TheSouth Bronx is an area of theNew York City borough ofthe Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such asConcourse,Mott Haven,Melrose, andPort Morris.
In the early 1900s, the South Bronx was originally known as the Manor ofMorrisania, as it was the manor ofLewis Morris. As the Morris family continued to expand on the land, an influx of German and Irish immigrants started to populate the area. By the 1930s, the Bronx was considered the "Jewish Borough", as nearly half the population was Jewish. This soon changed as World War II caused rent to increase in many apartments, pushing people out. By the end of the 1950s, the South Bronx was two-thirdsAfrican American orHispanic (of any race).
The South Bronx is known for itship-hop culture andgraffiti. Graffiti became popular in the Bronx in the early 1970s, spreading through theNew York City Subway system. The South Bronx also became notable as the 1973 birthplace ofhip-hop music and culture.[1]
As of the 2010American Community Survey, the South Bronx had the poorestcongressional district in the United States.[2][3] This statement was reiterated in the media in 2024 and 2025.[4][5]
The geographic definitions of the South Bronx have evolved and are disputed, but certainly include the neighborhoods ofMott Haven,Melrose, andPort Morris. Originally referring to the industrial area below East 138th Street, the name "South Bronx" symbolically has had its northern boundary shift northward to East 149th Street,East 161st Street, theCross Bronx Expressway, andFordham Road over the years. The neighborhoods ofCrotona Park East,Highbridge,Hunts Point,Longwood,Concourse, andMorrisania are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx. Generally, most consider any neighborhood west of the Bronx River and south of the Cross Bronx Expressway the South Bronx. The Cross Bronx Expressway is usually considered the dividing border between North and South Bronx. There has been debate that Fordham Road is the northern border of the South Bronx.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
The South Bronx is part of New York's14th and15th Congressional districts. The South Bronx is served by theNYPD's 40th,[13] 41st,[14] 42nd,[15] 44th,[16] and 48th[17] precincts.
The South Bronx was originally called the Manor of Morrisania, and laterMorrisania. It was the private domain of the powerful and aristocratic Morris family, which includesLewis Morris, signer of theDeclaration of Independence, andGouverneur Morris, the penman of theUnited States Constitution. The Morris memorial is atSt. Ann's Church of Morrisania. Morris' descendants own land in the South Bronx to this day.[citation needed]
As the Morrises developed their landholdings, an influx of German and Irish immigrants populated the area. Later, the Bronx was considered the "Jewish Borough," and at its peak in 1930 was 49% Jewish.[18] Jews in the South Bronx numbered 364,000 or 57.1% of the total population in the area.[19] The term was first coined in the 1940s by a group ofsocial workers who identified the Bronx's first pocket ofpoverty, in thePort Morris section, the southernmost section of the Bronx.
AfterWorld War II, asWhite flight accelerated and migration of ethnic and racial minorities continued, the South Bronx went from being two-thirds non-Hispanic white in 1950 to being two-thirds black or Puerto Rican in 1960.[20] Originally denoting onlyMott Haven andMelrose, the South Bronx extended up to the Cross Bronx Expressway by the 1960s, encompassingHunts Point,Morrisania, andHighbridge.
The South Bronx was populated largely by working-class families. Its image as a poverty-ridden area developed in the latter part of the 20th century. There were several factors contributing to the decay of the South Bronx:White flight creating empty buildings,landlord abandonment creating unsafe buildings, economic changes leading to a lack of tax dollars,arson, demographic shifts, and the reallocation of tax dollars from theSouth Bronx Fire Department to other places and the construction of theCross Bronx Expressway[21] are common reasons given.
The already poor and working-class neighborhoods were further disadvantaged by the decreasing property value, in combination with increasing vacancy rates. While some areas of the South Bronx were racially integrated as early as the 1930s, later larger scale influxes of African Americans immigrants from the American South, combined with the racially charged tension of the Civil Rights Movement, the rage following the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the dramatic rise in crime rates, further contributed to white middle-class flight and the decline of many South Bronx neighborhoods. Following the implementation of desegregation busing policies, white parents who worried about their children attending the racially integrated schools began to relocate to the suburbs, which remained predominately white due to cost as well as legal barriers created by restrictive housing covenants, and selective lending. In turn, areas of the Bronx that became predominately African American or Hispanic were considered bad risks by lenders ("redlining"), contributing to the decline in real estate values and lack of investment in the existing housing stock.
