In November 2011, I was traveling solo on a train across China from Shanghai in the east to Xian in the northwest, and although they have high-speed trains in China (5km faster than Japan’s Shinkansen, not to be outdone), the only one I could book on that day was one on a regular service, which was something like a 17-hour ride. About three-quarters of the way there, the train broke down for several hours. Unfortunately for me, I don’t speak Chinese.

 

Sitting, waiting, a shy young couple opposite me began to strike up a conversation in English. Pulling out their phone, after I told them I was from Ireland, they showed me photo of an Asian girl with red hair. I smiled. They smiled. They then punched something into the phone and had it translated. They held up the tiny screen and it read something along the lines of “It’s not the destination that counts but the journey.”

 

I smiled again and wondered if they were referring to that particular journey or, more philosophically, to life in general. Either way, they were right. The train issue resolved itself. We were on our way again and it had been some journey. Recently, I read something similar but it was: “It’s not the journey or the destination; it’s the people.”

It takes a village to produce a community newspaper, and over the years, the Norwood News has been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best in the business. When I asked former and longest-serving Norwood News Editor-in-Chief Jordan Moss for his thoughts on the final print edition, he said in part, “Dart Westphal, then head of MPC, created the Norwood News in 1988, because he felt strongly that it would connect the local residents and programs to each other, widen the awareness of good and helpful things going on around them, and give them a voice to hold city agencies and elected officials accountable.”

 

Moss continued in part, “The Norwood News raising and following issues like the endless delays of P.S. 20’s construction, and the city’s lack of attention to rehabbing the Kingsbridge Armory in a way that would benefit Bronx residents, played a key role in getting the attention they both desperately needed. For these and many other issues it covered, Norwood News won many awards in the city and state.”

 

Freelance reporter and photographer José Giralt, among others, is among those winners, recently working with incarcerated people to tell their stories in truly compelling ways.

 

Freelance photographer Miriam Quiñones loves taking “pictures.” Asked how she started with the paper, she said she was friends with both David Greene and former Norwood News editor-in-chief, David Cruz. “I always used to go to the Oval, and then one time, I asked David Cruz, “So when are you going to put my pictures in the Norwood News?” she said.

 

She said Cruz asked to see her photos and that’s how everything started. “I sent him the pictures. They were published, and from there on, he [would] call me and ‘Okay. I got an assignment.’” Quiñones, who does phenomenal volunteer work across The Bronx for which she has been honored several times, said a lot of the events she covered related to fires, elections, building collapses, community events or were weather-related. Asked what she liked most about the job, she said, “It’s fun! I love to take action pictures as they’re moving.”

 

Quiñones said she also loves to see people’s reactions to her work, and that she seems to have a knack for photographing animals, adding that they appear to want to face her lens for the perfect shot. She said she also gets a kick out of people recognizing her from covering different events.

 

Born in Manhattan and proudly of Puerto Rican heritage, Quiñones moved to the South Bronx later and was raised there. She said the last time she visited Puerto Rico, she was around 16, explaining that it was mainly for financial reasons. “When I started working, and then I got pregnant from my son, and I needed to stay working because I needed to pay bills,” she said. 

 

She worked as a phone operator and later got a job at her son’s school as a PA. “There was a big layoff in 2000, the time of 9/11,” she said, adding that she later got a job with another school. In light of the upcoming 25th anniversary of 9/11, I asked Quiñones about her memories of the day. She said she had just dropped her son off at school and was driving to work to the other school where she is now, when she heard the news.

 

Incredulous, she said her immediate reaction was to go collect her younger son again, but her colleagues convinced her that if someone was taking care of her son at his school, their job was to take care of other people’s kids until they were collected.

“I cried that day when I picked up my son because he was nervous, because he was one of the last ones in the class to get picked up,” she said. “He said, ‘I was wondering how come everybody was leaving and you wasn’t picking me up.’ I feel that pain now. Him and two of the kids, they were the only ones left, and they didn’t let him go.” Quiñones said she explained to her son, “They didn’t let you go out of the classroom because you were safer in the classroom with the teacher.”

 

Freelance reporter, photographer and deliveryman for the Norwood News, David Greene said he started with the newspaper around ‘95 or ‘96. “I was running a driving school on 207th Street, and Jules Rubenstein was doing the Inquiring Photographer, and he came up to me and said, ‘Would you like to be in the newspaper?’” Greene said.

