New York Guide
The Bronx
"The Bronx?" wrote poet Ogden Nash in 1931. "No thonx!" Nash eventually recanted his two-line barb, but most New Yorkers still harbor similar feelings due to the borough's reputation for being tough and crime-ridden. Still, what is true in the South Bronx – still one of the city's poorest areas – hardly applies to the whole of the Bronx, which harbors beautiful parks, posh neighborhoods, a world-class botanic garden and zoo, and, of course, Yankee Stadium.
With a unique landscape that ranges from greenery to high-rises, the Bronx is New York's only mainland borough. As might be expected, its hilly geography is more like neighboring Westchester County than Long Island and Manhattan.
First settled in the seventeenth century by a Swedish landowner named Jonas Bronck, it became part of New York City in the late nineteenth century. For half a century, it was solidly working-class and middle-class, only taking a turn into serious poverty in the 1950s, when urban planner Robert Moses sliced the borough in half with the Cross Bronx Expressway, severing the South Bronx from its wealthier neighbors to the north. The South Bronx was literally left to burn in the 1970s, taking the reputation of the whole borough down with it, but it has been making a slow recovery in the years since, with substantial residential development in the 2000s.
With a few exceptions, such as the Little Italy section of Belmont, which is within walking distance of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx doesn't lend itself to extensive wandering, mainly because sights are spread so far apart. Smart use of public transportation, though, can make getting around pretty painless, especially if you use the bus and commuter train in addition to the subway.
Find out more about the borough from the Bronx Tourism Council (www.ilovethebronx.com) or the Bronx Council on the Arts (718/931-9500, www.bronxarts.org). BCA sponsors the free Bronx Cultural Card, which provides ten- to fifty-percent discounts on a couple dozen of the Bronx's best attractions, shops, and restaurants. Pick up a card at any public library in the Bronx or at the BCA office, 1738 Hone Ave.