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The Bronx

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For the American punk rock band see The Bronx (band)
Main article: New York City
The Bronx, highlighted in yellow, is the only borough of New York City on the mainland of the United States.

The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. It is coterminous with Bronx County of the State of New York. It is the northernmost and only borough of New York City on the North American mainland, located south of Westchester County. It also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound. Template:GR. The Harlem River separates The Bronx from the island of Manhattan.

The Bronx takes its name from Bronck's Farms, after an early settler (1641) in the area, Jonas Bronck, a Dutch sea captain, whose 500 acre (2 km²) farm lay between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which now bears his name. The borough's name is officially The Bronx, but the county's name is officially just Bronx, without the definite article. According to a 2003 census estimate, the population of Bronx County was approximately 1,363,198.

History

The territory now contained within Bronx County was originally part of Westchester County, an original county of New York State. The present Bronx County was contained in four towns: Westchester, Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham. In 1846, a new town, West Farms, was created by secession from Westchester; in turn, in 1855, the town of Morrisania seceded from West Farms. In 1873, the town of Kingsbridge seceded from Yonkers.

In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County, consisting of the towns of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the Town of Westchester and portions of Eastchester and Pelham, were transferred to New York County. City Island, known as New York City's only nautical community, voted to secede from Westchester County and join New York County in 1896. In 1898 New York City amalgamated, with the Bronx as one of five boroughs (though still within New York County). In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County were constituted the new Bronx County (while also keeping its status as one of the five boroughs of the city).

The Bronx underwent rapid growth after World War I. Many immigrants, most notably the Irish settled here. Author Willa Cather, Pierre Lorillard who made a fortune on tobacco sales, and inventor Jordan Mott were famous for settling the land. After the war, thousands of immigrants flooded the Bronx. French, German and Polish immigrants crowded into the city and changed it forever. The Jewish population increased notably during this time and many synagogues are still evident througout the borough (although a good portion of these have been converted to other uses).

In the prohibition days, bootleggers and gangs ran rampant in the Bronx. Mostly Polish and Italian immigrants smuggled in the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies. Mayor Jimmy Walker states:

The Manhattan Polak is very different from the Bronx Polak. The Manhattan Polak would smuggle in the illegal whiskey secretly so as the cops aren't on 'em or don't see 'em a mile away. In the Bronx, the Polaks don't give a lick if they spotted with it. They'd pull out their guns as quick as lighting and the cops who be dead men in less than a second.

After the 1930s, the Polish immigrant population in the Bronx decreased as a result of better living conditions in other states. The German population followed suit in the 1940s and so did many Italians in the 1950s, leaving a thriving Hispanic and African-American population which would continue to live and dominate in the Bronx to this day.

During the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s, the Bronx went into an era of sharp decline in quality of life. Many factors have been put forward by historians and other social scientists. They include the theory that urban renewal projects in the borough (such as Robert Moses' Cross Bronx Expressway) destroyed existing low-density neighborhoods in favor of roads that produced urban sprawl as well as high-density housing projects. Another factor may have been the shift by insurance companies and banks to stop offering their services to the Bronx and other working-class industrial areas (the "Rustbelt") in favor of the booming suburbs in "the Sunbelt"— a process known as redlining.

For a period, a wave of arson overtook the borough's apartment buildings, with competing theories as to why. Some point to the heavy traffic and use of illicit drugs among the area's poor as causing them to be inclined to scam the city's benefits for burn-out victims as well as the Section 8 housing program. Others believe landlords decided to burn their buildings before their insurance policies expired and were not renewed. After the destruction of nearly half of the buildings in the South Bronx, the arsons all but ended during the tenure of Mayor Ed Koch with aftereffects still felt into the early 1990s.

