The Decline of the Bronx

[Guywithacause]

Lol...it isn't in decline at all....it was just a topic. Who knew that even 10 years ago the Bronx would be at the forefront of the green revolution overtaking the city! Trees, parks, greenways, greenrooves, green housing, bike lanes,..it's amazing really.

[BronxPride]

Originally Posted by jts2003

The Bronx can't be on that much of a decline because the top 20 threads on this site are about the Bronx. There sure is alot of interest for such a undesirable area. LOL

I know right. We should get our own special forum.

[sxr71]

Originally Posted by Songbird42

Let me start by saying I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings here, that's not my intent, whether Hispanic/Black/Asian/or whatever. I lived in the Bronx from 1947 to 1964, I was a teenager then, back then my neighborhood was mostly Jewish/Irish/German, period. We were one block off the Concourse and from the low 80's North all the way to Moshula Parkway(sp) there were only whites, very very few of other nationalities. The Italians were over in the Belmont Section, the Hispancis (Puerto Ricans) were over by Kelly St, Simpson Ave and Charlotte St. The Blacks stayed below the 70's and didn't venture North for fear of getting their a**s beat. Things started to change around 67 from what I can remember being told, there was a major blackout and everyone went nuts, looting/burning....which I believe was unneccessary
and vicious. From that point on, things just went downhill....WHY?

Is it that those who were the poorest, felt the need to vandalize/burn/rob
and beat, because the had less than everyone else? Did they need to bring a whole borough to its knees like savages, did it make them feel better?
There were still some very good citizens that remained, as today, I can count on one hand friends that stayed, eventually, the madness made everyone get out of dodge, so to speak. Those that stayed, well, they struggle and try to survive. Meanwhile, the borough also struggles, they try to clean up areas, the local parks and clean up buildings, and still there are those that given half a chance would destroy what they have. WHY.

For the life of me, I can't understand the reasoning behind it all, I mean the Bronx was a good place for many years, then all of a sudden, a zoo, don't people have any pride in where they live, shop, work......don't get me wrong I love my birthplace, I will defend it with my whole heart, but when I see and hear gangster gangbangers talking sh*t about this being their hood, and they rule the Bronx, I want to scream and holler and tell them to go back to whereever they came from, because they didn't originate in my hometown.
And I want them to get the hell out of there, they give my hometown a bad name.

Thank you for letting me rant, I feel better now. BTW, I come from 183rd St
now one of the worst blocks (as I've been told-right Hustla) in the Bronx.

Your comments welcome............

The obvious answer is in your post. You said if a black person came above the 70s they would "get their Mod cut: language beat". Well, if you keep an entire race/community/whatever down by not letting them in your community without beating their Mod cut: language then naturally a day will come when they take want to take it over.

[DAS]

Originally Posted by sxr71

The obvious answer is in your post. You said if a black person came above the 70s they would "get their Mod cut: language beat". Well, if you keep an entire race/community/whatever down by not letting them in your community without beating their Mod cut: language then naturally a day will come when they take want to take it over.

You have to take that entire post with large grains of salt. Read Dion Dimucci's the late 50's-60's singer that sang with the group The Belmontes autobiography. The was crime and all types of mayhem all over the Bronx since it was developed from farm land. Dion himself was a gang member, and herion addict right up there in the Little Italy section of the Bronx, before Black or Latin people were living there. See films of Rikers Island in the
1940's. It was mostly all white youth. This was in the 1940's and there were plenty of Black and Latin people in this city by then. All groups contributed to the decline of the Bronx and all groups will have to contribute to its rise.

There is some truth to this post Grand Concourse was the Park Ave of the Bronx. Dion also says in his autobiography that he would bring Frankie Lyman of the singing group the The Teenagers to buy heroin in Little Italy because the quality was much better than in Washington Heights and Harlem, and they would have to fist fight the local residents of Little Italy, many that he personally knew, and probably would not have bothered him otherwise, except that Frankie Lyman was Black.

