Mott Haven, Bronx

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Mott Haven is a low income neighborhood in the southwest Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 1. Its boundaries are East 149th Street to the north, the Bruckner Expressway to the east, the Major Deegan Expressway to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. East 138th Street is the neighborhood's primary commercial thoroughfare. Mott Haven is served by the three southernmost stops on the IRT Pelham Line/6 Train before the 6 enters Manhattan. These stations are Third Avenue–138th Street, Brook Avenue, and Cypress Avenue. Zip codes include 10451, 10454, and 10455.

Contents

[edit] Demographics

Mott Haven has a population of about 50,000. It has been one of the poorest communities in America for decades. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives a form of public assistance (AFDC, Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, or Medicaid). Almost half the population resides in public housing units managed by NYCHA. Mott Haven has the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans of any neighborhood in the City. There is also a significant African American population and a small but growing community of Central American immigrants along East 138th Street. The vast majority of households are renter occupied.[1]

In recent years, artists and professionals have begun to move into industrial lofts and brownstones in the southwestern part of Mott Haven as well as nearby Port Morris.[2] Most businesses however continue to serve the majority poor and working class Latino population.[3]

[edit] Land Use and Terrain

Mott Haven is dominated by public housing complexes of various types, with older tenement buildings between these developments. Newly constructed subsidized attached multi-unit rowhouses and apartment buildings have been built on vacant lots. The neighborhood contains the highest concentration of NYCHA projects in the Bronx. The total land area is about one square mile. The terrain is somewhat hilly.

[edit] Historic Districts

There are three small landmarked historical districts located in Mott Haven. They consist of the last remaining attached brownstones in the area, the vast majority of which were destroyed to build public housing developments. Others were structurally damaged after succumbing to arson and eventually destroyed by the city.

  • The first landmarked district is located between the Mitchel, Mott Haven, and Patterson Houses, lining Alexander Avenue between East 138th Street and East 141st Street.[4] In more recent years some of the brownstones in this district have been rehabilitated by young professionals. This district includes Saint Jerome's Roman Catholic Church.
  • The second landmarked district is located adjacent the Mott Haven Houses lining East 140th Street east of Willis Avenue.[5]
  • The last landmarked district is located adjacent the Mitchel Houses at lining East 136th Street east of Willis Avenue.[6]

[edit] Low Income Public Housing Projects

  • There are seventeen NYCHA developments located in Mott Haven.[7]
  1. Dr. Ramon E. Betances I; thirteen buildings, 3, 4, 11 and 19-stories tall.
  2. Dr. Ramon E. Betances II, 13; one 6-story building.
  3. Dr. Ramon E. Betances II, 18; two buildings, 4 and 6-stories tall.
  4. Dr. Ramon E. Betances II, 9A; one 4-story building.
  5. Dr. Ramon E. Betances III, 13; two rehabilitated tenement buildings, 5-stories tall.
  6. Dr. Ramon E. Betances III, 18; one rehabilitated and three abandoned tenement buildings 5-stories tall.
  7. Dr. Ramon E. Betances III, 9A; two rehabilitated tenement buildings 6-stories tall.
  8. Dr. Ramon E. Betances IV; eight buildings, 3, 4 and 5-stories tall with 282 apartments.
  9. Dr. Ramon E. Betances V; six rehabilitated tenement buildings, 5 and 6-stories tall
  10. Dr. Ramon E. Betances VI; three rehabilitated tenement buildings, 5 and 6-stories tall.
  11. Millbrook Houses; nine, 16-story buildings.
  12. Millbrook Extension; one 16-story building.
  13. Mitchel Houses; ten buildings, 17, 19, and 20-stories tall.
  14. Moore Houses; two, 20-story buildings.
  15. Mott Haven Houses; eight buildings, 20 and 22-stories tall.
  16. Patterson Houses; fifteen buildings 6 and 13-stories tall.
  17. Southern Boulevard M.H.O.P. (Multi Family Homeownership Program); One 7-story rehabilitated tenement building

[edit] History

The area that is now called Mott Haven was originally owned by the Morris family. A small part of the larger swath of land known as Morrisania, it was purchased by Jordan Mott for his iron works in 1849. As the city below grew, the area quickly developed residentially. At the same time, an upper-middle class residential area, marked by brownstones built in an elaborate and architecturally daring fashion, started to grow along Alexander Avenue by the 1890s. Soon after, the Bronx grew more quickly, especially with public transit into the area, including the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. By the early 20th century, the population density of the area supported the construction of many tenement style apartment buildings. From the turn of the 20th century through the 1940s Mott Haven was a mixed German-American and German-Jewish-American neighborhood.

Mott Haven and Port Morris were the first neighborhoods to give rise to the term "South Bronx". In the 1940s when the Bronx was usually divided into the East Bronx and West Bronx, a group of social workers identified a pocket of poverty in along East 134th Street and called it the South Bronx. This pocket of poverty would spread in part due to Robert Moses building several housing projects in the neighborhood. The poverty greatly expanded northward, following the post-war phenomenon colloquially referred to as white flight, reaching a peak in the 1970s when the socioeconomic North Bronx-South Bronx boundary reached Fordham Road. At this time a wave of arson destroyed or damaged many of the residential, commercial, and industrial structures in the area. Today the North Bronx-South Bronx distinction remains more common than the traditional East Bronx-West Bronx distinction, and some still regard Fordham Road as the boundary.