Landmarks

Yankee Stadium is home to the New York Yankees

The Bronx's attractions include Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball club of the American League; the Bronx Zoo, Bronx High School of Science, Walton High School, Morris Park, the New York Botanical Garden, Wave Hill, Little Italy on Arthur Avenue, Fordham University and Manhattan College. It includes two of the largest parks in NYC, Pelham Bay Park and Van Cortlandt Park. Pelham Bay Park also has a large man made public beach called Orchard Beach created by Robert Moses.

The Bronx also has The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: a national landmark which overlooks the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. It was designed by the renowned architect Stanford White.

The Bronx is also the only Borough that has a freshwater river (the Bronx River) running through it. A smaller river, the Hutchinson River, passes through the northeast Bronx to empty into Eastchester Bay.

Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City. Opened in 1863, at a time when The Bronx was still considered as being out in "the country." Built on gentle, rolling hills, its tree-lined roads provide a beautiful setting in today's bustling city.

The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the Bronx, New York. Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life, from 1846 to 1849, in The Bronx at Poe Cottage, now located at Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. A small wooden farmhouse built about 1812, the cottage once commanded unobstructed vistas over the rolling Bronx hills to the shores of Long Island.

The Bronx now has the distinction of being the Birthplace of Hip-hop music, circa 1973.

Though it has a great deal of attractions, the Bronx is known for being particularly "anti-tourist", not so much in the sense of hostility to outsiders but insofar as its reputation nationally keeps tourists to New York as far from the borough as possible. This characteristic is actually what many in the New York area actually enjoy about visiting the Bronx; it has been claimed that the Little Italy on Arthur Avenue is more authentic than the more famous Little Italy in Manhattan on Mulberry Street.

Famous Bronxites

Famous people who resided in The Bronx at some time in their lives include: Danny Aiello, Sholom Aleichem, Woody Allen, June Allyson, Christopher Aponte, Anne Bancroft, David Berkowitz, Joey Bishop, Mary J. Blige, Red Buttons, James Caan, George Carlin, Diahann Carroll, Paddy Chayefsky, Tony Curtis, Lauren Conrad, Cus D'Amato, Bobby Darin, Gray Davis, Don DeLillo, Art Donovan, Chris Eubank, Ace Frehley, Stan Getz, Marty Glickman, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Gotti, Hank Greenberg, Fat Joe, Billy Joel, Helen Kane, Max Kellerman, Felix Lugo, Afrika Bambaataa, Edward Koch, Stanley Kubrick, Fiorello La Guardia, Jake LaMotta, Ralph Lauren, Miles Marshall Lewis, Tom Leykis, Jennifer Lopez, Linda Lovelace, Sonia Manzano, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Sal Mineo, Laura Nyro, Carroll O'Connor, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Herc, Jerry Orbach, Al Pacino, Justin Pierce, Regis Philbin, Edgar Allan Poe, Chaim Potok, Colin Powell, Tito Puente, Big Pun, Carl Reiner, Vin Scully, Tupac Shakur, Carly Simon, Neil Simon, Elliot Spitzer, Lionel Stander, Vanessa Williams, Kool Keith.

Law and government

Year GOP Dems
2004 16.5% 56,701 82.8% 283,994
2000 11.8% 36,245 86.3% 265,801
1996 10.5% 30,435 85.8% 248,276
1992 20.7% 63,310 73.7% 225,038
1988 25.5% 76,043 73.2% 218,245
1984 32.8% 109,308 66.9% 223,112
1980 30.7% 86,843 64.0% 181,090
1976 28.7% 96,842 70.8% 238,786
1972 44.6% 196,756 55.2% 243,345
1968 32.0% 142,314 62.4% 277,385
1964 25.2% 135,780 74.7% 403,014
1960 31.8% 182,393 67.9% 389,818

Like the other counties which are contained within New York City, the Bronx is nominally presided over by a borough president. The borough is also served by various county courts, as well as a district attorney (public prosecutor).

Geography

As a part of New York City, Bronx County contains no other political subdivisions. It is located at 40°42'15" North, 73°55'5" West (40.704234, -73.917927)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 148.7 km² (57.4 mi²). 108.9 km² (42.0 mi²) of it is land and 39.9 km² (15.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 26.82% water.

