Top 10 stories of 2012

Superstorm Sandy

Superstorm Sandy proved a force to be reckoned with, as high winds toppled massive trees throughout the Riverdale-Kingsbridge area and snapped power lines likes twigs. The late October storm left thousands in the area without electricity, heat, hot water and cable, with the leafy sections of Fieldston and North Riverdale bearing the brunt of sustained outages.

But even after the winds died down, the effects of the powerful storm lingered. City schools were closed for a week, mass transportation screeched to a halt, and the fight for gasoline began. Long lines of cars and people toting gas cans stretched from the pumps and down sidewalks throughout Riverdale and Kingsbridge. Like the rest of the city and Westchester County, local stations soon were running on empty.

Yet the worst of the storm brought out the best in local people. The Riverdale YM-YWHA opened its doors to those who lost power, offering a hot shower and a chance to charge cell phones. The Schervier Nursing Care Center welcomed 17 residents displaced from facilities in Brooklyn and Queens because of the storm. And efforts to raise money for those hard hit by Sandy began popping up throughout the neighborhood.

Sex abuse charges

The Horace Mann School community shook last June in the wake of a New York Times magazine article accusing three now-deceased teachers of sexually abusing students from 1973 to 1993. The story, “Prep-School Predators: The Horace Mann School’s Secret History of Sexual Abuse,” written by an alumnus, documented charges against Mark Wright, Stanley Kops and Riverdale resident Johannes Somary, and took the school’s past and current administrations to task for failing to take proper action.