Belmont, The Bronx
Written and researched by Riley Tinney
The Belmont section of the Bronx is an area rich with history and culture. It has a thriving Italian business district that many call ‘the real Little Italy’ and is home to large populations of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Albanians. It’s bounded by Webster Avenue, 180th St, Southern Boulevard and East Fordham Road which makes it a part of Community District 6, Precinct 48 and school district 10. Belmont is a vibrant part of the past and present of New York City; explore the map to find out more about it!
[photo credits Tastecation, Smith and Ratliff, New York Times, Chris Goldberg]
Belmont
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 |   Grace Dodge is a school that represents and exemplifies the educational problems of the area. The school board decided to phase out Grace Dodge in 2011, which means that the school hasn’t admitted a freshman class since then, and every year when the seniors graduate they aren’t replaced, so the school goes from serving 9th-12th graders, to 10th-12th grade, and on until it’s closed.[1] Since this decision was made the quality of education has markedly decreased. “Since the school’s closing, the teachers don’t care. They don’t show up very often. If they get a sub they don’t leave lesson plans, so the kids do nothing with the sub, or sometimes they don’t even get a sub, so a whole class is sitting around with no adult,” says a member of the school’s support staff.[2] Some teachers blame the performance of the school on issues in the community, and it’s true that the students come to the school with challenges. A peer index is a number given to a school to describe to what degree it serves a ‘high needs’ population, as measured by percentages of kids who have learning disabilities, are over-age, and were below standard on their 8th grade math and reading proficiency exams. These scores go from 1 to 4, with lower scores indicating higher needs, and the Grace Dodge population scored 1.44.[3][1] Reyes, Lennin. "Bronxites Brace for School Closures." The Bronx Journal (New York), February 25, 2012. http://www.thebronxjournal.com/bronxites-brace-for-school-closures/ (accessed May 14, 2013). [3] New York City Department of Education. "Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School." Progress Report 2011-2012. schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2011-12/Progress_Report_2012_HS_X660.pdf (accessed May 13, 2013). 2474 Crotona Ave, Bronx, New York City, NY |
 |  Photo Credit: Smith and Ratliff The Little Italy shopping corridor that follows Arthur Avenue down the center of Belmont is the most well-known feature of the area. It’s sometimes called ‘the Real Little Italy,’ and the number of Italian bakeries, restaurants, butchers, and other specialty stores seem to support the claim. The area has been featured in Esquire,[1] NYC GO,[2] the New York Times[3] and numerous food blogs[4] as the place to get authentic Italian specialties in shops that have been owned by the same Italian families for generations. However, this image of an old fashioned Italian neighborhood isn’t an accurate reflection of Belmont today. Most of the people shopping at the Little Italy stores on and around Arthur Avenue aren’t residents of Belmont. In 2011, the business improvement group hired consultants to do an environmental impact report for the area, and they found that almost all of the people shopping in the neighborhood live five or more miles away, and 49% of people who eat in the restaurants and 34% of people who purchase things from bakeries live 20 miles away or more.[5] These shoppers are demographically different from the residents as well; their median income is $68,518,[6] while the median income of residents in Belmont was $18,915 in 2009.[7] Although statistics weren’t gathered on this, they were probably also more likely than Belmont residents to have Italian heritage, as only 7.5% of District 6 residents identify themselves as White non-Hispanic.[8] Outside of the Arthur Avenue retail core, the two-block-wide strip that runs from East Fordham Road to Crescent Avenue and is bordered by Arthur Avenue and Belmont Avenue, the rest of the neighborhood features much different kinds of businesses. Instead of bakeries and specialty grocery stores, the main stores in the rest of Belmont are delis, hair salons, and laundromats, more often with Spanish names than Italian. [1] Mariani, John. "Belmont in the Bronx Is New York's Best Food Neighborhood." Esquire. