Target comes to Marble Hill, IN-Tech gets new digs

2004

Milestones for schools

New zoning rules intended to restrict development in the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area were approved by the City Council, though battles over individual projects, such as the currently stalled Tulfan Tower on Oxford Avenue, lingered on for years after.

The battle over the Croton water treatment plant continued with lawsuits, a battle over who would get the construction jobs on the site, whether they would be union jobs and how many people from the Bronx would be mandated to work there.

Construction was completed on the Target store at River Plaza on West 228th Street, bringing the first big-box store to the area and causing concern among local merchants, many of whom felt they were losing business to the big chain.

Work was also completed on the new home for IN-Tech, which had been turned into a high school as well as a middle school. In earlier years, the school was located in rented space in the private Whitehall co-op building in south Riverdale.

It was also an important year for the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141. The first seniors to graduate from MS/HS 141 were in the class of 2004.

At the John Peter Tetard School, MS 143 in Kingsbridge Heights, years of terrible test scores finally led the city's Department of Education to close the school. The Department of Ed had recently replaced the New York City Board of Education, putting schools under the direct control of the mayor's office.

Politics in the local area had a shaky time of it in 2004. Guy Velella, a longtime state senator, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to bribery and was sent to jail, while an investigation into state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr.'s finances got under way.