We spent some time talking to voters at polling stations in the area on Election Day. Just seeing people from every ethnicity imaginable taking time out of their busy days, sometimes with two or more children in tow, to exercise democracy’s most precious right, is affirming and uplifting.

Just four months ago, Paul Smith woke up and found himself in the middle of a nightmare. It was Sunday, July 16, a day Smith will remember for the rest of his life. The principal of the Bronx New School in Bedford Park had just finished service at Foster Memorial A.M.E. in Westchester, where Smith is also a pastor. It happened during an after church reception. Smith was talking to members of his congregation, when he began to feel lightheaded. Then everything went black.

In 2003, when the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was calculating the cost of building the controversial Croton Water Filtration Plant at Van Cortlandt Park, it vastly underestimated the project’s final price tag which now stands at more than $2 billion.

Five years ago, at the age of 45, Norwood native Valerie Killigrew made the risky decision to dramatically change the course of her life. She became a writer. And now, after a half decade of plugging away at her chosen craft, countless hours agonizing over every word in every sentence and suffering at least a hundred rejection letters, Killigrew is finally seeing the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

The race to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory is officially on. Close to a hundred people showed up to an informational meeting put on by the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) on Thursday, Oct. 19 at the Armory. The morning meeting included an overview of the request for proposals (RFP), an extended tour through the Armory’s labyrinth of rooms and tunnels, and ended with a brief question-and-answer session.

The more than $200 million in Bronx parks funding promised by city officials in exchange for siting a controversial water filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, has begun to change the local landscape. Fences and bulldozers can be found in most local parks and more are on the way. Following is a rundown of where the various park projects in Community District 7 and the Norwood News readership area stand:

Evander Childs’ do-everything Jamaican superstar, Mario Rainey, danced through the last 10 minutes of the Bronx Championship last Tuesday at his home field, a game the Tigers won 2-0 over cross-borough rival Truman.

The 92nd Street Y in Manhattan honored a Bronx – and Norwood – treasure last Thursday evening. As part of a series, "Music and Dance of Jewish Traditions," Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, a songwriter, singer and poet, was celebrated as the equivalent of a rock star in Yiddish culture.

While service has resumed at the Bedford Park Boulevard station on the No. 4 line after a four-month rehab project, the Mosholu Parkway station is about to undergo a similar facelift. Beginning on Oct. 30, the northbound side of the station will close for three months and the southbound side will close for a similar length of time beginning next summer, according to a New York City Transit spokesperson.