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/bronx-belmont-food-neighborhood-043013 (accessed May 14, 2013). [2] Grossman, Alyssa. "Arthur Avenue in the Bronx – Visit Little Italy in the Bronx for Butcher Shops, Bakeries, Specialty Stores and More." The Official New York City Guide. http://www.nycgo.com/articles/take-a-tour-arthur-avenue (accessed May 13, 2013). [3] Dunham, Jillian. "At Every Turn, the Tastes of Italy." New York Times, July 16, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/nyregion/19stop.html?_r=1& (accessed May 13, 2013). [4] "Arthur Avenue, the Real Little Italy." Smith & Ratliff. http://smithratliff.com/2012/08/10/bronx-arthur-avenue-little-italy-nyc/ (accessed May 13, 2013). [5] Warshawer, Gabby. "Bronx's Little Italy Tries to Add New Spice." Wall Street Journal (New York), January 24, 2013. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578261800609567478.html (accessed May 13, 2013). "About our Neighborhood." Arthur Avenue-The Real Little Italy of New York. http://www.arthuravenuebronx.com/ (accessed May 13, 2013). [7] Urban Mapping. "Belmont neighborhood in Bronx." City Data. http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Belmont-Bronx-NY.html (accessed May 13, 2013). [8] New York City Department of City Planning. "Bronx Community District 6." Community District Profiles. www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/bx6profile.pdf (accessed May 14, 2013). 2344 Arthur Avenue, Bronx, NY |
 |  St. Barnabas Hospital is a teaching hospital with 3,000 employees and 461 beds that serves the Bronx community.[1] Bronx County has the worst health outcomes and health factors of any county in New York State,[2] and these problems can all be seen in the Belmont area. Thirty percent of residents in the Fordham/Bronx Park section of the Bronx, the data collection area that included Belmont, were uninsured in 2011, and 26% were on Medicaid.[3] This seemed correlated to negative health outcomes, as 72.8% were overweight or obese.[4] One way St. Barnabas tries to help this community is by providing financial aid for patients who are uninsured or underinsured and can’t afford services, and in 2008 they provided $55 million dollars worth of free care. They also have a Mobile Mammography Unit, which travels to different Bronx neighborhoods offering free or low cost breast cancer screenings. Staff at St. Barnabas also run community outreach programs focusing on tobacco cessation and provide nutritional counseling at their outpatient clinics.[5] [1] "Facts and Statistics." St.Barnabas Hospital Bronx. http://sbhny.org/index.php/about_us/facts-and-statistics (accessed May 13, 2013). [2] "St. Barnabas Hospital Community Service Plan Executive Summary." St. Barnabas Hospital. sbhny.org/images/uploads/documents/sbh_csp_executive_summary.pdf (accessed May 13, 2013). [3] "Community Health Survey 2011." New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/SASStoredProcess/guest?_PROGRAM=%2FEpiQuery%2FCHS%2Fchsindex&year=2011 (accessed May 13, 2013). [5] "St. Barnabas Hospital Community Service Plan Executive Summary." St. Barnabas Hospital. sbhny.org/images/uploads/documents/sbh_csp_executive_summary.pdf (accessed May 13, 2013). 4422 3rd Ave, Bronx, New York City, NY 10457 |
 |  Photo Credit Matthew Kiernan The church that was to become Our Lady of Mt. St. Carmel opened in 1906 to accommodate the influx of Irish immigrants pouring into the area at the time, and give them a closer church than the St. Philip Neri Church on Grand Concourse, which was the only other Catholic church in the northwest Bronx at the time.[1] The church was operated out of a storefront until the current building was finished in 1917 and dedicated to Our Lady of Mt. St. Carmel. The church says that it welcomes the new immigrants from Latin America and aims to “serve them with the same devotion and love with which the Italians were received.”[2] Every Sunday Mass is offered in English, Spanish and Italian.[3] Many of the Hispanic residents of Belmont are Catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Savior is another church that’s affected by this changing demographic; 80% of its congregation is now Mexican, compared to almost none in the 80s.[4] Albanians, another prominent ethnic group, are very diverse religiously and participate in Islamic, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian religious activities, but in fairly small numbers since their main identity lies with their Albanian nationalism. “Motherland is what matters to Albanians, whether you are a Muslim, a Catholic, or an Orthodox Christian,” according to Ismer Mjeku, an Albanian businessman quoted in the Bronx Ink.[5] [1] "Parish History." Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bronx, NY. http://www.ourladymtcarmelbx.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=8 (accessed May 13, 2013). [3] "Mass Schedule." Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bronx, NY. http://www.ourladymtcarmelbx.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=10 (accessed May 14, 2013). [4] Semple, Kirk. "In an Italian Enclave in the Bronx, Signs of Mexico Begin to Show." New York Times, July 7, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/nyregion/08mexicans.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed May 15, 2013). [5] Sabbagh, Mahmoud. ""Little Albania" in the Bronx." The Bronx Ink (New York), December 15, 2011. http://bronxink.org/2011/12/15/21004-little-albania/ (accessed May 15, 2013). 627 E 187th St, Bronx, New York City, NY 10458 |
