Fordham-Bedford, Bronx

Fordham–Bedford is a low income residential neighborhood geographically located in the northwest Bronx. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 7. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Mosholu Parkway to the north, Webster Avenue to the east, Fordham Road to the south, and the Jerome Avenue to the west.

The neighborhood comprises two smaller neighborhoods: Fordham and Bedford Park. The Grand Concourse is the primary thoroughfare through Fordham-Bedford. The local subway is the IND Concourse Line (NYCS Concourse), operating along the Grand Concourse. Zip codes include 10458 and 10468. The area is patrolled by the 52nd Precinct located at 3016 Webster Ave in the Norwood section of the Bronx.

Demographics

Fordham-Bedford has a population of 45,000. For decades Fordham-Bedford has been one of the poorest communities in America. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (AFDC, Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). The majority of residents in the area are of Puerto Rican, Dominican, or African American descent. The vast majority of households are renter occupied. [ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/bx7profile.pdf Bronx Community District 7] ]

Land use and terrain

Fordham-Bedford is dominated by 5 or 6-story tenements and three-story multi-unit houses. The apartments on the Grand Concourse are often taller. The total land area is a little over half a square mile.

The Fordham Road Business Improvement District

The Fordham Road BID lines the southern border of the neighborhood. This retail district is the longest in the Bronx.

History

Fordham-Bedford before the massive middle income flight was a working class White neighborhood. Through the 1970s the area began to change and the Puerto Rican population started to settle in the area as their buildings and homes south of Fordham Road were torched by arsonists. Although Fordham-Bedford experienced White flight that population was quickly replaced by low income Puerto Ricans and more recently in the 1990s and 2000s the Dominican population has grown. This limited the number of abandoned buildings in the area while neighborhoods south of Fordham Road were becoming abandoned. Arson was a problem in Fordham-Bedford but it was not as widespread as it had been in the communities south of it.

Urban renewal

After a wave of arson ravaged the low income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, some of the residential structures in Fordham-Bedford were left seriously damaged or destroyed. The city began to rehabilitate many formally abandoned tenement style apartment buildings and designate them low income housing beginning in the late 1970s. Also many subsidized attached multi-unit townhouses and newly constructed apartment buildings have been or are being built on vacant lots across across the neighborhood.

Demographics

Fordham has a population over 30,000. Its first growth was in the 1930s, when middle-class and working-class families from Manhattan flocked into the area, attracted by the then-modern housing and convenient subway access by the Concourse and Jerome Avenue lines to business districts in Manhattan where they could work and shop.

However, for decades Fordham has been one of the poorest communities in America. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (AFDC, Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). The vast majority of residents in the area are of Puerto Rican, Dominican, or African American descent. The vast majority of households are renter occupied. [ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/bx5profile.pdf Bronx Community District 5] ]

Low income public housing projects

*There is one NYCHA development located in Fordham. [http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/home/home.shtml NYCHA] ]
#Twin Parks West (Sites 1 & 2); one, 16-story building.

History

Fordham was a predominantly middle class Jewish neighborhood, from the 1930s through the 1970s, when many Jewish families moved to the suburbs or retired to Florida. [Avery Corman, "The Old Neighborhood.", New York: Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN 9780553148916 ]

Urban renewal

After a wave of arson ravaged the low income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, many of the residential structures in Fordham were left seriously damaged or destroyed. The city began to rehabilitate many formally abandoned tenement style apartment buildings and designate them low income housing beginning in the late 1970s. Also many subsidized attached multi-unit townhouses and newly constructed apartment buildings have been or are being built on vacant lots across across the neighborhood.

Transportation

*Bx1: to Riverdale or Third Avenue–138th Street station (via Grand Concourse
*Bx2: to Kingsbridge Heights or Third Avenue–138th Street station (via Grand Concourse
*Bx9: to Riverdale or West Farms Square–East Tremont Avenue station (via Kingsbridge Road)
*Bx12: to Bay Plaza Shopping Center or Inwood–207th Street station (via Fordham Road–Pelham Parkway)
*Bx22: to Bronx High School of Science or Castle Hill (via Castle Hill Avenue)
*Bx34: to Woodlawn (via Bainbridge Avenue)
*Bx41: to Wakefield–241st Street station or Third Avenue–149th Street station (via Webster Avenue)
*Bx55: to Gun Hill Road station or Third Avenue–149th Street station
*Kingsbridge Road station (NYCS Concourse)
*Kingsbridge Road station (NYCS Jerome local)

Facts

*Edgar Allan Poe and his wife/cousin Virginia Clemm moved to Fordham–Bedford because Virginia was battling tuberculosis. She died there on January 30, 1847, just two years before Edgar died.
*Fordham University is located east of Fordham-Bedford.

References