Bronx News Network

New Webster Ave. Plans Bring Cheers and Jeers

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Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the latest edition of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.Construction has begun at 3600 Webster Ave. on a four-building affordable housing complex. (Photo by Jeanmarie Evelly)By JEANMARIE EVELLYChange is coming to Webster Avenue. The gritty, industrial stretch that runs through the neighborhoods of Norwood and Bedford Park was rezoned by the City Council this past March, with a plan designed to encourage more retail stores and residential housing in an area now largely composed of parking lots and auto body shops. Though not necessarily a direct result of the city’s change—zoning plans are more like gentle hands that shape a neighborhood, and depending on market conditions, it can take years before any real changes are seen—new projects already underway or in the pipeline along Webster are a portent for what the street could look like down the road.

Bronx News Network

Norwood Walks Aim to Build Community and Commerce

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Kids line up for face painting during a Weekend Walks event on E. 204th Street in Norwood.(Photo by Alex Kratz)By Alex KratzOn Sunday, hundreds of local residents spilled onto the middle of E. 204th Street for the Weekend Walks event, which included shopping, face painting, fitness instruction and lots of kids playing in an open fire hydrant courtesy of the fire department.Hosted by Community Board 7 and Mosholu Preservation Corporation, Weekend Walks is a city initiative designed to bring community and commerce together on streets throughout the five boroughs. On E. 204th Street, a two block stretch between Bainbridge and Hull avenues was blocked for shopping and a host of other activities.Lowell Green, the chair of Board 7’s transportation committee, first learned about the Weekend Walks program last summer and signed the board up to help host the event over the winter. Green, however, was skeptical that the board could pull it off without a co-host. In the early spring, Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), a nonprofit that manages affordable housing and promotes economic development in the Norwood area (and also publishes the Norwood News), teamed up with Board 7 to help organizing and promoting the event.Michael Lambert, the deputy director of MPC, said he hopes Weekend Walks will help build momentum and interest for an E. 204th Street business corridor beset by two tragic fires in the past two years.Representatives from several area businesses, including Ridgewood Furniture, Foodtown, Freilich Jewelers, McKeon Funeral Home, Papa John’s Pizza and the new Beso Lounge, participated in the event.Weekend Walks continues the next two Sundays, July 31 and Aug. 7, from noon to 5 p.m.

Bronx News Network

Two Wounded in Bedford Park Shooting

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By David GreeneA wild early morning shootout on Tuesday in Bedford Park sent two victims to the hospital, police and witnesses said. The incident was reported at 1:15 a.m., on Tuesday, July 26. Upon their arrival, police discovered two people shot outside of 264 E. 199 Street, near Briggs Avenue. According to a NYPD source, one victim was shot in the leg and the other in the arm. Both were transported to St.

Bronx News Network

Creston Ave. Crew Busted in Drug Raid

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Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the latest edition of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.By Alex KratzOver the past several years, the area around Creston Avenue, just north of St. James Park, has built a reputation as a hot spot for the drug trade. Periodic violence highlighted the turf wars that accompanied it. Earlier this month, however, local and federal authorities made a big dent in curbing Creston’s infamous image. Culminating a year-long investigation by the FBI and NYPD with an early morning raid on the so-called “Creston Avenue Crew,” police arrested eight people in the Bronx and three in Puerto Rico.

Bronx News Network

Riverdale Press Echoes Our Call for Release of Neighborhood Crime Stats

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When we first sought neighborhood crime stats from the 52nd Precinct a few years ago, I seem to recall it was because we saw that the Riverdale Press has published just such data for the 50th Precinct. In fact, the Five-O is still providing that information to the Press, which they should be commended for. But somehow the NYPD feels that the 52nd Precinct (Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights) and the rest of the Bronx, for that matter, no longer deserves this most basic of public information that is routinely gathered using their taxpayer money. We’ve been waiting 420 days for the NYPD to respond to our Freedom of Information Law Request, adhere to state law, and release this very public information.Our journalist pals at The Riverdale Press also found this rather disturbing and published this editorial echoing our call for the release of so-called sector data. Their headline says it all: “All Crime Stats Should Be Public.”If you missed News Channel 4’s coverage earlier this week of our campaign you can see it here.We’ll keep marking the minutes until the NYPD does its duty.

Bronx News Network

Huge Water Main Break Floods Jerome Ave.

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A massive water main break in Mount Hope this morning has flooded a portion of Jerome Avenue and surrounding side streets, around 177th Street, NBC is reporting.Check out the video at the link-we’re not talking about a little leak here-the streets are completely washed out and water is practically covering some parked cars.Because of the break, the MTA says riders should expect delays on the 4 line, and there will be no service in both directions between the 167th Street Station and the Bedford Park Boulevard-Lehman College Station. Delays are also posted for the BX1, BX2, BX3, BX18, BX32, BX36, BX40, BX42 and BXM4 buses.We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.

Bronx

Bronx News Roundup, July 27

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Story of the Day: Jerome Avenue Flood UpdateThe AP reports that the floods from this morning’s massive water main break on Jerome Avenue have started to recede. And though the MTA website says No. 4 train service is suspended between 167th Street and Bedford Park Blvd., there were no trains going to Mosholu Parkway or Woodlawn, either, at least not during my morning commute. An MTA service update now says there are shuttle buses running.Some video footage:A BxNN reader says she had no running water at her home on E. 162nd and Grand Concourse; another woman I chatted with this morning said the water was waist-deep on 176th Street, and she put plastic bags over her legs to walk up the road.

Bronx

Gay Bronx Couples Waste No Time in Making History

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Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the latest Norwood News, on the streets and online now.Karen Cofield and Gwendolyn Williams, who met 5 years ago, were married at the Bronx County Courthouse on Sunday. (Photo by Jordan Moss)By Jordan Moss The signs of a highly unusual Sunday at the Bronx County Courthouse, where profound new rights were being conferred on a large group of New Yorkers, were hard to miss. Staff of the mayor’s office, sporting orange baseball caps, warmly greeted anyone who came within 50 yards of the courthouse’s Concourse entrance. There was no crammed line-up leading to the metal detectors. Cameras, forbidden from courtrooms and confiscated for the duration of one’s visit if found, were waved on through.