For weeks, a poster on the white tiled wall inside the 205th Street D train station has asked for information regarding the mysterious death of a 48-year-old man named Sangh Shingeia.
Robberies have surged in the 52nd Precinct in 2009 compared to the same time period a year ago. There have been 114 robberies so far this year, compared to just 74 at this point last year.
Only eight months after investing in a portfolio of two dozen rent-regulated Bronx properties, a private equity fund known as Hudson Realty Capital is now putting several of the buildings, including 1985-1995 Botanical Square South in Bedford Park, up for sale at prices significantly below what it paid for them.
Rising above East 211th Street on the grounds of PS 94 in Norwood, the iron skeleton of a new school building takes shape. As it progresses, the three-story edifice holds the promise of accommodating 490 new school seats.

But it remains unclear which students will occupy those seats and how much the new building will help alleviate overcrowding in District 10.
Three months ago, we submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

We simply wanted a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown of crime statistics in the 52nd Precinct. We received such a report directly from the precinct last year. And the 50th Precinct regularly provides similar information to The Riverdale Press.

Our readers tell us they find it useful to know the number of robberies and murders right on the streets where they live, stroll and send their kids to school. We receive lots of positive feedback from local residents whenever we’ve published such information.

Ask concerned residents, especially those who want to help by being the precinct’s eyes and ears, and they’ll tell you that stats for an entire precinct are useless without information about where those crimes occur. People want to know what’s happening in their neighborhoods.

This year the commander of the 52nd Precinct told us we needed to request this sector-by-sector breakdown from Police Department headquarters, and the press office there said we needed to file a FOIL request, basically a formal letter detailing the information sought.

A month after we sent the letter, the NYPD’s Legal Bureau replied that it would take three months – until April 17 – to make a determination as to whether they could release the information. This is unacceptable, especially since the precinct could provide us with the information practically instantaneously.
New York’s First Lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, recently stopped by Mosholu Montefiore Community Center to check out the B’N Fit anti-obesity program and meet with some local teens striving to improve their lives while shedding a couple pounds in the process.
In October, Monroe marked 75 years of bettering students. Since its inception in 1933, the Jerome Avenue-based private college has evolved over the years to fit the growing needs of its diverse and expanding student body.
This winter, the halls of the Bronx Aerospace Academy, a small military-themed high school on Gun Hill Road, look fresh and new thanks to a nonprofit group that is making it their mission to spruce up the city’s drab and dilapidated public school buildings.
With another college basketball season in the rearview mirror, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Monroe College can look optimistically towards next year’s campaigns even though they fell short of their championship aspirations.