Out & About: Memorial Day Tributes

Editor’s Pick Holiday Concert The public is invited to a free Memorial Day Concert, May 27 at 2 p.m., featuring music from Broadway shows by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, presented by the Bronx Arts Ensemble, in Van Cortlandt Park at West 242nd Street and Broadway. Rain site: Vladeck Hall, 74 Van Cortlandt Pk. So. For more information, call (718) 601-7399. Onstage Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, 250 Bedford Pk. Blvd. W., presents La Sonora Ponceña featuring pianist Papo Lucca, June 2 at 8 p.m., performing salsa. Tickets are $50 to $65; $100 VIP

By MARTIKA ORNELLA

More kids are expected to start 3-K this fall as the city’s universal education program expands to cover more ground. After a morning spent playing with three-year olds at the Learning Through Play Pre-K Center in Longwood on May 23, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced further commitment to growing the 3-K for All program. “We believe in a city that is fair for everyone. The goal of this administration is to make this the fairest big city in America,” de Blasio said. Flanked by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and Assemblyman Michael Blake, de Blasio touted the 3-K program he

Dear Fellow Readers, The latest edition of the Norwood News, covering Bronx communities, is out this week! Check out these stories put together by our dedicated interns and freelancers aiming to get the conversation going across the Bronx. Our page one story focuses on the perennial issue in the Bronx–barbecuing at areas that bar the practice. Community Board 7 is once again getting ahead of the issue and is pressuring the Parks Department to have those “No Barbecue” signs where they’re supposed to be. Read mixed feelings behind this issue. Behind the cover story is another parks-related story, this time focusing

Stop Work Orders Issued at 2 of 4 New Norwood Projects

By DAVID GREENE

A building boom along a four-block stretch in Norwood has once again been halted as the Department of Buildings (DOB) has issued stop work orders at two of the four projects currently under development. DOB records show a full vacate order and a partial stop work order remain in effect for 3083 Hull Ave.—a one-story property by East 204th Street consisting of five shops. Records reveal “There is an active permit for interior demolition of the property. However a violation for work without permit was issued for activities outside the scope of the permitted job at the time of the

By MARTIKA ORNELLA and DAVID CRUZ

Three weeks before the unofficial start of summer, Barbara Stronczer wanted to get ahead of what’s expected to be a raucous season at Mosholu Parkway. As it’s been the case for years, she wants the “No Barbecuing in the Area” signs up before the parties begin. “We expect it by Memorial Day,” said Stronczer, chair of the Parks Committee for Community Board 7 at a meeting on May 9 regarding the signs in neighborhood parks. “If you don’t have it by then, then it’s a big battle for us.” Barbecuing is illegal in Devoe Park, Williamsbridge Oval Park, and Mosholu

By DAVID GREENE

An activist, singer, and advocate with borough roots were honored for making the Bronx proud. The honorees for this year’s Bronx Week celebrated on May 20. Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, actress Maggie Siff and hip-hop legend Slick Rick were honored with special individual street signs on the Grand Concourse. Siff told the crowd, “This is such an honor. I was just talking to my dad last night and he was born in this neighborhood. And he said in 1944, one of his very first memories was seeing [President Franklin Roosevelt] drive by in an open motorcade,

Built to be Family Friendly, Aqueduct Park Now a Haven for Vice

By MARTIKA ORNELLA

Straddled among apartment buildings and shopping squares sits Aqueduct Walk, a sectional strip of green paths, basketball courts, and playgrounds. The walkway cuts through Morris Heights and Kingsbridge, ideally offering a place for bike rides, jogging, and peaceful strolling. But during a typical trek through the five-acre walkway, the Norwood News spotted hoards of household trash, junk piles, overgrown weeds and foliage, and used syringes. Public urination and drug use were out in the open. Despite efforts by local officials and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Aqueduct Walk remains plagued with all the physical signifiers of

Editorial: Bruised Confidence in Our Public Officials

The evidence against former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was overwhelming. It was for him too. In less than three hours after four women gave their accounts to New Yorker Magazine of alleged abuse, he was gone. Along with his career. The article detailed moments when their bodies were so badly damaged they needed medical attention. Compounding that hurt was the subsequent mental torment that came after many told them to stay silent. Some of them included women. Along with the bruised women allegedly at the hands of Schneiderman is a bruised confidence in our elected officials. Just who are they

Two men are wanted for a violent break-in at a home on Marion Avenue in Bedford Park. Police say the incident happened around 2 p.m. on May 20, when the men disguised as UPS employees, knocked on an apartment door, forcing their way into the home and tying up two people with zip-ties. The perpetrators then attacked someone in the home, stabbing them in the right thigh with a knife and demanding money. The attackers then fled the apartment with a bookbag filled $16,000 in cash, according to police. Police describe the first alleged perpetrator as Hispanic, 20 to 24 years