 

“I don’t even know what the question was! So, I was in the paper. I learned about the Norwood News.” He said he believes Rubenstein, who sadly died in 2020, conducted the Inquiring Photographer interviews for Norwood News for around 18 years. Greene later took over the role.

 

Later, Greene said the secretary at the driving school, who had connections with the Williamsbridge Oval Park, knew Greene wrote about boxing and asked if he could do a story in the paper about kids in the Oval and how she was trying to secure a grant to open a community center for local kids.

 

“The connection with the Norwood News started then,” he said. “My first editor was [Betty] Chen. I did one story for her.” He has worked with most editors in between. Greene said he later worked with the Bronx Times, among other publications. “In 2004, I started chasing stories on my own, and when I was working with the [NY] Post, I was still giving stories to the Norwood News. Like, if I covered a fire for the Post, the next [Norwood News] issue, they would have like a full story.”

Greene said in the roughly 16 years he’s covered the Inquiring Photographer feature, he hadn’t had “a miss” in terms of not getting five people to share their opinions with him. “Then, I finally had a miss!” he said. “That was hard!”

 

Asked what he likes about being a journalist, Greene said, “It’s a good question. I don’t know. I guess I like reporting. I like putting out stuff that nobody else has. Helping people is an added benefit.” Of the downside, he said, “Getting blamed by everybody for everything. You know, the cops hate you, the freaking dealers hate you, the gunmen, gangbangers hate you. The worst thing was this sh*t with fake news from [U.S. President Donald] Trump.”

 

He continued, “I used to say, ‘Excuse me, would you like to be in the newspaper?’ They’d put their arm around me. ‘Come, step into my office!’ You know that sense of fake news [now]? I get fists shaken at me. I’m, like, ‘What the hell!’ They’re nuts! And then people don’t want to participate because they don’t believe in the news.”

 

Asked, given the digital age we live in, if he thinks younger people read the Norwood News, Greene said, “I know when I drop it at the schools, they have classes where they look at our articles. There’s a lady from Botanical Square. I think her kids go to P.S. on Webster. I think every issue, they go through it.”

 

Of the impact of the digital age, he said in part, “You still see people carrying the paper walking down the street or if I show up, they’ll say, ‘Oh, I’ve been waiting for you, or there was a lady here. She was waiting for this paper.’”

Asked about changes he’s witnessed in the local neighborhoods over the years, Greene talked about the changing demographic and how once Norwood was home to mostly Irish, Jewish and Black residents, and the 19 or so bars that he said used to exist locally. “They’ve almost all gone out of business,” he said. “Now, it’s a lot more diverse. Now, you have, like, from Arab countries… Pakistani. But crime was a problem then. Crime is a problem now.”

 

Asked how he was feeling ahead of the final print edition, he said, “Disappointed.” He explained how he enjoyed training in other budding reporters in the field who may not have formal training, and even some who have. In 2030, Greene said he’ll be 40 years in the business.

 

“I always figured that I [could] bring somebody on. I could train them to be a photographer / journalist, and I could give them the job to deliver the paper,” he said. “I always thought, I’d be able to pass it on and now, not being able to pass it on, it was like, I don’t know. Sad.”

 

Barbara, Greene’s partner, was asked what it was about his reporting that stood out to her. “You can see the level of passion, commitment, and dedication in his work,” she said, adding that what mattered most to him was giving a voice to those suffering. “Each story carried a sense of obligation,” she said.

Award-winning, freelance graphic designer Mauro DeLuca, who designed each print edition (his creativity often curtailed by word count) is truly a warrior. He has gone above and beyond for the Norwood News, through illnesses, surgeries and more to ensure it got printed every other week. I am eternally grateful for his warmth, humor and professionalism.

 

I also sincerely thank Christina Arias, who spent many hours on top of her usual MPC-related work, billing our advertisers, Richner Services, our printers, for their super generous flexibility around deadlines, elections and more, Melissa Cebollero of Montefiore community relations, Daniela Beasley, executive director of MPC, and indeed all my colleagues, past and present at MPC and the Jerome Gun Hill BID.

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To Ariel Pacheco, and all freelance reporters, past and present, Adi Talwar, freelance photographer, and all interns, past and present, your joy, vitality, and dedication to your work was infectious. To everyone at Montefiore, especially IT Support, thank you for everything.

