Bronx

 

borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx co. (1990 pop. 1,203,789), land area 42 sq mi (106 sq km), SE N.Y. The name comes from Jonas Bronck, who purchased the land from Native Americans in 1639. New York City acquired the Bronx, which had been the lower portion of Westchester co., in two stages in 1874 and 1895. With the consolidation of New York City in 1898 it became a separate borough; the county was not organized until 1914. The only mainland borough of New York City, it comprises the southern part of a peninsula bordered on the W by the Hudson River, on the SW by the Harlem River (which separates it from Manhattan), on the S by the East River, and on the E by Long Island Sound. Among the many bridges linking the borough to Manhattan and Queens are the Henry Hudson, the Triborough, the Bronx-Whitestone, and the Throgs Neck. The borough is also connected to Manhattan by subway lines. With the extension of mass transit to the Bronx in the early 20th cent. the population of the sparsely settled area rapidly increased, becoming home to many immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. After World War II, African-American and Hispanic residents became the majority, and there are growing African and Caribbean communities. The declining local economy led to a deterioration of housing, and the term “South Bronx” became synonymous with urban blight. Attempts at renovation have been successful in many neighborhoods that had been abandoned for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Although the Bronx is no longer an extensive shipping, warehouse, and factory center, the Hunts Point Terminal Market is the major wholesale produce center for New York City. Large areas of the borough are set aside for parks, notably Bronx Park, with the New York Zoological Park (Bronx Zoo) and the New York Botanical Garden; Van Cortlandt Park, and Pelham Bay Park, with Orchard Beach on Long Island Sound. Among the institutions of higher learning in the Bronx are Fordham Univ., Manhattan College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva Univ., the New York State Maritime College, and Herbert H. Lehman College of the City Univ. of New York. Other points of interest are Yankee Stadium (1923) and the Edgar Allan Poe cottage (1812).

Bibliography

See L. Ultan, The Beautiful Bronx (1982); L. Ultan and G. Hermalyn, The Bronx in the Innocent Years (1985); E. Gonzalez et al., Building a Borough (1986).

Bronx

Location
Bronx, highlighted in yellow.
Government
County:	Bronx
Borough president:	Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Demographics[20]
Population:
Population density:	/sq mi (/km²)
Geography
Area:	sq mi ( km²)
Land:	sq mi ( km²)
Water:	sq mi ( km²)
Coordinates:	40°42′15″N 73°55′5″W / 40.70417, -73.91806

The Bronx is New York City's northernmost borough, coterminous with Bronx County. The Bronx is located Northeast of Manhattan. It is the only one of the city's five boroughs situated primarily on the United States mainland rather than on an island. As of 2005, the United States Census Bureau estimated that the borough's population was 1,357,589.^[1] If all five boroughs were independent cities, the Bronx would rank as the ninth most populous city in the United States. Recently, its population, which had been in decline since the 1960 census, has increased. The borough had its peak population in 1950. [2] The Bronx is the fourth most populous of New York City's five boroughs, and Bronx County is the 5th most populous county in the New York Metropolitan Area.

"The Bronx" is the only borough in New York City that, in its capacity as a borough, is referred to, in both law^[2] and popular usage^[3], with the definite article ("The"). (The name of the coterminous "Bronx County," however, does not include a "the.") A common explanation for the definite article is that the original name of the borough, when it was annexed from Westchester, was "The Borough of the Bronx River," referring to the river that passed through the borough.^[4][5]. The river was named after Jonas Bronck, a Swede, who was a sea captain and 1641 resident whose 500 acre (2 km²) farm lay between the Harlem River and the Bronx River or Aquahung, as it was called by the Native Americans of the time. Another explanation for the use of the definite article in the borough's name is that the original form of the name was possessive: The Broncks'.

History

The Bronx was called Rananchqua^[6] by the native Siwanoy^[7] band of Lenape, while other Natives knew The Bronx as Keskeskeck.^[8] It was divided by the "Aquahung" river, now known as the Bronx River. The land was first settled by Europeans in 1639, when Jonas Bronck, for whom the area was later named, established a farm along the Harlem River in the area now known as the Mott Haven section. The Dutch and English settlers referred to the area as "Bronck's Land".^[9]

The territory now contained within Bronx County was originally part of Westchester County, an original county of New York state. The present Bronx County was contained in four towns: Westchester, Yonkers, Eastchester, and Pelham.

