It’s that time of the year when, once again, The Bronx is hosting one of the most breathtaking botanical events of the year—the annual Orchid Show at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG).
The Enid A Haupt Conservatory at NYBG has been transformed into a loving tribute to the late Luis Barragán.
But this isn’t just any floral showcase. This year, NYBG is transporting visitors straight to the heart of Mexico with The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism, a stunning celebration of architecture, design, and, of course, thousands of blooming orchids.
Beginning this Saturday, February 15 through April 27, 2025, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will be transformed into a living, breathing tribute to the legendary Mexican architect Luis Barragán.
Barragán’s signature shapes and colors are evident throughout the show
His signature style—bold geometric shapes, splashes of vivid color, and masterful use of light and shadow—sets the stage for an unforgettable experience. Imagine walking through towering walls of magenta and burnt orange, punctuated by cascading orchids in every hue imaginable, all against a lush backdrop of tropical greenery.
On select evenings, NYBG will host its famous Orchid Nights filled with music, dancing, and signature cocktails for an immersive experience
And that’s not all as NYBG is bringing the fiesta energy to The Bronx with Orchid Nights, a series of evening events where the garden transforms into an electric, flower-filled party. On select nights, DJs will spin everything from cumbia sonidera to modern Latin beats, creating the perfect vibe for dancing under the stars.
Bars serving botanical-inspired cocktails and delicious food for sale, makes for a truly immersive experience.
This is definitely one of the best orchid shows at NYBG in the past few years and that’s saying a lot considering just how lovely they always are.
Whether you’re an orchid fanatic, an architecture lover, or just looking for a unique Bronx experience, The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism is an absolute must-see. Grab your tickets now and immerse yourself in this stunning fusion of nature, art, and culture.
Despite efforts and lawsuits to stop congestion pricing, on January 5th of this year, New York City launched the country’s first tolling program aimed at reducing traffic in Manhattan’s business core and increase funding for major capital improvements across the subway, bus, and rail transportation network.
An often chaotic intersection at 149th Street and Exterior Street and River Avenue is much calmer after congestion pricing took effect on January 5th of this year.
Now, a month after its implementation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has released new data indicating that the program’s goals—reducing traffic below 60th Street and improving travel times—are being met.
Many opponents of the program, which charges most passenger vehicles $9 to enter below 60th Street ($14.40 to $21.60 for trucks and buses depending on size), claimed it would hurt businesses by deterring visitors. However, data suggests the opposite.
According to the MTA, nearly 36 million pedestrians passed through Manhattan below 60th Street in the past month—a 4.6% increase from January 2024, before congestion pricing took effect.
This increase in foot traffic has occurred despite over 1 million fewer cars entering the zone since the program’s start.
8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan around 3PM during a weekday devoid practically of vehicles.
With fewer vehicles on the road, commute times have significantly improved. Travel times via the Holland Tunnel have been cut by nearly 50%, while the Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges have seen reductions of around 30%.
While most traffic within the zone is moving faster—whether on north-south avenues or east-west streets—some areas, such as 9th Avenue and westbound 42nd Street during evening commutes, have experienced increased travel times.
Many former car commuters have shifted to mass transit. Subway ridership has risen 7.3% on weekdays and 12.2% on weekends, while express bus ridership from the outer boroughs to Manhattan has increased by 5.8% on weekdays and 21% on weekends.
As for concerns that congestion pricing would worsen traffic and pollution in the outer boroughs, including The Bronx, full data has yet to be released. However, anecdotal reports suggest a decrease in traffic in Bronx streets—an observation echoed by many residents.
As a daily bicycle commuter into Midtown Manhattan for over a decade, I have personally noticed a dramatic drop in traffic on most days.
My commute takes me across 138th Street and over the Madison Avenue Bridge into Manhattan—a notoriously chaotic stretch with vehicles merging from the Major Deegan Expressway.
Morris Avenue in Melrose at 153rd Street is often backed up with traffic from 149th Street to 156th Street during the weekday. This was taken this past Wednesday at 3PM during what is normally peak traffic.
Over the past month, the only comparable period of low traffic along this corridor was during the early months of the pandemic.
