Editorial: Lessons in Historic Presidential Race

This presidential election will undoubtedly be pored over in history books for decades, examined by political scientists for its penchant for division over unity. It saw one of the unlikeliest of Republican presidential candidates, now President-elect Donald Trump, square off against Hillary Clinton, an entrenched politician whose road to the White House was indeed bumpy. Their common denominator? They were pretty unpopular outside their base. The race, bombarded into American minds to the point of exhaustion, also led to a civil war among Americans, turning political graciousness into a dysfunctional affair among the pols. It stands to reason that partisanship,

By DANIELA BEASLEY

At 5 a.m. each morning, Alfonso Barbedio Puma of Norwood is out to clean some Bronx streets. To do his part. He doesn’t employ the usual broom-and-dustpan method, but uses his hands instead. Every day for the last three years, Puma picks up bottles and cans, or “latas,” an off-the-books living that he and others from Latin America have taken on throughout the borough. It’s the only job available, said Puma, not because of his status—Puma entered the U.S. from his native Ecuador legally—but his age. At 76, Puma feels the effects of ageism with no one looking to hire

The Norwood section of the Bronx was aghast with ghost, goblins and superheroes on Halloween, with separate events taking place in the community and surrounding neighborhoods. Check out these pictures from Miriam Quinones, which showcase events sponsored by the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District, the New York City Parks Department, Mosholu Preservation Corporation (publishers of the Norwood News, and Montefiore Health System. [URIS id=22069]

Editorial: Saving the Mentally Ill

How do you perceive the mentally ill? Is there sympathy? Frustration? Perhaps both? For those who barely deal with the mentally ill, frustration supersedes all emotions. That frustration lies when a sufferer’s emotions or actions defy logic and social conventions. It’s particularly misunderstood by those who barely interact with the mentally ill altogether, never taught that conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disease, are the result of an involuntary chemical imbalance that renders the sufferer helpless. It’s a disease where its symptoms are not so apparent, and where the fight for normalcy happens in the cerebral arena.

By DANIELA BEASLEY

Two local kids with a passion for leading a healthy lifestyle and a desire to educate others on the importance of nourishing one’s body the right way made a splash in Norwood with the advent of a new brand of water. Princeton and Brazil Dowe, a pair of seven-year-old twins, have set out to make kids more aware of what they’re putting into their bodies with the launch of Water2Kids, a label that specifically targets children who may be unware of the health benefits of water. The product was conceived after the Dowe family watched a health news segment on

By JALEESA BAULKMAN

Stories telling of the exponential growth of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) under the leadership of Donald Bluestone will no longer be the only way to remember the executive director after he retires in 2017. On Oct. 20, board members unveiled the renaming of a central point of one of MMCC’s campgrounds in upstate after Bluestone, sealing Bluestone’s enduring legacy that saw the neighborhood center impact the lives of thousands of young Bronx residents. “We decided that the best way to honor Donald was the camp,” longtime MMCC board member Natly Esnard said at a dinner honoring Bluestone. The

Hello Fellow Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News, covering Norwood and its surrounding Bronx communities, is out with plenty of community news you can use. There’s plenty of news in this 16-page packed paper, so let’s get to it. We begin with a story on the internal politics happening at the local Community Board 7, which covers the Norwood section. Read about members extending the probationary period of its district manager, and learn what may have really triggered this animosity. Inside the cover, we look into the impact the NYPD fatal shooting of Deborah Danner of Castle Hill

By DAVID CRUZ

The head of the city’s homeless services agency has launched a full investigation into the death of a newborn baby inside a pop-up shelter in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Steven Banks, commissioner for the New York City Social Services Department, appearing at a forum with the CUNY Journalism School’s Center for Community and Ethnic Media, said the probe into the four-month-old’s death, is underway. The baby’s death is unclear, Banks told a room full of reporters that “we should await an outcome from the Medical Examiner’s report.” The body of Duane Pollard Jr. was found unconscious at the

By DANIELA BEASLEY

Within the next few months, what was previously PS 51 will be reborn as a school for autistic students living in New York City. PS 51, located at 3200 Jerome Ave. by Van Cortlandt Avenue, was shut down in August of 2011 after high levels of toxins were discovered. The renovated building, cleared for occupancy by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, will house the special needs school run by Quality Services for the Autistic Community (QSAC). To accommodate the school, QSAC is working to change the parking restrictions to no parking 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday