Rolf von Hall waged a titanic struggle in 1983 against the ne’er-do-wells at the Post Office who wanted to name the finance station on Kappock Street Lord only knows what. Many Spuyten Duyvilians, or is it Spuyten Duyvilists, or Spuyten Devils - anyhow, many of those who live up the hill near the southern end of the Bronx, are equally persnickety. Lawsuits have been fought over what borough Marble Hill is in: they’re nothing compared to the heat that can be expended arguing over what neighorbood John F. They went to considerable pains to have their neighborhood formally named Van Cortlandt Village, and they don’t want to see their sobriquet suffer the fate of the Avenue of the Americas, a name only tourists and politicians call the thoroughfare between Fifth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan. When, for example, we identify someone who lives in the Amalgamated or Mutual Houses as a Kingsbridge Heights resident, the postman is unhappy: he knows he’ll be carrying the extra burden of letters from Rabbi Jacob Sodden, Phil Snyder, and other protesting Van Cortlandters. Kicking and screaming, they demand to be put back in their rightful homes. Periodically, The Press is bombarded with complaints that the newspaper has moved residents out of their neighborhood.

This month, The Press is asking - and trying to answer - a question that’s been on the minds of Riverdalians for at least the 60 years the paper has been in existence: What makes Riverdale Riverdale? While this editorial originally ran in 1988, it remains an insightful look at what makes up the greater Riverdale community - if anything does.

Rev. tom bird