The Bronx created it, the world adopted it, and now it’s heading to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
A break dancer in 2014 at Port Morris street festival
Breakdancing, born in the streets of the South Bronx almost 50 years ago, has been formally approved by the International Olympic Committee as an official Olympic sport.
These intrepid kids and young adults in the 1970s Bronx that birthed the global phenomenon that is hip hop could never have imagined that what they were doing not only would be copied and emulated by millions across the face of the planet but would continue in popularity for almost half a century.
And to see it reach the Olympics where the world unites in competition and knowing that this now recognized sport originated right here in our borough is a wonderful thing.
Not Manhattan, nor Brooklyn, or Queens and let alone Staten Island but the BOOGIE DOWN Bronx.
Breaking on the streets of Port Morris in the South Bronx back in 2014
2021 is a one of the most important election cycles in recent New York City history as we head to the polls in November to vote for a new mayor as well as replacements for two-thirds of the New York City council due to term limits.
THE CITY has asked us to partner with them to learn what matters most to you, the voter, and with voter turnout being the lowest in The Bronx of all of the NYC boroughs, it’s important for us to hear from you.
What do you want to know about the upcoming local NYC elections? Let’s talk about it!
Join THE CITY and Welcome2TheBronx for the Civic Newsroom, a wide-ranging effort to better understand what New Yorkers need and want to know as we enter a crucial local election season.
Voting signs at a polling site in the South Bronx
These elections will shape the future of our city and our neighborhoods, and we want to make sure more voters have the info they need to hit the polls to make the city work better for all of us.
To kick off this project, we’re holding a series of virtual meetings, including a virtual meeting in Mott Haven on March 6 at 2 p.m. We’d love for you to join us!
We’ll also have neighborhood-specific virtual meetings in Brownsville (Brooklyn) and Flushing (Queens), and a city-wide meeting.
Sign up here for the Mott Haven meeting on March 6 at 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
We’ll talk about who has power in our neighborhoods, why voting matters and why it’s sometimes hard to cast your vote. We’ll have more meetings leading up to the elections in June, too.
These meetings are discussion-based — we want to hear from you about your experiences with local elections, why you’re drawn to vote and why you’re maybe not.
You know your neighborhood best, and we want to know what questions you have about city government so we can shape the news we share about the election around what you want to know.
Once you sign up, we’ll send you the Zoom link to the Civic Newsroom the day of the event. If you have any questions, you can email us at civicnewsroom@thecity.nyc.
The Civic Newsroom is a project from THE CITY, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to hard hitting reporting that serves New Yorkers. Our goal is to better understand what information voters need ahead of the upcoming local elections. In addition to a series of virtual meetings, the Civic Newsroom will use stories, newsletters and explainers to encourage and inform more New Yorkers to participate in the electoral process.
Beginning tonight at 8PM Yankee Stadium will begin vaccinations 24 hours a day with the Johnson and Johnson 1-shot vaccine which was just approved for emergency use by the FDA over the weekend.
Bronx residents meeting the current eligibility requirements for the vaccine can make an appointment from 8PM to 7AM daily during which times the J&J vaccine will be administered.
This will increase vaccination capacity at the site which already was vaccinating over 2,000 people a day with the Pfizer 2-shot COVID-19 vaccine.
As with the initial program at the stadium, this is only open to Bronx residents.
If you’d like to make an appointment or help someone make their appointment, please go to the SOMOS website here or you can call 1-833-SOMOSNY.
MOTT HAVEN—Applications are now being accepted for brand new affordable apartments in Mott Haven via New York City’s housing lottery.
Located at 345 St Ann’s Avenue at E 142nd Street, Park Haven is a 10 story 178 unit brand new construction development for extremely low and low income residents with deep affordability for qualifying households making 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
Park Haven
In a rapidly gentrifying Mott Haven, this translates into rents that are not only truly affordable but rents that are well below the area median which are rare to find.
Beginning at the 30% AMI, this translates to residents making $14,915 to $23,880 a year can qualify for a studio renting for only $362 a month.
