Ladies And Gentleman, The Bronx Is Gentrifying

Adam Davidson, in his recent Times Magazine column analyzing why the Bronx hasn't gentrified at the same clip as Brooklyn (or even Queens), may have expertly summarized turn-of-the-century urban development in one quick swoop: "These neighborhoods [in Brooklyn] fell on hard times during the 1970s, but their expensive [housing] stock was perfectly positioned for revitalization as the Manhattan boom of the past few decades pushed young professionals across the river. The Bronx, however, never developed its own economic drivers. It became, by the late 19th century, a haven for immigrants attracted to (but unable to afford) Manhattan. The borough developed far fewer wealthy areas, and many neighborhoods became devoted to less-gentrifiable housing units."

If its housing stock keeps its original details, a neighborhood always at least has chance of reviving because people always care about where they live and because real estate can always appreciate. Well, that and a neighborhood's proximity to downtown via public transit. (North Brooklyn is much closer to downtown by subway than any part of the Bronx.) These two factors govern every neighborhood revitalization in major Northeastern cities. In Boston, the South End and Jamaica Plain are the classic examples, while a place like Chelsea, as much as I love its urbanism, won't be Fort Greene anytime soon (not that this is necessarily a bad thing; see my previous posts about the city) because its transit access is mediocre and its housing stock has too many decrepit triple-deckers. Charlestown's gentrification has always puzzled me -- it's so isolated that I don't understand the interest in living there. Expand one's view to the rest of America, where public transit systems are much thinner, and housing is left alone as the deciding factor. It easily explains German Village in Columbus, for example.

Thanks to Howard Cosell for inspiring the post's title, even if he apparently never truly said "Ladies and gentleman, the Bronx is burning" during a World Series broadcast that caught one of the Bronx's many late-1970s arsons in a skyline shot. As for whether the Bronx would gentrify, Davidson seems to think, Maybe one day. I think that New York's real estate market exists on some other loopy planet, devoid of any known rationality, so it'll probably happen in the next 15 years, if not 15 weeks.