But even this is not how everyone was, because my grandmother had 2 cousins (sisters) that owned their home in the Wakefield section in the 1930's when it was all Italian, and they had no problems, and all the family would visit them.

Remember also that no one can keep you down for long if you have a good education, along with a marketable skill. Even if you receive if from a CUNY.

[Bronxguyanese]

IF you guys wanna know alot of information about the bronx decline, you should read robert caros the Power Broker which is about Robert moses and his urban renewal agenda.

[DAS]

Originally Posted by Bronxguyanese

IF you guys wanna know alot of information about the bronx decline, you should read robert caros the Power Broker which is about Robert moses and his urban renewal agenda.

There are plenty of people still alive that had to move due to the cross bronx expressway. I work with a few. I have heard over and over from them, (they like to talk about the old days a lot) that it wasn't as big a deal as it is being made out to be now. They said that they were living in decaying tenement buildings before that, and were able to relocate to better neighborhoods. They said most of them and their neighbors stayed right in the Bronx, and most later moved to places like Coop City, and Sky View in Riverdale. Where they always remained with the same friends and neighbors.

[The Fatman]

Originally Posted by Songbird42

Let me start by saying I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings here, that's not my intent, whether Hispanic/Black/Asian/or whatever. I lived in the Bronx from 1947 to 1964, I was a teenager then, back then my neighborhood was mostly Jewish/Irish/German, period. We were one block off the Concourse and from the low 80's North all the way to Moshula Parkway(sp) there were only whites, very very few of other nationalities. The Italians were over in the Belmont Section, the Hispancis (Puerto Ricans) were over by Kelly St, Simpson Ave and Charlotte St. The Blacks stayed below the 70's and didn't venture North for fear of getting their a**s beat. Things started to change around 67 from what I can remember being told, there was a major blackout and everyone went nuts, looting/burning....which I believe was unneccessary
and vicious. From that point on, things just went downhill....WHY?

Is it that those who were the poorest, felt the need to vandalize/burn/rob
and beat, because the had less than everyone else? Did they need to bring a whole borough to its knees like savages, did it make them feel better?
There were still some very good citizens that remained, as today, I can count on one hand friends that stayed, eventually, the madness made everyone get out of dodge, so to speak. Those that stayed, well, they struggle and try to survive. Meanwhile, the borough also struggles, they try to clean up areas, the local parks and clean up buildings, and still there are those that given half a chance would destroy what they have. WHY.

For the life of me, I can't understand the reasoning behind it all, I mean the Bronx was a good place for many years, then all of a sudden, a zoo, don't people have any pride in where they live, shop, work......don't get me wrong I love my birthplace, I will defend it with my whole heart, but when I see and hear gangster gangbangers talking sh*t about this being their hood, and they rule the Bronx, I want to scream and holler and tell them to go back to whereever they came from, because they didn't originate in my hometown.
And I want them to get the hell out of there, they give my hometown a bad name.

Thank you for letting me rant, I feel better now. BTW, I come from 183rd St
now one of the worst blocks (as I've been told-right Hustla) in the Bronx.

Your comments welcome............

funny how the history sounds a little different from your point of view:

At
In Prohibition days (1920-33), bootleggers and gangs ran rampant in the Bronx. Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants smuggled in most of the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies.

The Bronx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[WestburynLI to BronxnNYC]

Originally Posted by The Fatman

funny how the history sounds a little different from your point of view:

At
In Prohibition days (1920-33), bootleggers and gangs ran rampant in the Bronx. Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants smuggled in most of the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies.

The Bronx - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yea, I always find it funny when people complain about white people moving in. Im like who do you think used to live here? And when they say something like "Just a white boy", who where the original Gangsters?

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by WestburynLI to BronxnNYC

Yea, I always find it funny when people complain about white people moving in. Im like who do you think used to live here? And when they say something like "Just a white boy", who where the original Gangsters?

This is true. Murder Incorporated, which was a fairly vicious little organization, was not only made up of white gangsters, but based in Brownsville (the neighborhood where I was born looked a little different then than it does now).