On Sept. 14, Frances Lewis, a dear friend, long time park volunteer and community activist came back to the Bronx for the last time. Frances volunteered for many years for the Parks Department and for the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and numerous other organizations in the community. Frances would be up in arms at the conditions that now exist at Whalen Park and Williamsbridge Oval. Frances moved to Norfolk, Virginia seven years ago to live with her daughter. She passed away on Sept. 8. It saddens me that the Parks Department did not send a representative to pay

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Re: your editorial in the Sept. 6-19 edition ("Fence It In"): We agree with your assessment that Williamsbridge Oval Park is a "most active and much loved green space" [emphasis added]. It is with much disappointment and dismay that we learn that the track and ball fields will be replaced by the most "ungreen" of materials in artificial turf and a rubberized running surface. There are no compelling reasons why these materials should ever be used in public green spaces. Artificial turf – plastic grass – is beset with a number of serious problems: poor water runoff; increased heat retention;

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These days, the crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market and the subsequent rising rates of foreclosure are popular topics of discussion in New York. Thousands of poorly and abusively underwritten loans that were ultimately unaffordable and unsuitable for the borrowers who received them are going bust, and while Wall Street firms that invested in the sub-prime loan market are bemoaning the loss of profit as a result of these abusive actions, it is the homeowners facing foreclosure that are largely reaping what unscrupulous sub-prime lenders and brokers have sown for them.

A listing of community events and programs in the northwest Bronx

Tooting Our Own Horn Ride the rail everybody’s talking about – the Bronx Culture Trolley – after the Center for an Urban Future rated the event a success in its August issue. The next free evening begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3 with a new exhibit at Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos, 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street. Trolleys then leave at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. for the Quijombo Festival at Hostos Reperatory Theater, with Afro-Dominican culture, Quisqueya Henríquez at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and En Foco’s touring gallery of Enid Alvarez’ Puerto Rico series. Then wind down with jazz at J. Maxon’s Bar and Grill. For reservations and information, call (718) 931-9500 ext. 33 or email trolley@bronxarts.org.

To promote his new album, Queens rapper 50 Cent visited the X Bar in University Heights last Friday night.

Police said they have identified a burglary pattern on Grand Avenue (near Fordham Road) that residents should be aware of.

Last Friday night, a man holding a large amount of illegal drugs was shot in the back in the Knox Gates neighborhood in front of 3435 Gates Pl.

Right across from a stretch of Montefiore Medical Center buildings on Kossuth Avenue, an Indian woman was stabbed in the back by an assailant police described as a male Hispanic wearing a white T-shirt and white shorts.