During its worst years in the 1970’s, the South Bronx became a synonym for all the bombed out, abandoned and dysfunctional neighborhoods across urban America. It appeared on the news and in the movies as an example of the descent into chaos of the inner city, and the cause of the large scale flight of middle class people from cities to suburbs. If you saw parts of the South Bronx today, like the neighborhood centered around Charlotte St., to the east of Crotona Park in the South Central Bronx, you would never believe this was once a neighborhood with a disreputable past.

Walking down Charlotte St. today you see attractive ranch houses with shiny, new vans parked next to them, well tended lawns, and a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. It could be suburbia. The old, slummy-looking high rise apartment buildings, once so characteristic of this neighborhood, were torn down (those that weren't burnt down, that is) and replaced by owner-occupied single family homes and row houses. The residents who moved in the early 1980’s paid prices around $50,000 for these houses. Nowadays, as real estate prices all over New York are going up, surprisingly one of the places they are rising fastest is the revived neighborhoods of the South Bronx. The Charlotte St. houses presently sell for around $180,000.

Low density, home ownership, neighborhood roots, and a history of work - these are the population characteristics that produced the urban renewal success in this area. Lots of new developments are going up around the Charlotte St. core. Apparently, people are not afraid to invest and live here as they were in the bad old days of mass flight. Reminders of those days still exist, though. Most of the single family homes built in the 1980’s have fences around them, grates across the windows and large dogs in the front yards. Soon perhaps, these things won't be needed anymore either.

One of the possible alternatives to the suburban sprawl that has become a common characteristic of American metropolitan areas, and a topic of concern to activists, is revival of the dying inner city cores of many American cities. No place was closer to death than the South Bronx of 20 years ago, and today large parts of it have been rebuilt from the ashes into safe and lively working class neighborhoods reminiscent of the Bronx during its golden years of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Today's South Bronx residents are mostly black and Hispanic, not the Irish, Italians, and Jews of those days, but the same neighborhood feeling prevails. Now there's talk of rebuilding the area around Yankee Stadium. If only they could bring back Joe Dimaggio.

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Published: April 22, 1999

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Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Ellen S. Shnidman only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.

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