Sarah Aita

The purpose of this assignment is to lay out the current conditions of the Southern Boulevard neighborhood, as well as present the local community’s take on the current efforts of the Department of City Planning (DCP) to propose a new neighborhood vision. This assignment is an essential introduction to understanding how the different polices since the early 1900s have affected the socio-economic and spatial structure of the Southern Boulevard area, which will be the main topic of my next assignment. Furthermore, this introduction sheds more light on WHEDco’s institutional and spatial positionality in the neighborhood.

WHEDco is considered be one of the primary stakeholders in the Southern Boulevard neighborhood. In addition to the community needs assessment that I am currently working on, WHEDco provides business training, affordable housing, and childcare services to local residents and businesses. It continues to collaborate with various New York City agencies, such the Department of Small Business Services, to provide community services that respond to the local community’s needs. In other words, WHEDco acts as a mediator between government institutions and the local community.

Spatially, Whedco is located at the center of the Southern Boulevard, near the intersection of Southern boulevard and Freeman street. A pedestrian’s experience along the southern boulevard can be a little confusing. The built environment along the boulevard changes with every block as building facades, uses, and street widths are inconsistent along the boulevard. The land uses are predominantly mixed-use commercial/ residential, in addition to a few industrial and vacant lots. Such inconsistency in the physical characteristics of the southern boulevard resulted in a complicated urban ambiance. Fig. 1 is a layout sketch that describes the different urban ambiances I experienced along the boulevard.

In order to gain more context on the stakeholders in the neighborhood, I attended the DCP’s open house on Thursday, June 14th. The open house took place at the Children’s aid society school at 1232 Southern Boulevard and had representatives from different city departments such as the department of design and construction, the department of parks and recreation, and the department of small business services. The purpose of this open house was for the city to gain more information from the local community regarding the DCP’s neighborhood study and incorporate the community’s input in the city’s vision, which will be announced later this year.

The local community commented mostly on issues related to the physical conditions of the streets as well as housing affordability. It is noteworthy that this neighborhood study is the second in South Bronx. The first was done for Jerome avenue in 2016 and ended with a rezoning plan that was approved by the city council earlier this year. The controversy surrounding Jerome avenue has led to a sense of tension among some of the local community. “Take back the Bronx”, a group of Bronx residents and activists, protested against the city’s development plan during the open house. In sum, while the local community seem to agree that there is room for development, they are wary of the possibility that some of these developments might result in their displacement.