Working to improve the parks, safety, sanitation, transportation, jobs, and housing of the neighborhoods in the Northern Region: Fordham, Bedford Park, and Norwood.

During 2007:

We have moved forward in our campaign to win the “good jobs” promised as part of the filtration plant being built in Van Cortlandt Park.  We have won construction training that can help get folks in the neighborhood into the unions that offer these good jobs.  This August, our annual Norwood festivals were better than ever.  As part of our organizing around safety in Knox Gates and Tracey Towers, adults supported Sistas and Brothas United’s festival in Van Cortlandt Park, and the youth joined over 450 adults at the Oval Park Festival.  In the fall, we re-energized Friends of the Oval Park to press the Parks Department for an improved dog run and better communication, as well as press the Department of Transportation to fix twenty-five broken lights in the Oval, repair lamp bases along Bainbridge Ave, and improve several intersections in the neighborhood.  Meanwhile, we worked with parishioners at Our Lady of Refuge to gain the attention of elected officials and the 52nd Precinct about the systematic muggings of undocumented workers, mainly Mexican, in the 196th Street area.  Finally, we joined with three other community organizations to form “Norwood and Bedford Park BLOOMS,” a consortium of NWBCCC, Mosholu-Montefiore Community Center, Mosholu Preservation Corporation, and West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center.

We won:

• Ninety-six free construction training positions, free GED classes, and free job counseling from the Department of Environmental Protection
• A strong core of community members who organized for months to create an Oval Park Festival with diverse performances, info tables about community and religious groups, 500 hot dogs, and the painting of new trash cans that we won from the Parks Department
• Met with Commissioner Moran of Bronx Department of Transportation and so far most of the lights in the Oval have been fixed and signage improvements have been made on Gun Hill Road
• Met with Commissioner Aponte of Bronx Parks Department and won the support of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and others for our demands for Parks
• Promises of increased police presence on 196th Street and monthly meetings with the Mexican parishioners of Our Lady of Refuge.

In 2008:

Our focus this winter will be to strengthen the Friends of the Oval Park by winning improvements in the Oval Park and holding a public meeting to celebrate the Departments of Transportation and Parks or to put pressure on them if they don’t move fast enough with our demands.  At the same time, we will evaluate the 52nd Precinct’s progress in improving safety on 196th Street. During the spring we will strengthen relationships in local congregations and tenant associations while starting plans for the Oval Park Festival in June. 

We want:

• Department of Environmental Protection: Fund thirty more construction training positions and ensure that this training has a stronger connection to union jobs.
• Parks Department: Install a new dog run, communicate more with the community about the Oval’s redevelopment, move the east-side Park entrance to align with Holt Place, and reuse excess water from sprinklers.
• Department of Transportation: Fix the remaining broken lights in the Oval Park, repair lamp bases along Bainbridge Ave, ensure safe entrances to the Oval Park, and install curb extensions at Gun HillRoad and Bainbridge Avenue. 
• 52nd Police Precinct: Provide constant police presence near Kingsbridge subways and along 196th late at night, follow-up with victims on the progress of investigations, conduct a sting operation, and participate in monthly meetings at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church.

For more information, please contact:

Abby Bellows, abby@northwestbronx.org

(718) 584-0515 x510 and (646) 642-6313