Monthly rents begin at $465 for a 1 bedroom, $569 for a 2 bedroom, and $650 for a 3 bedroom for those making 30% of the AMI which ranges from $18,789 to $42,300 depending on household size with rents increasing for those making 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80% of the AMI.
5% of units are set aside for applicants with mobility issues and 2% for those with visual or hearing impairments.
50% of units are set aside for applicants who live within Bronx Community Board 1 (you can enter your address here to see which community board you live in) and 5% of units are set aside for New York City employees.
Amenities include Laundry Room, Fitness Center, Community Room, Landscaped Terrace, LVT Floors, Security Cameras, Electric appliances, and Granite countertops with backsplash.
Typical 3 bedroom layout
For outdoor space, besides the private exterior areas at Park Haven, you have St Mary’s Park just up the block which is currently undergoing a $30+ million renovation.
Interested applicants should apply online here or you can request an application by mail by sending a self-addressed envelope to:
PARK HAVEN, P.O. BOX 316 BRONX, NY 10470
Just a reminder that you should ONLY apply once either by mail OR online and NOT both. Applying more than once per lottery may disqualify you.
Application deadline is April 26, 2021.
Also please note, DO NOT CONTACT WELCOME2THEBRONX REGARDING THIS OR ANY OTHER REAL ESTATE LISTING AS WE ARE NOT A REAL ESTATE COMPANY. WE’RE SIMPLY REPORTING THE NEWS.
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here: ckbe.at/newsletters
Meisha Ross Porter, who rose through the education department’s ranks as a teacher, principal, and executive superintendent, will become the first Black woman to lead the nation’s largest school system.
Her appointment comes after the surprise resignation of Chancellor Richard Carranza Friday morning and just 10 months before Mayor Bill de Blasio will leave office.
But even if Porter’s tenure may be brief, as a new mayor is likely to pick a new chancellor, she will not simply be turning out the lights on the remaining months of the mayor’s term.
Meisha Ross Porter, a veteran education department official, will be the first Black woman to lead New York City schools.; | Courtesy of the New York City Department of Education
She is inheriting a system that has been rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, and she will immediately face enormous responsibilities: determining how much in-person instruction schools can offer in the coming months, developing a plan to catch up students whose education has been derailed by the pandemic, and gaining buy-in from bitterly fractured communities of families and educators.
“I promise we’ll do everything to reopen schools, starting with high schools, we’re ready to go,” Porter said at a news conference, hinting that she may jumpstart reopening high school campuses, which have been shut down since November, even as elementary and middle schools have reopened.
“We’ll expand the learning opportunities and do more to address trauma and academic needs, because we know that that is very real.”
New York City Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza speaks at City Hall about the importance of mayoral control of the schools, March 7, 2019.
Porter is well respected among many of the city’s education leaders and known for building trust with parent leaders and principals, according to people who have worked with her. She also brings a deep understanding of the school system, a labyrinthine bureaucracy with roughly 150,000 employees and a $34 billion annual budget.
‘Someone Who Understands’
“For the first time in a number of chancellors, principals and superintendents are gonna feel like they have a friend, someone to talk to and someone who understands them,” said Richard Kahan, founder of Urban Assembly, a nonprofit that has created 23 public schools, and hired Porter for her first teaching job. “It hasn’t been that happy a place for principals for a long time.”
Raised in South Jamaica, Queens, Porter graduated from Queens Vocational and Technical High School, where she majored in plumbing.
Porter was about 17 and leading an anti-drug organization for teenagers when Kahan, then overseeing an urban planning effort for the Bronx, approached her to help his team craft policy ideas, he said.
Shortly after, Kahan tasked Porter with helping to plan Urban Assembly’s first school, Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice. When the school was established, Kahan hired Porter to oversee its outside partnerships, unaware that she was studying to teach. Porter was later brought in to teach at the school, rising several years later to principal.
She was able to build relationships with students quickly and often saw opportunities to connect their learning to real-world issues, according to David Banks, the school’s founding principal.
‘The kids adored her and they saw her as one of them.’
After a student commented on a cigarette advertisement that faced the school building, Porter pushed to incorporate lessons about the effects of smoking. She also encouraged a letter-writing campaign pressuring then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to sign a bill that would ban advertisements for tobacco near school grounds, Banks said. Giuliani signed it into law, though it hit legal roadblocks.