The Bronx has four large low peninsulas or "necks" of low-lying land that jut into the waters of the East River and were once saltmarsh: Hunt's Point, Clason's Point, Screvin's Neck and Throg's Neck. In the northeast corner of the Bronx, Rodman's Neck lies in Long Island Sound.

File:E 200 st007.jpg
A store awning on the assumed 200th Street

Street Layout

Many of the Bronx's streets are numbered, but unlike the street numbering systems in Brooklyn and Queens, the Bronx's system is a continuation of the Manhattan street grid. Because of this, the lowest numbered street in the borough is 132nd Street in the South Bronx, and the highest is 263rd Street in the Riverdale section. The numbered street grid is far from perfect as some numbers are just skipped altogether in Riverdale; other neighborhoods have no numbered streets at all.

As in Manhattan, 200th Street is also missing, since it was renamed Bedford Park Boulevard in 1906 (although many local businesses, people and other places have continued to call it 200th Street since the renaming [like the New York Botanical Garden] and the USPS recognizes E 200 ST addresses as an alternative address).

In Manhattan, there was never a "200th Street" until the Independent Subway System (IND) used numeric tiling in the Dyckman Street station calling it 200th Street (or DYCKMAN-200TH ST). This unofficially designated Dyckman Street as "200th Street" (the USPS somehow also recognizes W 200 ST addresses even though it never existed officially). In addition, some north-south thoroughfares also continue from Manhattan into the Bronx; examples include Third Avenue — above which a famous elevated line once ran (in Manhattan until 1955 and in the Bronx until 1973) — Park Avenue, and Broadway. Like Manhattan, the streets are designated either "East" or "West," with the divider being Jerome Avenue (the divider in Manhattan is Fifth Avenue). The two boroughs also formerly shared the same Postal Code format, as mail addressed to either bore the designation "New York XX, New York," with a one- or two-digit number between the two "New Yorks" (the number was from 1 to 49 for Manhattan addresses and 50 or higher for the Bronx). When five-digit ZIP Codes replaced the postal codes in 1963, the Bronx was assigned the three-digit prefix "104" while Manhattan got "100" (Manhattan later added "101" and "102").

Numerous subway lines run through the Bronx, many of them above ground. In addition, three Metro-North Railroad commuter railroad lines run through the Bronx. The borough has 12 Metro North stations.

Three major expressways crisscross the Bronx: The Major Deegan Expressway, which runs along the western edge of the Harlem River, the Bruckner Expressway, which runs through the eastern part of the borough, and the Cross Bronx Expressway, which crosses the borough's south-central section and serves as a major connection to the George Washington Bridge.

See also: Transportation in New York City

Neighborhoods

See List of Bronx neighborhoods for a comprehensive listing of the Bronx's various neighborhoods and their descriptions.

The borough is politically divided into 12 community boards :

  • 1 : Mott Haven, Port Morris, and Melrose
  • 2 : Hunts Point, Longwood, and Morrisania
  • 3 : Crotona Park, Claremont Village, Concourse Village, Woodstock, and Morrisania
  • 4 : Highbridge, Concourse, Mount Eden, and Concourse Village
  • 5 : Fordham, University Heights, Morris Heights, Bathgate, and Mount Hope
  • 6 : Belmont, Bathgate, West Farms, East Tremont, and Bronx Park South
  • 7 : Norwood, University Heights, Jerome Park, Bedford Park, Fordham, and Kingsbridge Heights
  • 8 : Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights, Fieldston, and Marble Hill
  • 9 : Parkchester, Unionport, Soundview, Castle Hill, Bruckner, Harding Park, Bronx River and Clason Point
  • 10 : Co-op City, City Island, Spencer Estates, Throgs Neck, Country Club, Zerega, Westchester Square, Pelham Bay, Eastchester Bay, Schuylerville, Edgewater, Locust Point, and Silver Beach
  • 11 : Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Pelham Gardens, Allerton, Bronxdale, Laconia, and Van Nest
  • 12 : Edenwald, Wakefield, Williamsbridge, Woodlawn, Fish Bay, Eastchester, Olinville, and Baychester