As early as the late 1960s, some neighborhoods were considered undesirable by homeowners, precipitating a population decline. Postwarrent control policies which were ostensibly to keep apartments cheap have also been proposed as a contributing factor, for the laws forced landlords to price the apartments so cheaply the landlords were unable to generate a profit and therefore there was no incentive for them to mend and repair their buildings, leading to the decay of the apartments of the South Bronx.[22]
New York City MayorJohn Lindsay (who served from 1966 to 1973) suggested that socioeconomic factors (including low educational attainment and high unemployment) limited housing options for the remaining low-income tenants, prompting the reduced upkeep by landlords.[23] In either case, while desirable housing options were scarce, vacancies further increased. In the late 1960s, by the time the city decided to consolidate welfare households in the South Bronx, its vacancy rate was already the highest of any place in the city.[24]
By the 1970s, significant poverty reached as far north asFordham Road. Around this time, the Bronx experienced some of its worst instances ofurban decay, with the loss of 300,000 residents and the destruction of entire city blocks' worth of buildings. The media attention brought the South Bronx into common parlance nationwide.[25]
The early 1970s saw South Bronx property values continue to plummet to record lows. A progressivelyvicious cycle began where large numbers of tenements and multi-story, multi-family apartment buildings, left vacant by White flight, sat abandoned and unsaleable for long periods of time, which, coupled with a stagnant economy and an extremely high unemployment rate madestreet gangs attractive to many, which were exploding in number and beginning to support themselves with large-scaledrug dealing in the area. The abandoned property also attracted large numbers ofsquatters, who further lowered the borough's quality of living.[25][26] The massive citywide spending cuts also left the few remaining building inspectors and fire marshals unable to enforce living standards or punish code violations. This encouraged slumlords and absentee landlords to neglect and ignore their property and allowed for gangs to set up protected enclaves and lay claim to entire buildings. This then spread crime and fear of crime to nearby unaffected apartments in adomino effect.[27]
As the crisis deepened, the nearly bankrupt city government ofAbraham Beame placed most of the blame on unreasonably high rents levied by landlords. Beame began demanding that they convert their rapidly emptying buildings intoSection 8 housing. Section 8 paid a per capita stipend for low-income orindigent tenants from FederalHUD funds rather than from the cash-strapped city bank. However, the HUD rate was not based on the property's actual value and was set so low by the city that it left little opportunity or incentive for landlords to maintain or improve their buildings while still making a profit.[25] The result was a disastrous acceleration of both the speed and northward spread of the cycle of decay in the South Bronx as formerly desirable and well-maintained middle-to-upper class apartments in midtown, most notably along theGrand Concourse, were progressively vacated and either abandoned altogether or converted into federally fundedsingle room occupancy "welfare hotels" run by absenteeslumlords.
Police statistics show that as the crime wave moved north across the Bronx, the remaining White tenants in the South Bronx (mostly elderly Jews) were preferentially targeted for violent crime by the influx of young, minority criminals because they were seen as easy prey. This became so common that the street slang terms "crib job" (meaning how elderly residents were as helpless as infants) and "push in" (meaning what would now be called ahome invasion robbery) were coined specifically in reference to them.[27]
At this time, landlords began to burn their buildings for their insurance value, relying on "fixers" (people who specializing in a form ofinsurance fraud) to buy property below cost, then selling and reselling, artificially driving up the value incrementally each time.[28] Fraudulent "no questions asked" fire insurance policies would then be taken out on the overvalued buildings and the property stripped and burned for the payoff. Flawed HUD and city policies encouraged local South Bronx residents to burn down their own buildings. Under the regulations, Section 8 tenants who were burned out of their current housing were granted immediate priority status for another apartment, potentially in a better part of the city. After the establishment of the (then) state-of-the-artCo-op City, there was a spike in fires as tenants began burning down their Section 8 housing in an attempt to jump to the front of the 2–3 year long waiting list for the new units.[29]Often, the properties were still occupied by subsidized tenants or squatters at the time, who were given short or no warning before the building was burned down, and were forced to move to another slum building, where the process would usually repeat itself.[28] HUD regulations also authorized lump-sum aid payments of up to $1000 to those who could prove they had lost property due to a fire in their Section 8 housing; although these payments were supposed to be investigated for fraud by a HUD employee before being signed off on, very little investigation was done and some HUD employees and social services workers were accused of turning a blind eye to suspicious fires or even advising tenants on the best way to take advantage of the HUD policies. On multiple occasions, firefighters were reported to have shown up to tenement fires only to find all the residents at an address waiting calmly with their possessions already on the curb.[25]
Firefighters in the South Bronx were also extremely strapped for resources, facing budget cuts galore amid the city's fiscal crisis, and struggled to maintain adequate staffing, equipment, and response times. Fire companies in the South Bronx, such as Engine 82 and Ladder 31, became legendary for their relentless service, often responding to dozens of alarms per day in neighborhoods plagued by poverty, unemployment, and crime.