“Those kids felt like they had something to do with it,” said Banks, who is now president of the Eagle Academy Foundation. “She’s not that traditional stuffy school leader. The kids adored her and they saw her as one of them.”
During a visit to the school when Porter was principal, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. recalled feeling struck by how she had students settle escalating disputes: They held a trial with student attorneys, a jury, and a judge.
Promotion Party Drew Fire
After 18 years at the school, she left her post as principal to become a regional superintendent for Bronx District 11. Three years later, in 2018, Carranza tapped her as one of his newly created executive superintendents, overseeing all Bronx schools.
Porter drew some criticism in 2019, when the schools watchdog received a complaint that she had enlisted subordinates to fundraise and organize a party to celebrate her promotion. The office later dropped its investigation.
Porter’s sense of what to prioritize when the pandemic hit exemplified her leadership style, according to principals and nonprofit leaders.
Luis Torres, principal of P.S. 55, said Porter helped bring to life his idea to create educational programming for children on public access television station BronxNet by rallying support among schools in the borough, so that teachers and administrators could create pre-recorded lessons for the program.
And when some students across the Bronx were still deviceless in January, Porter pushed elected leaders for help, said Torres, who said he has known and worked with Porter for 15 years. Torres said it helped fill the gap at his own school.
Meisha Ross Porter, left, helps distribute donated devices for remote learning this past January with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., center.
“Whatever it takes to get things done, this is what Meisha will do and I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Torres said. “That’s why people appreciate her, because even though she was the executive superintendent, she gets her hands dirty, and she’s never forgotten where she came from.”
In another instance, Porter tapped New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit group that manages a network of district and charter schools, to help build out its data tools so that principals could better track whether students were failing to submit assignments in Google Classrooms or even whether they lacked devices for remote learning.
“She requested that we provide support and worked with us to make sure those supports complemented the greater work she was trying to do,” said Mark Dunetz, the president of New Visions. “She is somebody who is just very clear and effective.”
Lauded by Parents
Bronx parents have praised Porter as an ally. The New Settlement Parent Action Committee, or PAC, an advocacy group based in the South Bronx, got word in 2018 that the education department was setting up new teams to focus on equity issues in District 9.
The team’s goals targeted many of the same issues the committee had been focusing on for years: pushing for culturally relevant curriculum that reflects the borough’s diversity, discipline reform, and more.
PAC wanted to join the equity teams, to bring the perspectives and support of parents to the mix. But they ran into roadblocks and excuses about why they couldn’t. Until they reached out to Porter, who had recently been appointed executive superintendent.
“Meisha Ross Porter went to bat for us. She told the equity team we must be at the table — that there’s no equity team without us,” said Ronnette Summers, a parent advocate in District 9 for more than two decades.“She was just really, really receptive. Surprisingly receptive.”
Throughout the pandemic, parents and school officials on the equity teams have worked together to make sure students have internet connections and devices, with parents passing along the names and contact information of hard-to-reach families whenever officials ran into dead ends or struggled to learn the extent of the need.
‘She understands the needs of families in the city.’
Porter is a fixture at meetings and other events like town halls — a constant presence that Summers called “unheard of” in all her tenure as a parent advocate.
Aide Zainos, another member of PAC, said she is particularly appreciative of Porter’s help ensuring parents have school materials and meetings translated in their native language, whether that’s Spanish or African dialects.
“She understands the needs of families in the city,” Zainos said in Spanish, adding that the equity teams have included “all cultures and languages.”
De Blasio Looms Large
But Porter may not have a lot of runway to execute her own vision, especially as de Blasio’s propensity to micromanage his agency chiefs is well known. One factor in Carranza’s resignation, according to The New York Times, was growing tensions with the mayor about how to handle admissions to the city’s Gifted & Talented program.
At a press conference on Friday morning, Carranza left her with one piece of parting advice: “Do you, be you, lead with the heart that you’ve led in every one of the assignments that you’ve had in New York City.”
