A Brief History of the South Bronx

For so many, the South Bronx is synonymous with the “burning of the Bronx” of the 1970s. When President Jimmy Carter visited Charlotte Street in 1977, speaking to the American public in front of burned-out and burned-downed buildings, the South Bronx became a national symbol of urban decay (Small). For many, this image is the predominant one that remains, regardless of 40 years of change. But to really understand the South Bronx in its specific context, it is necessary to both see that history and consider what narratives it excludes, including what the South Bronx is today.

In the 1930s and 40s, the Bronx was largely a working class area composed of Jewish, Polish, and Italian families (Gonzalez). The Grand Concourse was filled with Art Deco masterpieces gilded in WPA Art. Old Yankee Stadium stood emblematic of America’s favorite pastime outfitted in blue and white pinstripes. Rows of multi-family brownstones lined the streets, and family-owned shops occupied main thoroughfares like Third Avenue and 149th Street.

Then, after the end of World War II, Levittown created a chain reaction of white picket-fenced suburbs, which was an attainable goal for white families in the Bronx. At the same time, mass-immigration from Puerto Rico to the US began, as well as the Second Great Migration of southern blacks to northern cities. The Urban Renewal Act gave money to cities for slum clearance and the creation of public housing. Similar legislation refashioned the post-war city into the new modernist ideal of tower-in-the-park buildings with grand public plazas. In New York, this style was epitomized by Robert Moses and his myriad projects across the city in the 1950s and 60s, including these same slum clearance and public housing measures, the creation of interstate highways (like the infamous Cross-Bronx Expressway) and major cultural landmarks like Lincoln Center.

However, all this development came at the cost of homes and livelihoods. Slum clearance in Harlem began as early as 1945 and continued in full force into the 1970s (Gonzalez 148). Despite the triumph of civil rights and tactics of peaceful protest in the 1960s, redlining, blockbusting, and racist housing policies continued, concentrating people of color in what became the inner city, compounded by the introduction of drugs (Gonzalez 149). Between 1950 and 1976, 500,000 factory jobs were lost in New York City due to deindustrialization (Gonzalez 118). Specifically, 300 companies employing 10,000 workers left the Bronx in the 70s (Gonzalez 118). In 1975, the city declared bankruptcy, and during the 1977 World Series at Yankee Stadium, an announcer saw smoke and pronounced the fated words, “the Bronx is burning.” Unable or unwilling to keep up properties falling into disrepair, landlords set fire to their own buildings to collect insurance money. Entire blocks fell to to the ground and countless families were displaced from their homes. And in the center of it all—Melrose.