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.

The Norwood News’ arts and entertainment calendar for our Bronx readers.

A listing of community events, programs and services in the Bronx.

In late October, when Henry Perry walked down into the lobby of his Mosholu Parkway building, the same lobby of the same building he’s lived in since 1968, he noticed something dramatically different. There was a security guard sitting there.

Overnight, his building had become half homeless shelter.

This week the city will begin discussing how much public financing to award the Related Companies in exchange for buying and renovating the Kingsbridge Armory into a giant shopping mall. With the inclusion of public financing for the Armory project, community groups believe they will have added leverage to negotiate a substantial community benefits agreement