SEE PHOTOS: Spring Egg Hunt at the Oval

By NORWOOD NEWS

On the eve of the first day of Spring, hundreds of residents gathered at Norwood’s Williamsbridge Oval Park for the annual Spring Egg Hunt. The event, sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks, Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District, BID merchants including Gun Hill Pharmacy, New York Cares, Montefiore Health System, and Friends of Williamsbridge Oval Park ushered the start of Spring and brought some fierce competition during several egg hunts. And, of course, there was a visit from the Spring bunny! Check out the photos from David Cruz. [URIS id=20555]

(Advertorial) Cardinal McCloskey Community Services Celebrates 70 Years of Service

At the end of World War II, thousands of rural poor, immigrants and refugees flooded New York City seeking a new life. Many who sought prosperity found themselves unemployed and in need of assistance. One of the long-lasting effects would be the displacement of thousands of children. In unprecedented numbers, New York City saw the rise of abandoned, neglected and homeless children. In 1946, in response to this need, the Cardinal McCloskey School and Home for Children opened to care for homeless and neglected children. At the time the home could provide shelter and care to 240 children. Since those

By WENDY JOAN BIDDLECOMBE

It’s past 8 p.m. on a Friday night. But Samelys Lopez, chair of Community Board 7’s Long Term Planning and Community Relations Committee and second vice-chair of the executive board, hits the 198th Street business corridor near the Grand Concourse hoping to entice neighbors to attend an upcoming event. And it’s not the regulars she’s after, but residents who barely make it to community meetings or are simply disengaged. As far as Lopez is concerned, the marginally involved are the ones she seeks the most for a workshop event set for March 26. “It’d be great to get some residents

By NORWOOD NEWS

Jasmine Gomez, one of the longer-serving interns at the Norwood News, is bidding farewell to the community paper and hello to journalism grad school. Her tenure ends a yearlong expedition into the world of community journalism, improving upon her craft while opening doors to other opportunities. Gomez, a Bronx native, was recently accepted to high-ranking Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications on a full scholarship. The Norwood News wants to publicly thank her for her contributions to the publication. Gomez began at the Norwood News on the recommendation of an employee at Mosholu Preservation Corporation. She had graduated from

Hello Faithful Readers! The digital edition of the latest Norwood News, bringing you plenty of Bronx community news you can use, is out and hitting stands as I write. So many stories, it’s hard to know where to begin. We can start at the front page, with a missing persons case that’s rattled Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights and the Bangladeshi communities in the Bronx. Mahfuza Rahman, an aspiring nurse and mother, has not been seen since December. Police are now looking to question the husband, who flew back to his native Bangladesh with their 9-year-old daughter. Find out what representatives from

Eamonn McDwyer celebrated 50 years at the helm of his business, McDwyer’s Pub, at the corner of East 204th Street and Hull Avenue. Some bars in the Bronx have been under family ownership for longer, but McDwyer the barkeep says his is the only one that’s been managed by the same person for five straight decades. Known to regulars as “Eddie,” (Eamonn is Gaelic for “Edward”), McDwyer presides over his low-key, friendly watering hole like a watchful grandfather. He moves slowly from one end of the bar to the other, topping off a Guinness at the tap, and mixing cocktails

By DAVID CRUZ & DANIELA BEASLEY

With the whiny tunes of bagpipes bellowed throughout, Rambling House once again hosted an Irish Heritage Celebration that underscored the Bronx’s Gaelic heritage. [URIS id=20474]

Hearkening Back to a Rail Yards Proposal in Bedford Park That Fizzled

By DANIELA BEASLEY

The Concourse Yards Development proposal is an innovative idea but not the first time that this airspace has been looked at to become something more for the Bronx. For years, a number of projects similar to Diaz’s current proposal languished in development, with starts and stops that cost the city millions, or ignored completely. It’s a fate that could or could not mar the proposals this time around. An original proposal dates back to 1961 when a plan to create a platform over the Concourse Yards in Bedford Park was proposed by Bronx Community College (BCC). The platform would have

By DAVID CRUZ

Zaleen Julia, 12, stood carefully monitoring the group of 10 young girls staring intently at their Dell computers. They sat inside the boxy computer lab at St. James Park Recreation Center in Fordham, learning how to code, or giving a computer program a voice. But the tedious work transformed into a thrilling exercise for the girls, utilizing a program dubbed Python, software that helps visualize the coding process. There were girls as young as 10 years old in the class, all decked out in pink T-shirts. Zaleen, a student at MS 244, wants to be a dancer, but she’s certainly