2010 Year in Review: Harris Cleanup Costing Other Parks

There’s a new twist to the saga that has become the remaking of Harris Field in Bedford Park. Last year, the Norwood News uncovered the Parks Department’s finding of heavy lead contamination underneath the soil at Harris, which caused delays and cost the city $5.2 million to mitigate. Those clean-up costs are now eating into other Bronx parks projects.

2010 Year in Review: Filter Plant Contractor Busted

In what has become our annual recap of what’s gone wrong with the enormous filtration plant being built in Van Cortlandt Park, federal authorities announced this fall that one of the plant’s primary contractors committed fraud in its reported hiring of minority and women-owned businesses.

2010 Year in Review: Racism Charges Ignored, Cemetery Workers Say

The most controversial local labor story of the year came out of 147-year-old Woodlawn Cemetery. For the past couple of years, minority workers at Woodlawn tried unsuccessfully to address what they said were acts of overt racism by supervisors. Their appeals to Woodlawn administrators fell on deaf ears, they said.

2010 Year in Review: Ex-Pol Gonzalez Gets Jail Time

State Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. wasn’t the first representative in the 33rd District to run into legal trouble. His predecessor, Efrain Gonzalez, Jr., was sentenced to seven years in prison this May for similar federal charges.

2010 Year in Review: Local Senior Center Saved From Closure

In June, seniors who frequent Tolentine Zeiser Senior Center were given some devastating news: The center, and dozens of others around in the city, were to be closed because of budget cuts. Staff took the pictures off the walls and filled several cardboard boxes with Christmas lights and other supplies they’d accumulated over the years. And they readied themselves for June 30, the center’s last day of operation. Then the unexpected happened. Tolentine and about 25 other senior centers in the five boroughs, including R.A.I.N Bailey in Kingsbridge Heights, were handed a last minute reprieve when Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speaker Christine Quinn struck a deal to restore funding.

2010 Year in Review: Gay Bias Attacks Shock the Borough

The Bronx — and much of the country — was left reeling in October, when news broke of a horrific attack on several men and teens in Morris Heights. Police say the perpetrators, members of a gang called the “Latin King Goonies,” chose their victims because they were gay or perceived to be gay. Among those attacked was a 30-year-old known locally as “La Reina” (“the Queen”). He was burned with cigarettes and sodomized with a small baseball bat, the authorities say.

Pedro Espada and Son Indicted on Federal Charges

Controversial State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. was indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on embezzlement and conspiracy charges, along with his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, according to a statement by the United States Attorney’s Office released on Tuesday. Both men are charged with five counts of embezzlement — to the alleged tune of more than $500,000 — and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of embezzlement and five years for the conspiracy count. It could amount to 55 years behind bars.

The Education of a Councilman: Cabrera Makes Strides in First Year

Councilman Fernando Cabrera’s office on the 17th floor of 250 Broadway, a large municipal building across the street from City Hall in downtown Manhattan, is spartan — the walls a blank canvas, the desk tops free of clutter. There are photos on and behind his desk: of a baby smiling, a close-up of a flower, a beautiful landscape. They are not his photos. They came with the frames. The scene is fitting. As Cabrera enters the final weeks of his first year representing the 14th District, which includes Kingsbridge, University Heights, Morris Heights and Mt. Hope, two things have become

Buy Local: Your Holiday Gift Guide

It’s that time of the year again to search for that perfect gift for your loved ones: brothers, moms, maybe even your 80-year-old grandmother. But what to buy? The decision-making process can be agonizing. Worry no more. The Norwood News is here to help! After vigorously shopping throughout the northwest Bronx, from Gun Hill to Fordham Road, you can find some of the most diverse and special gifts just outside your door.