Editorial

Can Dan Doctoroff
Stop the Clock?

The Norwood News’ Armory Clock has become one of the most noted features in the paper. Assemblyman Jose Rivera frequently mentions it at public meetings and tells the governor that the clock is still ticking from the day he visited the armory last summer. Former school superintendent Irma Zardoya made note of it at her last Community Education Council Meeting (she had been hoping for progress at the armory for her entire decade-plus tenure).

While we’re flattered by the attention and are pleased that the clock has been useful in spotlighting a critical community issue, we’d like nothing better than to stop the clock. Of course, we’ll only be able to do that if city and state officials agree on a new site for the National Guard units who now occupy the facility’s rear annex on East 195th Street. That would pave the way for the redevelopment of the long-vacant landmark.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff will be touring the armory on Thursday, May 4. As the city’s development czar and close Bloomberg confidant, Doctoroff has the juice to get things moving. The city’s Economic Development Corporation is under his purview and a nod from the boss to pull out all the stops on finding a Guard site would light a fire under the agency.

It’s always been puzzling to us why it’s taken so long for the city to move heaven and earth to turn the armory into a local economic development engine that would simultaneously provide 2,000 seats for school kids who are perennially crammed into local classrooms and lack sufficient resources like play yards.

We hope someone of the deputy mayor’s stature and experience will recognize a great opportunity when he sees one.

Can Dan Doctoroff “Stop the Clock?”

We’ll see on May 4.

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