Summers credited the outgoing chancellor with helping Bronx parents advance issues important to them, even in the face of “pushback from some of the affluent places that weren’t ready to give up stuff.” Throughout his tenure, Carranza, who is Mexican-American, faced racist rhetoric while pushing for school diversity and anti-bias training for teachers.
Summers predicted that Porter will come up against some of the same challenges, but said the new chancellor won’t stand alone.
“There’s going to be a lot of pushback for her being a woman, and a woman of color. But I think she’s capable of taking that on,” Summers said. “We’re going to have her back.”
THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
This past Friday, the power of community and mutual aid was on full display at the Bronx Terminal Market. Hundreds of people lined up and waited in 40-degree weather to receive brand new winter coats handed out at a coat giveaway event organized by Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner of the 77th district, in partnership with the Bronx Terminal Market and New York Cares.
Amidst a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on the nation’s economy, Bronx residents have experienced the worst symptoms of the virus.
And as vaccine efforts ramp up due to the Biden administrations push to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office, food insecurity, a burgeoning housing crisis and soaring unemployment rates are but a few of the most dominant side-effects Bronx residents are dealing with.
Events, such as Friday’s coat drive and a concurrent food drive just a few doors down, help to restore faith in a community that has endured the worst the pandemic had to offer.
Kendall Wright, a local resident, attended the giveaway to secure coats for her family members. Ms. Wright expressed her gratitude for the leaders of the community providing resources: “It’s really about the community helping each other out … Some people don’t have access to the necessary things that they need so it’s good to have individuals like a politician that’s giving this out to say that they care, that they’re concerned. It’s very helpful”
Edwin Guerrero stopped by the coat giveaway to secure coats to give to the porters in his building on 164th street and the Grand Concourse. Last week, Guerrero noticed that the porters’ coats appeared to be battered and unable to keep them warm during the recent frigid temperatures.
After realizing he had no coats to personally donate to the men, Guerrero serendipitously received robo-call voicemail from Assemblywoman Joyner’s office earlier this week alerting him of the coat giveaway.
James Godbold, a resident of a homeless shelter near the Bronx Terminal Market, volunteered at the coat giveaway. He helped out with crowd control and spread positive energy as he shared jokes with those waiting in line.
Godbold expressed that this pandemic has revealed just how much alike we all are as people across social and economic classes continue to suffer due to its impact. He added that we need to be show each other more compassion.
“You see somebody down, extend your arm and lift them up,” Godbold said.
About the author: Henry Danner is a NY state licensed Social Worker and visual storyteller. Using his camera as a tool to influence change, Henry wields the power of photojournalism and documentary photography to highlight poetic nature of everyday life, display the power of community and share stories that heal. Henry is a member of Columbia University Journalism School’s class of 2022
Now, according to reporting by WABC, there is $1 billion in unpaid rent in New York City as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis and although landlords are prevented from evicting people during this time period, that hasn’t stopped them from filing the necessary paperwork so that they can do so once the moratorium is lifted.
And nowhere is this looming crisis greater than The Bronx where almost 10,000 eviction notices have been filed, according to data compiled by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, impacting tens of thousands of Bronxites.
Most of The Bronx is bright orange and red indicating the areas with high numbers of eviction filings /via WABC
The Bronx also has the most eviction filings by zip code with 10468, which covers Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights, and parts of Fordham Manor, Fordham Heights, and University Heights, leading the city with 1,001 filings.
Many of the zip codes in the West Bronx, covering neighborhoods like Highbridge, Morris Heights, and Morrisania, are also among the highest with eviction filings in the city an area that has historically already had some of the highest rates of rent burdened households and residents just one paycheck away from homelessness.
As with what we’ve seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, this housing crisis is also greatly impacting households of color than any other group.
WABC also reports that NYC’s lower income zip codes have five times more eviction filings than the wealthier parts of our city showing further how the pandemic has impacted these communities disproportionately.
This is clearly evident when you look at the map and you see areas that have a lower population of families of Blacks and Latinos, also have lower eviction filings. Although many of those areas tend to have more owner occupied homes, there are still a large portion of the population that are renters.
