Neighborhood turning points in Bronx? (White Plains, Bedford: high crime, how much, motels)

[Elvira Black]

This post is in reaction to BronxChick's description of her South Bronx neighborhood. It's very distressing to hear that she's having such a rough time there.

My gut feeling is that some poor areas in the Bronx are safer and more hospitable than others. I also sense that living on isolated side streets rather than near a main drag may make a big difference too. But what other factors might make one poor area safer than another?

When my boyfriend moved to Fordham 9 years ago, the area was a bit rougher. Lots of loud music on the weekends, cars blasting. People congregating in front of his building. Kids doing drugs in the back hallways. One day he opened his door and saw a pool of blood in front of his doorstep and in the elevator. The benches in front of Poe Park were used for urban tailgate parties.

A few things happened since then. The building registered with the police/neighborhood watch program. Some church/community groups had meetings with tenants. The area started to get quiet, even on the weekends. The landlord installed cameras in the mailbox area, floodlights in the front of the building. Police would come to the building if something was going on. The old front doors were replaced, and new locks were distributed.

Not too long ago (a year or so?) , my boyfriend's next door neighbor let her crackhead boyfriend set up residence there. At the same time, a few other people in the building seemed to be dealing as well. You'd see strange people who didn't live there coming to his floor to get their fix all the time.

Another neighborhood meeting was held. My boyfriend came and spoke about the "tenant" next door, who had actually threatened him. Shortly after, the police came to talk to him and other neighbors. The guy in question was a fugitive with warrants out. The guy "disappeared," along with a few other bad egg residents, shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, the Fordham Road store owners set up a Business Improvement District. Now there are banners informing folks that the area is patrolled by NYPD cameras. A state of the art library opened on Kingsbridge Road, and Poe Park was renovated and the outside benches removed.

Yes, crime does still occur. Down the road, four or five guys were attacked in separate incidents a few months ago by a gang of thugs late at night. One died. The police installed major surveillance on that block for awhile. One neighbor told my b/f that someone got killed at the front entrance of the building after a party not too long ago.

I think Operation Impact has helped some of these areas, but they usually don't stay in one area indefinitely.

My point? The area still has its problems, but it seems much better than the area where BronxChick is living, and it's better than 9 years ago in a lot of ways.

What are the rest of you experiencing in the Bronx in terms of crime, harassment, etc? Is BronxChick's experience more common than I thought it to be? And what factors/improvements make one poor area safer than another, or one block safer for that matter?

[Hustla718]

Why do people who never lived or hung out in the Bronx the times they are comparing it to say it is so much better then it was 5-10-20 years ago?

What differences are there? It's the same old ghetto bull****. Murder rates mean nothing. If you get into an arguement with someone in the South Bronx, and it escalates they might try to kill or seriously injure you for respect. If you walk around with your phone in the South Bronx, a nice new Nextel for example. There is a good chance someone will try and snatch your phone. You walk down a stair street at 2am, there might be a stick up kid on the other end. You look at someone wrong and they might want to fight you, definately comment. Bump a shoulder and there goes an arguement. Every day in every single building a child or a girlfriend or a wife is being abused. Beatin and nothing changes.

And for those who think BronxChick experience is bad, that's just ghetto hospitality. Here is a story even worse...

A White women somehow ended up in a South Bronx shelter. Tall, thin, looked strait out the Upper East Side. Soon as she gets there a women tries her. Starts a verbal arguement then beats the hell out of her. She goes to the hospital then makes a report. Can't ID. This becomes ongoing. She gets beat downs, robbed makes more reports. Nothing is done. This is life in the ghetto. It doesn't matter if you are White Black whatever. The ghetto drags you down. It is not a good place to be.

The South Bronx is the ghetto. It's poor, it's bleak. It has a dark history and it is still neglected by NYC.

As for one part of the South Bronx worse. No. Everything south of Bedford Park Blvd is virtually the same. Only more people around the Grand Concourse, higher density. Once you go north of Bedford Park Blvd it's basically bad pockets, like South Kingsbridge Heights, South Bedford Park, around Gun Hill Road, ect...

This is the unfortunate truth. All cities have good and bad areas. The South Bronx is the bad part no matter how you look at it. NYC is setting it up to be that way for a long time. Just be thankful NYC has less high crime areas now. There was a time the bulk of Manhattan was full of high crime areas. SRO's and welfare motels off Times Square. So there are more options now.

