Parkour, Pop-Up Shops And Perserverance

Here’s are a few of the stories on the Bronx radar map that we thought would interest you.

First on our morning travels we stumbled upon an interesting piece on a young Bronxite in Hunts Point who has caught the eyes of a photographer and journalist as he “parkours” throughout the neighborhood with his buddies. Parkour is best described as running combined with acrobatics with a twist of ballet as you leap, somersault or bounce your way through obstacles. The non-competitive sport has its roots in 1920s France and Jose The Amazing is a natural at it.

Next on our travels we came across another piece in the Huffington Post on the Bronx, this time on No Longer Empty: This Side of Paradise at the Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse. The exhibition is still very well alive in the media since its opening night almost 2 months ago. The writer seeks to examine the unlikely connection between pop-up exhibition-making and community building.

Finally we end today’s journey with Crain’s New York report on the Crotona Park East community’s resurgence from its darkest days – a neighborhood once called by president Jimmy Carter as the “worst” neighborhood in the country. In the past 4 years, commercial vacancy rates have dropped a whopping 8% from 24% in 2008 to a current rate of 16%. This is what community building and perseverance looks like.

Until we meet again, my fellow Bronxites!