2010 Year in Review: After the Fires, Frustration

For many Norwood-area residents and merchants, 2010 was a frustrating year as the community struggled to rebound from two devastating fires that left a gaping hole in the heart of a thriving shopping district.

2010 Year in Review: Discovery H.S. Gardeners Remake School Lunch

A group of Bronx students are helping to lead a green revolution right out of their own classroom, growing their own herbs and vegetables as part of gardening program at Discovery High School, on the Walton Campus in Kingsbridge Heights. The project is the brainchild of Steve Ritz, a longtime public school teacher who decided to incorporate some real life plants into his earth science and biology classes, rather than have his students read about them in a book. Before long, the classroom was the garden, and his students now grow their own herbs and vegetables in tall, vertical planters they keep in the back of the room.

2010 Year in Review: Violent Crime Rises in City, Borough, Precinct

If you look at the latest statistics published by the NYPD for the 52nd Precinct — which encompasses the entire Norwood News coverage area — overall crime is down by less than one-half of one percent. But even that miniscule drop in crime is deceiving. The Five-Two was hit hard in 2010; by a barrage of murders, a significant rise in felony assaults (including shootings) and rapes, as well as a string of robberies that rocked area churches in late fall.

2010 Year in Review: Tolentine on Mend After Suspicious Fire

St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, on University Avenue and Fordham Road, is still rebuilding this winter after a two-alarm fire severely damaged much of the parish’s front vestibule in March. “It’s progressing,” said Father Joseph Girone. “It looks like it could be done by Easter, and we’re looking forward to having something to really celebrate then.” Girone said Fire Department officials are still investigating the cause of the fire, which broke out the morning of March 5 and appeared to have been set deliberately because of its intensity and how it quickly it spread, Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Scanlon told the Norwood News at the time.

2010 Year in Review: Muller the New Armory?

The Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield is fast becoming the new Kingsbridge Armory. As of press time, the mayor’s office and Bronx officials (and activists) are in complete disagreement on how to best fill the vacant Muller Center, which the Department of Defense handed over to the city late last year as part of its BRAC program.

2010 Year in Review: Missing a Bronx Hero

Megan Charlop cared. Everyone who knew her knows that. But her death last March at the age of 57 in a bicycling accident focused the broad community of family, friends, and colleagues she knitted together over 30 years — as a Bronx mom, advocate and activist — on just how much she cared and accomplished in her too-short life.

2010 Year in Review: The Curious Case of Billy “Peanut” Murphy

Mourning friends created a makeshift memorial for Billy Murphy that included his favorite drink, Cobra malt liquor. (Photo by Adi Talwar)
The year’s most mysterious and potentially disturbing death came on a Sunday morning in August. At St. Barnabas Hospital, Billy “Peanut” Murphy, a heavy drinking, big hearted, homeless man who often took refuge in Epiphany Lutheran Church on East 206th Street, succumbed to severe injuries suffered days earlier. Epiphany Lutheran Vicar Bob Rainis, a former NYPD homicide detective, read Murphy his last rites and came away convinced “Peanut” had been the victim of a savage beating that led to his death. But police continue to say Murphy’s death was not a homicide.

2010 Year in Review: Up-and-Coming Gustavo Rivera Defeats Espada

Gustavo Rivera, an adjunct politics professor and former political aide, took the Bronx political scene by storm this year when he defeated State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr., for his seat in the 33rd District in the northwest Bronx. Rivera, a 34-year-old Kingsbridge Heights resident and former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, beat out a number of other primary contenders in what quickly became one of the most watched and dramatic races in the state.