Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Oh, I see what you're asking. The Art Deco and similar apartment
houses endured partly because they were sturdily built, and partly
because most, though not all, of the apartment houses on the Concourse
proper were not victims of arson and abandonment. 

Even though many of the buildings declined in the 70s and 80s, they
remained standing, and when the area began its recent upswing,
improving and maintaining them was a reasonably doable task, especially
as they became increasingly attractive to residents able to pay rents
(or purchase prices) that made maintenance fiscally viable.
  

    
Thanks, Connie. I just wonder who was able to afford to rent or
purchase the units during the '70s and '80s and also willing to live in
a neighborhood surrounded by what was widely known (around the world,
even) as a danger zone. I'd think the owners couldn't drop the rents,
as the buildings were/are expensive to maintain at all (even with some
decline), and taxes had to be paid. But i suppose this would be hard to
figure out without going back and talking to the people there at the
time.
  

    
I read a book called Report from Engine Co. 82 about a firefighter in
the Bronx. Fascinating stuff.
  

    
Hi, Sharon--

That book, by Dennis Smith, is terrific; I bet you enjoyed it. That
was also one of the first books to give a close-up look at what it was
like to be a firefighter in the days when the Bronx really was burning.
After 9/11, there were various books by firefighters, who were such
heroes during and after the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center.
But Smith's book is a hard act to follow.


And jstrahl, good question about who lived in those apartment
buildings along the Grand Concourse during their tough years. Many of
the tenants were welfare recipients, and a portion of their rent was
paid by government agencies. Especially starting in the 1980s, some of
the buildings benefited from federal subsidies that made it slightly
easier financially to maintain them. Many apartments simply went
vacant. But only starting in the 90s did the economics of maintaining
housing in this part of the city begin to improve. It's a tough problem
and it's not yet truly solved.
  

    
Connie, do you happen to know if there are any effects of a Puerto
Rican equivalent of yuppies moving to certain parts of The Bronx? My
brother's in-law family is an example of Puerto Ricans with some upward
mobility, the parents and the oldest 4 kids (all girls, including my
sister-in-law, the oldest), were born in Puerto Rico, moved to the
Bronx in the '50s, lived between Claremont and Crotona Parks (where the
father had a store, on Claremont Parkway), then moved to Clason Point,
where they were living when my brother met his wife--to-be. At that
point, they were complaining of Claremont Parkway being unsafe. All of
the kids got good jobs, my sister-in-law became an RN, one of the
sisters graduated college, even got a masters, did teaching. My
sister-in-law moved to California with my brother in '69,  a few years
later they all moved, parents, the twins who were born in '68, and the
other daughters, married at that point, all moved to the Orlando
area,live within  few miles of each other, they all had it with The
Bronx. But i wonder how many of the kids' peers experienced upward
mobility yet tried to stay in The Bronx.
  

    
Interesting you should ask. A wide variety of people are moving to the
Bronx these days -- white, black, Latino, Asian. Many are middle-class
or working-class, and the ethnic and racial variety that can be seen
in many parts of the borough is considered one of its great strengths.
It's not like the old days, when racial change tended to be accompanied
by tumult and flight. So that's a good sign.
  

    
When Tom Wolfe published "Bonfires of the Vanities" he captures a lot
of different "worlds."  The courts and that particular judge was larger
than life.  I asked my cousin who is a criminal attorney in Brooklyn
about Wolfe's characterization. He said that Brooklyn was somewhat like
the book, but that the Bronx was known for having all the characters. 
Did Wolfe have a particular judge in mind and what is your view of how
those Bronx courts work?
  

    
Thanks, Connie, good to know that variety is being valued now, a great
improvement from the late '60s. I was surprised to learn that Bronx
Science is now about 60% Asian. Back in '65 i could count the Asian
students on my fingers, just about.
  

    
Hi, David--

Thanks for mentioning "Bonfire," which by the way I recommend to any
Well user who isn't already familiar with it. In many ways, the book is
a roman a clef, and if you look back at the articles that appeared
when the book came out, you can find the names of many of the people
who inspired him. It's generally agreed that the irascible judge was
based on Burton Roberts, and there are lots of other parallels. The
more you knew the players in the Bronx and in the city in those days,
the better you could figure out who was who.

As to how the courts work, I'm no expert, and there was much
corruption in the Bronx in the later part of the 20th century, but I
suspect it's fair to say that as the city has grown (relatively) more
prosperous and stable in the last decade or two, things are better when
it comes to the criminal justice system. At the very least, it's
slightly less overwhelmed.

And yes, jstrahl, let's hear it for variety. Everyone says that ethnic
and racial variety is one of the strengths of the "new" Bronx, and
there's no reason why that shouldn't continue to be the case.
  

    
I'm glad you are continuing the conversation because I am still reading 
the book!