Out & About: Gift of Knowledge

Editor’s Pick Gift of Knowledge Event The public is invited to a Holiday “Gift of Knowledge Event” presented by Mas Productions on Dec. 22 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Lexa Grill and Garden, 357 E. 204th St. Distributed will be books, piggy banks, and school supplies (while supplies last). Refreshments will be served. For more information, call (718) 409-0109 or visit info@masproductionsny.com. Events The New York Botanical Garden offers its annual Holiday Train Show through Jan. 21, 2019, featuring miniature replicas of many NYC building replicas made from natural materials including bark, twigs, fruit and pine cones. For

By JOSEPH KONIG

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the city’s deadliest fire in decades, Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres called for a new law to help residents displaced by a fire find new homes in the same neighborhood. “Even in the worst of a fire, the loss of one’s home should never mean the loss of your community,” Torres said at a news conference in front of the boarded-up Belmont building that went up in flames last year. “It should be the public policy priority of the city of New York to keep people firmly rooted in their neighborhoods and their local support

By DAVID CRUZ

Dear Fellow Readers! The Norwood News is out with its latest edition covering the Bronx. In our last edition of the year, we bring you the latest! The front page story looks at Community Board 7 demanding concessions on a major project coming to Bedford Park. Ischia Bravo, CB7’s District Manager, is offering an interesting take on the building boom happening in the neighborhood. She has a fix she hopes the Bronx Council Delegation would consider. David Greene reports on the tragic death of a 17-year-old who died after allegedly being pushed onto oncoming traffic. Police now say the suspects are

By JOSEPH KONIG, DAVID CRUZ, and CHRISTY RAE AMMONS

A non-profit housing developer is open to reducing the size of planned projects on long-contested lots on East 202nd and East 203rd streets after pushback from Community Board 7, according to a revised proposal draft obtained by the Norwood News. The new proposal would shorten the building on East 202nd Street from 11 stories to 9 stories, shrinking the number of units from 164 to 139. In the original proposal, the East 203rd Street building was planned to be 8 stories with 164 units. It is unclear if the revised proposal will reduce the size of the 8-story building, but

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

By PROF. ANTHONY RIVIECCIO, MBA PFA

You’ll hear this a lot this upcoming tax season: “The standard deduction has doubled. No reason to itemize.” You might even hear, “Just use the standard deduction, and you’ll get more tax money back.” You will start to hear this from our President, the media, your friends, brochures, but not from a true financial professional Yes, the standard deduction is an “automatic deduction based on filing status” that one can take unless they can itemize, and if that amount is more, then of course you would itemize and take the higher amount. So yes, there is some truth that, for

Two Men Linked to Trinitarios Charged in Death of Bedford Park Teen

By DAVID GREENE

Police have arrested two men they say assaulted and robbed a 17-year-old from Bedford Park before throwing him into oncoming traffic, causing his death. The fatal push ranks as the seventh homicide within the 52nd Precinct, which had a 200 percent homicide increase this year. Police confirmed that the two suspects charged in the killing were members of the Trinitarios gang. Officers from the 52nd Precinct responded to calls of a pedestrian struck outside of a private home at 2670 Bainbridge Ave., between East 194th and East 196th Street, at just after 6 p.m. on Dec. 10. Officers discovered Angel

Getting a Leg Up in the High School Application Process

By MARTIKA ORNELLA

With the deadline to apply to public and specialized high schools extended to Friday, Dec. 14, middle schoolers in the Bronx have hours left to christen the Department of Education’s (DOE) newly erected online application system. Aimed to alleviate the confusing process of applying to city high schools, the DOE’s new MySchools website allows parents and students to browse and apply to public high schools. But the initial rollout wasn’t without some hiccups, including site crashes and slow-downs. For eighth-grader Janely Cruz, 13, the ease to which middle schoolers navigate the high school application process depends less on website errors

A History Sign for the Namesake Behind Risse Street Park

By DAVID CRUZ

Learning about Risse Street Park’s ancestry is not exactly common knowledge to Norwood residents. In a few months, residents passing the tiny park will know the name. Pssst: it’s the grandfather of the Grand Concourse. Tom Campanella, a Cornell University professor and city Parks Department Historian in Residence and his assistant, Zachary Falk, a student from Cornell University, have been tapped to draft a brief history of the Norwood park. The findings will be included in a new signage slated to be installed by the Parks Department as part of its Historical Sign Program. The near 20-year program has acknowledged

NYPD Probes 52nd Pct. Over Claims of Semen Found in a Water Bottle

By JOSEPH KONIG

The NYPD has confirmed it’s looking into Det. Yesenia Maida’s claims a fellow officer at the 52nd Precinct placed semen in her water bottle. The New York Daily News first reported the claims last week, which reported that a 12-year-old girl was the first to discover the mysterious substance. Maida, a mother of two and wife of a fellow Five-Two officer, heads up the precinct’s NYPD Explorer program. “We have to change something in this department,” Maida said in a follow-up article. “It’s not OK, but sexual harassment happens in this department every day. As women and as cops, we