Bidding a fond farewell to Riverdale

It has been two years since I introduced myself to The Riverdale Press readership (“New editor is happy to join neighborhood,” March 17, 2022). A lot has happened in greater Riverdale since then.

For starters, there were anti-Russian protests outside the Russian mission compound in North Riverdale on Mosholu Avenue and West 255^th Street as the Ukraine war broke out. Additionally, U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who became Riverdale’s congressman at that time due to redistricting, called for a federal investigation into rumors of spying going on at the compound.

Then, three of the most well-known diners either closed or were demolished for myriad reasons. The Riverdale Diner never recovered from a kitchen fire in April 2022, the Blue Bay Restaurant lost its lease at the end of the year and the Land & Sea Restaurant on Broadway in Kingsbridge was demolished in 2023 after sitting vacant for some time.

From March 2022 until now, some of the biggest stories The Press staff has covered and I have editorialized on in no particular order include:

• The ill-fated Van Cortlandt Park cricket stadium proposal
• Kingsbridge Armory’s latest redevelopment plan
• Proposed homeless shelter on Broadway
• The migrant influx situation and repurposing of Van Cortlandt Motel as a shelter
• Manhattan College’s sale of Overlook Manor to a developer who is converting it into a migrant shelter
• Manhattan College’s financial woes
• The narrowing of Riverdale Avenue
• College of Mount Saint Vincent becoming a university
• Muggings at Van Cortlandt Park
• The merger of Saint Gabriel School with St. Margaret of Cortona School
• SAR High School’s plan to expand on Riverdale Avenue
• Proliferation of illegal weed shops in Kingsbridge
• The deterioration of co-ops, such as Park Reservoir and Amalgamated
• Church of the Visitation’s sale and transformation into a school and housing complex
• Financial problems of Van Cortlandt Jewish Center and its imminent sale
• Local response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel

Of course, these are just a sample of the many stories we have given our readers over the past two years. As I promised in my March 2022 column, “We will continue to pursue stories in the quest for the truth.” I like to think we did indeed do that.

I would like to thank the following sources for their efforts over the past two years, and in many cases over decades under my predecessors, for they have done in the name of truth:

• Karen Argenti
• Luisa Beltran
• Bob Rubinstein
• Nanda Chavez
• Stephanie Coggins
• Nick Dembowski
• Rabbi Steven Exler
• Leah Grammatica
• Mary Hernandez
• Julie Hyman
• Rabbi Binyamin Krauss
• Charles Moerdler
• Susan Olsen
• Laura Levine-Pinedo
• Margie Schustack
• Doug Simon
• Laura Spalter
• Wendy Steinberg
• Laura Wilker

Most of all, I want to thank the staffers and freelancers who worked with me at The Press these past two years. They are Hiram Alejandro Durán, Gary Jean-Juste, Stacy Driks, Sachi McClendon, Eric Harvey, Izania Gonzalez, Abigail Nehring, Joseph De La Cruz, Pete Janny, Mack Olmsted, Steven McCoy and Cheryl Ortiz.

Thanks for the memories, Riverdale.

The author is editor of The Riverdale Press.