Last year, prolific hotel developer Sam Chang and his McSam hotel group ran into stiff opposition when they tried to put up a hotel on Webster Avenue on a small wedge of property between a private home and an auto shop. Now, McSam is back and prepared to start building. But first they want to make nice with residents and present their case in front of Community Board 7’s land use committee

A listing of community events and programs that are available to our northwest Bronx readers.

At the Small Public High School Fair held at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC), excited faces were everywhere. Potential students, their parents, and school representatives came together to make the daunting high school application process a little more manageable.

Perry Avenue Family Medical Center (PAFM) will hold a grand opening for its new Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department on Thursday, Oct. 18.

The New York State Small Business Center will be holding a free workshop called “Creating a Winning Business Plan & Developing Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business.”

Check out all the interesting things going on in the northwest Bronx in our Out & About section.

The Bronx Assembly delegation that overwhelmingly supported the city’s plans to build a water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park is now calling on state and city officials to investigate and hold hearings on the project’s escalating cost overruns and other problems, the Norwood News has learned. Eight of the borough’s 11 representatives to the State Assembly signed a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn asking each to call hearings on the project’s cost overruns, which now total at least $1.5 billion.

Members of the Bronx Assembly delegation which voted in lockstep-save the two feet of Jeffrey Dinowitz-to allow the city to blast a massive hole in Van Cortlandt Park for a water filtration plant, are starting to have second thoughts about the project they championed as a boon for the borough’s park system and its workers.

For better or worse, things are changing. A widely-publicized "building boom" is taking place throughout the Bronx, and residents on Grand Avenue are feeling it more acutely than others, with four sites currently under construction between East 190th and 192nd streets.