Zip codes covering areas like Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Throggs Neck, Country Club, Pelham Bay all have under 100 filings each and over on City Island, no eviction filings have been recorded.
This isn’t to say that homeowners aren’t hurting either as many are behind on mortgage payments, however, data on that specific area isn’t readily available.
Watch the news clip from WABC below and you can see how your zip code is doing by going here and using the interactive map.
BEDFORD PARK—Applications are now being accepted for over 100 brand new construction affordable apartments in the Bedford Park neighborhood of The Bronx with rents as low as $1,045 a month for two-bedroom units.
Bronxview Apartments, located at 2885 Marion Avenue, is a 114 unit, 8 story mixed-income residential development comprised of one, two, and three bedroom apartments.
Bronxview at 2885 Marion Avenue/Image via NYC Housing Connect
Rents start as low as $1,045 for two-bedroom apartment and $1,200 for a three bedroom for those making 50% of the area median income and higher depending on income.
As far as amenities go, Bronxview doesn’t appear to have any besides an advertised shared laundry room which makes this particular affordable housing development kind of lacking in this area compared to other comprable new construction in the area.
But what it lacks in on site amenities, it more than makes up for what’s available within walking distance.
Via NYC Housing Connect
The site is located within a short walk to Lehman College along with its Center for Performing Arts, Fordham University, the New York Botanical Garden, Mosholu Parkway, Bronx River Park and Forest, Van Cortlandt Park, and many others.
Bronxview is also located within several blocks of the Botanical Garden Metro North Station, the B and D subway at Bedford Park Boulevard and the 4 train a few blocks over on the same street not to mention several bus routes that run right by.
Qualifying applicants must make 50, 60, 90, or 110% of the area median income which ranges from $39,018 to $155,100 a year depending on which bracket you land on and household size.
5% of units are set aside for applicants with mobility issues and 2% for those with visual or hearing impairments.
50% of the units are reserved for those who live within Bronx Community Board 7 and 5% for those who work for New York City.
Application deadline is April 20, 2021 and you can apply online or request an application by mail, by sending a self-addressed envelope to:
2751 Grand Concourse C/O Fordham Bedford Bronx, NY 10468
As per Housing Connect guidelines, do NOT apply online and also send in an application. Only apply ONCE per lottery or you may be disqualified for duplicate entries.
Best of luck!
Please note: Welcome2TheBronx is NOT affiliated with this listing or any other real estate developments nor do we receive any commissions from these posts. We are simply bringing the news to you.Please do NOT contact us as we cannot help you with these listings.
As millions of Texans suffer due to the severe winter weather related events that have left dozens dead across the state, a Bronx woman has raised over $2 million for relief organizations while Senator Ted Cruz vacationed in Cancun.
Spurred to action by the inaction of the state’s mostly Republican leadership, who refused to help their own residents and told them to fend for themselves, this Bronx woman decided to mobilize a nationwide effort to raise funds for Texan grassroots organizations that are providing aid during this humanitarian crisis.
Often ridiculed by Republicans and the far right for her passionate stance on climate change and its devastating impact on our citizens (which they claim is fake), this hasn’t stopped her from providing the aid that these very people so desperately need—The same aid withheld by leaders from their own party and as Senator Ted Cruz boarded a plane to Cancun to escape the devastation left behind by a rare winter storm and sub-freezing temperatures that killed almost 60 people across the country so far.
While Ted Cruz abandoned his constituents in their most desperate time of need, as they were dying due to hypothermia or because they couldn’t breathe because their life supporting equipment could not function without electricity, she came to their help.
While Ted Cruz made excuses on Twitter for why he fled the country and casting blame on his defenseless daughters, this Bronx woman activated her network and within 4 hours had raised over $300,000 for Texas.
By the end of the night, it was at $1 million, and in less than 24 hours, donations had surpassed the $2 million mark.
And by midday on Saturday, that total had surpassed $3.2 million.
We hit $3.2 MILLION in Texas relief support last night!
One of the places it’s going is the Houston Food Bank. I’m visiting Reps. @JacksonLeeTX18 & @LaCongresista with volunteers to pack meals.
