Learning the Three R’s With a Touch of Technology at a Kingsbridge Charter School

By David Cruz It’s a 21st century school for a 21st century world. Call that the mantra for Tech International Charter School in Kingsbridge Heights, a middle school settled in a relatively new ten-story office building on Corlear Avenue. Since the Norwood News first reported on the school back in 2011, TI Charter School has now added a seventh grade to its roster to its already established sixth grade, making up a student body of 215. An eighth grade class slated for the 2014-2015 school year will bump the population to over 300.

Business Beat – Belmont BID: Selling Authentic Italian Traditions

By JUSTIN MCCALLUM For Bronxites and beyond, traveling to the Bronx’s Little Italy is often compared to a trek to the old country. It’s a destination. The smell of seasoned Italian sausage, blended with sights of Italian-named eateries and singers greeting its customers make the area a must-see. And behind a push to attract visitors to the destination is the Belmont Business Improvement District, the agency tasked to promote the epicenter for Italian fare. Unlike most BIDs, which usually promote merchandise stores, Belmont’s marquee draw is its neighborhood, intertwined with tradition and Italian fare. After all, its woven into their sales

By DAVID CRUZ The eagle has landed at the Bronx’s biggest business improvement district. Shoppers at the Fordham Road Business Improvement District, where an estimated 80,000 people bypass the corridor daily, recently noticed the soft opening of American Eagle Outfitters. The high-end clothing retail store opened its doors with little fanfare, settling just across the street from another mega-clothing retail store, The GAP. The store is known for its chic graphic-Ts, low-cut jeans and Henley shirts, catering mostly to the age 15 to 25 demographic. The apparel store’s pick of Fordham is fitting, given Fordham University is just blocks away.

High honors went out to members of the NYPD, FDNY and Department of Sanitation for their efforts in improving the quality of life along Wakefield’s bustling commercial spur. They were honored Friday, Jan. 31 by the Mosholu Preservation Corporation and East 233rd Street/White Plains Road Merchants Association, thanking the agencies for promoting safety and cleanliness along the commercial spur while forging team efforts. Holding up awards are members of the NYPD, FDNY, DSNY and EMS. Photo courtesy Mosholu Preservation Corporation

Business Beat – The Brains Behind the Jerome-Gun Hill BID

by DAVID CRUZ Editor’s Note: The Norwood News has brought back Business Beat, a feature spotlighting business-related stories with the captain of the industry in mind. If you have a business-related story idea, please call (718) 324-4998 or email the Editor-in-Chief, David Cruz, at dcruz@norwoodnews.org. In the eclectic tailspin of Jerome Avenue and Gun Hill Road, where the rumble of the elevated 4 subway mixes with sounds of foot traffic, shopping bags and cash registers, an economic force has spent years fine-tuning the shopping strip. Behind it is a Jamaican-born businesswoman who sought the American dream. She’s Marcia Cameron, executive

by David Cruz Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. pegged himself as a job creator and economic development booster in his first gathering with his new fellow heads of borough at a forum sponsored by Crain’s New York Business. Diaz Jr. arrived as the more experienced borough president in the city these days, as his fellow BP’s have just begun their tenure as their respective borough’s chief executive.

Endless Construction at Bedford Pk. Building

By MICHAEL BROWN JR. “Expected Occupancy Summer 2014,” reads the sign at a Bedford Park building.

Free After-School Journalism Program in the Bronx (Applications Due Friday!)

Above is a link to an interview with me, Bronx Youth Heard Director and Norwood News Editor Alex Kratz, and Lehman High School student Adonis Jimenez for a Bronx 2.0 segment that aired on Bronxnet in February. Everything I talk about in that segment remains true. Bronx Youth Heard is a fantastic program for students interested in journalism or who love to write or who want to have impact on their communities and think (like we do) that journalism is a way to make that happen.

Fordham Plaza Another Piece of BID’s Puzzle

The Bronx’s biggest Business Improvement District (BID) is about to get bigger. The Fordham Road BID is currently under negotiations to expand its territory to cover 1 Fordham Plaza, the giant building with eye-catching blue windows located on one end of Fordham Plaza.