During this period, the NYPD's 41st Precinct station house at 1086 Simpson Street became famously known as "Fort Apache, The Bronx" as it struggled to deal with the overwhelming surge of violent crime, which for the entirety of the 1970s and 1980s made South Bronx the murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and arson capital of America. By 1980, the 41st Precinct was renamed the "Little House on the Prairie",[25] as fully2⁄3 of the 94,000 residents originally served by the precinct had fled, leaving the fortified building as one of the few structures in the neighborhood (and the sole building on Simpson Street) that had not been abandoned or burnt out.[30]
By the time ofCosell's 1977 commentary, dozens of buildings were being burned in the South Bronx every day, sometimes whole blocks at a time and usually far more than the fire department could keep up with, leaving the area perpetually blanketed in a pall of smoke. Firefighters from the period reported responding to as many as 7 fully involved structure fires in a single shift, too many to even bother returning to the station house between calls (Report from Engine Company 82). The local police precincts—already struggling and failing to contain the massive wave of drug and gang crime invading the Bronx—had long since stopped bothering to investigate the fires, as there were simply too many to track.[25]
In total, over 80% of the South Bronx was burned or abandoned between 1970 and 1980, with 44 census tracts losing more than 50% and seven more than 97% of their buildings to arson, abandonment, or both. The appearance was frequently compared to that of a bombed-out and evacuated European city followingWorld War II.[24]
On October 5, 1977, U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter paid an unscheduled visit to Charlotte Street while in New York City for a conference at theheadquarters of the United Nations. Charlotte Street at the time was a three-block devastated area of vacant lots and burned-out and abandoned buildings. The street had been so ravaged that part of it had been taken off official city maps in 1974. Carter instructedPatricia Roberts Harris, head of theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to take steps to salvage the area.[31]
Progress did not come quickly. Three years later, in 1980, presidential candidateRonald Reagan paid a visit to Charlotte Street, declaring that he had not "seen anything that looked like this sinceLondon afterthe Blitz".[25] The 1987 novelThe Bonfire of the Vanities, by the American writerTom Wolfe, presented the South Bronx as a nightmare world, not to be entered by middle or upper-class whites.