In 1846, a new town, West Farms, was created by division of Westchester; in turn, in 1855, the town of Morrisania was created from West Farms. In 1873, the town of Kingsbridge (roughly corresponding to the modern Bronx neighborhoods of Kingsbridge, Riverdale, and Woodlawn) was established within the former borders of Yonkers.

In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County, consisting of the towns of Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, was transferred to New York County, and to New York City; the three towns were abolished in the process. In 1895 the Town of Westchester and portions of Eastchester and Pelham, similarly were transferred to New York County and City. City Island, New York City's only nautical community, voted to join New York County in 1896. In 1898, the amalgamated City of New York was created, including the Bronx as one of its five boroughs (although still within New York County). In 1914, those parts of the then New York County which had been annexed from Westchester County in the past decades were newly constituted as Bronx County, while keeping its status as a borough of New York City.

The Bronx underwent rapid growth after World War I. Extensions of the New York City Subway contributed to the increase in population as thousands of immigrants flooded the Bronx, resulting in a major boom in residential construction. Among these groups, many Irish and Italians but especially Jews settled here. Author Willa Cather, Pierre Lorillard who made a fortune on tobacco sales, and inventor Jordan Mott were famous settlers. In addition, French, German, and Polish immigrants moved into the borough. The Jewish population also increased notably during this time and many synagogues still exist throughout the borough, although many of these have been converted to other uses.

In prohibition days, bootleggers and gangs ran rampant in the Bronx. Mostly Irish and Italian immigrants smuggled in the illegal whiskey. By 1926, the Bronx was noted for its high crime rate and its many speakeasies.

After the 1930s, the Irish immigrant population in the Bronx decreased as a result of better living conditions in New York suburbs and in other states. The German population followed suit in the 1940s. So did many Italians in the 1950s and Jews in the 1960s. As the generation of the 1930s retired, many moved to southeastern Florida, west of Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. The migration has left a thriving Hispanic (mostly Puerto Rican and Dominican) and African-American population, along with some white areas in the southeastern and northwestern part of the county.

During the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the Bronx went into an era of sharp change in the residents' quality of life. Many factors have been put forward by historians and other social scientists. They include the theory that urban renewal projects in the borough (such as Robert Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway) destroyed existing low-density neighborhoods in favor of roads that produced urban sprawl as well as high-density housing projects. Another factor may have been the reduction by insurance companies and banks in offering property-related financial services (mortgages) to some areas of the Bronx -- a process known as redlining.^{[citation needed]}

For a period, a wave of arson overtook the southern portion of the borough's apartment buildings, with competing theories as to why. Some point to the heavy traffic and use of illicit drugs among the area's poor as causing them to be inclined to scam the city's benefits for burn-out victims as well as the Section 8 housing program. Others believe landlords decided to burn their buildings before their insurance policies expired and were not renewed. After the destruction of many buildings in the South Bronx, the arsons all but ended during the tenure of Mayor Ed Koch with aftereffects still felt into the early 1990s thanks to the infamous crack epidemic.

Since the early 1990s, much development has occurred. Groups affiliated with South Bronx churches have built the Nehemiah Homes with about 1,000 units. This and other developments have transformed the south Bronx, and the ripple effects are felt borough-wide. While the Bronx still contains the poorest congressional district in the mainland US, crime has dropped substantially from the burned-out days of the 1970s and 1980s. This is due to many reasons, but primarily to community members working to take the community back and build it up once again.

The resurgence in housing has led some single-family homes in the East Bronx to be replaced by multi-family homes. There have been many new apartments built in the Melrose and Morrisania sections of the South Bronx, and near the Grand Concourse, onetime rental apartments are being upgraded and turned into condominiums.^[10] As a result, the IRT White Plains Road Line has had an increase in riders. Business chains such as Staples have started stores in the Bronx, and the number of bank branches has increased.

In 1997, the Bronx was designated an "All America City" by the National Civic League, signifying its comeback from the decline of the 1970s. In 2006, the New York Times reported that "construction cranes have become the borough's new visual metaphor, replacing the window decals of the 1980's in which pictures of potted plants and drawn curtains were placed in the windows of abandoned buildings." The Bronx Tourism Council's slogan is "The Bronx is Up".^[11]

Geography

The Bronx is almost entirely situated on the North American mainland, but it also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound.⁶ The Hudson River separates the Bronx from New Jersey to its west, the Harlem River separates it from the island of Manhattan to the southwest, the East River separates it from Queens to the southeast, and Long Island Sound separates it from Nassau County to the east. Westchester County is directly north of the Bronx.

