From The Peopling of New York City
South Bronx: A Reaction to the Walking Tour
The South Bronx, which is not on any map, might be called more of a state mind. More than ever we have seen the stigmatism associated with the Bronx, in particular the South Bronx continue to slave the neighborhood. Taking a walking tour of a neighborhood with such a bad reputation seemed like a lost cause, but I found that there was a plethora of rich history that was just under a bit of dust waiting to be discovered. We started our walking tour on the corner of 149th Street and Grand Concourse, across the street from the old Mott Avenue subway station.
Quickly we learned that the Grand Concourse was planned from the start as a wealthy neighborhood. It was built to attract the rich, and its construction on a hill conveyed a feeling of superiority. The Bronx as a whole is a very well thought out community, and the consequencs of these decisions can be seen even today. These planners would establish businesses, build transportation systems around the businesses, and then attract people to the neighborhood. Since its berth in 1905 the Grand Concourse was planned to to take full advantage of a convenient transportation system, and also boasted the perk of being far away from the immigrant scum in Melrose. By 1925 stunning art-decco apartment buildings began to populated the neighborhood. These buildings were often plain near the street, but boasted extravagant decor near its roof. These buildings were very popular due to there sunken in living rooms, high ceilings and often the ground floors doubled as store fronts. Today these beautiful apartment buildings occupy the concourse, and it is rare to find one of the older tenements.
Big business and the federal government also played an important role in the development of the Grand Concourse. The Grand Concourse or the “Park Avenue of the Bronx” had close ties to the federal government. The WPA constructed buildings such as the Bronx Court House, and the Central Post Office. In 1923, Yankee Stadium was built near the Grand Concourse at 161st Street. South of Fordham Road, palatial Loew's Paradise Theater, at one time the largest movie theater in New York City, was constructed in 1929. This period of tremendous growth ended in with the Great Depression, and by the 1960s the Bronx began to rapidly deteriorate.
The Concourse itself has miraculously remained for the most part intact. The neighborhood on the hill for the wealthy that survived the burning Bronx is today a working class community with lower to middle class residents. One may ask themselves what happened? But the truth is that like all things neglected, it fell apart. There are several causes to the decay of the South Bronx: white flight, landlord abandonment, changes in economic demographics and government indifference, and also the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway. White flight lead to many residents leaving in fear of the rising crime rate, and rampant arson. At the same time many lower class citizens moved from Manhattan to the Concourse. However even at its worst, a symbol of national urban decay. We saw the birth of hip hop music, and culture, and the astonishing resilience of the Bronx community.
Starting in the 1990s, when the Bronx's population began to grow for the first time in twenty years, a wave of affordable housing construction came to the area. In recent years New York City authorities have made efforts to restore the Grand Concourse. Today, the Grand Concourse is set to undergo an $18 million restoration and landscaping that will widen from 161st to 171st Streets. In addition the construction of the Yankees new stadium, a $1.3 billion project has drawn a lot of attention to the borough. Many hope that this combination of renewal projects will bring the Bronx from an up and coming status to a finally completed state. Many consider think the Bronx, and especially the Grand Concourse area to be the next Soho. It is the hope of many that the Bronx will become a borough where residents, and outsiders will put money back into the community.
