When the Bronx was burning. (Harrison, Morris: houses, buy, university)

[DAS]

I will add that even though the tenement areas were poor they were clean before the time of the fires no matter what group of people lived there. The fires did something to the people mentally. It is sad that younger people have never seen these areas look good. I lived in an area that was all private houses but the tenement blocks were close by and I had many friends that lived in those nice clean tenement buildings. I had a great NYC childhood in the Bronx.

[cyrusjul]

Plenty of burn out buildings and abandon land in the beginning of this music video from the movie Beat Street (1984) by Grandmaster Melle Mel.


YouTube - Beat Street Theme - Grandmaster Melle Mel

Anyone thinks this is in the South Bronx? Or maybe Bushwick?

[DAS]

It is definitely the Bronx. That is the #4 Jerome Ave traveling up toward Tremont Ave.

[cyrusjul]

Here is another video also showing parts of the South Bronx from the elevated train...


Grandmaster Caz - South Bronx Subway Rap (Wild Style Movie -1982)


YouTube - Grandmaster Caz - South Bronx Subway Rap

[cyrusjul]

Oh these ones are good!


YouTube - South Bronx Ruins Wolfen 1981


YouTube - South Bronx Wolfen Charlotte Street 1981

[baylovers]

There was a really good book called Report From Engine Company 82 that catches the real essence of being with the fire dept in the 1970's and working in the South Bronx.
Amazon.com: Report from Engine Co. 82: Books: Dennis Smith

Here are a couple of cool videos:

YouTube - Bronx is Burning Teaser

Here's another video from Stebbens Ave:

YouTube - Danny Aiello PSA "Say no To Drugs" 1989

My father was fireman at the firehouse on E166 St & Washington Ave and tells great stories from the 1960/70's when the Bronx was burning. I used to love going down to the firehouse as a kid and I remember how gritty & raw the area was at the time. We lived just north of Fordaham Rd & those few miles seemed like a world away.

Many of the fires were arson for insurance, while many were just for the amusement of local kids and there were some that were set to cover up crimes like burglary or a homicide. Ofetn we could go to the roof of our building & see several plumes of smoke from different fires across the borough.

[Guywithacause]

I am too young to remember any of the fires, all I remember is the aftermath: the vacant lots, some shells of buildings, the extreme poverty, violence, garbage everywhere, the drugs, abandoned cars, etc. The are has come a long way..but it still has a long way to go.

[samyn on the green]

In the 1970's I was a little kid but I observe and remember everything. My introduction into this world was in Bushwick at Wycoff Heights Hospital in the 1970's. That neighborhood went down so fast it could have snapped your neck. This is what happened when the Europeans were blockbusted out of a neighborhood so some Realtor like Harry Bernstein could cash in on Federal Programs. Mr. Bernstein lived in Kings Point of The Great Gatsby fame and played a huge role in taking Bushwick from a vital working class enclave to a welfare slum in about ten years. These things do not happen by accident.

My early childhood in Bushwick Brooklyn consisted of burned out buildings with streets lined with stolen cars with parts removed and glass shattered. There was shattered glass everywhere you stepped with graffiti everywhere not a square inch of wall was clear. Loads of vacant lots and tons of stray dogs, packs of them sometimes just running loose on the streets. The roads were completely in disrepair and I remember lots of old brick roads with the trolley rails still exposed. The pot holes where huge. Hookers strolling around near Flushing ave and Troutman St. We would go to Knickerbocker ave there would always be dazed looking smackheads all over the sidewalks. When people talk about pimping this and pimping that I think of Troutman St 1979 and it is not so cool. Half the buildings were abandoned and burnt out, almost nobody worked. There was more people outside at night than during the day. The traffic of the late 1970's and early 1980's different than today. Imagine going over the Manhattan bridge to China town at rush hour with no delay. I remember driving over the 59th street bridge at the heart of rush hour and it only taking 10 mins. The city population was falling and Immigration from the third world had not yet kicked into high gear, I remember the roads being like a ghost town at times.


The Bronx was just as bad as Bushwick and I remember making trips up there in the early 1980's. One clear memory unique to the Bronx was in 1982 mayor Koch had this huge facade improvement program for burnt out tenements. City workers came in the burnt out buildings and installed faux painted windows into the burnt out shells of the building to made them look marginally better. As you passed block after block of burned out shells they would have this plywood faux windows filling the old window holes with a fake flower/window pane painted on there to make the post-modern welfare disaster look better. The empty lots of rubble up in the Bronx was what I remember the most, much of it was not removed for years.

You can but the blame for the death of the cities on Federal subsidized home loan and Federally subsidized welfare programs. Harry Bernstein and others like him were able to swindle millions while destroying working class New York. While I am sure there are a few success stories the majority of people using these federal programs did little to improve their position in life and ruined everyplace they touched.

[KRaZy]

Here a few more pics:

The Old Neighborhood Pictures

[Guywithacause]

Samyn..thanks for your memories...as I have the same memories! There were so many people that destroyed these communities just for a buck its horrendous....