On the surface, this latest incident is like any other violent scenario involving urban minorities. Assailant and victim are collapsed into one impression, the bottom line being: it’s tragic but they were bad kids and had it coming. This is the message we repeatedly get from the 11 o’clock news and the tabloid treatment of these stories.

With a pair of thrashings last Wednesday, the Dewitt Clinton Governor’s baseball and softball teams sent a message to the rest of their New York City competition: we will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.

After a nearly two-and-a-half month delay, the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project is back on track and the city is moving quickly toward choosing a developer.

Just about three weeks after we featured the grafitti on this building at the corner of Briggs Avenue and East 201st Street as the Mess of the Month, men armed with power washers erased the mess. We thank the property owner and hope the vigilance continues.

The 52nd Precinct’s new commanding officer, Deputy Inspector James Alles (pronounced like bowling "alleys" he told his audience at a community precinct meeting) is installing a new patrol dedicated exclusively to addressing issues like noise and public drinking.

After two months of negotiations with a Bronx advisory group, city officials withdrew a controversial confidentiality agreement that would have prevented group members, including prominent elected officials, from speaking publicly about the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment proposals.

About a month ago, the Police Department shut the restaurant down in another attempt to thwart the blatant drug dealing by using the Nuisance Abatement law that targets crime-riddled commercial properties. The law debuted in New York City in the 1970s and was used primarily to shut down brothels.

By next week, the city will owe the federal government over $1.5 million in fines because it has failed to award the contract for building the water filtration plant in the giant hole in Van Cortlandt Park.

As the weather warms up and the end of the school year is in sight, kids, dog walkers, joggers and baby strollers are beginning to stream into local parks and playgrounds. As they do, many park users will find their favorite green spaces either markedly improved or looking like a construction site, and maybe a little bit of both. That’s because $200 million in park improvement monies, allocated as a result of a controversial political deal to build a giant water filtration plant in the Norwood section of Van Cortlandt Park, has begun transforming local parks.