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I bought a few photos online that I found. This set is from 1983-1988. What you people are looking at here is the LAST area of the Bronx to fall victim to the arson and abandonment. After these areas fell, the arson finally stopped. The area below is southern University Heights, and is amazing because the areas north of these, while still very dangerous, saw very little arson, and had a much fewer vacant lots. The area in question is highlighted in red on the map below. You may wonder why did it all stop there, well, thank the Northwest Bronx association who immediately stepped in and renovated thousands of buildings to the north, buildings that had fallen into despair. This is also why back 30 years ago, everything below Fordham road was considered the south Bronx, because most of the areas looked the same. The below photos are super rare, which is why I had to buy them. You never see photos of University Heights, Morris Heights, or Fordham urban decay. It leads some people to believe that nothing happened here. Hopefully, this convinces you otherwise.
My eyes actually watered. I thought, like most, people, that my neighborhood was able to fight off this. Sigh, at least only part of the neighborhood went, and not the entire one like the neighborhoods to the south. We salvaged something. Also, the above area nowadays is probably a little safer than the rest of the neighborhood. A lot of private homes where built on those vacant lots, and it attracted middle class.
Great pics man... Shows a side of that part of town you rarely get to see...
Thanks man, and yeah definitely. That was my point in this. When ever you see Bronx photos in the 80's, it's always, Charlotte Street, Mott Haven, Ft Apache etc, when further up, to places like Morris/University Heights the same thing was happening. Also, it wasn't just the Bronx, I think Bushwick was pretty hard it.
I remember seeing a documentary of Mike Tyson, and when they mentioned him growing up in the tough streets of Brownsville, they showed an image of an abandoned building next to a vacant lot, and I said to myself, "What, Brownsville had vacant lots!" lol but it did. The entire city did.
Thanks for sharing. Looks just as bad as areas around Westchester Avenue after the smoke cleared. 2075 and 2065 Grand Ave. in the first set, holy cow! Knowing the exact year would be great though.
Thanks man, and yeah definitely. That was my point in this. When ever you see Bronx photos in the 80's, it's always, Charlotte Street, Mott Haven, Ft Apache etc, when further up, to places like Morris/University Heights the same thing was happening. Also, it wasn't just the Bronx, I think Bushwick was pretty hard it.
I remember seeing a documentary of Mike Tyson, and when they mentioned him growing up in the tough streets of Brownsville, they showed an image of an abandoned building next to a vacant lot, and I said to myself, "What, Brownsville had vacant lots!" lol but it did. The entire city did.
Yea I think its along Junius street I'm not sure but there's a bunch of what looks to be 1 floor low income housing that was built recently that used to be a huge patch of empty lot in Brownsville... Back in the late 70s early 80s when I was a kid that whole area of Brownsville/East NY was filled with empty lots... I pass by there and I stay shocked at some of the changes... Parts of it by Van Siclen or Norwood haven't changed too much and still look like crap but other parts look so much better but for some reason the area is still bad... You would've thought with the changes it would've improved so much more...
I lived right on top of that bodega you see in the pic but next to that and all around those are new houses... Nothing there is more than 10-15 years old and maybe not even that old either... The housing across the street, the new house built next to the bodega that was an empty grass lot and across the street was either decrepid housing or burned down apartment buildings... We moved alot when I was a kid cause arson took over the neighborhood...
And Bushwick man... Bushwick was crazy back then... The areas that are being gentrified right now by Knickerbocker park... that was no man's land... and by halsey down to moffat ... Most of Bushwick even with all the hype is still bad but compared to back then... It's nothing...
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