Our Lady of Refuge Church, on 196th Street, is under siege. Nearly every night, after longtime maintenance worker Luis Lugo closes the church compound’s 15-foot-high, chain-link gates, neighborhood kids climb over them, looking to cause a ruckus. "It’s worse [now]," said Lugo, after testifying in front of a Community Board 7 public safety hearing held at the besieged church last Tuesday night. "The youth are domaining [sic] here and the police department doesn’t have the power to stop it."

It’s five o’ clock on a Friday and Eshawn Hall is just starting his evening. Slipping through the doors of the 4-train at Bedford Park Boulevard with CDs in hand and fat headphones wedged above his ears, the veteran rapper/entrepreneur drops his backpack as the train starts moving.

While most mothers are juggling work and home life, Francisca “Frances” Villar (pictured, center, right), a 26-year-old mom and a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, has started a fierce campaign to run against Mayor Bloomberg in November’s election.

Mayoral candidates Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson showed up to various Bronx events over the past few weeks.

Your quick-hit guide to the November 3 general election.

John Liu, the Democratic and Working Families Party nominee for comptroller who will take office in January unless one of his three challengers scores an epic upset in the general election, visited the Norwood News on Aug. 18 and talked .

The New York City Planning Commission approved the Related Companies’ proposal to develop the Armory into a giant shopping mall on Monday. But in an 8 to 4 vote, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. secured key support in opposing the project from two other borough presidents and the public advocate. Each borough president has an appointee to the commission.

With the winter months looming, the city is preparing to tackle one of the season’s principal ailments, the flu. But this year, it’s not just the seasonal vaccination being offered. After causing widespread illness in New York City last spring, infecting an estimated 750,000 to 1 million residents, according to the of Health Department, the H1N1 flu (Swine Flu) vaccination is expected to be widely available by the end of the month.

James Alles had a feeling the time was coming. But the longtime cop didn’t know for sure until he dropped his oldest son off at college in Massachusetts and watched him fade away in the rearview mirror as he drove off.

"It was very emotional," said Alles of the trip earlier this fall. It also led Alles, 48, the commanding officer of the 52nd Police Precinct for the past two and a half years, to decide to retire from the NYPD after 28 years on the job.