Bronxites Demonstrate Peacefully as Violence Erupts across the City and Nation

By David Greene

A estimated crowd of 200 people gathered and marched peacefully through the streets of the Bronx on Saturday, May 30 to protest the mistreatment of Black citizens by police, as other weekend protests in Manhattan and Brooklyn took a different turn and resulted in injuries to both protestors and police officers. The Bronx protest was one of many which took place in more than twenty major cities across the nation this week after a viral video, recorded by a bystander on May 25 in Minneapolis, captured African-American, George Floyd, apparently suffocating during an arrest by police. The

Eleven Bronx elected officials have urged Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to halt plans to construct a new prison facility in the South Bronx amid a budget crunch caused by the coronavirus, and to reallocate the funds instead to critical programs for vulnerable populations. Congressman José E. Serrano, who is due to retire later this year, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and nine other Bronx based state senators and assembly members, wrote to de Blasio and Johnson asking them to reconsider construction plans for a new jail facility in the Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood,

Tenants who have been financially impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis may soon no longer have to worry about losing their homes. State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz passed legislation on May 27, 2020 codifying the statewide eviction moratorium and extending it until the end of the COVID-19 emergency for anyone who has experienced financial hardship during this period. The state legislation represents a compromise between the Assembly and State Senate with the ultimate goal of creating a bill that would be signed into law by the Governor. It is viewed as an essential

By Síle Moloney

The New York State Department of Labor released preliminary local area unemployment rates for April 2020 on May 27. The unemployment rate in the Bronx was the highest of all City boroughs at 16.5% in April. This compares with a rate of 10.9% in Manhattan, 14.6% in Brooklyn, 16.4% in Queens, and 14.0% in Staten Island. The current unemployment rates for all 62 counties in New York State can be found by clicking on the following link: County Unemployment Rates. The rates are not yet seasonally adjusted, meaning they do not reflect seasonal influences e.g. holiday and summer

By José A. Giralt & Síle Moloney

Nine dental assistants who said they were fired earlier this month by Union Community Health Center (Union) after they were forced to work in a COVID-19 hospital ward protested outside St. Barnabas Hospital on Tuesday, May 25, 2020 to have their jobs reinstated and to receive adequate compensation they say is still owed to them. As reported last week by Norwood News, the assistants, who were transferred from Union to St. Barnabas Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and reassigned from their usual dental duties to care for COVID-19 patients, cancelled a previously scheduled protest last Friday when the

The City will open 12 more miles of streets and an additional nine new miles of temporary protected bike lanes to pedestrians and cyclists starting tomorrow, May 14. The combined 21 new miles brings the City total to 30 miles of Open Streets since the program was announced on Apr. 27.

Bronx Hospitals Lead Nationwide Investigative Drug Trial For Severe Lung Inflammation From COVID-19

By Síle Moloney

Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine announced on May 21 that they were the first sites in the nation to begin evaluating an investigational drug in two separate, FDA-approved trials: one to treat mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19, and the other to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients. Doctors are hopeful that the drug being trialled, leronlimab, may prevent an inflammatory condition that fatally damages the lungs and other organs in many COVID-19 patients. Both hospitals were also the first sites in New York State to begin trials of the drug, remdesivir, in COVID-19 patients, as

By Síle Moloney

A group of dental assistants employed by Union Community Health Center in the Bronx, who were terminated after being transferred to St. Barnabas Hospital, and reassigned to care for COVID-19 patients, abruptly cancelled a planned protest which was due to take place on Friday, May 22 at 12:30PM. The rally was planned to highlight what activists say were unjust terminations, and lack of transparency at both Union Community Health Center and at St. Barnabas Hospital. The dental assistants – members of 1199SEIU- were told they were being transferred from Union Community Health Center, then put on a

By Síle Moloney

As New York State prepares to gradually re-open, State Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, and Councilman Andrew Cohen distributed free face masks, gloves and hand sanitizers to residents on May 20, 2020 outside Lexa Bar & Grill on East 204th Street. Norwood News previously reported that although a number of free mask distribution events were held in the local area throughout May, mask supplies tended to run out in a very short space of time. So, why are masks so important? A new study from the University of Hong Kong shows that wearing a mask does