East Bronx

The neighborhood of Co-op City is the largest cooperative housing development in the world.
In 1895 the West Bronx already had many streets; the east had few

The East Bronx is that part of the New York City borough of the Bronx which lies east of the Bronx River; this roughly corresponds to the eastern half of the borough. Neighborhoods include: Harding Park, Soundview, Castle Hill, Parkchester, Westchester Square, Edgewater Park, Van Nest, Pelham Parkway, Morris Park, Throggs Neck, Country Club, City Island, Pelham Bay, Williamsbridge, Eastchester, Baychester, Edenwald, Wakefield, Bronx, and Co-op City.

Much of the East Bronx is farther from Manhattan than its western counterpart, and less densely populated. While the West Bronx is older and very hilly, the East Bronx looks distinct in that it is not only later-settled but also very flat and coastal, much like the nearby borough of Queens. The East Bronx was annexed by the City of New York decades later; the West Bronx in 1874, while the East Bronx remained part of Westchester County until 1895.[1]

Unlike the West Bronx, the East Bronx has numbered streets in only a few neighborhoods. Because the Bronx uses the same street numbering system as Manhattan, streets designated as "east" (e.g., East 161st Street) may actually be located west of the Bronx River. This is because the east-west divider is Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx (which is directly north of Fifth Avenue), and only a relatively small area of the Bronx west lies of Jerome Avenue. Thus while all numbered streets in the East Bronx are necessarily designated "east", an "east" street designation does not automatically mean that the area in question is part of the East Bronx.

The East Bronx has historically had a large Italian American population, and they still make up the biggest group in the neighborhoods of Morris Park, Pelham Bay, Pelham Gardens, Throggs Neck, Country Club, and City Island. The Northeast Bronx has a large Afro-Caribbean population, in particular in the neighborhoods of Wakefield, Baychester and Edenwald. Parkchester is home to a large Asian American population (including Bengalis, Pakistanis, and Chinese), although the Asian population at 13% is far surpassed by the Hispanic population, mostly Puerto Ricans. Throughout the East Bronx, Hispanic Americans—of Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage—can be found and they are majority populations in Soundview, Castle Hill, Parkchester, Westchester Square and Van Nest. Albanians are a presence throughout the East Bronx, in particular in Van Nest, Morris Park and Pelham Parkway.

The differences between the East and West Bronx go largely neglected today. Prior to the 1970s, New Yorkers generally saw the Bronx as being split into its eastern and western halves. With the urban decay that hit the southwestern Bronx starting in the 1960s, this traditional division received less attention. People began to see the borough as being fundamentally divided between the southwestern area (“The South Bronx”) and everywhere else. This notion became less relevant in the 21st century as crime, poverty and urban decay declined from their peaks in the late 1970s.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form “Greater New York”, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. “In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx”.
  2. ↑ Berger, Joseph. "Goodbye South BronxBlight, Hello SoBro". Retrieved 2018-07-04.

Coordinates: 40°51′06″N 73°49′50″W / 40.8517°N 73.8306°W / 40.8517; -73.8306

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.