 |  Jose Riviera is currently a state assemblyman representing District 78, which includes Fordham-Bedford, Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, and Belmont.[1] He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and moved to the Bronx as a child where he got his start in politics working as a union organizer. In 1972 he founded the United Tremont Trades, a labor union for working-class people in the Bronx.[2] He also was one of the chief organizers of a People’s Convention held in 1980 to protest the lack of attention paid to the Bronx by national politicians and to try to form a coalition among various Bronx political groups.[3] According to Daily News columnist Earl Caldwell, Rivera was “in the forefront of making an opening in the building trades for the outsiders from the …Bronx--which means blacks and Latinos.”[4] His recent years in the State Assembly though haven’t been as productive; his website currently lists no sponsored or co-sponsored legislation and in 2011 he had the third worst record of being present to cast a vote of anyone in the Assembly.[5] He is, however, on the Executive Board of the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force.[6] [1] "Jose Rivera Bio." New York State Assembly Member Section. http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=078&sh=bio (accessed May 13, 2013). [3] Associated Press. "People's Convention mocks candidates." Lakeland Ledger, August 9, 1980. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19800809&id=5mdRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NfsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5264,2346907 (accessed May 13, 2013). [4] "Jose Rivera Bio." New York State Assembly Member Section. http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=078&sh=bio (accessed May 13, 2013). [5] Glove, Candice. "Rivera? Rivera? No shows run in family." New York Post, September 9, 2012. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/rivera_rivera_no_shows_run_in_family_q6niNyTl92xMZcnMxxYFcI (accessed May 13, 2013). [6] "Jose Rivera Member Information." New York State Assembly Member Section. http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=078&sh=bio (accessed May 13, 2013). 1 Fordham Plaza, Bronx, NY 10458 |
 | 400 East Fordham Road, Bronx, New York City, NY, United States |
| 2500 Doctor Theodore Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx, New York, NY, United States |
| 831 East 180th Street, Bronx, New York, NY, United States |
| 405 East 180th Street, Bronx, New York, NY, United States |
 |  A man sitting at this intersection who didn't want his picture taken told me that he didn't like the neighborhood because "there aren't enough working class people here, it's too poor. And all the drugs.""There's a drug problem here?" I asked him. "Oh, it's obvious, they're everywhere. I want to get out of this neighborhood, better myself." 532 East 182nd Street, Bronx, New York, NY, United States |
| This man had recently moved to the neighborhood from Red Hook, Brooklyn, and said that he preferred Belmont because in Belmont there was "no pop pop pop. There hasn't been a shooting since I've lived here. Not like Brooklyn." 2127 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, New York, NY, United States |
 |  Photo Credit http://www.bronxlittleitaly.com/ The library in the center of Belmont doubles as an Italian cultural center. The community wanted to create a place dedicated to celebrating Italian-American heritage, so they opened the Enrico Fermi Center in 1981.[1] The building houses a full library, with English and Spanish language books for children, teens and adults, as well as Italian language books and a collection of reference materials that focus on Italian and Italian-American history, language, and culture. The library is an important center of community life and activities are held there almost every night of the week including Italian game nights every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.[2] According to one librarian, “We always have good attendance at the game nights. It’s mostly senior men, playing games they remember from Italy. They have a good time.”[3] 610 E East 186th Street, Bronx, NY 10458 |
