What Next?

Melrose can be loosely defined as the area between 149th Street to the south, 161st Street to the north, bounded on the west by Park Avenue and on the east by Third Avenue (Google). In 1997, Bill Clinton visited Charlotte Street to the backdrop of single family ranch homes complete with lawns and white picket fences (Small). If an over-pronounced example of the transition of the South Bronx from the 70s onwards, it is a good metaphor for the ways the South Bronx has been changing and continues to in recent years.

In 1985, Mayor Koch initiated a program to “spend $1.5 billion on affordable housing in the Bronx over the next decade” (Magnussen). By then, acres of land had been cleared, either by fires or slum clearance policies, and Melrose was due for a major redevelopment that had been in the works for decades. When the city announced that the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan was in the process of being certified in 1992, it sparked widespread disapproval from community members who had been omitted from the planning process. Yolanda Garcia founded Nos Quedamos, which translates to “We Stay,” to resist the city’s plan and offer a community-based alternative.

Through grassroots organizing, community involvement, and working with the city, Nos Quedamos was able to stop the city’s Urban Renewal Plan and create their own, which would not displace current residents while providing affordable housing and social services that matched the community and plan of Melrose as it existed. Thus, “the largely rebuilt South bronx today is a patchwork of low-density one- to three-family homes mixed in with medium- and high-density apartment buildings” (Angotti).

Melrose has been fundamentally shaped by the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan under the guidance of Nos Quedamos. The project is ongoing, and includes over 700 units (Angotti). The majority of residents identify as either African American or Latino/as (WHEDco). The average median income for the neighborhood is $22,000 a year, less than the city-wide and Bronx-wide averages (WHEDco). As of 2010, 40% of the population lived under the poverty line (WHEDco). There are also health concerns associated with asthma from nearby industrial complexes, obesity-related problems, and high rates of heart disease and diabetes (WHEDco). In 2012, Via Verde, an affordable eco-housing development, was completed, adding 222 units to Melrose, as well as international architectural prowess in affordable housing circles (Jonathan Rose Companies). This year, WHEDco broke ground on Bronx Commons, an affordable housing complex that will include the new Bronx Music Hall, set to be finished in 2019 (WHEDco).

Recently, Mott Haven residents have noticed a new third-wave coffee shop near the formerly industrial waterfront (Gordiner). To celebrate the impending arrival of luxury condos to the same area, developers hosted a party themed “the burning of the Bronx” (Groetzinger). Celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Kendall Jenner danced among rusted cars perforated in bullet holes and metal trash cans lit with bonfires (Groetzinger). As the development of the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Plan continues, developers are increasingly drawn to Melrose and the surrounding areas, especially Mott Haven, where rents are up 28% since the 1990s (NYU Furman Center).

Although Nos Quedamos’ primary focus was to keep neighborhood residents from being displaced from their homes, with rising rents and new development, Melrose could truly be on the brink of what has happened in Williamsburg and Long Island City. But to fully understand this process and what is meant by “gentrification,” it is important to consider many different perspectives surrounding a single place and issue.