So far, these trends contradict environmental impact studies that predicted a slight increase in traffic in The Bronx due to vehicles avoiding congestion tolls. While it remains too early to draw definitive conclusions, the anticipated surge in outer-borough traffic has not fully materialized. However, The New York Times reported that data from Inrix, an analytics firm that collects traffic data, indicated afternoon travel times on some highways and expressways in The Bronx had increased by 9%, while morning travel times had decreased by 2%.
This data comes with a caveat: the increase could be attributed to factors such as roadwork or accidents along those routes. A more detailed analysis and further data collection will be necessary to determine the true impact.
If future data confirms a reduction in traffic, it would be a logical outcome given that over 30,000 fewer vehicles are now on the city’s highways and streets.
In the meantime, the MTA has committed over $70 million in funding for The Bronx in areas that are already experiencing high pollutant burdens pre-congestion pricing.
The funding will go towards installing air filters on schools within 300 meters of highways were traffic is expected to increase as a result of the tolling program.
Monies from the fund will also install more roadside vegetation that will serve to improve air quality near these roads.
Despite all of this, it’s important to note that concerns from environmental activists from within The Bronx are valid given the decades long history of dumping on the South Bronx however, so far the nightmare scenario has yet to materialize.
As for how much revenue has been collected so far, the MTA plans to release that data some time this month.
The first immigration raids under the Trump administration in New York City were carried out early this morning as ICE officers nabbing migrants with warrants for alleged various crimes such as kidnapping, menacing, extortion, and burglary according to the New York Post.
Armed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer exits a Bronx building early this morning/Via Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
Images released by newly appointed Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota and dog killer, released images of the raids and said on social media, “Arresting some criminal aliens this morning in NYC” and thanked the officers involved in the raids including NYPD Special ops.
The raid happened in the Highbridge section of The Bronx, a historically immigrant community in New York City, many of whom are undocumented.
An unidentified undocumented migrant is carried away by immigration officials/Via DEA NY
Many undocumented immigrants in The Bronx and across the city are operating on high anxiety and high alert fearing they may get caught and deported.
Some, we have heard, are opting out to not to go to medical and other necessary appointments because of the increased raids across the country especially in so called sanctuary cities like New York.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James said on X, “My office is aware of the increased presence of ICE across New York City. I am monitoring the situation to ensure our laws are being respected and people’s rights are not being violated. We have sent guidance to law enforcement, and it must be followed.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem briefs law enforcement before the early morning raid in The Bronx to apprehend several “criminal” migrants./Via Secretary Kristi Noem
The guidance clarifies that under state law, local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are not required to honor federal immigration detainer requests without a judicial warrant and encourages limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities unless legally mandated.
Armed officers from various enforcement agencies gather on Ogden Avenue in Highbridge during this morning’s raid/DEA NY
Meanwhile, it appeared that only a handful of migrants were taken into custody by Immigration officials, however, now that the Trump administration has cranked up the raids and are demanding that each Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field house across the country must make 75 arrests a day, those numbers will more than likely soar.
According to the administration, they are only focusing on dangerous criminals at first but anyone undocumented can be caught up in each sweep and will be deported.
In a few years, the historic High Bridge, New York City’s oldest bridge, will have a massive next door neighbor which will block its view that many Bronx residents in the neighborhood have come to love and enjoy for generations.
Construction of The High Bridge development began early last month.
Earlier last year, Samaritan Daytop Village, a non-profit organization based in New York that provides a wide range of services to support individuals and families struggling with addiction, homelessness, and other social challenges, demolished what was once a monastery for Carmelite nuns that the organization had purchased back in 1982.
Now, construction is well underway for a 26 story mixed-use building that, once completed some time in 2027, will have 421 residential units across 400,000 square feet.
Rendering of The Highbridge/Magnusson Architecture and Planning, PC
Known as The Highbridge and designed by Magnusson Architecture and Planning, PC, the development will have 125 units made available via NYC’s Housing Connect housing lottery to the general public who qualifies for such units. The remaining units will be split with 190 set aside for unhoused families and individuals and 106 transitional housing units for families plus one unit set aside for a live-in superintendent.