As a part of New York City, Bronx County contains no other political subdivisions. It is located at 40°42′15″N, 73°55′5″W (40.704234, -73.917927).¹ According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 148.7 km² (57.4 sq mi). 108.9 km² (42.0 sq mi) of it is land and 39.9 km² (15.4 sq mi) of it (26.82%) is water.

The Bronx is the only New York City borough with a freshwater river (the Bronx River) running through it. A smaller river, the Hutchinson River, passes through the northeast Bronx and empties into Eastchester Bay. The borough includes two of the largest parks in New York City, Pelham Bay Park and Van Cortlandt Park. Pelham Bay Park includes a large man-made public beach called Orchard Beach, created by Robert Moses. Woodlawn Cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries in New York City, is located near the border with Westchester County. It opened in 1863, at a time when the Bronx was still considered a rural area.

Neighborhoods

See also: List of Bronx neighborhoods

Famous Bronx neighborhoods include the South Bronx, "Little Italy" on Arthur Avenue in the Belmont section, Morris Park, and Riverdale.

West Bronx

Main article: West Bronx

The western parts of the Bronx are hilly and are dominated by a series of parallel ridges, running south to north. The West Bronx has older tenement buildings and apartments as well as mansions in Riverdale. It includes three of the Bronx's largest neighborhoods: Kingsbridge, University Heights, and Riverdale, as well as the large Van Cortlandt Park. The Grand Concourse, a wide boulevard runs through it, north to south. The West Bronx was the first area outside Manhattan that was annexed by the City of New York. This occurred in 1874, and today's West Bronx was then known as the "Annexed District."

East Bronx

East of the Bronx River, the borough is flatter, and includes four large low peninsulas or "necks" of low-lying land that jut into the waters of the East River and were once saltmarsh: Hunts Point, Clason's Point, Screvin's Neck and Throgs Neck. In the northeast corner of the Bronx, Rodman's Neck lies in Long Island Sound. Sections of the Northeast Bronx have small apartment buildings, small private homes and multi family homes. It also contains the giant high-rise apartment complex of Co-op City. Neighborhoods include: Eastchester, Edenwald, Baychester, Co-op City, Woodlawn, Wakefield, Pelham Parkway, Williamsbridge, and Norwood. Southeast Bronx consists of large apartment buildings, and complexes,as well as small private homes, and large upscale homes. Neighborhoods include, Pelham Gardens, Country Club, Soundview, Castle Hill, Throgs Neck, Parkchester, Van Nest, West Farms, Morris Park, Bronxdale, Westchester Square, Pelham Bay, City Island, Locust Point, and Silver Beach. It is the home of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Gardens.

City Island

Main article: City Island, Bronx

A small island located in Long Island Sound, known for its seafood restaurants, and water front private homes. City Island is home to many animals and birds not seen anywhere else in the Bronx. City Island is also home to many shops and stores similar to small New England cities along the coast. The neighborhoods of Co-op City are to its far west across the City Island Bridge, the Long island Sound is to its east. City Island Avenue is the island's major road and the BX 29 bus connects the area to the mainland.

South Bronx

Main article: South Bronx, New York

The area south of Fordham Road ,and west of the Bronx River is filled with high-density apartment buildings. The South Bronx is home to the downtown Bronx including the Bronx County Court House and Borough Hall (and many other civil court houses), as well as Yankee Stadium. The South Bronx was the birthplace of hip-hop. The Cross Bronx Expressway bisects it, east to west. It is home to what has been called the Hub: a Third Avenue shopping center. The South Bronx has old tenement buildings, large and small apartment buildings, as well as small private homes, multi-family homes and more than 50% of The Bronx's housing projects. Neighborhoods include, Mott Haven, Melrose, Morrisania, Hunts Point, Tremont, Highbridge, Concourse Village, and Grand Concourse. Basketball star Dolph Schayes and sociologist Barry Wellman grew up there.

