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Revision as of 14:31, 22 January 2008

South Bronx in orange, remainder in yellow

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

File:MyBuiding.jpg

976 Simpson Street in the South Bronx (Old building conserved by the City of NY)

The South Bronx is a region 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 also the home of Yankee Stadium. It is famous for being the birth place of hip hop music and culture.

The neighborhoods of Tremont and University Heights are often considered part of the South Bronx. Some even argue 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 thought to be at Fordham Road.

History

The Bronx was once considered the "Jewish Borough," which at its peak in 1930 was 49% Jewish. Jews in South Bronx numbered 364,000 or 57.1% of the total population in the area. 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 Mott Haven section, the southernmost section of the Bronx. Originally denoting only Mott Haven and Melrose, the South Bronx extended up to the Cross Bronx Expressway by the 1970s, encompassing Hunts Point, Morrisania, and Highbridge. It was around this time that the Bronx was experiencing some of its worst times ever. The resultant chaos as related by the media brought the term "South Bronx" into common parlance nationwide.

Decay and Gradual Rebuilding

The South Bronx has been, historically, a place for working class families. It was not always synonymous with the image of a destroyed, drug and poverty riddled western city; this image came in the latter part of the 20th century. There are several causes to the decay of the South Bronx: white flight, landlord abandonment and government indifference, and also the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway.

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 one of the causes of the extreme urban decay seen by the borough in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Cutting straight through the heart of South Bronx, the highway displaced thousands of residents from their homes, as well as several local businesses. The somewhat 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 Tremont, in particular, was completely destroyed by the inception of the Cross Bronx Expressway. The combination of increasing vacancy rates and decreased property values created some rather unappealing neighborhoods, places where previous residents and new homeowners would essentially not want to live.

Construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway was not the only cause for the decay of South Bronx. In the late 1960’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. The primary reason for the decline of many middle class neighborhoods in the 1950's and 1960's was the real estate policies enacted by New York City immediately after World War II, specifically rent control. Contributing to the decreasing population was the fact that New York City’s outdated policies regarding rent control gave building owners no motivation to keep up their properties. Therefore, desirable housing options were scarce, and vacancies further increased. In the late 1960’s, by the time the city decided to consolidate welfare households in the South Bronx, the vacancy rate was already the highest of any place in the city

The phrase “The Bronx is burning”, uttered by Howard Cosell during a Yankees World Series game in the 1977, refers to the numerous fires in South Bronx during the 1970’s. 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 South Bronx were simply caused because of deteriorating electrical systems or neglect on the landlord’s part. The presence of several of these vacant, burnt-down buildings contributed to the atmosphere similar to that of a war-devastated country.

Since the late 1980s the South Bronx has turned around a few of its neighborhoods with reconstructed, refurbished and brand new residential buildings, including both low and high income single family homes. In the neighborhood of Highbridge, Manhattan homeowners looking for lower prices have crossed over into the South Bronx in search of more affordable housing. However, the steady growth of the real-estate market as well as the increasing population in some parts of the South Bronx cannot be contributed solely to traditional means of gentrification; that is, not only are new people with higher incomes moving in to the area, community leaders, residents, and government aid all significantly contributed to the reconstruction. Private funding was also a large factor .

Since the late 90s the South Bronx has been home to a 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 1980's 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.. Its population is increasing.

Any neighborhood that is not considered the South Bronx is automatically the "North Bronx," even if it lies within the southern portion of the borough, as does Throgs Neck in the Bronx's extreme southeast. However, it should not be ignored that the heavy reliance on using the region of the South Bronx as a geographic marker over the years has caused the names of its neighborhoods to decline in usage, to the point of residents of Mott Haven and Morris Heights not even knowing the actual name of their neighborhood. Others point out that there is great socio-economic diversity within the neighborhoods that are lumped together under the "South Bronx" heading.

The South Bronx in many ways is more a state of mind than an actual location. Also, a more notable dichotomy in the Bronx is that of the West Bronx vs. the East Bronx; the West Bronx is hillier, less heavily populated, and closer to Manhattan, while the East Bronx is flatter, more residential, and closer to the Long Island Sound. The "North Bronx" designation therefore groups together neighborhoods on opposite ends of the Bronx which have little in common, such as Kingsbridge and Pelham Bay.

A recent development in the community of the South Bronx is the ongoing construction of the new Yankee Stadium. There was some initial controversy over the 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. 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 in Macombs Dam and John Mullaly Parks were sacrificed to build it. Developers say they have plans to create fields in former parking lots and will replace the old stadium with a new park. The new stadium is expected to be completed in time for the 2009 season.

With all these improvements, however, the South Bronx is still a long way from a real recovery. It has the poorest neighborhoods in the country, and over half of the Bronx's housing projects. Much of the population (over 50% in one neighborhood) lives below the poverty line. Violence is also still very common in the South Bronx. Violence due to gangs and drugs is among the highest in both the city and the country.

Crime

The South Bronx has experienced a decrease in crimes since the 70's, 80's, and the crack era. Many neighborhoods, however, still experience a very high crime rate and are labeled as "impact zones" by the NYPD. Violence due to drug and gang activity is very prominent and is among the highest in both the city and country. For example, the 41st precinct (colloquially known in the past as Fort Apache) in the South Bronx has the highest violent crime rate in New York City today. It is also believed that the crime rate throughout the South Bronx (as well as the rest of New York City) is much higher than stated due to the vast majority of crimes going unreported, as well as the questionable legitimacy of Compstat statistics , which have been known to be greatly understated by numerous precincts. Some neighborhoods have violent crime rates comparable to those of the worst neighborhoods in other cities considered to be much more dangerous, such as Newark's central ward.

Notable natives

Mark Tavarez
Briana Tavarez
Philip Zimbardo
Colin Powell (Raised in Hunts Point)
Fr. Stan Fortuna
Aventura
Dolph Schayes Raised near 180th Street and Grand Concourse
Barry Wellman Raised in Fordham-Grand Concourse
Grandmaster Flash (Current resident of Morrisania)
Harry Gibson
KRS-One (Originally from Brooklyn)
Scott La Rock
Larry Davis (criminal)
Tim Dog
Bryan Callen
Tom Leykis
Al Pacino (Grew up in South Bronx, Born in East Harlem)
Bernard McGuirk, the former Imus in the Morning producer grew up in the South Bronx.
Tony Santiago "Tony the Marine" Editor of the Puerto Rican Military Channel (Raised in Simpson Street)

References

External links

Blue Blood by NYPD Detective Edward Conlon

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

v t e Neighborhoods in the New York City borough of the Bronx
South Bronx	East Morrisania/Crotona Park East Hunts Point Longwood Melrose Morrisania Mott Haven Port Morris
West Bronx	Bedford Park Belmont Concourse East Tremont Fordham Highbridge Jerome Park Kingsbridge Kingsbridge Heights Van Cortlandt Village Morris Heights Norwood Riverdale North Riverdale Fieldston Hudson Hill Mosholu Spuyten Duyvil Tremont University Heights West Farms Woodlawn Heights
East Bronx	Allerton Baychester Castle Hill City Island Clason Point Harding Park Co-op City Country Club Eastchester Morris Park Olinville Pelham Bay Pelham Gardens Parkchester Pelham Parkway Soundview Throggs Neck Edgewater Park Locust Point Schuylerville Van Nest Wakefield Westchester Square Williamsbridge
Related areas	Marble Hill Rikers Island Retail districts Arthur Avenue Fordham Plaza The Hub
Community districts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Joint interest areas: 26 27 28

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