Rendering of The Highbridge as seen from the historic High Bridge/Magnusson Architecture and Planning, PC
Residents living in the supportive housing units will have access to Samaritan Daytop Village’s case manager that will be able to provide them with referrals to social services, mental health care services, primary care access and more.
The Highbridge will feature amenities like community facility spaces, walking trails filled with extensive landscaping, outdoor rooftop recreational spaces, and 24/7 security.
Rendering of The Highbridge/Magnusson Architecture and Planning, PC
As for the units that will be available to the general public, we can only hope that they’re truly affordable for those that need them.
And yet another Catholic educational institution in The Bronx will cease to exist this year.
All Hallows High School, which has been facing severe financial difficulties in the past years, has officially announced that this year’s graduating class will be its last as the school will close its doors forever, ending speculation over the past several weeks that its closure was imminent.
In a press release issued this morning, the school’s Board of Trustees listed, “…decades of financial distress and an aging building in need of systemic rehabilitation and upgrades among the reasons for closing the school.”
All Hallows High School, after opening its doors in 1909, will close for good this year
Founded in 1909 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and originally located in Harlem on 124th Street, the school moved to its current location on East 164th Street right off the Grand Concourse and blocks away from Yankee Stadium in 1929.
It was also the first school founded in the United States by the Christian Brothers.
The school was originally called All Hallows Institute and included a college school of business and until 1977, an elementary school as well.
According to the All Hallows Board of Trustees, whose members include a diverse range of professionals including those in education and finance, they have been exploring various options for the past three years that would keep the doors to the school open but unfortunately came to the painful decision to shut the school down after the current year.
The school currently has an operating deficit of $1.7 million which is expected to balloon over $2 million by June.
The building itself, which is almost 100 years old, needs major upgrading to all its systems (electrical, plumbing, roof) and modernization throughout.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce this painful and difficult, but necessary and practical, decision,” said Brother Patrick Moffett, CFC, Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Brother Patrick added, “We continually and collaboratively explored and discussed a number of possibilities to remain operational, but none of them provided a financially viable pathway. The Trustees came to the conclusion that closing the school is the only way forward for the good of our current student population and school personnel.”
Enrollment had dropped significantly since 2018 and the drop was sped up with the COVID-19 pandemic after which the school even went co-ed to help boost enrollment but unfortunately even that boost was not enough given that the cost to educate a student at All Hallows is $11,000 per year leaving a significant gap with the $7,500 yearly tuition per student.
Sister Mary Grace Walsh, ACSJ, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of New York, said, “All Hallows High School has been a beacon of faith, excellence, and opportunity in the Bronx for over a century, shaped by the unwavering commitment of the Congregation of Christian Brothers to Blessed Edmund Rice’s mission of service, faith, and education. While the decision to close this remarkable institution is deeply saddening, we honor its legacy of cultivating generations of faith-filled leaders who have positively impacted our communities and world.”
Geoffrey Mullings, a financial analyst at University of Florida Health who also teaches macroeconomics at the university, graduated from All Hallows in 2007 and said, “From faculty to students I think we all had different perspectives on what was wrong and what could be done better. But the communal loss is what’s going to be most profound from this.”
“Many of those teachers then and now were passionate about pedagogy in ways I take into my classroom today and as alums I think despite how dispersed we ever became we all saw AH as our shared canon event, with memories and experiences that kept us all connected decades later,” added Mullings who also served as the school’s student body president during his senior year.
“It’s a shame that ends this year with all the community post-pandemic youths particularly need in their lives,” said Mullings.
For 171 years, Immaculate Conception School in the Melrose section of the South Bronx, has been educating the children of the neighborhood ever since they opened their doors in 1854 when the area was a small village and still part of Westchester County.
Now, along with Sacred Heart School in Highbridge, the Archdiocese of New York announced that both schools will cease to operate as Catholic institutions of learning and taken over by Brilla Schools Network, a system of public charter schools in the borough.
Immaculate Conception School, which has been serving the community since 1854, will end its 171 years as a Catholic School at the end of the school year.
