South Bronx, New York

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South Bronx in orange; the rest of the borough is in yellow.

"The Hub" is the retail heart of the South Bronx.

976 Simpson Street in the South Bronx. (Building conserved by the City of NY)

The Bronx's P.L.A.Y.E.R.S. Club Steppers performing at the 2007 Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival in Brooklyn. (Note the T-shirts' inscription "I ♥ BX" [Bronx], echoing the ubiquitous slogan "I ♥ NY" [I Love New York] ).^[1]

Lorelei Fountain in Joyce Kilmer Park overlooking Yankee Stadium.

The South Bronx is a area of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It strictly refers to the southwestern portion of the borough, and should not be confused with the southern Bronx. It is famous as the home of Yankee Stadium and as the birthplace of hip hop music and culture. The neighborhoods of Tremont and University Heights are often considered part of the South Bronx. Some argue^[who?] that the Soundview section is part of the South Bronx, or even its eastern neighbor, Castle Hill. The northern limit of the South Bronx is commonly set at Fordham Road, which is closer to the north end of the Bronx than the south. Poverty is sometimes considered an indicator or part of the definition, and high poverty rates span as far north as Bedford Park Blvd before becoming more pocketed. The area has no official boundaries; over the decades the poverty area has only expanded. The South Bronx is part of New York's 16th congressional district, the poorest in the country. The South Bronx is served by the NYPD's 40th,^[2] 41st,^[3] 42nd,^[4] 44th,^[5] and 48th^[6] Precincts.

[edit] History

The Bronx was once considered the "Jewish Borough," and at its peak in 1930 was 49% Jewish.^[7] Jews in the South Bronx numbered 364,000 or 57.1% of the total population in the area.^[8] The term was first coined in the 1940s by a group of social workers who identified the Bronx's first pocket of poverty, in the Port Morris section, the southernmost section of the Bronx. After World War II as white flight accelerated and migration of ethnic and racial minorities continued, South Bronx went from being two-thirds non-Hispanic white in 1950 to being two-thirds black or Puerto Rican in 1960.^[9] Originally denoting only Mott Haven and Melrose, the South Bronx extended up to the Cross Bronx Expressway by the 1960s, encompassing Hunts Point, Morrisania, and Highbridge. In the 1970s significant poverty reached as far north as Fordham Road. Around this time, the Bronx experienced some of its worst times ever. The resultant chaos as related by the media brought the term "South Bronx" into common parlance nationwide.

[edit] Decay

The South Bronx has been historically a place for working class families. Its image as a poverty-ridden area developed in the latter part of the 20th century.^[10] There have been several factors contributing to the decay of the South Bronx: white flight, landlord abandonment, changes in economic demographics, social policies that promoted welfare instead of work, and also the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway.^[11]

The Cross Bronx Expressway, completed in 1963, was a part of Robert Moses’s urban renewal project for New York City. The expressway is ironically thought to be a factor in the extreme urban decay seen by the borough in the 1970s and 1980s. Cutting straight through the heart of South Bronx, the highway displaced thousands of residents from their homes, as well as several local businesses. The already poor and working-class neighborhoods were at another disadvantage: the decreased property value brought on by their proximity to the Cross Bronx Expressway. The neighborhood of East Tremont, in particular, was completely destroyed by the inception of the expressway. The combination of increasing vacancy rates and decreased property values caused some neighborhoods to become considered undesireable by homeowners.

In the late 1960s, the area's population began decreasing as a result of new policies demanding that, for racial balance in schools, children to be bussed into other districts. Parents who worried about their children attending school outside their district often relocated to the suburbs, where this was not a concern. In addition, rent control policies are thought to have contributed to the decline of many middle class neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s; New York City's policies regarding rent control gave building owners no motivation to keep up their properties.^[12] Therefore, desirable housing options were scarce, and vacancies further increased. In the late 1960s, by the time the city decided to consolidate welfare households in the South Bronx, its vacancy rate was already the highest of any place in the city.^[11]

[edit] "The Bronx is burning"

The phrase "The Bronx is burning" uttered by Howard Cosell during a Yankees World Series game in the 1977, refers to the arson epidemic in South Bronx during the 1970s. It was during this time that arson became popular because landlords would collect the insurance money for the building. Sometimes, prior to being set on fire, the building would be stripped of wiring, plumbing, metal fixtures, and anything else of value so as to retain some of the owner’s investments. Also, some fires in the South Bronx were simply caused because of deteriorating electrical systems or neglect on the landlord’s part as they still are today. The presence of several of these vacant, burnt-down buildings contributed to the atmosphere similar to that of a war-devastated country.

[edit] Renewal

Since the late 1980s parts of the South Bronx have experienced urban renewal with rehabilitated and brand new residential structures, including both subsidized multifamily town homes and apartment buildings. Many of the newer residents are of the lower income strata who been displaced from other low income sections of the city, born in the South Bronx (due to a higher birth rate), or from immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean (primarily Dominican and Jamaican). This is because a significant percentage of New York City's affordable housing is being built in the South Bronx.

