Inquiring Photographer: Marijuana Arrests

By DAVID GREENE

This week we asked readers their thoughts on Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s move urging the NYPD to issue tickets instead of making arrests for recreational marijuana use. I think I see a lot of people smoking marijuana these days. If you try and arrest everyone with marijuana, it’s going to be a whole bunch of people in jail. Nobody would be left out here because too many people smoke it. Half the people in the country want it legalized. You can’t throw them all in jail. I think there are more serious crimes going on. Jackie Fadalla Norwood I

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

By DAVID CRUZ

Though there’s some use at Frank Frisch Field in Bedford Park, there could be more, according to community groups. It’s enough that an effort to get the word out about the field has been bouncing around. “[S]omeone’s gonna get a bright idea that they can put up another high-rise,” Barbara Stronczer, president of Bedford Mosholu Community Association said at the latest BMCA meeting on May 2. “People say, ‘Oh they’ll never do that. That’s parkland.’ I’ve seen it done in Harlem. I’ve seen it done in other places in Manhattan.” It’s one reason why community groups, including Mosholu Preservation Corporation