South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City

by Jill Jonnes, Nilka Martell (Foreword by)

Overview

Thirty-five years after this landmark of urban history first captured the rise, fall, and rebirth of a once-thriving New York City borough—ravaged in the 1970s and ’80s by disinvestment and fires, then heroically revived and rebuilt in the 1990s by community activists—Jill Jonnes returns to chronicle the ongoing revival of the South Bronx. Though now globally renowned as the birthplace of hip-hop, the South Bronx remains America’s poorest urban congressional district. In this new edition, we meet the present generation of activists who are transforming their communities with the arts and greening, notably the restoration of the Bronx River. For better or worse, real estate investors have noticed, setting off new gentrification struggles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781531501228
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	1,000,780
File size:	66 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jill Jonnes (Author)
Jill Jonnes holds an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School and a Ph.D. in American History from Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World; Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape.

Nilka Martell (Foreword By)
Nilka Martell is a parks advocate, writer, and the founder of Loving The Bronx.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Third Edition | ix
Foreword by Nilka Martell | xv
Introduction: Do Not Give Way to Evil | 3
1. “It Is a Veritable Paradise,” 1639–1900 | 11
2. The First Boom, 1900–1922 | 27
3. Boss Flynn, 1922 | 41
4. “The Bronx Is a Great City,” 1923–1929 | 51
5. “Hard Hit by the Depression,” 1929–1932 | 65
6. The New Deal Years, 1933–1939 | 78
7. War Fever, 1939–1945 | 85
8. The Diaspora after the War, 1946–1953 | 91
9. “There Was No Standing Still,” 1952–1953 | 105
10. “Moses Thinks He’s God,” 1954–1959 | 117
11. The New Boss, 1959–1963 | 127
12. “Horse Was the New Thing,” 1960 | 137
13. The New “Other Half,” 1962–1966 | 144
14. The Pondiac’s Last Hurrah, 1961–1967 | 153
15. The Puerto Rican and the Priest, 1962–1967 | 164
16. Mau-mauing the City, 1967 | 175
17. Who Will Be Caudillo?, 1968–1969 | 182
18. “The Whole Place Was Caving In,” 1969–1970 | 199
19. Interlude: Sweet Days on Charlotte Street, 1925–1951 | 205
20. Charlotte Street: It Was Not a “Good” Neighborhood, 1951–1961 | 219
21. Charlotte Street: “What a Madhouse It Was,” 1961–1968 | 225
22. Charlotte Street: The Fires, 1969–1973 | 231
23. Charlotte Street: The Gangs, 1970–1975 | 236
24. Charlotte Street: The Collapse, 1973–1975 | 249
25. The Grand Concourse, 1965–1969 | 268
26. The Hotel and the Concourse, 1969–1976 | 281
27. Roosevelt Gardens, 1974–1975 | 288
28. The Grass Roots, 1974–1977 | 300
29. The President’s Magic Visit, 1977–1978 | 311
30. Disenchantment, 1979–1980 | 324
31. Charlotte Street and National Politics, 1980 | 333
32. “The Next Part of the South Bronx,” 1972–1978 | 345
33. “We’re Still Here,” 1978–1982 | 363
34. White Picket Fences, 1984 | 376
35. “South Bronx Rising,” 1985–2002 | 389
36. Still the Poorest Urban Congressional
District in America, 2003–Mid-March 2020 | 441
Covid Afterword | 515
Acknowledgments for the Third Edition | 547
Notes | 551
Bibliography | 569
Third Edition Bibliography | 579
Index | 581

Editorial Reviews

For many Americans, COVID was a revelation, exposing shocking racial and economic injustices all too familiar to residents of the South Bronx. This update, chronicling the past two decades of struggle and defiant hope, provides an essential addition to a seminal work. Jonnes again builds her story around the formidable, unbeatable, savvy citizens of the Bronx and their deep love for the place they saved and rebuilt. This is not a simple story of resurrection and accomplishment, nor one of despair and deprivation. Rather, Jonnes’s work grapples with the complexity and difficulty of building a just society inside an unjust one.—Eileen Markey, Assistant Professor of Journalism at Lehman College of the City University of New York. A proud Bronxite since the 1990s, she has reported on social movements and public policy for close to 30 years.

In this third edition of South Bronx Rising, Jill Jonnes continues to acknowledge the indomitable spirit that defines what it means to be a Bronxite by exploring the borough’s rapid gentrification and the COVID-19 pandemic that claimed the lives of more than 5,000 Bronx residents. This timely update on how we got here tells the story of the unsung heroes, the Bronx residents and activists who continue to defend and protect this corner of New York City and the world they call home.—Ed García Conde, Founder and Editor of Welcome2TheBronx

Jill Jonnes gives flesh and bone to ‘gentrification.’ Instead of abstract theory, she offers real people and real communities that profoundly illuminate what happens when money begins rolling into a neighborhood. This is an indispensable street-level narrative.—DW Gibson, author of The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the 21st Century

From the Publisher

Jonnes...give us glimpses of how this turnaround occurred, once again focusing on the people who live there. She tells the story of how the South Bronx was rebuilt, largely by the efforts of its people, working through numerous community organizations.

The Bronx County Historical Society Journal

The definitive account...Jill Jones tells us how the epidemic was contained and the Bronx was in large measure rebuilt.

Nathan Glazer

Every place needs a chronicler, and Jill Jonnes is the chronicler par excellence of the South Bronx. Updating her definitive history of the South Bronx (We’re Still Here), Jonnes has traced New York’s famous and infamous borough on its roller-coaster ride from prosperity down to devastation and back up to vitality. In the process she has provided us with a balanced assessment of the rebirth of the Bronx and the gripping stories of the people who have helped bring it back.

Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University - Alexander von Hoffman