Rikers Island

A small island in the East River that is home to the Rikers island jail facility. Operated by the New York City Department of Corrections, it is the largest jail facility in New York City. Although it is a part of Bronx County, the Island is only accessible by a bridge running from Queens to the island. Although most of the island is composed of jail facilities, the island is a neighborhood in its own right, with barbershops, supermarkets, and other shops. The island is served by Q101R bus.

Government

Main article: Government of New York City

Presidential election results

Year	GOP	Dems
2004	16.5% 56,701	82.8% 283,994
2000	11.8% 36,245	86.3% 265,801
1996	10.5% 30,435	85.8% 248,276
1992	20.7% 63,310	73.7% 225,038
1988	25.5% 76,043	73.2% 218,245
1984	32.8% 109,308	66.9% 223,112
1980	30.7% 86,843	64.0% 181,090
1976	28.7% 96,842	70.8% 238,786
1972	44.6% 196,756	55.2% 243,345
1968	32.0% 142,314	62.4% 277,385
1964	25.2% 135,780	74.7% 403,014
1960	31.8% 182,393	67.9% 389,818

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, the Bronx has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in the Bronx.

The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.^[12] Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. The Borough President of the Bronx is Adolfo Carrión Jr., elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.

The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Controversial political issues in the Bronx include environmental issues, the cost of housing, and annexation of parkland for New Yankee Stadium.

Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Robert T. Johnson, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of Bronx County since 1989. He is the first African-American District Attorney in New York State. The Bronx has 9 City Council members, the fourth largest number among the five boroughs. It also has 12 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents.

In the 2004 presidential election Democrat John Kerry received 82.8% of the vote in the Bronx and Republican George W. Bush received 16.5%.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of The Bronx

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1900			—
1910			114.9%
1920			69.8%
1930			72.8%
1940			10.2%
1950			4.1%
1960			-1.8%
1970			3.3%
1980			-20.6%
1990			3.0%
2000			10.7%

As of the census² of 2000, there were 1,332,650 people, 463,212 households, and 314,984 families residing in the borough. The population density was 12,242.2/km² (31,709.3/sq mi). There were 490,659 housing units at an average density of 4,507.4/km² (11,674.8/sq mi). The racial makeup of the borough was 35.64% Black or African American, 29.87% White, 0.85% Native American, 3.01% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 24.74% from other races, and 5.78% from two or more races. 48.38% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. (The 2005 U.S. census estimates that the percentage of Latinos has increased to a majority: 51.3%.) The Bronx has one of the highest percentages of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the U.S. with 24.0% and 10.0%, respectively. However, the Puerto Rican population has slowly been declining over the last few years as the Dominican population has increased.

West Africa is the most frequent region of origin for immigrants to the Bronx. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service data shows that in 1996, about two-thirds of those Ghanaians arriving in the United States, and nearly three-fourths of those naturalized, live in The Bronx. Many have clustered in Bronx communities, including Morris Heights, Highbridge, and Tremont.^[13]

Based on sample data from the 2000 census, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 47.29% of the population five and older speak only English at home. 43.67% speak Spanish at home, either exclusively or along with English. Other languages or groups of languages spoken at home by more than 0.25% of the population of the Bronx include Italian (1.36%), Albanian (1.07%), Kru, Ibo, or Yoruba (0.72%), French (0.54%).

The African American and Puerto Rican population have recently began to decline, with many of them relocating to cities elsewhere in New York State such as Rochester, Albany, and the southern United States. The Dominican population has increased significantly in the last five years, and by 2010 are expected to be doubled in population compared to 2000. The Jamaican population continues to increase with large amounts of immigration. The White population is seeing growth in some neighborhoods of the Bronx but also losses in others. Some neighborhoods, such as Kingsbridge Heights and Riverdale (both located in the Northwest and already White-Majority neighborhoods) are becoming homes to many ex-Manhattanites (mostly Whites) looking for cheaper rent. Albanians and Russians are some of the recently arrived European immigrants located mainly in the east Bronx. The size of southern Asian-origin ethnicities has grown, as many immigrants are from Bangladesh and other countries are moving to the Bronx.

There were 463,212 households out of which 38.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.4% were married couples living together, 30.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.0% were non-families. 27.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.37.