That Bronx woman is The Bronx’s own Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat from the Boogie Down who, once again, showed the world the Bronx spirit of solidarity and helping those in need despite differences in political ideologies.
And for those cynics who think this is a political stunt, it’s not.
The Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the East Bronx, one of the most transit-starved areas of the borough, will get New York City’s first E-scooter share program this Spring.
This will give area residents another option of getting around the neighborhood or making connections to subway stations along the 2,5, and 6 line as well as Metro North stations.
Phase 1 of the pilot program will cover all East Bronx neighborhoods north of Pelham Parkway which includes Co-op City, Baychester, Williamsbridge, Allerton, Edenwald, Eastchester, and Pelham Gardens (except City Island) and Morris Park and Van Nest to the south of the parkway with 2,000 to 3,000 e-scooters.
The northwest Bronx neighborhood of Woodlawn is also included in Phase 1.
According to the press release, the pilot will allow the city for the first time to see how an e-scooter share program would work on city streets and would run for at minimum one year.
“Working closely with the Council, we are happy to deliver the city’s first e-scooter share pilot — crafted to allow Bronx residents to try e-mobility to and from countless critical destinations, from Co-op City to the Soundview NYCFerry terminal,” said DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman in the statement.
Gutman also said that, “…important changes to the streetscape, including new dedicated bike lanes to ease travel for e-scooters as well as bicycles in the east Bronx” will be announced in the coming weeks.
As far as alternatives to transportation goes, this is pretty exciting news given the fact that The Bronx is usually the last borough to get such programs like Citi Bike which took forever to get here.
And the selection of 18 square miles of the East Bronx as the testing ground for this new program is probably not a coincidence given the fact that Citi Bike won’t be expanding this way for quite some time as they are focusing on their Bronx expansion solely in the neighborhoods west of the Bronx River.
Given that the area’s almost 600,000 residents are over 80% Black, Latino, and overall BIPOC, including 25,000 residents who live in NYCHA, equitable access to the pilot will be a priority for DOT which the agency will also monitor.
DOT hasn’t announced yet which company will operate the pilot program but StreetsBlogNYC reported, “…multiple companies, including Bird, Lime, Superpedestrian (with its Link scooters), Voi, Beryl and others, responded to a city request for expressions of interest on operating scooter-share programs”.
Phase 2 of the program will potentially begin in 2022 and will include the rest of the East Bronx including Parkchester, Soundview, Clason Point, Castle Hill, Throggs Neck, Country Club, Edgewater Park, Pelham Bay, and Schuylerville and will increase the e-scooter presence to 4,000 to 6,000 between both phase areas.
No word on why City Island isn’t included but it could be because of the distance required to get there given that the community is isolated and isn’t contiguously adjacent to the street grid.
Local area resident Amelia Zaino said although she’s never ridden on an e-scooter, she is nevertheless, “…excited about it and it would be helpful for traveling distances that are short but long at the same time like getting between Co-op City and Pelham Bay.”
Stay tuned for more information on start dates as well as who will operate this service along with pricing and discounts.
On an empty 4.4 acre lot along the Harlem River directly north of the 145th Street Bridge at 149th Street that was once to be part of Mill Pond Park, ground has finally broken ground for Bronx Point, a massive mixed-use development that will bring thousands of residential apartments as well as the permanent home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum and just under 2 miles from where hip hop was born.
First announced in 2016, the development plans eventually went on to include the home for the museum which has been seeking a permanent space in the borough and birthplace of Hip Hop.
The 4.4 acre site and future home of Bronx Point and the Universal Hip Hop Museum as seen from the 145th Street Bridge
Phase one construction of Bronx Point will create not just the 50,000 square foot permanent home of the Universal Hip Hop Museum but it will also bring with it 542 units of permanently affordable housing and 2.8 additional acres of Mill Pond Park which will open up more of the waterfront to the greater community.
The Billion Oyster Project will also run an outdoor science program focusing on the Harlem River. The organization just last year installed an oyster reef at the mouth of the Bronx River at Soundview Park comprising of 500,000 pounds of 15 million live oysters.