The PBS documentary show Independent Lens released an episode titled "Decade of Fire" on May 3, 2019. The episode was previewed at the Full Frame Film Festival the previous month.[32]
Primarily beginning in the 1980s, parts of the South Bronx started to experienceurban renewal with rehabilitated and new residential structures, including subsidized multifamily townhomes and apartment buildings.[33] Between 1986 and 1994, over $1 billion were spent on rebuilding the area, with 19,000 apartments refurbished and more than 4,500 new houses built for the working class. More than fifty abandoned apartment buildings on theMajor Deegan Expressway and theCross Bronx Expressway were renovated for residential use. Over 26,500 people moved into the area.[25] On Charlotte Street, prefabricated ranch-style houses were built in the area in 1985,[34] and the area changed so significantly that a Bronx borough historian (Lloyd Ultan) could not locate where Carter had stopped to survey the scene. As of 2004, houses on the street were worth up to a million dollars.[31]
TheBronx County Courthouse has secured landmark status, and efforts are underway to do the same for much of theGrand Concourse, in recognition of the area'sArt Deco architecture. In June 2010, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission gave consideration to the establishment of a historic district on the Grand Concourse from 153rd to 167th Street. A final decision was expected in the coming months.[35]
Construction of the newYankee Stadium has stirred controversy over plans which, along with the new billion-dollar field, include new athletic fields, tennis courts, bicycle and walking paths, stores, restaurants, and a newMetro-North Railroad station atEast 153rd Street. During baseball season, the station helps ease overcrowding on the subway.[36]
There is hope that these developments also will help to generate residential construction. However, the new park came at a price: a total of 22 acres (89,000 m2) in Macombs Dam and John Mullaly Parks were used to build it. In April 2012, Heritage Field, a $50.8 million ballpark, was built atop the grounds of the original Yankee Stadium.[37][38][39] The population of the South Bronx is currently increasing.[40][41]
Despite significant investment compared to the post war period, many exacerbated social problems remain, including high rates of violent crime, substance abuse, and overcrowded and substandard housing conditions.[42][43][44][45] Its precincts have recorded high violent crime rates and are all considered to beNew York City Police Department "impact zones."[46] The Bronx contains the highest rate of poverty in New York City, and the greater South Bronx is the poorestCongressional district in the United States.[3] Poverty in the public housing infrastructure has partially been caused by disinvestment by the city and state because, since the 1990s, a lack of state-funded operating subsidies to NYCHA created a $720 million shortfall by 2010 and, post 9/11, the city halted subsidies as well.[47] The poorly maintained, substandard housing has caused disproportionately high asthma rates among children in the South Bronx, where residents are predominately minorities—mainlyBlack andHispanic.[48]
Since the late 1970s, the South Bronx has been home to a renewed grassroots art scene. The arts scene that sprouted at theFashion Moda Gallery, founded by aViennese artist, Stefan Eins, helped ignite the careers of artists likeKeith Haring andJenny Holzer, and 1980s break dancers like theRock Steady Crew. It generated enough enthusiasm in the mainstream media for a short while to draw the art world's attention.[51] TheBronx Academy of Arts and Dance was located in theAmerican Bank Note Company Building in the South Bronx neighborhood ofHunts Point before relocating to St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Westchester Square.[52]
Moderngraffiti is prominent in the South Bronx, and is home to many of the fathers of graffiti art such asTats Cru. The Bronx has a very strong graffiti scene despite the city's crackdown on illegal graffiti. However, graffiti in the Bronx began to occur in the early 1970s and managed to travel to different boroughs via theNew York City Subway system. The rise ofhip-hop music,rap,breakdancing, anddisc jockeying helped put the South Bronx on the musical map in the late 1970s. The South Bronx is also known worldwide as the birthplace ofhip-hop culture.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] In addition, theBronx Museum of the Arts is located on the Grand Concourse.
Hip hop is a broad conglomerate ofartistic forms that originated as a specific streetsubculture within South Bronx communities during the 1970s inNew York City.[55][56][57][58][59][61] Hip hop as music and culture formed during the 1970s whenblock parties became increasingly popular in New York City, particularly amongAfrican American andLatin Americans residing inthe Bronx.[62] Block parties incorporatedDJs who played populargenres of music, especiallyfunk andsoul music. For example, many DJs played music by the artistJames Brown. Some songs played at these South Bronx house parties included "Give it Up or Turn it Loose" by James Brown and "Get Ready" by Rare Earth.[54]
Due to the positive reception, DJs began isolating thepercussive breaks, or small portions of a song, often without vocals, which were easy to dance to, of popular songs.DJ Kool Herc is known for generating the technique to produce these percussive breaks, which is known as merry-go-rounding. Merry-go-rounding when DJs would "use the two turntables in a typical DJ setup not as a way to make a smooth transition between two records, but as a way to switch back and forth repeatedly between two copies of the same record."[63]