The age distribution of the population in the Bronx was as follows: 29.8% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.1% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 87.0 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $27,611, and the median income for a family was $30,682. Males had a median income of $31,178 versus $29,429 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $13,959. About 28.0% of families and 30.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.5% of those under age 18 and 21.3% of those age 65 or over.

Despite the stereotype that the Bronx (especially South Bronx) is a typical poor urban area of New York City, it is not true of the entire borough. The Bronx has much affordable housing (as compared to most of the rest of the New York metropolitan area, as well as upscale neighborhoods like Riverdale, City Island, Pelham Bay, Kingsbridge Heights, Woodlawn, and Country Club).

Shopping

The Bronx is home to several known shopping areas such as the vicinity of Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse, Bay plaza, The Hub, River/Kingsbridge Shopping center, Bruckner Blvd and many other streets especially those aligned underneath the Westchester Avenue, White Plains Road, Jerome Avenue, and Broadway elevated transit lines. The Bronx is home to trend setting, low-cost styles sometimes not found anywhere else in New York city.

Culture: from Poe to hip-hop

Author Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life (1846 to 1849) in the Bronx at Poe Cottage, now located at Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. A small wooden farmhouse built about 1812, the cottage once commanded unobstructed vistas over the rolling Bronx hills to the shores of Long Island.^[15]

In recent years, the Bronx has become an important center of African-American culture. Hip hop first emerged in the South Bronx in the early 1970s. The New York Times has identified 1520 Sedgwick Avenue "an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway and hard along the Major Deegan Expressway" as the starting point, where DJ Kool Herc presided over parties in the community room.^[16] Beginning with the advent of beat match DJing, in which Bronx DJs including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc extended the breaks of funk records, a major new musical genre emerged that sought to isolate the percussion breaks of hit funk, disco and soul songs. As hip hop's popularity grew, performers began speaking ("rapping") in sync with the beats, and became known as MCs or emcees. The Herculoids, made up of Herc, Coke La Rock, and Clark Kent, were the earliest to gain major fame. The Bronx is referred to in hip-hop slang as "The Boogie Down Bronx", or just "The Boogie Down". This was hip-hop pioneer KRS-One's inspiration for his thought provoking group BDP, or Boogie Down Productions, which included DJ Scott La Rock. Newer hip hop artists from the Bronx include Fat Joe, Big Pun (deceased), Terror Squad.

The Bronx is home to several Off-Off-Broadway theaters, many staging new works by immigrant playwrights from Latin America and Africa. The Pregones Theater, which produces Latin American work, opened a new 130-seat theater in 2005 on Walton Avenue in the South Bronx. Artists from elsewhere in New York City have begun to converge in the area, and housing prices have nearly quadrupled in the area since 2002.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts, founded in 1971, exhibits 20th century and contemporary art through its central museum space and  square feet ( m²) of galleries. Many of its exhibitions are on themes of special interest to the Bronx. Its permanent collection features more than 800 works of art, primarily by artists from Africa, Asia and Latin America, including paintings, photographs, prints, drawings, and mixed media. The museum was temporarily closed in 2006 while it underwent a major expansion designed by the architectural firm Arquitectonica.

Other major cultural sites in the Bronx include The New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo, and the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a national landmark overlooking the Harlem River and designed by the renowned architect Stanford White. Yankee Stadium is the home of the New York Yankees, and houses "Monument Park", a tribute to great Yankees of the past.

The Bronx in the movies

Originally, movies set in the Bronx portrayed densely-settled, working-class, urban culture. Paddy Chayefsky's Academy-award winning Marty is the epitome of this, with its tag line, "What are you doing, Marty? Nothing." This thematic line has continued to some extent as in the 1993 Robert De Niro/Chazz Palminteri film, A Bronx Tale and Spike Lee's 1999 movie Summer of Sam, centered in an Italian-American Bronx community. Other movies have used the term, "Bronx" for comic effect, such as the 1995 Jackie Chan film Rumble in the Bronx (Hong faan kui in Cantonese) -- which had nothing to do with the real Bronx, and "Bronx," the character on the Disney animated series Gargoyles.