[edit] Art scene

Since the late 1970s the South Bronx has been home to a renewed grassroots art scene. The arts scene that sprouted at the Fashion Moda Gallery, founded by a Viennese artist, Stefan Eins, helped ignite the careers of artists like Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer, and 1980s break dancers like the Rock Steady Crew. It generated enough enthusiasm in the mainstream media for a short while to draw the art world's attention.^[13]. Modern graffiti is also prominent in the South Bronx. The Bronx is home to many of the fathers of graffiti art such as Tats Cru. The Bronx has a very strong graffiti scene despite the city's crackdown on illegal graffiti. The rise of rap and hip-hop music (and the South Bronx avant-dance band ESG) helped put the South Bronx on the musical map in the early 1980s. The South Bronx is now home to the Bronx Museum of the Arts on the Grand Concourse. ^[14]

South Bronx Campus, home of Village Prep School at 701 St Ann's Avenue

Construction of the new Yankee Stadium has stirred controversy over plans which, along with the new billion dollar field, include new athletic fields, tennis courts, bicycle and walking paths, stores, restaurants as well as a new Metro-North Railroad station, which during baseball season might help ease overcrowding on the subway.^[15] There is hope that along these attractions will help to generate residential construction. However, the new park comes at a price: a total of 22 acres (89,000 m²) in Macombs Dam and John Mullaly Parks were sacrificed to build it. Developers say they have plans to create fields on top of parking lots and will replace the old stadium with new parks.^[15] The new stadium was completed in time for the start of the 2009 baseball season. However, the expected completion date of the promised athletic fields and other green space have yet to be revealed. Many in the local community oppose the stadium due to its effects on pollution, traffic, and a massive loss of the community's limited green space.^[16]

The population of the South Bronx is currently increasing.^[17][18] Although strides have been made since the days of arson, the South Bronx is still a long way from a real recovery. It is situated in the poorest congressional district in the country,^[19] and contains over half of the Bronx's housing projects. Almost 50% of the population lives below the poverty line. Drug trafficking, gang activity, and prostitution are all still common throughout the South Bronx. Its precincts record the highest violent crime rates in the city and are all NYPD "impact zones".

[edit] Transportation

Vehicular: Major Deegan Expressway (I-87); Cross Bronx Expressway (I-95); Bruckner Expressway (I-278); Sheridan Expressway (I-895); Triborough Bridge; Grand Concourse.

Mass transit: The 2, 4, 5, 6, B and D New York City Subway trains all travel through the South Bronx.

[edit] Notable natives

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• Afrika Bambataa, current resident of Soundview
• Rapper A.G. of the duo Showbiz and A.G., raised in Mott Haven
• Rapper Armageddon
• Al Pacino, raised in the South Bronx, born in East Harlem
• Aventura
• Barry Wellman, raised in Fordham-Grand Concourse
• Bernard McGuirk, grew up in the South Bronx
• Rapper Big Pun, raised in Soundview
• Bryan Callen
• Majora Carter, resident of Hunts Point
• Colin Powell, raised in Hunts Point
• Rapper Cuban Link, born in Cuba, raised in the South Bronx
• Dolph Schayes, raised near East 180th Street and Grand Concourse
• Rapper Drag-On, raised in Soundview
• Rapper Fat Joe, raised in Morrisania
• Grandmaster Flash, current resident of Morrisania
• Harry Gibson
• Rapper Hell Rell, raised in Tremont
• Musician Jimi Hazel of 24-7 Spyz, raised in Mitchell Projects, Mott Haven
• Jennifer Lopez, raised in Castle Hill
• Hip hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc, raised in the Bronx and resides in 220th and Carpenter (Uptown Bronx)
• Rapper KRS-One, originally from Brooklyn, raised in both Mott Haven and Soundview
• Larry Davis
• Rapper Lord Tariq of the duo Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, raised in Soundview
• Murray Perahia, grew up in Walton Avenue
• Charles Nelson Reilly
• Philip Zimbardo
• Rebel Diaz
• Ruben Diaz, Jr.
• Rapper Remy Ma, raised in Castle Hill
• Scott La Rock
• Fr. Stan Fortuna
• Tim Dog
• Tom Leykis
• Tony Santiago, raised in Longwood^[20][21][22]
• R&B singer Tony Sunshine, raised in Soundview
• Sonia Sotomayor

[edit] See also

• The Hub, Bronx
• Fort Apache, the Bronx (film)
• Urban decay
• Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Marshall Berman, Brian Berger (eds.), New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg, Reaktion Books, 2007. (articles "There's Hope for the Bronx" by C.J. Sullivan, and "Introduction" by Marshall Berman).
• Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Penguin 1988. (Chapter on Robert Moses and the South Bronx)
• Evelyn Gonzalez, The Bronx (Columbia History of Urban Life), Columbia University Press, 2006.
• Robert Jensen, (ed.) Devastation/resurrection: the South Bronx, New York Bronx Museum of the Arts, c1979.
• Jill Jonnes, South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City, Fordham University Press, 2002.
• Office of the Borough President (Bronx, New York City). Strategic policy statement, New York: Office of the Bronx Borough President, 1990.
• Bill Twomey. The Bronx, in bits and pieces, Bloomington, IN: Rooftop Publishing, c2007.

Pictorial Works:

• Lisa Kahane, Do Not Give Way To Evil: Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987 Miss Rosen Editions, 2008.
• Bill Twomey, South Bronx. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, c2002. (Pictorial work on historical social life and customs in the South Bronx)

[edit] External links

• Walking tour of the Grand Concourse Boulevard-Cross Bronx Expy area

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