. Norwood News asked the participants why it was important for them to come out and volunteer their time. Aesha Valencia is

By Síle Moloney

After a lengthy ballot count, which included an unprecedented number of absentee ballot votes, City Councilman Ritchie Torres has emerged victorious among 11 candidates in New York City’s 15th district congressional democratic primary race, winning 32.2 percent of the votes. The win, which was announced on Aug. 4, brings Torres one step closer to becoming the first LGBTQ Afro-Latino member of Congress if he wins the general election in November. Incumbent Congressman, José Serrano (D), who was first elected in 1990, did not seek re-election for the South Bronx seat, and is due to retire in the coming

By DAVID GREENE

After lengthy and tedious exchanges between City Hall, the NYC Parks’ department and NYPD officials, an unnamed spokesperson at One Police Plaza has confirmed that a “fixed post” of police officers remains stationed in front of the D’Auria-Murphy Triangle (park) in the Belmont section of the Bronx, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to protect a statue of Christopher Columbus.

Annual Bronx Arts Festival Returns to Lehman, Online

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Every year, each of the City’s five boroughs hosts an arts festival at the school year’s end to celebrate and highlight student achievement in the arts, from kindergartners to high school seniors. In the Bronx, the celebration is usually held at Lehman College, with a performing arts showcase at Lehman Center, and a visual arts exhibition at the Lehman College Art Gallery. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibition, just like the Lehman College campus that hosts it, went virtual. The City’s department of education officials who produce the festivals, worked with Lehman on this year’s event.

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Future and current generations of scholars, historians, and anyone else interested in learning how COVID-19 has affected the borough will find a well-researched resource in, “The Bronx COVID 19 Oral History Project“. The work is conducted under the auspices of Fordham University’s Bronx African American History Project. The goal of the online project, which is still ongoing, is to gather a wide variety of testimony from Bronxites, through both video and audio interviews, describing how their lives have been disrupted by the global pandemic. The student-run project is putting a face and adding a voice to the people who

By SÍLE MOLONEY

The New York City Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in ascertaining the whereabouts of the unidentified man seen in the attached photo and video who is sought in connection with a robbery which took place in Fordham Manor, within the confines of the 52nd precinct. It was reported to police that on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020 at 12.15 p.m. inside of a multi-unit residential building in the vicinity of Fordham Hill Oval and Webb Avenue, an unidentified man followed the victim, an 82-year-old man, into the building and then the elevator. Once inside the elevator,