Health Fair Winner!

By DAVID CRUZ

It was a big day for Antonia Ramos, who attended a health fair sponsored by state Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assemblyman Victor Pichardo on July 26 at Monroe College’s Mintz Auditorium.

Op-Ed: State Public Financing Would Reduce Role of Big Money in NY Elections

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

By AMY LOPREST

This is an exciting moment to discuss public financing of elections. New York City’s small dollar matching funds program was designed to reduce the role of big money in elections and make contributions from everyday New Yorkers more valuable. The matching funds program has done exactly that for three decades, and recent changes to the program give small dollar contributors an even larger role. This program has become a model to other jurisdictions as more than a dozen states have adopted their own public financing systems. And with the creation of a state campaign finance commission, New York is the

Joe Franco is incredibly cautious when heading to the back of his building to throw out the trash. “It’s the Bronx Zoo back there,” said Franco, a 40-year resident of the building, who’s noticed a rat infestation in the building, with the critters often spotted hopping over trash cans. It’s on a list of problems at 241 E. 207th St., an 11-unit building between Bainbridge and Perry avenues in Norwood that Franco, along with a litany of residents, want to see fixed. Adding insult to injury is suspicions their landlord is looking to kick the tenants out. The problems have

Editor’s Pick NYPD National Night Out National Night Out Against Crime will be held on Aug. 6. The 52nd Precinct event will be held at Poe Park on the Grand Concourse at Kingsbridge Road from 5 to 8 p.m. Activities include bouncy house, pony rides, giveaways, dance contest, refreshments, and crime prevention information. The 47th Precinct event will be held at Grenada Place between Ely and Laconia avenues across from its precinct from 4 to 8 p.m. Activities include free games, rides, food and entertainment. Peace Prayer March begins at 3:30 p.m. at Laconia Avenue and East 222nd Street. Onstage

By DAVID GREENE

This week we asked readers their thought on the police officers doused with water during recent arrests, including one in the Bronx, and whether these individuals should have been arrested on the spot. I do think they should have arrested them right there on the spot. Why did they have to wait a day to arrest them? They should be charged with a misdemeanor, first of all, because I think they did it for fun as they were having a nice time. When I first saw the video, it seemed like they were all

As has been the case for years, the Norwood News will take an extra two-week breather from its print edition. The current issue runs through Aug. 29. This does not mean the paper is completely shut down. We will be posting original content on our website, www.norwoodnews.org. As usual, please send tips and story ideas to editor-in-chief, David Cruz, at dcruz@norwoodnews.org or norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org.

Latest Edition of the Norwood News is Out!

By DAVID CRUZ

Dear Fellow Readers, The year’s sixteenth edition of the Norwood News is out with plenty of interesting community news stories to read and share. We have 28 pages packed full of news from this corner of the Bronx, capturing a good chunk of it. And as usual, we’ll start with page one! For our front-page story, we dive into the issue of loud partying at Van Cortlandt Park. Residents are so upset that after logging 165 noise complaints this year that were not heard, they penned and signed a letter of complaint to elected officials. Inside the cover you’ll find

Fighting Pediatric Asthma With a Personal Touch in the Bronx

By SÍLE MOLONEY

A new asthma-free Bronx program aims, within five years, to reduce asthma-related emergency room visits by 50 percent and asthma-related hospitalizations by 30 percent among children aged 5 to 17 at three of the Bronx’s public hospitals – North Central Bronx (NCBH), Jacobi, and Lincoln hospitals, which collectively serve about one third of all Bronx kids with asthma, a borough hardest hit by asthma. Each year, approximately 20,000 children in New York City end up in the emergency department or are hospitalized due to asthma. About 40 percent of these children live in the Bronx with black and Latino communities

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Picnics and yoga? Forget about it. It’s more like an open-air rave each weekend at the Gun Hill Meadow inside Van Cortlandt Park, which stretches along West Gun Hill Road and Jerome Avenue. After years of filing 311 noise complaints, residents at Knox Place, Gates Place, DeKalb Avenue, and West Mosholu Parkway say the late-night open-air sprees have gotten progressively worse each year, and are already untenable as the summer surpasses its halfway mark. After 165 noise complaints were logged for the area this year alone, the majority between June and July, 98 residents penned and signed a formal letter