The Boogie Down Bronx : The Last Gentrification Holdout in NYC.
Until recently, the Bronx was an unlikely candidate for the wave of gentrification that’s swept across the city and sent housing prices on a tear. It wasn’t that long ago that the South Bronx was all but written off by buyers, renters and owners alike.
Associated with urban blight since at least the 1970s, the area was deeply entrenched in a socioeconomic spiral that it has gradually shed. Now, the Bronx has become the latest avatar of New York City’s dizzying pace of revitalization in formerly working-class areas.
Fast forward several decades, and the rough-and-tumble image of the borough — immortalized on screen by cult movies like “The Warriors” and “Escape from the Bronx” — is being redefined by the construction of both affordable and luxury housing alike.
These 2019 photographs taken by Ruben Natal-San Miguel represent how The Bronx is still today holding strong to their roots, diversity and street culture . The real question is for how long.
Ruben Natal-San Miguel