Rendering via Bronx Point’s website
As for the residential units, there will be 135 studios, 192 one bedrooms, 122 two bedrooms, and 93 three bedroom units with a portion of units to be set aside for the formerly homeless.
Residents will be able to access amenities like a children’s playroom, fitness center, and an outdoor terrace along with a lounge, bike room and even a fitness center.
Site plan via Bronx Point website
As for the Universal Hip Hop Museum, or UHHM as it’s known, it will offer a wide variety of programing that will not only serve as to document The Bronx’s place as the birthplace of Hip Hop but to also celebrate our place in history of this genre that was birthed by our borough and went on to become a global phenomenon and endures to this day almost 50 years later.
Work is well underway at the site
“For years, we’ve wanted a permanent home in The Bronx—the birthplace of hip-hop—and we are proud to be a part of Bronx Point, which will be one of the great new destinations of the borough,” said legendary Hip Hop artist Kurtis Blow who is also the Chairman Emeritus of UHHM.
Rendering of Bronx Point
“Hip-hop grew from a seed that was planted at a house party on Sedgwick Avenue into a global movement, and our museum will celebrate that journey and the Bronx’s place in its history. For all those who rose with us and followed in our footsteps: this museum will be for you, forever. We can’t wait to open our doors and welcome visitors from around the borough, the city, and the world to Bronx Point and the new home of hip-hop!” he added.
While all of this sounds good, it still doesn’t change the fact that the city stole land that was to be part of Mill Pond Park’s expansion nor should we forget.
Phase 1 and completion of the museum is scheduled to be completed by 2023 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop with the entire development to be completed by 2025 provided that everything goes smoothly.
A new report by PropertyClub shows that Parkchester in The Bronx is New York City’s most affordable neighborhood for home buyers with a median sales price of $195,000.
Data also indicates that overall, The Bronx is the most affordable borough with a median sales price of $519,000 which is significantly less than the $700,000 median sales price for the entire city.
One of the dozens if not hundreds of statues you’ll find around Parkchester.
The report looked for the 50 most affordable neighborhoods in New York City by analyzing recorded closed sales for residential properties in 2020 and only neighborhoods that recorded 10 sales or more were included in the report.
Of the 50 neighborhoods that made the list, 12 of them were in The Bronx and are as follows:
Ranking
Neighborhood
Borough
Median Price
1
Parkchester
Bronx
$195,000.00
2
Bedford Park
Bronx
$225,000.00
4
Fieldston
Bronx
$290,000.00
6
Soundview
Bronx
$306,000.00
7
North Riverdale
Bronx
$307,500.00
8
Spuyten Devil
Bronx
$325,000.00
10
Riverdale
Bronx
$330,000.00
14
Kingsbridge Heights
Bronx
$349,000.00
23
Kingsbridge
Bronx
$397,500.00
26
Highbridge
Bronx
$415,000.00
28
Eastchester
Bronx
$420,000.00
50
Allerton
Bronx
$509,500.00
The top ten most affordable neighborhoods in The Bronx as per data compiled by PropertyClub
Perhaps the most surprising on the list is Fieldston, given the estates and mansions in that area, however since those properties rarely sell, only the co-ops were considered for the report which drastically skews the data a bit.
Typical car-free street scene in Parkchester
This isn’t the first time the city within the city known as Parkchester is on the list. Back in 2019 when we wrote about that year’s report which looked at prices in 2018, the median sales price in the neighborhood was $180,000.
Of note, Parkchester is also the only neighborhood on the list that’s under $200,000.
Homes in Bedford Park
In second place is Bedford Park with a median sales price of $225,000 and much like Parkchester, is a very diverse neighborhood that’s quite reflective of the overall population of our borough.
At the bottom of the list at the 50th spot is Allerton with a median sales price of $509,500, another diverse Bronx neighborhood.
PropertyClub also released a report on the 50 most expensive neighborhoods in New York City and not one Bronx neighborhood made the list so maybe, just maybe, we’re still “safe”.
Borough
Median Sales Price
Bronx
$519,000
Staten Island
$550,000
Queens
$605,000
Brooklyn
$900,000
Manhattan
$1,160,000
Median sales prices in 2020 across the five boroughs as per PropertyClub
