Longwood, Bronx

Location of Longwood in New York City

Outside bodega, corner of Southern Boulevard in Longwood, Bronx

Longwood is a low income residential neighborhood geographically located in the southwest Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 2. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: East 167th Street to the north, the Bronx River & the Bruckner Expressway to east, East 149th Street to the south, and Prospect Avenue to the west. Southern Blvd is the primary thoroughfare through Longwood. The local subway is the 6 line, operating along Southern Blvd. Zip codes include 10455 and 10459. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 41st Precinct. NYCHA property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 7 at 737 Melrose Avenue in the Melrose section of the Bronx.

Demographics

Longwood has a population over 35,000 people. For decades Longwood 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). Longwood has one of the highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in all of New York City. The vast majority of households are renter occupied.

Land use and terrain

Longwood is dominated by tenement buildings, older multi-unit homes, vacant lots, and newly constructed attached multi-unit subsidized townhouses and apartment buildings. Most of the original housing stock was structurally damaged by arson and eventually razed by the city. The total land area is roughly half a square mile. The terrain is somewhat hilly.

Longwood Historic District

The landmarked Longwood Historic District is located in the southern part of the neighborhood. It consists of about three square blocks including buildings on Beck, Kelly, Dawson and Hewitt Place. The district largely consists of rowhouses, most of which were designed by one architect, Warren C. Dickerson.

Low income public housing projects

There are four NYCHA developments located in Longwood.

1. West Farms Square Rehab; four rehabilitated tenement buildings, 6-stories tall.
2. East 165th Street-Bryant Avenue; five buildings, 3-stories tall.
3. Longfellow Avenue Rehab; two, 5-story rehabilitated tenement buildings.
4. Stebbins Avenue-Hewitt Place; two, 3-story buildings.

History

A typical 1920s-era apartment building on Simpson Street, near the former "Fort Apache" precinct house.

For much of the first half of the 20th Century, Longwood was home to a predominantly Jewish population. Beginning in the 1950s, the neighborhood experienced a demographic shift as many Puerto Ricans moved to Longwood. Shortly after, white flight and abandonment began. By the late 1960s, many buildings in the neighborhood had burned down in an epidemic of arson. In the 1960s, crime reached such a level that the 41st Precinct Station House at 1086 Simpson Street became known by the police as "Fort Apache, the Bronx", as was later immortalized in a 1981 movie named for it.

The wave of arson ended when community groups such as Banana Kelly and SEBCO began to protect the remaining tenement buildings. Federal funding for new multi-family homes began in 1986 under the Ed Koch administration.

During the mid-1990s, local and federal governments invested over $550 million in new subsidized residential housing and the expansion of businesses and commerce. With the building of the new South Bronx headquarters of P.A.L.; the relocation of the 41st Precinct of the NYPD from Simpson Street to Longwood Avenue; the Banana Kelly High School; and several small and large businesses (such as Rite Aid and McDonald's). Thanks in part to the new 41st Precinct on Longwood Avenue and Southern Blvd and public and private investment in the community.

Despite the new housing, there are still remains of the old Jewish presence in Longwood. For instance, 830 Fox Street, which is now a newly constructed low income apartment building, was formerly a Jewish synagogue that burned down in the 1960s. It was abandoned for many decades, until 2006 when they began construction. In the 1950s, the Puerto Rican community began to emerge. Now it is filled with large population of minorities and is an extremely poor community, but has progressed from 1980s-90s.

Older houses surrounded by new construction.

Schools

• PS 333: The Museum School (East 163rd Street and Rev. James A. Polite Avenue)
• PS 335: The Academy of the Arts (East 163rd Street and Rev. James A. Polite Avenue)
• PS 62: Inocencio Casanova (Leggett Avenue and Fox Street)
• PS 130: Abram Stevens Hewitt (East 156th Street and Prospect Avenue)
• PS 150: Charles James Fox (East 167th Street and Fox Street)
• MS 302: Luisa Dessus Cruz (Kelly Street and Avenue St. John)
• Bronx Regional High School (East 165th Street and Rev. James A. Polite Avenue)
• South Bronx Classical Charter School (Westchester Avenue and Fox Street)

Transportation

• Bx4: to Westchester Square–East Tremont Avenue (6 <6>) (via Westchester Avenue)
• Bx5: to Pelham Bay Park (via Story Avenue)
• Bx6: to Hunts Point or Riverside Drive-158th Street, Manhattan (via 161st–163rd Streets)
• Bx11: to George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal (via 170th St–Claremont Pkwy)
• Bx17: to Fordham Plaza or Port Morris (via Prospect–Crotona Avenues)
• Bx19: to New York Botanical Gardens or Riverbank State Park (via 149th Street–Southern Boulevard)
• Bx27: to Clason Point (via Rosedale Avenue)
• Bx35: to George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal (via 167th Street)
• Whitlock Avenue (IRT Pelham Line) (6)
• Simpson Street (IRT White Plains Road Line) (2 5)
• Intervale Avenue (IRT White Plains Road Line) (2 5)
• Hunts Point Avenue (IRT Pelham Line) (6 <6>)
• Prospect Avenue (IRT White Plains Road Line) (2 5)
• Longwood Avenue (IRT Pelham Line) (6)
• East 149th Street (IRT Pelham Line) (6)

Facts

• In 1985 an empty lot of land along Kelly Street and Intervale Avenue became Bill Rainey Park.
• Several crimes struck chords in this community. On February 14, 1993, someone shot several people in the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." In the spring of 2007, a police officer shot and killed the unarmed Fermin Arzu on the corner of Hewitt Place and Longwood Avenue.
• Colin Powell grew up on Kelly Street in Longwood.
• The Bronx Detective Bureau division of the NYPD operates out of the old 41st Precinct house "Fort Apache" at Simpson and East 167th Street.
• Congressman José Enrique Serrano holds his district's headquarters across the street from the 41st Precinct in Longwood.
• On December 31, 2007 Mayor Bloomberg signed the Southern Boulevard B.I.D. (Business Improvement District) into law thus making the HPEDC effort a success story in the improvement of the neighborhood, as well as the entire South Bronx.
• Longwood is considered part of the socioeconomic South Bronx.

External links

• Longwood in Forgotten NY