[bronxchick]

I think that what makes my area especially problematic is the proximity to the housing projects, and the crack-house across the street from me (which undercovers stake out quite often). My neighbors (who are black and hispanic), tell me they don't feel unsafe here, and that they never get harassed. It may just be that I am unwelcome here.

[BXGEAR]

10 years ago, Allerton was a very nice neighborhood. Mostly whites with hispanics and blacks mixed in. Now, the area is gradually becoming black. There is a significant hispanic population but the blacks are starting to flood the area. I believe they are coming south from Wakefield

[Hustla718]

Originally Posted by clubBR

10 years ago, Allerton was a very nice neighborhood. Mostly whites with hispanics and blacks mixed in. Now, the area is gradually becoming black. There is a significant hispanic population but the blacks are starting to flood the area. I believe they are coming south from Wakefield

Your right they are coming South from Wakefield.

Allerton Ave area isn't too bad the furthur east you go. Close to the 2 train is sketchy, and there are a couple blocks that have some real **** building. However it's still in the early stages of ghettofication.

On Ollinville and Barker Aves along with the cross streets a lot of people loitering and the buildings are real run down or becoming that way. They killed someone around there not too long ago. Shootings are pretty common and muggings very. These are blocks are just west of White Plains Road by Allerton, all the way up and down.

White Plains Road from Gun Hill Road all the way up is a serious drug strip. Unfortunately it looks as though that is spreading south.

Wallace, Holland, Cruger and Barnes are also nasty in spots. Cruger and Williamsbridge Road has a lot of gang activity, a lot of gang graffiti. Burke and Holland Aves have some **** buildings. Furthur down on Wallace and Astor place a lot of loitering, possible drug dealing. Ollinville and Britton Street a lot of loitering. Those were just some observations.

[scatman]

Originally Posted by Elvira Black

This post is in reaction to BronxChick's description of her South Bronx neighborhood. It's very distressing to hear that she's having such a rough time there.

My gut feeling is that some poor areas in the Bronx are safer and more hospitable than others. I also sense that living on isolated side streets rather than near a main drag may make a big difference too. But what other factors might make one poor area safer than another?

When my boyfriend moved to Fordham 9 years ago, the area was a bit rougher.....A few things happened since then. The building registered with the police/neighborhood watch program. Some church/community groups had meetings with tenants. The area started to get quiet, even on the weekends. The landlord installed cameras in the mailbox area, floodlights in the front of the building. Police would come to the building if something was going on. The old front doors were replaced, and new locks were distributed.

"If you want to make the world a better place
Just look at yourself(ves) and make a change"
--Michael Jackson

A prime example of people doing just that! Good post!

[bronxchick]

Hustla- do you currently live in the Bronx? Because my experience hasn't been nearly that bad.

[Freak]

Originally Posted by bronxchick

Hustla- do you currently live in the Bronx? Because my experience hasn't been nearly that bad.

Hustla claims to be a cop. If it is indeed true, don't worry. He makes the Bronx sound ten times worse than it truly is because as a cop, he's only exposed to the bad of the Bronx and never the good. If he was a cop in SI, Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan, he wouldn't be promoting any neighborhoods at all, either, because he'd only be exposed to the bad.

As for the South Bronx (meaning south of Fordham), it is mostly a dump. While some areas might be potential yuppie spots in the next couple of years, others will remain dumpholes until government housing is moved out. The Northwest Bronx and the Eastern Bronx remain great areas, though.

[Hustla718]

Originally Posted by bronxchick

Hustla- do you currently live in the Bronx? Because my experience hasn't been nearly that bad.

Those were all possible scenarios that take place in the South Bronx every day even as we speak.

And the story is true, the shelter system is very rough.

Originally Posted by Freak

Hustla claims to be a cop. If it is indeed true, don't worry. He makes the Bronx sound ten times worse than it truly is because as a cop, he's only exposed to the bad of the Bronx and never the good. If he was a cop in SI, Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan, he wouldn't be promoting any neighborhoods at all, either, because he'd only be exposed to the bad.

As for the South Bronx (meaning south of Fordham), it is mostly a dump. While some areas might be potential yuppie spots in the next couple of years, others will remain dumpholes until government housing is moved out. The Northwest Bronx and the Eastern Bronx remain great areas, though.

Sure, I must have been born a cop and never experienced the neighborhood myself...

And sorry, even cops get exposed to good AND bad. I don't know where some of you get this from...

[Freak]

No, you're just surrounded by sooooooooooo much bad as a cop it's hard to praise anything about the South Bronx.

Answer this: how much of the bad things that go on in the Bronx would you know of if you WEREN'T a cop?