[edit] Social Problems

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Many social problems associated with poverty from crime to drug addiction plagued the area for some time. However, in recent years, crime has fallen significantly, mirroring the declines in crime in the rest of the city; for example, the murder, robbery, and burglary rates are down by 80% since 1990. [8] However, Mott Haven continues to have significantly higher drop out rates and incidents of violence in its schools. Students must pass through metal detectors and swipe ID cards to enter the buildings. Other problems in local schools include low test scores and high truancy rates. Many households in the area are headed by a single mother which contributes to the high poverty rate.[9] The incarceration rate in the area is also very high.[10]

The area is patrolled by the 40th Precinct located at 257 Alexander Avenue. NYCHA property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 7 at 737 Melrose Avenue located in the Melrose section of the Bronx.

[edit] Urban Renewal

After a wave of arson ravaged the low income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, many if not most residential structures in Mott Haven 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. Despite its reputation as a low income neighborhood, in the first decade of the 21st century, Mott Haven experienced along with the rest of the city a dramatic rise in housing values, as many buildings, including some which had been abandoned, were renovated and sold, and a number of new apartment projects were built.[11] [12] Commercial development in the neighborhood also accelerated.[13] It has yet to be seen what the effect of the collapse of the housing bubble will have on the neighborhood.

[edit] Schools

[edit] Public

  • PS 18: John Peter Zenger (East 148th St and Morris Av)
  • PS 30: The Wilton School (East 141st St and Brook Av)
  • PS 43: Jonas Bronck (East 135th St and Brown Pl)
  • PS 49: Willis Avenue School (East 139th St and Willis Av)
  • PS 65: Mother Clara Hale (East 141st St and Cypress Av)
  • PS 154: Jonathan D. Hyatt (East 135th St and Alexander Av)
  • PS 179/220: Mott Haven Village (East 140th St and Brook Av)
  • PS 277: Evelina Lopez de Antonetty (East 147th St and St. Ann's Av)
  • MS 203: Paul Robeson (East 140th St and Morris Av)
  • MS 223: Elijah Clark (East 145th St and Willis Av)
  • MS 224: Dr. Mario C. Salvadori (East 143rd St and Brook Av)
  • Samuel Gompers High School (East 145th St and Southern Blvd)
  • FLAGS High School (East 147th St and Jackson Av)

[edit] Parochial

  • Saint Jerome School (East 137th St and Alexander Av)
  • Saint Luke School (East 138th St and Cypress Av)
  • Saint Pius V School (East 144th St and Willis Av)
  • Saint Pius V High School

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Facts

  • During the dark days, Lincoln Memorial Hospital was moved from the decrepit site at 141st Street and Bruckner Boulevard to a modern facility on 149th Street and Morris Avenue. St. Francis Hospital on 142nd Street and St. Ann's Avenue near St. Mary's Park was closed and turned into a clinic during the 1980s.
  • In November 1999, Scientific American noted: "The Mott Haven section of New York City's South Bronx has long been one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation. The median household income of its residents, most of whom are African-American or Hispanic, is less than one third of the U.S. median." The abject poverty of Mott Haven, with a focus on its affect on the resident children, was the subject of the 1995 bestseller Amazing Grace.[14]
  • Mott Haven is home to first organic green market in the Bronx.
  • Mott Haven is considered part of the socioeconomic South Bronx.
  • Locals often refer to the neighborhood simply as the "South Bronx," while some (involved with real estate and gentrification) attempt to push the name "SoBro".

[edit] Noteable Natives

  • Rapper A.G. of the duo Showbiz and A.G., was raised in the Patterson Houses.
  • Boy George (Criminal), extorted his way to the top of the drug trade in Mott Haven during the crack epidemic.
  • Peter "The Gunman" Torres (Criminal) A.K.A. Pistol Pete. Former narcotics extorter/enforcer now a member of Terror Squad.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bronx Community District 1
  2. ^ No Longer the City of ‘Bonfire’ in Flames - New York Times
  3. ^ village voice > nyclife > Neighborhoods: Close-Up on Mott Haven, Bronx by Tim Heffernan
  4. ^ Mott Haven Landmarked District
  5. ^ Mott Haven East Landmarked District
  6. ^ Bertine Block Landmarked District
  7. ^ NYCHA
  8. ^ 40th Precinct CompStat Report
  9. ^ Bronx Census Data Analysis
  10. ^ NYC Prison Expenditure
  11. ^ Mott Haven revival continues as apartment complex opens
  12. ^ Privately Financed Condos in Mott Haven - New York Times
  13. ^ More Impressive Developments in Mott Haven and Melrose in Bronx
  14. ^ Kozol, Jonathan [1995] (1996). Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, HarperPerennial edition, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.. ISBN 0-06-097697-7. 

[edit] External links

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