Inner Goblins Run Rampant at Annual Pumpkin Smash

By VIVIAN CARTER

It’s become a popular post-Halloween ritual in the Bronx—the Pumpkin Smash at Lehman College, sponsored by NYC Compost Project, an initiative of the City Department of Sanitation. On Nov. 4, the community was once again invited to constructively channel their inner goblins, to create compost for greening local parks. The New York Botanical Garden contributed an impressive display of hundreds of fading gourds and pumpkins for dropping, and neighbors could donate their own drooping jack-o-lanterns as well. Participants chose a straight drop from the two-story plaza onto a tarp below, or a catapult rigged to propel the gourds onto

An overwhelming number of Bronx residents vented frustrations over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York initiative at a hearing over the plan, tying it to gentrification and framing their plight as a struggle between haves and have-nots. Hundreds packed the pews at the hearing, an optional public forum organized by the Bronx Borough President’s Office, and separate of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) on Housing New York. The plan, touted by Mayor Bill de Blasio since May 2014, seeks to build 80,000 affordable units while preserving 120,000 already built apartments across the city. That will happen

Editor’s Pick Walk With a Doc The public is invited to join a free one-hour walk in the park with the doctors at Montefiore, Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. at the Williamsbridge Oval. Walking can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, osteoporosis and obesity, improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels, maintain body weight, enhance mental well-being, and more. Meet at the Oval’s Recreation Center. For more information, call (718) 543-8672. Onstage Lehman College for the Performing Arts, 250 Bedford Pk. Blvd., W., presents Lalo Rodriguez, 40 Años de Historia Musical, featuring 17-piece orchestra performing salsa and Latin music,

As South Bronx groups wrangle with developers and politicians over the future of a neighborhood that’s made a comeback, a real estate tracking group is chronicling the neighborhoods’ rise in its skyline. It’s done so via RENTCafé, an apartment listing website that offers before and after slider windows of eleven plots of land, once either barren or housing a one-story property, now occupied by high-rise residential spaces. RENTCafé allows users to view a listing of available apartments across the country, including the Bronx, via property managers. It’s affiliated with Property Shark, a heavily used New York-based real estate website that profiles

COMMUNITY BOARD 7 will hold its general board meeting on Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Serviam Gardens (auditorium), 323 E. 198th St. CB7 committee meetings are held on the following dates at the board office, 229A E. 204th St. at 6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted: Traffic & Transportation: Nov. 12; Veterans Committee: Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.; Housing/Land Use & Zoning: Nov. 18; Environment & Sanitation: Nov. 23; Health & Hospitals: Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.; Community Relations/LTP: Nov. 24; Economic Development: Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (718) 933-5650. THE 52ND PRECINCT COMMUNITY COUNCIL meets

To our faithful readers, The latest edition of the Norwood News is out and hitting the stands as we write, with plenty (and we do mean plenty) of community news you can use. We go to the epicenter of Norwood, Williamsbridge Oval Park, where football practice has to be cut short for one club that’s working on its plays without any adequate lights. Requests from club organizers have gone unchecked. Read how no lights is impacting their game. We also delve into a growing trend that’s happening across the Bronx: priced out commercial tenants. For rent signs are popping up

On Election Night, the Norwood News stood glued to the results of voter returns in the race for Bronx District Attorney, a contest rife with political intrigue wrapped in rarity. The news of an actual race, the first in 27 years following the long tenure of borough District Attorney Robert Johnson, could have spurred a big presence in a contest that’s lain dormant for nearly three decades. One would think it would at the very least signal a spike in voter turnout in an otherwise lackluster political season. We expected that. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. When the returns trickled in, we

By DAVID CRUZ

The gridiron bustle could only be heard, not seen, at Williamsbridge Oval Park. A gruff voice barks “Get up! Get down!” as a sharp whistle signals an invisible command. Tiny helmeted silhouettes buzz about mid-field in a pre-determined pattern, shifting carefully between the goalposts. It’s dusk at the Oval, with virtually no visibility save for distant, orangey glows illuminating over the multi-purpose field. It’s there where Drake Holliday blindly feeds a plug from a generator to a socket. It’s past 5 p.m. on Nov. 3, pitch black after Daylight Saving Time, and practice for the Bronx Knights, a peewee team

By DAVID CRUZ, MICHAEL BROWN and DAVID GREENE

The race for Bronx District Attorney went as expected, with Bronx voters electing its first-ever female DA. Former Bronx Supreme Court Judge Darcel Clark, a Democrat, defeated Robert Siano, a Republican, in a DA race unseen in 27 years. The position had been held by Robert Johnson, who stepped down so he can run for a state judgeship. Clark secured 85.58 percent of the vote over Siano’s combined 14.10 percent of the vote. The race, however, was viewed as a lock for Clark. With the Bronx overwhelmingly comprised of registered Democrats by 10 to 1, Siano’s chances of winning