Monitors Vote for Filter Investigation

The Croton Filtration Monitoring Committee passed a resolution, 5-2, last week calling for three public officials to investigate the cost overruns that have ballooned the northwest Bronx project estimate from $890 million to nearly $3 billion.

Off and Running

Despite Election Day for city offices being still almost two years away, local northwest Bronx City Council races began warming up this fall. All three City Council seats in the Norwood News readership area are up for grabs when term limits force out Maria Baez (14th District), Oliver Koppell (11th) and Joel Rivera (15th) at the end of 2009.

Gonzalez Trial Stalls

State Senator Efrain Gonzalez’s pending trial on fraud and corruption charges is still pending after pre-trial hearings were postponed twice in 2007.

Sunlight on NY Politics

Senator Efrain Gonzalez’s indictment on criminal corruption and fraud charges put a face on the secret nature of member items, or state grants doled out by elected officials at their discretion. Before 2007, neither the Senate nor Assembly publicized how $170 million in member item funds were being distributed.

Dinowitz’s Human Trafficking Bill Passes

Calling it “without a doubt the most important legislation I’ve ever passed,” an anti-human trafficking bill first introduced by Bronx State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz became a law in 2007.

Carrion Drops Mayoral Bid

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión spent 2007 positioning himself for a 2009 mayoral run, but the former teacher sent shock waves through the city’s political establishment when he announced in mid-December that he would instead be running for comptroller.

Hopes for Armory Deferred to 2008

2007 was supposed to be a landmark year for the landmarked Kingsbridge Armory. In the fall of 2006, the city finally announced the release of a request for proposals, a key development the community had waited – and agitated – years for.

Foreman Leaves Monte

Hospital wings are usually named for people who have donated a substantial amount of money. But a major portion of Montefiore’s main campus was named in 2006 for someone who transformed the institution over two decades as its president, Spencer Foreman, MD.