The technique of percussive breaks was then common in Jamaicandub music,[64] and was largely introduced into New York by immigrants from Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, includingDJ Kool Herc, who is generally considered the father of hip-hop. Upon this, a technique known asJamaican toasting, or the act of speaking over a beat which later became rapping, was introduced by DJ Kool Herc in the South Bronx at this point of time as well.[65]
1520 Sedgwick Avenue, anapartment building inMorris Heights,[66] is a long-time "haven for working-class families"; in 2010,The New York Times reported that it is the "accepted birthplace ofhip hop."[60] As hip-hop grew from throughout the Bronx, 1520 was a starting point where Clive Campbell, later known asDJ Kool Herc, presided over parties in the community room at a pivotal point in the genre's history.[67][68] DJ Kool Herc is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at ahouse concert at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 11, 1973.[69] At the concert he wasDJing andemceeing in therecreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.[70] Sources have noted that while 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was not the actual birthplace of hip-hop—the genre developed slowly in several places in the 1970s—it was verified to be the place whereone of the pivotal and formative events occurred that spurred hip hop culture forward.[71] During a rally to save the building, DJ Kool Herc said, "1520 Sedgwick is theBethlehem of Hip-Hop culture."[72]
Many residents of the South Bronx during the early 1970s lived in poverty or were part of gangs.Afrika Bambaataa, who has been described as the godfather of hip-hop, was a member of the street gang theBlack Spades.[73] As an effort to end the street violence within the South Bronx, Bambaataa created theZulu Nation, which is a group founded on the concepts of "Peace, Love, Unity, Having Fun" instead of partaking in gang violence and unlawful activity. InJeff Chang's bookCan't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Bambaataa explained that the Zulu Nation formed because "we had to come up with something to get the order back."[54] As seen within the filmThe Hip Hop Years: Part 1, hip-hop aided in keeping violence from forming on the streets of the South Bronx and eased tensions with the police within the area. People were creating art such as hip-hop music and dances at the block parties within the South Bronx, so the police did not have issues with it.[73]
Not only was music a major component of hip-hop culture being formulated within the South Bronx during the 1970s, a break dancing orB-boying movement was being generated as well. After DJ Kool Herc and other DJs kept utilizing the break beat within their music, an abundance of people who were dancing normally, eventually hit the floor and began what is known as breakdancing. According to the documentary,The Freshest Kids: The History of the B-Boy, break dancing occurred "spontaneously" and consisted of more "sporadic" dance moves.[74] Additionally, a Zulu king and hip-hop historian stated that the dance consisted of "bouncing around, pivoting, turning, twists frontsweeps...".[54] Many who participated in this form of dance were members ofcrews, such as theRock Steady Crew, theNew York City Breakers and the Magnificent Force.
On July 5, 2007, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was recognized by theNew York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as the "Birthplace of Hip-Hop."[75][76]
TheNew York City Department of Education operates district public schools. Community School Districts 7, 8, 9, and 12 are located in the South Bronx.[77] Among the public schools are charter schools. Success Academies Bronx 1, 2, and 3 are part ofSuccess Academy Charter Schools. An elementary charter school, Academic Leadership Charter School, opened on 141st Street and Cypress Avenue. Area private schools includeCardinal Hayes High School, located at 650 Grand Concourse andAll Hallows High School, located at 111 East 164th Street.[78] Among the institutions of higher education,Hostos Community College of theCity University of New York is located in Grand Concourse and 149th Street, ten blocks from Yankee Stadium.
The South Bronx is also home to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations that offer a range of professional training and other educational programs.East Side House Settlement has been in theMott Haven neighborhood since 1963, serving families and children. Their mission is to use education as a means of economic empowerment.Per Scholas, for example, is a nonprofit organization that offers free professional certification training directed towards successfully passingCompTIA A+ and Network+ certification exams as a route to securing jobs and building careers. Per Scholas also works with a growing number ofTitle One South Bronxmiddle schools, their students, and their families to provide computer training and access.
Major highways include theMajor Deegan Expressway (I-87);Cross Bronx Expressway (I-95);Bruckner Expressway (I-278);Triborough Bridge;Grand Concourse. A variety ofNew York City Subway services run through the South Bronx. This includes the6 and <6> trains on theIRT Pelham Line,2 and 5 trains on theIRT White Plains Road Line,4 train on theIRT Jerome Avenue Line, andB and D trains on theIND Concourse Line.
ASouth Bronx Greenway[79] currently connects the South Bronx over the Bronx Kill toRandalls Island on a bike and pedestrian pathway known as the Bronx Connector.
In 2000, 77.3% of all households inNew York's 15th congressional district, covering the South Bronx, did not own automobiles. Citywide, the percentage is only 55%.[80]
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40°48′58″N73°55′02″W / 40.81621°N 73.91735°W /40.81621; -73.91735
