Vol. 76, No. 19
What’s inside?
Thursday, May 7, 2026
VCP Stadium slated for demolition By Michelle Mullen mmullen@riverdalepress.com
Celebrating Bronx Week
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Once a central gathering place for school sports and community events, the city has determined the long-shuttered stadium building at Van Cortlandt Park is beyond repair, with demolition now considered inevitable — even as funding to carry it out remains uncertain. The conclusion follows a comprehensive planning study by the New York City Parks Department, which found the structure to be unsound after a yearlong engineering review. While the building has been closed to the public for years, officials say its deterioration has reached a point where continued maintenance is only
a temporary measure. Parks officials outlined both the building’s decline and the difficult reality facing the city. Jessenia Aponte, the Bronx borough commissioner for the department, said the building’s fate is sealed, though no timeline has been set. “Those efforts led to a clear and difficult conclusion that the building has deteriorated beyond repair and will need to be demolished,” Aponte said. “At this point, the question is not if, but when.” Constructed at the park’s southwest corner between 1937 and 1939 as part of a Works Progress Administration project — a federal initiative that funded public works during the Great Depression — the 3,000seat stadium opened with a track meet
and a football game between Manhattan College and Fordham University, presided by Robert Moses and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Over time, it evolved into a hub for recreation, with handball courts, baseball diamonds and a running track surrounding the stadium. But the land beneath it has contributed to its decline. Before the park was established, the area was largely wetland, later filled to make it usable. Those conditions continue to affect the site today, influencing drainage, soil stability and the long-term durability of any structure built there. Marlisa Wise, director of architecture for the parks department, said the building’s foundation reflects that mismatch be-
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tween design and environment. “The current building foundation is on a shallow foundation, which is not what any architect or engineer would design to date for this kind of swampy soil,” she said. “In all honesty, the foundation is really not appropriate for the soil that the building sits on.” That instability, combined with decades of exposure to the elements, has led to widespread structural damage. Engineers documented extensive cracking, water infiltration and corrosion throughout the building. “The concrete is severely deteriorated, and you can see that the structural steel reSTADIUM ON PAGE A4
Riverdale Temple to launch bridge program By Michelle Mullen mmullen@riverdalepress.com
nue. They’d pay $1 for two slices of pizza and a can of coke, she added. The sentiment of a “neighborhood school” was shared by 62-year-old Bob Resch, who lived in an apartment building kitty-corner to P.S. 81, and remembers seeing the school he attended from his window. Resch — now living in New Hampshire working in pharmaceutical research — was able to list six of his former instructors who left lasting impressions. “That time in history was a great time to grow up in Riverdale and New York City,” he added. Earlier, in the 1950s, former editor of The Press Bernard “Buddy” Stein was a student at P.S. 81. Before eventually leading The Press, he was the editor of the P.S. 81 Live Wire, the school’s newspaper. Also a staff member of the Live Wire was the late Lars-Erik Nelson, longtime
A new program at Riverdale Temple Nursery School is aiming to ease the shift from preschool into kindergarten. Set to begin this fall, the school’s Kindergarten Bridge program is designed for children who may benefit from an additional year in a smaller, play-based setting before entering a more structured classroom. Administrators say the initiative reflects both developmental concerns and logistical challenges families face when navigating school systems. Differences between public and private school cutoff dates can leave children caught between timelines, sometimes forcing families to decide whether to advance a child who may not be ready or have them repeat a year in a new setting. The bridge program offers a third option — one that prioritizes readiness over rigid progression. “We are doing this kindergarten now because we’ve had a lot of families who were just like, ‘oh, we’d so much rather repeat kindergarten than send them early,’” said Alexandra Abikzer, director of the nursery school. Beyond those structural concerns, educators say the program is rooted in how young children actually learn. While preschool classrooms emphasize play-based, hands-on learning, Abikzer said many kindergarten environments have become increasingly academic, with longer periods of seated instruction and higher expectations for reading and writing. The new class is designed to preserve that earlier education approach while gradually introducing structure. With a projected enrollment of 12 to 15 students, the program will offer more individualized attention than typical classrooms, allowing teachers to tailor instruction and pacing to each child. Students will be introduced to literacy, math and writing using curricula aligned with local schools, but those subjects will be taught through interactive, hands-on methods rather than rote memorization. Teachers will also incorporate smallgroup instruction and flexible learning centers, giving children opportunities to
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A photo of students in the schoolyard at P.S. 81 appeared in a July 1981 issue of The Press.
File photo
P.S. 81 Robert J. Christen School celebrates 100 years of learning By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
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P.S. 81 Robert J. Christen School has been embedded in the community for a century, touching the lives of thousands. More than 50 years after graduating, some alumni still remember the names of several of their teachers. The elementary school broke ground in 1925, and was designed by awardwinning architect Dwight James Baum. The school’s namesake, Robert J. Christen, was the former president of the New York City Board of Education and a lifelong Bronx resident. Today, P.S. 81 has 87 teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff who work with a total of 703 students, according to Principal Anne Kirrane. Inside the school, the entry hallway is lined with bright, handmade bulletin boards. Familiar sounds echo, such as
the quick footsteps and bursts of chatter among schoolchildren, or the heavy thud of a classroom door closing and the patient voice of a teacher. Years after they last strolled the halls, former students reminisced on P.S. 81 with fondness. Ande Hecht Endewardt, 66, is now based in Los Angeles working on production finance for film and television, but P.S. 81 stays with her despite the years and miles between them. She remembers vividly dancing the Bossa Nova, an afterschool activity at P.S. 81. The memory sparked recently while she was taking a Zumba class, and the same melodies began playing. “It really was the days of the neighborhood school,” Hecht Endewardt said, noting her mom was the president of the parent association at the time. Sometimes for lunch, the kids would walk to what was then Ken-Ed’s on Mosholu Ave-
Local Jewish advocacy groups demand change By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
More than 30 local members of Jewish advocacy groups rallied outside the West 225th Street Target in Marble Hill April 30, demanding the chain end its alleged cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Protesters from Bend the Arc, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, also called for Target to restore diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and for Congress to stop funding ICE. The gathering was part of a nationwide day of action called “Jews Demand ICE Out!” that organizers said drew participants from 17
cities. The protest comes in response to a video from January circulated by media outlets showing ICE agents tackling and detaining two Target employees at a store in a suburb of Minneapolis, with one employee saying “I’m literally a U.S. citizen.” NPR reported at the time that Target told its teams in a memo it does not have cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency. Last January, when Trump was reelected, Target also came under fire for rolling back its diversity programs. These incidents led to public backlash and boycotts. In Marble Hill, ralliers bore printed ICE OUT ON PAGE A4
Olivia Young
Protesters led chants and joined together in song outside of Target on West 225th Street.