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I was in Belmont in April visiting a friend. Surprised to see so many white kids besides the long-standing and remaining old Italians and Albanians. I think the area is due for gentrification soon, if it isn't already happening, because of Fordham U.
12 AM on a Saturday night and all I saw was mobs and mobs of white college students for a good three blocks.
I was in Belmont in April visiting a friend. Surprised to see so many white kids besides the long-standing and remaining old Italians and Albanians. I think the area is due for gentrification soon, if it isn't already happening, because of Fordham U.
12 AM on a Saturday night and all I saw was mobs and mobs of white college students for a good three blocks.
Not really a surprise considering Fordham U is overwhelmingly made up of white kids from ny-metro suburbs and other parts of US. The Fordham U. students although they are transient walk around the area pretty comfortably. I only see the freshman walk around tentatively in groups, lol.
The area is not a likely gentrification target. For one it's in the Bronx which has a stigma and still scares a lot of people. Gentrification in the Bronx will probably creep it's way up from the south bronx. But for what it's worth commercial and residential rents have been steadily going up last few years in the Bronx. Maybe eventually the creeping up will work it's way to Belmont.
The other issue with Belmont in terms of it gentrifying is that it doesn't have direct subway access. For most of the neighborhood your looking at a short bus ride or long walk to subway. Metro North is nice but is not practical for everyone depending where they work.
Last edited by NooYowkur81; 08-14-2015 at 02:14 PM..
I was in Belmont in April visiting a friend. Surprised to see so many white kids besides the long-standing and remaining old Italians and Albanians. I think the area is due for gentrification soon, if it isn't already happening, because of Fordham U.
You see white students because there is a college campus there and think its gentrification?? Maybe they are just there because they are students..
Plenty of major US cities have good universities right in the middle of the questionable neighborhoods. A prime example is Johns Hopkins Hospital and University with is almost Ivy Leave is smack in the middle of a horrible ghetto in Baltimore. I've heard stories about workers and students being robbed, assaulted, and even killed walking around at night alone. Yale is in New Haven which if you leave the campus area quickly becomes terrible.
I have doubts about gentrification in Fordham anytime soon. The area really does not have much to offer upwardly mobile white transplants the way the South Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn neighborhoods do. The biggest problem being the complete lack of subway access.
You see white students because there is a college campus there and think its gentrification?? Maybe they are just there because they are students..
Plenty of major US cities have good universities right in the middle of the questionable neighborhoods. A prime example is Johns Hopkins Hospital and University with is almost Ivy Leave is smack in the middle of a horrible ghetto in Baltimore. I've heard stories about workers and students being robbed, assaulted, and even killed walking around at night alone. Yale is in New Haven which if you leave the campus area quickly becomes terrible.
I have doubts about gentrification in Fordham anytime soon. The area really does not have much to offer upwardly mobile white transplants the way the South Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn neighborhoods do. The biggest problem being the complete lack of subway access.
In general, this does hold true in a number of cases, but regarding Yale in New Haven, that section is pretty isolated. I'd say about half of New Haven is relatively "hood" and the other part is actually pretty decent and when walking around the area by Yale, you would have no idea you were in a "supposed" bad area. New Haven's crime rate always seems to be overblown...
Not sure what you mean. Doesn't it have its same borders?
As Yodel said, less Italian.
While I was there, it was still largely Italian, although visibly diminishing. As such, it was a very close-knit community composed of families and neighbors who had lived there for generations. With that comes stability as everyone knew everyone and watched out for and helped each other.
There was also a certain amount of myth or romanticism that went along with it. Supposedly, the Mob was always lurking in the background and made sure things were safe. How much of that was fiction, I do not know. Belmont, they would boast, was not looted during the 1977 blackout.
Of course, that stability had an ugly side to it as well. The aforementioned Mob was indeed there and with that comes a different form of crime and corruption once you dispense with the movie images and machismo.
Also, the residents subtly and sometimes obviously let it be known that non-Whites were barley tolerated.
In other words, a morally-compromised stability that would benefit a student.: dubious:
Belmont probably hasn't been majority Italian in all my lifetime and I'm 33 soon to be 34. When was it last majority Italian? The late 60's?
I attended Fordham from 1983 to 1987 and it was probably still majority Italian at that point, but just barely. The borders were clearly contracting. As you headed towards Third Avenue or Southern Blvd, any Italian presence disappeared.
So yea. Majority Italian, but with skewed borders as they were gradually receding.
I attended Fordham from 1983 to 1987 and it was probably still majority Italian at that point, but just barely. The borders were clearly contracting. As you headed towards Third Avenue or Southern Blvd, any Italian presence disappeared.
So yea. Majority Italian, but with skewed borders as they were gradually receding.
Lol I get what your saying. Sounds like only a small portion of Belmont was majority Italian at that point. Basically where I live now, which is the northernmost section.
Lol I get what your saying. Sounds like only a small portion of Belmont was majority Italian at that point. Basically where I live now, which is the northernmost section.
Yes, I am intentionally being ironic.
To be accurate, the borders then were Bathgate Avenue (West) and Crotona Avenue (East).
East 184th and East 183rd (more or less) was the Southern border. Fordham Road was the Northern frontier.
Within that area, everything and everybody was Italian. Consequently, that gave the impression- not an unjustified one- that one was in the midst of a thriving ethnic area. But comparing the existing borders the previous ones (Third Ave; Southern Blvd), you realized that the Italian population was shrinking. It was and has continued to do so.
Needless to say it looks radically different to me now. Not so different from Mulberry Street. But that is assimilation. Most Belmont descendants are now mowing their lawns in Westchester County and hitting the ole neighborhood to grab some Cannolis.
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