Vol. 76, No. 33
Thursday, August 13, 2026
$1.00
Lehman College unveils first dorm
What’s inside?
By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
Elevator outages
Carroll said buses are particularly important because many people in the area live too far from subway stations to comfortably walk the hilly terrain, particularly when carrying groceries or navigating damaged sidewalks. “You have to take a bus to get to a train or another bus,” she said. “So we really depend on the buses a lot.” David Gellman, a Spuyten Duyvil resident, said the neighborhood’s larger problem is not necessarily its connections north and south, but getting east and west to reach them. Metro-North serves communities along the western side of the coverage area, while the 1 train is accessible from Kingsbridge and the 4, B and D trains are farther east. For people who do not live near those stations, a local bus
Lehman College unveiled its first dormitory at 2530 Grand Concourse, marking a milestone for what was historically a commuter school. The Lehman Grand, which will house more than 180 students, is inside the newly renovated Dollar Savings Bank, an Art Deco-style building constructed in the 1930s. It includes amenities such as 24-hour security, a movie and gaming room, multiple lounge and study spaces, and a discount at the Fine Fare Supermarket next door. For Lehman students, the 10-story dorm represents a long-awaited step forward. Dorm pricing ranges from $9,025 to $16,720 per academic year, depending on room type — standard, city view and penthouse — according to Lehman’s site. Lehman College is a City University of New York school that was built in 1931 as Hunter College’s Bronx campus, before it was established as an independent CUNY school in 1968, according to Lehman’s site. It has more than 13,300 students, according to the site, about 11,600 undergraduate and 1,700 graduate. The new dorm’s name was chosen by Lehman’s student government association, explained its president, Michael Galindo. A rising junior and accounting major, Galindo won’t be living in the dorms, but touched on its significance to the student body at large. “We never really had a building just for ourselves to actually live in, to actually sleep in … for us to be with our friends,” Galindo said. “It’s a grand thing.” The dorms could better Lehman campus-wide, Galindo said, by attracting more out-of-state or international students. Anthony Stone, a senior environmental science major and student government senator, expressed similar excitement. He said it was a great feeling to be standing in a building he had been walking past for four years, when it was still vacant. Stone noted the benefit for students that don’t live close to campus, and are deterred by traffic or late buses and trains. Residents in the dorm can also take a
BUSES on page A4
DORM on page A4
Con Ed power reductions Page A3
National Night Out Officers engage with the public Page A5
Michelle Mullen
Residents across greater Riverdale are reporting unreliable bus service.
Greater Riverdale residents worry over inconsistent bus service By Michelle Mullen mmullen@riverdalepress.com
Going for gold Former local student trains for greatness Page A6
In greater Riverdale, bus riders say inconsistent service is leaving them waiting through long, unpredictable gaps year-round, with many saying it has been a longstanding issue. MTA rider surveys suggest wait times are a particular pain point. In its spring 2025 customer survey, only half of local, limited and Select Bus Service riders said they were satisfied with how long they waited for a bus — 14 percentage points lower than the 64 percent who said they were satisfied with bus service overall. The Riverdale Press observed Bx7 and Bx10 service at several stops in recent weeks, comparing actual bus arrival times with published MTA schedules. While buses generally
began their routes on or close to their scheduled times, service became less consistent farther along the routes, with buses sometimes arriving within minutes of each other, followed by longer gaps. For neighbors who rely on buses to reach the subway, shop or travel between different parts of the neighborhood, those inconsistencies can add significant time to otherwise short trips. Betty Carroll, who has lived at the Knolls Cooperative in Spuyten Duyvil for about 13 years and does not own a car, relies primarily on the Bx10 and Bx7. “What happens is two or three buses in a row, and then you don’t have a bus for a very long time, and then they’re very crowded, and people can’t get on them,” Carroll said.
Riverdale Mothers raise safety concerns in weighs NYCHA’s Marble Hill Houses prescribed burns as a tool for healthier forests By Michelle Mullen
mmullen@riverdalepress.com
Athletes to watch Manhattan University’s fall sports stars Page A7
By Olivia Young oyoung@riverdalepress.com
Prescribed burning is the use of planned fires across the United States to improve ecosystems and prevent wildfires. What would it look like in a verdant, populated area like the northwest Bronx? A handful of residents explored the idea at Riverdale Neighborhood House Aug. 6, where Matthew Sprague, a researcher at Cornell University’s Lab of Urban Plant Ecology, led a roundtable discussion. Fire can be good for people and the land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Trees get stressed by overcrowding, fire-dependent plant species can’t stay alive and flammable fuels build up in forest debris, posing a risk for natural wildfires that can’t be contained, the department said. A controlled fire under the right circumstances can reduce hazardous fuels, promote growth, minimize the spread of pest insects and disease, and recycle nutrients back to the soil, according to the department. Sprague noted the practice dates back thousands of years to Indigenous populations. Though rare, wildfires do happen in the city, Sprague said. In past instances, his lab observed after flames subsided, when charred material and bare soil remained, it made way for new, native plant growth — a possible solution to the ongoing issue of invaBURN on page A4
Michelle Mullen
The Marble Hill Houses complex is located on Broadway between West 225th and 230th Streets.
The New York Police Department announced record-low levels of crime in city public housing developments this year, but for mothers raising young children at Marble Hill Houses, the statistics have not erased concerns about what happens outside their doors. During the first seven months of 2026, major crime in New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, developments fell just over 6 percent, from 3,387 incidents during the same period last year to 3,174. Murders dropped 45 percent, shooting incidents declined by a third and robberies fell by roughly 19 percent, according to the NYPD. The decline, however, has been even greater at Marble Hill Houses, a NYCHA complex located on Broadway between West 225th and 230th Streets. Overall major crime there fell 14.3 percent this year, the NYPD said, from 28 incidents during the same period last year to 24 this year. The development has recorded no murders, shootings or burglaries so far this year, while robbery incidents dropped from eight to three and grand larcenies fell from 10 to two compared to last year. Yet those numbers tell only part of the story for residents like Ashley Gallardo, a 31-year-old single mother who has lived at Marble Hill Houses for about three years. “Being that it’s just me and my son, it’s different because I have to protect him,” Gallardo said. “I got to protect myself and him.” According to the NYPD, not every crime declined. Felony assaults at Marble Hill Houses more than doubled, from seven last year to 15 this year, while grand larceny auto increased from one to four incidents. Gallardo said she generally feels safe NYCHA on page A4