The Bronx witnessed so much transformative change we’d be remiss not to mention how the borough fared this past decade. The paper pored over the last ten years to recap some of the more high-profile stories that have left a lasting impact on the Bronx.

Development
Within the last 10 years the Bronx has seen an enumerable population growth, coinciding with a historic development boom with lingering questions on housing security and affordability. Between 2010 and 2017, the Bronx became the fastest growing county in New York State, with over 86,000 new residents, bringing the estimated population to around 1.5 million (the 2020 U.S. Census Count is expected to verify those figures). Growing residential and commercial interest in the Bronx marked a decade of controversial rezoning efforts, with the Webster Avenue Rezoning that was approved in 2011 by the New York City Council. The rezoning, drafted in coordination with Community Board 7, made room for retail development along Webster Avenue. The rezoning has since drawn even greater interest to Norwood and Bedford Park, with developers tearing down homes to build taller residences. Concerns over whether the existing infrastructure can handle an impending population boom in the neighborhoods continue to linger into 2020.

Perhaps the biggest controversy happened at the tip of Community Board 7, with the massive Jerome Avenue Rezoning Plan, which spurred months of pushback from residents and housing activists who feared displacement in the revitalizing borough. In 2018, City Council approved the rezoning of a 92-block stretch of Jerome Avenue from 165th to 183rd streets, much to the chagrin of housing activists who believed that despite concessions made in the plan to protect local auto body shops and existing affordable housing, the rezoning would ultimately instigate the displacement of low-income residents. The rezoned area would span from Highbridge to University Heights, impacting Bronx neighborhoods represented by Community Boards 4, 5, and 7. The Norwood News has covered the Jerome Avenue Rezoning process since its 2015 proposal, the plan’s approval by the City Council’s Land Use Committee on March 6, 2018, to the now precipitative effects of its ratification.

The Jerome Avenue Rezoning arrived on the heels of a citywide effort by the De Blasio administration that since 2014 saw contentious rezoning efforts in Far Rockaway, East New York, and East Harlem. The proclaimed impetus, according to the city, is in preserving and developing affordable housing amid rapid population growth. Much of the pushback to the plan came from housing and anti-gentrification activists who argued that the city’s rezoning efforts were unfairly focused in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Along the Jerome Avenue strip fated for rezoning, the average annual income is $24,000, less than half the city’s income average. And with much of the city’s affordability measures recognizing citywide income averages rather than neighborhood-specific data, the Bronx’s vexed rezoning debate will likely spill into the next decade.

Slated next for rezoning, a stretch of the Bronx’s Southern Boulevard from Crotona Park East and Charlotte Gardens, south to Hunts Point. This year, the city Department of City Planning (DCP) continued community engagement efforts as it develops its preemptive neighborhood study ahead of an official rezoning plan.

With so many rezoning plans happening in low-income neighborhoods, lawmakers are now mulling the possibility of a racial impact study to determine whether any proposed rezoning plans will have a detrimental impact on the predominant racial demographics of a given area.

Kingsbridge Armory
For the Kingsbridge Armory, the decade began with the defeat of a proposition to convert the historic armory into a retail shopping mall. In 2010, a City Council vote, led by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., rejected development plans by real estate giant Related Companies, following the latter’s refusal to guarantee a $10 hourly wage for future mall employees. Following the no-vote, Diaz and District 14 Council Member Fernando Cabrera, developed the Kingsbridge Armory Task Force, to lead revitalization efforts of the long vacant armory.

Following competing proposals in 2012—one for an indoor market and the other the world’s largest ice skating center—community stakeholders backed the latter. A year later, the New York City Council followed suit in supporting the newly-proposed Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC), expected to hold nine ice skating rinks and a 5,000-seat arena inside the landmark armory. In 2016, with funding posing major hurdles for KNIC, New York State stepped in to give a $138 million loan from New York’s Empire State Development Corporation to start the ice center project. As of this year, KNIC has not finalized a start date for the project, though KNIC’s founder, Kevin Parker, promises activity to start in 2020.