According to a press release issued by the Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York, Sr. Mary Grace Walsh, ASCJ, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools, stated in a letter to parents, “While this marks the end of these campuses as Catholic institutions, education of children will not end here.” Sr. Mary Grace further added the Brilla Schools Network plans to operate the closed schools as public charter schools in collaboration with Seton Education Partners, which will also offer an optional Catholic extended-day program.
The closing of these two educational institutions as Catholic schools is a trend that has been going on within the Archdiocese of New York for the better part of the decade which has seen over a dozen Catholic schools shuttered.
Many of these school closures have also come with the closing of their churches and merging with other parishes to make way for affordable housing like was in the case of St Augustine in Morrisania and Our Lady of Pity in Melrose.
According to the Office of the Superintendent of Schools of the Archdiocese of New York, Brilla School is providing a guaranteed lottery preference for all current students of Immaculate Conception School and Sacred Heart School and will also be extended to their siblings. In order to be considered, families are required to complete the formal enrollment process.
More, detailed information on the process will be provided by Brilla in the coming days. For parents wishing for their children to continue at a Catholic school within the Archdiocese, they are encouraged to visit their website for updated information, speak with the principal, or contact the Office of the Superintendent at super.intendent@archny.org for further guidance.
“We recognize that this announcement may bring mixed emotions—gratitude for the decades of Catholic education and sadness as we close this chapter in these schools’ history,” Sr. Mary Grace wrote to parents.
“With faith, we may also see this time as a gift of the Holy Spirit, guiding us toward an opportunity that will continue to serve our children and communities with care, love, and dedication.”
While the general area on the side of the Bruckner Boulevard that the proposed 2,200 migrant shelter is sited is mostly industrial, it is within walking distance of at least half a dozen schools.
New York City’s plan to close 13 migrant centers by June is being overshadowed by the proposed opening of a massive 2,200-bed migrant shelter for men in the South Bronx and many residents aren’t happy—and rightfully so.
For far too long, the South Bronx has been disproportionately overburdened with such facilities for the homeless for the entire city.
The area the site is located on Bruckner Boulevard is being touted by the city as a rather industrial and isolated area , the fact is that there are no less than six schools within walking distance—just blocks away—from the proposed site that will house up to 2,200 migrant men.
Councilmember Diana Ayala, who represents the district where the proposed shelter site is located mentioned that she was caught by surprise, despite having recommended the site several years ago when councilmembers were asked to identify such sites, by the announcement of the coming shelter to her district as she only learned of it by way of a press release from the city.
According to the city, many of the migrants will be coming from the Randall’s Island tent shelter that is scheduled to close by next month but congregating such a large, vulnerable population under one roof isn’t the answer let alone a burden The Bronx should shoulder.
In a quoteto the BronxTimes, Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr, who previously represented the area where the shelter is coming, said, “Once again, the South Bronx is carrying the weight for homelessness in the city of New York. It’s a never-ending saga.”
While migrants deserve the dignity of shelter and needed services, it should never come at the cost of our communities that are already overburdened with issues of our own that residents are desperately working to improve.
A couple of hundred migrants at a location are manageable but the city shouldn’t expect one neighborhood to host thousands.
The Economic Development Corporation’s pick of Maddd Equities and Joy Construction elevates hopes that decades of revival schemes finally come to fruition — and concerns about a contractor’s safety record.
The city Economic Development Corporation has selected 8th Regiment Partners LLC, a joint venture between real estate firm Maddd Equities LLC and Joy Construction Corporation, to develop the 570,000 sq. ft. Kingsbridge Armory, the public-benefit corporation told THE CITY on Monday.
Dubbed “El Centro Kingsbridge,” the repurposed century-old armory will include a state-of-the-art event venue, a dedicated community space, a recreation center, an educational facility focused on workforce development, cultural and commercial spaces, sports fields and more.
The selection of the developer in a bidding process that launched last September marks a major turning point for a national landmark that has been vacant since the city took over the property in 1996. A previous attempt to turn it into a national ice center collapsed after years of legal battles.
The new development partnership comes as the borough is in the midst of a development boom, including a recent rezoning that potentially allows for 7,000 apartments near four new Metro North train stations in the East Bronx and waterfront projects along the Bronx and Harlem Rivers in Mott Haven, Soundview and University Heights that have sparked concerns about the possibility of displacement of longtime residents and small business owners.