However, starting in the 1970s, the Bronx often symbolized violence, decay, and urban ruin. In casual French "c'est le Bronx" stands for "what a mess". The wave of arson in the South Bronx in the 1960s and 1970s launched the phrase "the Bronx is burning": in 1974 it was the title of both a New York Times editorial and a BBC documentary film. However, the line entered the pop-consciousness with Game Two of the 1977 World Series, when a fire broke out near Yankee Stadium as the team was playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. As the fire was captured on live television, announcer Howard Cosell intoned, "There it is, ladies and gentlemen: The Bronx is burning". Historians of New York City frequently point to Cosell's remark as a sign of both the city and the borough's decline.^[17] A new feature-length documentary film by Edwin Pagan called "Bronx Burning" is in production^[18] in 2006, chronicling what led up to the arson-for-insurance fraud fires of the 1970s and the subsequent rebirth of the community.

These themes have been especially pervasive in representations of the Bronx in cinema. There are good depictions of Bronx gangs in the 1974 novel The Wanderers by Bronx native Richard Price and the 1979 movie of the same name. They are set in the heart of the Bronx, showing apartment life and the then-landmark Krums ice cream parlor. In the 1979 film The Warriors (film), the eponymous gang go to a meeting in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and have to fight their way back to Coney Island in Brooklyn. The 2005 video game adaptation features levels called Pelham, Tremont, and "Gunhill" (an apparent corruption of the name Gun Hill Road).

A somewhat ironic use of this theme is the title of The Bronx is Burning: an eight-part ESPN TV mini-series (2007) about the New York Yankees' drive to winning baseball's 1977 World Series championship. The TV series emphasizes the boisterous nature of the team, led by manager Billy Martin, catcher Thurman Munson and outfielder Reggie Jackson (however, a significant part of the mini-series also deals with the malaise of the Bronx and New York City in general during that time, such as the blackout, the financial problems, the arson issues, and the election of Ed Koch to mayor).

The 1981 film Fort Apache, The Bronx also portrayed the Bronx as gang- and crime-ridden. The film's title is from the nickname for the 41st Police Precinct in the South Bronx. This movie was condemned by community leaders for condoning police brutality, and for unflattering depiction of the borough; former Young Lords member and Puerto Rican activist Richie Perez formed a protest group, "The Committee Against Fort Apache". By contrast, Knights of the South Bronx, a true story of a teacher who worked with disadvantaged children, is also set in the Bronx.

The Bronx was the setting for the 1983 film Fuga dal Bronx, (also known as Bronx Warriors 2 and Escape 2000,) an Italian B-movie best known for its appearance on the television series Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The plot revolves around a sinister construction corporation's plans to depopulate, destroy and redevelop the Bronx, and a band of rebels who are out to expose the corporation's murderous ways and save their homes. The film is memorable for its almost incessant use of the phrase, "Leave the Bronx!"

Media

The Bronx has featured in much fiction. One rich tale is Avery Corman's The Old Neighborhood (1980) in which the upper-middle class white protagonist returns to his birth neighborhood (Fordham Road and Grand Concourse, and learns that even though the folks are poor Hispanic and African-American, they are good people. By contrast, Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) starts with an account of a similar upper-middle class white protagonist getting lost and off the Deegan Expressway in the South Bronx and having a vicious altercation with a local gang. A substantial piece of the last part of the book is set in the resulting riotous trial at the Bronx County Court House.

The Bronx has several local newspapers, including The Riverdale Press, Riverdale Review, The Bronx Times Reporter, Inner City Press and Co-Op City Times. Four non-profit news outlets, Norwood News, Mount Hope Monitor, Highbridge Horizon and The Hunts Point Express serve the borough's poorer communities. The editor and co-publisher of The Riverdale Press, Bernard Stein, won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for his editorials about Bronx and New York City issues in 1998. (Stein graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1959.)

The Bronx once had its own daily newspaper, The Bronx Home News, started January 20, 1907 and merged into the New York Post in 1948. It became a special section of the Post, sold only in the Bronx, and eventually disappeared from view.

One of New York City's major non-commercial radio broadcasters is WFUV, a 50,000 watt station broadcasting from Fordham University's Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. The radio station's antenna is atop Montefiore Medical Center, the borough's tallest building.