The Ever-Changing Business Landscape
The decade began with merchants along Bainbridge Avenue reeling from the effects of several fires that rocked the largely mom and pop business strip that stretches from East 204th Street and Webster Avenue, with the Bainbridge Bakery, Neighborhood Gift & Wireless, El Diamante restaurant, Hair Shoppe, American Diner, a dental office, a fish market, and Foodtown among those gutted as a result of the fires. The Foodtown stands as the only impacted business that reopened.

The fire began at the time when McDwyer’s Pub and Freilich Jewelers were still in business. Sadly, the two fixtures in Norwood closed down in 2016 and 2017 respectively, largely because interests have shifted some. With the closure of businesses, which included a Chase Bank and Bank of America on the Bainbridge/East 204th Street strip, others have opened, including Crazy Fruits, La Casa De Frida, and People’s Pharmacy.

In the last year, the Mosholu Preservation Corporation (publishers of the Norwood News) have taken a closer look at the corridor, crafting a Commercial District Needs Assessment to determine what the future could hold for the Norwood strip.

Crime
The decade saw a decrease in overall crime in the 52nd Precinct, which serves northern Bronx neighborhoods including Norwood, Fordham and Bedford Park. Since 2010, crime on average has dropped 11 percent in the precinct. However, this excludes crimes including rape, felony assault, and grand larceny, which has risen over 20 percent since the start of the decade. In general, crime has continued to decline citywide since 2010, with the Bronx seeing a boroughwide 2.6 percent drop. The only borough to see an increase in overall crime in the last decade is Manhattan.

Since 2010, the Bronx recorded a notable 35 percent decline in homicides, a handful of anomalous incidents throughout the decade sparked public outrage. In 2018, video showed the violent murder of 15-year old Lesandro Junior Guzman-Feliz who was killed by members of the Trinitarios gang outside a Belmont bodega. The inexplicably violent nature of Lesandro’s death, coupled with the widely-shared graphic footage of the incident, galvanized renewed demands to combat gang violence in the borough. One year later, homicides have dropped in the Bronx from the 90 recorded in 2018, to 80 as of press time in 2019.

And in the 52nd Precinct, the decade saw the departure of then-Deputy Inspector John D’Adamo in 2011 under a cloud of controversy, followed by then-Inspector Joseph Dowling in 2011, then-Deputy Inspector and now Chief Nilda Hofmann in 2013, and then-Deputy Inspector Peter Fiorillo in 2016, who helped implement the Neighborhood Coordination Officer program at the station house, in 2018. Last year, Deputy Inspector Thomas Alps, formerly of the 49th Precinct, became the new and current commanding officer of the precinct.

Among the common denominators for these four commanding officers is the fight against opioid abuse within the precinct that covers Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge Heights, and University Heights. Fordham, in particular, remains a hotbed of drug activity, with one major drug bust happening in 2017, with seven people charged for selling heroin mixed with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that when touched can be lethal. 

Politics
The decade may have seen some major political shifts throughout the Bronx, but some things remained constant, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who now enters his 11th year as the borough’s top executive.

Diaz Jr., along with the rest of the Bronx, has witnessed some unexpected changes, namely the rising political and social capital of progressive millennials. In 2011, then-State Sen. Jeff Klein of the 34th Senate District, just touching Bedford Park, formed the controversial Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) with seven other Democratic New York State senators. The IDC caucused separately from the rest of the State Senate—until the faction’s dissolution in 2018—an act that many believed handed Republicans a Senate majority for much of the decade.

The IDC was borne out of the dysfunction promulgated by then-State Sen. Pedro Espada, who was serving as Senate Majority Leader after exploiting a leadership crisis. But in January 2010, then-state attorney general Andrew Cuomo launched an investigation into Espada’s nonprofit alleging he stole $14 million in monies intended to go for services. Eighteen months later, a trial concluded in May 2012, where he was found guilty.

