My name is Robert Lopez. I’m a longtime Norwood resident. When I first moved to Norwood by Gun Hill Road and Jerome Avenue, the neighborhood was mainly middle class, working folks. It was a very desirable, quiet and convenient place to live with mass transit and shopping around the corner. Fast forward to the present, I am sad to say that within the past five to six years, and despite some nice curb-appeal improvements like new street trees and renovated parks in Norwood, I have noticed the working class fleeing out of Norwood in disgust of what the neighborhood is becoming as the working class in Norwood is slowly being replaced by people on public assistance, Section 8, HASA and other city subsidized programs. Of course I am not saying all subsidized people are low-class. However, as we all know, the “bad apples” ruin it for the good ones. It is these “bad apples” that I refer to.

This demographic shift is happening because of the gentrification occurring in the south Bronx, Washington Heights and Harlem for the past decade or so. The displaced tenants from that area are forced to move further north like Norwood for affordable housing.

While the south Bronx, Washington Heights and Harlem improves, the north Bronx gets worse and becomes a dumping ground for troubled low-income people with issues. I’ve seen two particular apartment buildings in Norwood being converted into half residential, half homeless shelters, giving the working residents in Norwood another reason to flee the area while increasing the neighborhood drug dealer’s clientele. As a result, the quality of life in Norwood has slowly been diminishing by allowing these “bad apples” to infiltrate and corrupt our lovely Norwood neighborhoods.

Before you know it, the north Bronx is the new south Bronx. Do we really want that for our community?

As a longtime resident who cares, I believe it is important to expose this trend and hopefully spark change in the community because if this continues, in a matter of years, the damage can be too far gone to totally stop and Norwood will be transformed into a slum.

–Robert Lopez