Demographics

Bronx
Population by year

1900 - (nc)
1910 - (nc)
1920 - 732,016
1930 - 1,265,258
1940 - 1,394,711
1950 - 1,451,277
1960 - 1,424,815
1970 - 1,471,701
1980 - 1,168,972
1990 - 1,203,789
2000 - 1,332,650

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 1,332,650 people, 463,212 households, and 314,984 families residing in the borough. The population density is 12,242.2/km² (31,709.3/mi²). There are 490,659 housing units at an average density of 4,507.4/km² (11,674.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough is 29.87% White, 35.64% Black or African American, 0.85% Native American, 3.01% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 24.74% from other races, and 5.78% from two or more races. 48.38% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. 14.5% of the population are Whites, not of Hispanic origins.

Based on sample data from the same census, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 47.29% of the population 5 and over speak only English at home. 43.67% speak Spanish at home, either exclusively or along with English. Other languages or groups of languages spoken at home by more than 0.25% of the population of the Bronx include Italian (1.36%), Kru, Ibo, or Yoruba (1.07%), French (0.72%), and Albanian (0.54%).

Some main European ancestries of Bronx residents, 2000 (percentage of total borough population):


According to an estimate by the Census Bureau, the population increased to 1,365,536 in 2004.

There are 463,212 households out of which 38.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.4% are married couples living together, 30.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% are non-families. 27.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.78 and the average family size is 3.37.

In the borough the population is spread out with 29.8% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 87.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 80.7 males.

The median income for a household in the borough is $27,611, and the median income for a family is $30,682. Males have a median income of $31,178 versus $29,429 for females. The per capita income for the borough is $13,959. 30.7% of the population and 28.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 41.5% of those under the age of 18 and 21.3% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Despite the stereotype that The Bronx is a typical poor urban area of New York City, it is not necessarily true of the entire borough, or even a majority of it. The Bronx has much affordable housing (as compared to most of the rest of the New York metropolitan area, as well as upscale neighborhoods like Riverdale, Throgs Neck, Pelham Bay, and Country Club.)

Trivia

  • In 1997, the Bronx was designated an "All America City" by the National Civic Council.
  • The Bronx cheer and a popular cocktail were both named after this borough.
  • "Bronx" has become synonymous with violent or messy areas. For instance, in casual French, "c'est le Bronx" stands for "what a mess."
  • Bronx is also the name of a character on the Walt Disney animated series Gargoyles (named after the borough).
  • The wave of arson in the South Bronx launched the phrase "The Bronx is burning," in 1974, as a title of both a New York Times editorial and a BBC documentary. However, the line entered the pop-consciousness with Game 2 of the 1977 World Series, when a fire broke out near Yankee Stadium as the team was playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. As the fire was captured on live television, announcer Howard Cosell intoned, "There it is ladies and gentlemen: The Bronx is burning." Historians of New York City frequently point to Cosell's remark as a sign of both the city and the borough's descent into anarchy.
  • The Bronx is referred to in hip-hop slang as "The Boogie Down Bx," or just "The Boogie Down."
  • In the 1979 film "The Warriors", the eponymous gang go to a meet in Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, and have to make their way back to Coney Island. The 2005 video game adaptation features levels called Pelham, Tremont and "Gunhill" (an apparent corruption of Gun Hill Road).
  • Likewise, the 1981 film Fort Apache the Bronx portrayed the Bronx as a gang-filled, crime-ridden area. The film takes its title from the nickname for the 41st Police Precinct in the South Bronx. Both the film and the precinct were condemned by community members for condoning police brutality, and ex-Young Lord and Puerto Rican activist Richie Perez formed the group The Committee Against Fort Apache.

See also

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