Klein was unseated in the September 2018 Democratic primary by progressive challenger Alessandra Biaggi. Two months later, 29-year-old Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez beat 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District. Ocasio-Cortez’s hard-fought victory sparked national debates on the political potential of a growing voting bloc of young, progressive millennials. Imbued by Ocasio-Cortez and Biaggi’s victories, progressive challengers continue to emerge in the Bronx. In 2020, hardline progressive Samelys Lopez of Mt. Eden will vie for Congressman José Serrano’s seat, following his announcement that he will not run for reelection. Socially conservative Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. has also announced plans to run for Serrano’s seat.

At the start of the decade, Carl Heastie stood as the Chair of the Bronx Democratic Party until stepping down in 2015 after becoming the first Black Speaker of the New York State Assembly in New York State history. Heastie wasn’t the only African American to break past the racial ceiling. In 2015, Darcel Clark became the first African American woman to become Bronx District Attorney. Heastie’s successor, Marcos Crespo, was voted chair of te Bronx Democratic Party in 2015, continuing a greater level of unity among elected officials in the Bronx.

Meantime, Norwood saw the departure of its Councilman, Oliver Koppell, who had served for 12 years on the Council. Among his last duties as the Council Member was ushering in the re-opening of the Williamsbridge Oval Park Recreation Center in 2013, where renovations had stalled. In November 2013, the majority of voters cast their ballots for current Councilman Andrew Cohen, who helped usher the Participatory Budgeting movement that some of Cohen’s council colleagues have embraced. In 2019, after six years, Cohen decided to do away with the program, opting simply for greater community input. Cohen also honored the community’s request in seeing the installation of a skateboard park inside Williamsbridge Oval Park, a project that took six years to complete, exploiting the bureaucracy of projects overseen by the New York City Parks Department.

Though he still has two years left before giving up his seat, Cohen has already considered other moves, including that of a judgeship and even borough president. Those political ambitions have others already having their sights set on succeeding Cohen, including Eric Dinowitz, a district leader and son of Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, and Daniel Padernacht, an attorney and former chair of Community Board 8.

Norwood also saw a change in federal representation, with Congressman Charlie Rangel announcing his retirement in 2015, paving the way for a Democratic primary that saw State Sen. Adriano Espaillat become the first Dominican-born congressman for the 13th Congressional District.

For other Bronx pols, the decade didn’t end that great, especially for Councilman Andy King, the first legislator in modern Council history to be suspended.

The New York Yankees
The Bronx Bombers spent the decade vying for their 28th ring following their 2009 World Series victory. The 2010s became the second decade, after the 1980s, in which the New York Yankees did not secure a World Series championship. Legendary pitcher Mariano Rivera announced his retirement in 2013, and one year later, iconic shortstop Derek Jeter told fans via Facebook that the 2014 season would be his last.

In Memoriam

Bronxites living within the coverage area of the Norwood News remembered the following notable deaths over the last decade:

Megan Charlop: Health advocate killed by a city bus on March 17, 2010 while riding her bike.

Msgr. Patrick Boyle: Former pastor at St. Brendan’s Church died on Feb. 16, 2011 from an undisclosed illness. 

Ibrahim Gonzalez: Legendary Bronx artist and teacher died on June 4, 2013 from an undisclosed condition.

Andrew Sandler: Former Community Board 7 district manager died on Aug. 5, 2017 after a battle with cancer. 

Mary Vallati: Community activist in Bedford Park died on Sept. 12, 2017 at age 102.

Francis “Al” Chapman: Long-serving president of the Kingsbridge Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association died on Feb. 19, 2017 from an undisclosed illness.

Stan Lee: Legendary Marvel Comics writer died Nov. 12, 2018 from congestive heart failure. 

Penny Marshall: Hollywood movie director and former Norwood resident died Dec. 17, 2018 from diabetes at age 75.

Heidi Hynes: Community activist and executive director of the Mary Mitchell Center died Nov. 24, 2019 at age 51 from cancer.