 

To Judy Noy, former (meticulous) freelance proofreader, who would text in corrections after each print edition, even after she was no longer in the role, thank you. Noy recently recalled how she even caught one sneaky letter to the editor sent in many years ago before it almost went to print. It had been signed using the name, Luca Brasi, a character from a “Godfather” movie, which had recently come out!

To all those who took the time to write letters to the editor or op-eds, thank you for sharing your views, to our advertisers, to everyone who helped promote our work, to the New York Press Association for their support and guidance, to Ballard Spahr LLP for their always prompt and invaluable support on all matters libel-related, thank you.

 

To our freelance web support person, Ben Roman, our former salesperson, Janet Gellar, to all the contributors of our regular Health Check features, which were so informative, thank you. To all the hardworking men and ladies who keep our office clean, who are invariably Spanish-speaking, and who have helped me by listening to snippets of interviews to understand the gist of a particular turn of phrase specific to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic, and which were not familiar to me having learned my Spanish in Spain, muchsímas gracias. Thank you also again to Miriam for helping with the translation of some Spanish interviews for similar reasons.

 

To everyone who wrote such kind words about the Norwood News either in the latest edition or elsewhere, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your words brought us comfort during this sad time.

To Gary Axelbank of BronxNet (the GOAT) for all his advice and support, and to all our fellow colleagues in the media, thank you for your solidarity, collaboration and for all your stellar reporting. To the drivers and delivery people (including David Greene) for ensuring the paper always got delivered in all sorts of weather, thank you.

 

To Norwood News founder, Dart Westphal, for your courage and conviction in transforming a bold idea into reality all those years ago, and for your passionate work educating journalism students, thank you. To all former Norwood News editors-in-chief, thank you for your meticulous and diligent work in spotlighting so many issues of importance to the local community. The work speaks for itself and was invaluable to me as I delved through the archives. Thank you, especially, to Jordan Moss for your support.

 

Of course, I will be eternally grateful to David Cruz, my predecessor, for hiring me, along with Jennifer Tausig of MPC. I learned so much from David and from all the talented people with whom I have worked over the last 7 years or so. Thank you. My thanks also to all local community organizations and leaders, elected and others, and their teams, for all that you do for the people of The Bronx. It’s a long and non-exhaustive list.

The final edition of the Norwood News, after 38 years of publication, is delivered to the Keeper’s House in Norwood, The Bronx on Aug. 28, 2026. Video by Síle Moloney

To Bronx Community Board 7, and all local community boards, thank you for all you do. It’s been great to get to know you all and I’ve learned so much from each and everyone of you. To the 52nd Precinct Community Council, Bedford Mosholu Community Association, Future of Mosholu Parkland and all the Parks friends groups, our small businesses, our firefighters (hope you get rehoused soon in Bedford Park), the 52nd Precinct, the 47th Precinct, the 50th Precinct and the 46th Precinct, all our local colleges and universities, our schools, our clergy, our clergy councils, Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.), RTG, Guns Down, Life Up, all who volunteer in our local community, all our nonprofits, our hospitals and health centers, Destination Tomorrow, Our Bronx, POTS, BronxWorks, Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, Laal, as we say in Ireland, bualadh bos [applause].

 

To all our sources, you are awe-inspiring and have taught me so much. Thank you and I’m so, so sorry I couldn’t get to all your stories. They are important ones to tell. Keep telling them.

 

August marks Hip Hop Recognition Month. Though, immeasurably painful as we close out the final print edition of the Norwood News after 38 years this month, it seems somehow fitting to take comfort from the ethos of a Bronx creation and music genre. It reminds us in that unfiltered, unrepentant, real-as-the-day-is-long kind of way that life is an eternal struggle, and you either have to roll with the punches or get chewed up and spat out. But in the words of Big Pun, “There’s no longevity, living off of negativity.”

On behalf of everyone who has been part of the Norwood News story over the last 38 years, especially Norwood News founder, Dart Westphal, editors-in-chief, Betty Chen, Helen Schaub, Jordan Moss, Alex Kratz, David Cruz and me, it’s been a privilege and the honor of a lifetime to share the stories of the people of Norwood, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights, Fordham, Jerome Park, University Heights and beyond with the world. Thank you for reading.

 

Editor’s Note: Please check out the Norwood News YouTube Channel and enjoy the memories.