The City of New York has an official television station run by the NYC Media Group and broadcasting from Bronx Community College, and Cablevision operates News 12 The Bronx, both of which feature programming based in the Bronx. Co-op City was the first area in The Bronx to have its own cable provider outside of Manhattan. The local cable access station BRONXNET provides public affairs programming in addition to programming produced by Bronx residents. Its website showcases Bronx Music Vol.1; a CD featuring the old and new sounds and artists of The Bronx. [3]

The Bronx in poetry

In poetry, The Bronx has been immortalized by one of the world's shortest couplets:

The Bronx

No Thonx

Ogden Nash, The New Yorker, 1931

Nash later repented 33 years after his calumny, in 1964 he wrote the following prose poem in 1964 to the Dean of Bronx Community College:

I can't seem to escape

the sins of my smart-alec youth;

Here are my amends.

I wrote those line, "The Bronx?

No thonx";

I shudder to confess them.

Now I'm an older, wiser man

I cry, "The Bronx? God

bless them!"^[19]:

See also: Culture of New York City, Music of New York City, and List of people from The Bronx

Transportation

Roads

The Bronx street grid is irregular. Much of the west Bronx follows the Manhattan street grid, and some of the streets are numbered (the numbering comes from the Manhattan grid, but does not match it exactly). The west Bronx's hilly terrain, however, leaves a relatively free street grid that closely resembles that of extreme upper Manhattan, which has similar terrain. Because the street numbering carries over from upper Manhattan, the lowest numbered street in the Bronx is East 132nd Street. The east Bronx is considerably flatter, and the street layout tends to be more regular. However, only the Wakefield neighborhood picks up the street numbering.

Three major north-south thoroughfares run between Manhattan and the Bronx: Third Avenue, Park Avenue, and Broadway. Other major north-south roads include the Grand Concourse, Jerome Avenue , Webster Avenue , and White Plains Road. Major east-west streets include Gun Hill Road, Fordham Road, Pelham Parkway, Boston Road and Tremont Avenue. Many east-west streets are prefixed with either "East" or "West," to indicate on which side of Jerome Avenue they lie (continuing the similar system in Manhattan, which uses Fifth Avenue as the dividing line).

Several major expressways and highways traverse the Bronx. These include:

• the Bronx River Parkway
• the Bruckner Expressway (I-278/I-95)
• the Cross-Bronx Expressway (I-95/I-295)
• the New England Thruway (I-95)
• the Henry Hudson Parkway (NY-9A)
• the Hutchinson River Parkway
• the Major Deegan Expressway(New York Thruway) (I-87)

Bridges

Many bridges connect the Bronx to Manhattan and Queens. These include, from west to east:

To Manhattan: the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Broadway Bridge, the University Heights Bridge, the Washington Bridge, the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, the High Bridge, the Concourse Tunnel, the Macombs Dam Bridge, the 145th Street Bridge, the 149th Street Tunnel, the Madison Avenue Bridge, the Park Avenue Bridge, the Lexington Avenue Tunnel, the Third Avenue Bridge (southbound traffic only), and the Willis Avenue Bridge (northbound traffic only).

To Manhattan or Queens: the Triborough Bridge

To Queens: the Bronx Whitestone Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge

Mass transit

The Bronx is served by six lines of the New York City Subway:

• IND Concourse Line (B D)
• IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line (1)
• IRT Dyre Avenue Line (5)
• IRT Jerome Avenue Line (4)
• IRT Pelham Line (6 <6>)
• IRT White Plains Road Line (2 5)

Two Metro-North Railroad commuter rail lines (the Harlem Line and the Hudson Line) serve 12 stations in the Bronx. In addition, trains serving the New Haven Line stop at Fordham Road.

See also: Transportation in New York City

Education

Education in the Bronx is provided by a large number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education. Private schools range from elite independent schools to parochial schools run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and Jewish organizations.

Many high schools are located in the borough including the Bronx High School of Science, American Studies, Clinton, and the Grace H. Dodge Vocational & Technical H.S.. Parochial (Catholic-linked) high schools include St. Raymond High School for Boys, All Hallows High School, Cardinal Hayes, Cardinal Spellman High School, Fordham Preparatory School, Academy of Mount Saint Ursula, Aquinas High School, Preston, St. Catharines Academy, and Mount Saint Michael Academy. The Bronx is home to three of New York City's most elite private schools: Fieldston, Horace Mann, and Riverdale Country School.

Starting in the 1990s New York City began closing large, public high schools in The Bronx and replacing them with small high schools. Cited reasons for the changes include poor graduation rates and concerns about safety. Schools that have been closed or reduced in size include James Monroe, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Evander Childs, Christopher Columbus, Morris,