With Undocumented Immigrants Fearful of Trump Presidency, Experts Weigh In On Rights

With fears a Trump presidency can erode protections for undocumented immigrants in the Bronx, home to some 250,000 undocumented immigrants, city officials and legal experts are utilizing every stipulation to stave off any removal of rights. They’ve also underscored that the process of deportation is easier said than done. The panel of experts, convening at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, told reporters of the ethnic and community press that immigrants with undocumented status should begin preparing for the worst case scenario: deportation. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport 3 million undocumented immigrants, stirring anxieties and apprehension toward a


Read More

Park Reservoir Sees New Board Following Battle Over Management Switch

After a bitter battle over a proposal to switch management firms at a Mitchell-Lama complex in Van Cortlandt Village, several members of the Board that pushed for the proposed switch have been voted out, with members favoring the existing management now in power. Among its first orders of business was nixing the plan to remove the longstanding company. “I believe now the plan to come up with a new management company is essentially dead, period,” Gary Axelbank, newly elected vice president of the Park Reservoir Board of Directors, said. Cooperators at the complex voted off four members of its Board of


Read More

Latest Edition of the Norwood News is Out!

Hello Fellow Readers! Happy belated Thanksgiving Day to all our readers. We hope you took the time to pause and reflect on the good things that have come to your lives in 2016 and beyond. We hope one of the good things is reading the latest edition of the Norwood News, which hit newsstands last week. Here, you can sample the latest edition digitally, from the comfort of your computer or smartphone. We begin with a story we’ve been following for several months: the preservation of Bedford Park. Bronx Community Board 7 has begun holding a series of workshops on


Read More

Community Engagement Report Says Norwood Disengaged, Locals Disagree

Things got heated at a Community Engagement Forum where the results of a two-month study on Norwood were unveiled. The findings were surprising, but its presentation irked community stakeholders already aware of its problems. The study by the Public Agenda, a civic engagement think tank commissioned by the de Blasio administration, sparked much debate between the study’s investigator, Nicole Hewitt, and guests who found the study pointless.  “We don’t need people to come and tell us what the problems are, we know what they are. We need solutions,” said Sheila Sanchez, president of Friends of Williamsbridge Oval. Hewitt reviewed the


Read More

Plan for Mosholu Parkway Trees to be Removed Only to be Replanted

  It seems money grows on trees for the Parks Department. The city agency looks to spend several hundred thousand dollars to dig up close to 200 trees along Mosholu Parkway and replant them, leaving those want the young arbors exactly where they are scratching their heads. Parks explained in a letter to Elizabeth Quaranta, president of Friends of Mosholu Parkland, a volunteer advocacy group, that the agency “is currently reviewing its plans for the transplanting of these trees,” adding “no work will be done until the plans are reviewed by and confirmed with the community.” Still, the mere decision


Read More

Neighborhood Notes

Free Legal Services The Office of Councilman Andy King is hosting a free civil legal services mobile van for Bronx residents in front of his district office, 940 E. Gun Hill Rd., on Nov. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lawyers will be on hand to assist with family issues, immigration, and more. To set up a required appointment, call (718) 684-5509. Heating Assistance Available Assistance in having your heating bill paid for is available through the state government. Eligible households can receive a one-time benefit of up to $626, depending on income, household size and heating source. A


Read More

Latest Edition of the Norwood News is Out!

Hello Fellow Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News, serving Norwood and other Bronx communities, is out with plenty of neighborhood news you can use. We’ve packed the paper with coverage on the historic general election, and our take on what lessons may have been learned. We first begin with a local story on a move by Community Board 7, the all-volunteer civic panel, looking to take the wheel in deciding Bedford Park’s future look. The Board has hired a consulting firm to carry out an independent study on the needs for the neighborhood, home to a hodgepodge of two-story


Read More

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,


Read More

Voters Head to the Polls to Cast Ballot, Voting Blue

Donald Trump defied expectations winning the U.S. presidency in one of the more decidedly nasty election cycles in recent memory, changing the political landscape for the next four years. In the lead-up to the polls closing at 9 p.m. on Election Day, where Bronx residents overwhelmingly voted for Mrs. Clinton, the Norwood News visited several sites in the neighborhood, observing voters casting their vote without much of a wait. Outside PS 86 on Reservoir Avenue and 195th Street in Kingsbridge Heights, a steady stream of voters congregated under the scaffolding after casting their ballot. Arturo Sealy, 53, hadn’t planned to


Read More