“After a competitive selection process, we are thrilled to announce 8th Regiment Partners as our partner to redevelop the historic Kingsbridge Armory,” EDC president and chief executive officer Andrew Kimball told THE CITY in a written statement, adding that the group’s “proposal embraced the community’s vision plan for the Armory and demonstrated through their thoughtful design, programmatic uses, and financial viability that, in partnership with the city and state, they can finally deliver the economic engine and community amenities that the Bronx wants and deserves.”
An EDC spokesperson said construction is anticipated to begin in 2027 with a goal to complete it by 2032, and that its event space would hold 13,000 people at events including concerts and college graduations.
Construction Fatalities
Joy Construction and Maddd Equities are bound by a project-labor agreement that Mayor Eric Adams announced with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York late last year. It ensures union labor is guaranteed on this and other major city construction projects.
“We know we can’t get things done in this city without unions,” Adams said at the Nov. 21 announcement. “The Building and Construction Trade Council and the rest of our brothers and sisters in organized labor keep New York strong.”
Joy Construction, however, has been repeatedly targeted by Laborers Local 79 over the firm’s use of non-union labor and for what the union says is its poor safety record.
In December 2022, one worker was killed and another hospitalized with an amputation when the bucket of an excavator struck them both at a Joy Construction job site. Lindon Samuel, who was killed in the impact, and the other worker were building a state-funded affordable housing complex in Tremont. Federal investigators probed that incident and ultimately issued Joy Construction a $10,550 fine, records from the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration show.
Last February, Local 79 and several local elected officials led calls for Joy Construction’s removal from the Edgemere Commons project in Far Rockaway after two workers were injured in back-to-back incidents.
In a statement sent shortly after this article was published, Joy Construction principal Eli Weiss said that “the sad incident you raised resulted in a fatality caused by a mechanical issue,” noting that “Joy no longer uses or rents machinery made by that manufacturer [and] continues to take significant measure to address worker safety on our job sites since that ill-fated accident.”
Weiss noted that the firm is not on the city Department of Buildings top 25 list of the contractors with the most accidents and violations, and said that “With over 10,000 apartments built over its tenure, the statistics are pretty clear that Joy’s safety record is quite strong.”
Local 79 did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Kingsbridge Armory deal.
Maddd Equities is headed by Jorge Madruga, a Bronx businessman who, with a previous venture, developed 20 Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx. Three workers died at that job site between 2018 and 2021, making it the city’s deadliest project since at least 2003, according to a New York Times investigation.
Madd Equities did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.
More than $200M in Public Funds
The EDC estimated in June 2023 that redeveloping of the armory would cost up to $500 million, with much of that going towards remediation. Built in 1917 for the National Guard, the building has critical infrastructure needs that include addressing plumbing, HVAC, electrical and flooding issues.
Approximately $216 million in city and state funding awaits Joy Construction and Maddd Equities, including $100 million each from Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, with the rest coming from the City Council and Borough President Vanessa Gibson. That money from the mayor and governor, previously available as loans, carried over from the plan to establish an ice center.
The EDC and community groups consulted with some 4,000 residents, students, workers and business owners on the project concept, published as the Together for Kingsbridge Vision Plan in August 2023. It proposed the armory be used as a community-owned space for, among other possibilities, film and television productions, sustainable manufacturing, vocational training and a small business incubator along with spaces for community gatherings, sustainable food systems and a museum on the culture and history of The Bronx.
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks about plans to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory, Aug. 8, 2023.
The Northwest Bronx Clergy and Community Coalition (NWBCCC), a local group advocating for racial justice and economic democracy that has led community-driven development proposals for the armory since 1997, led much of the grassroots engagement.
“We are convening a coalition of accountability that’s made up of faith institutions, community organizations, labor unions and small businesses that are going to continually monitor and advocate for what was in the vision document,” NWBCCC executive director Sandra Lobo told THE CITY Monday evening.
She emphasized the need for quality union employment, high environmental standards, some form of community ownership and averting displacement.
“There’s very little information that we have” about how the community space in the development will actually be used, said Lobo. “We’re cautiously optimistic that the EDC has chosen a developer that has taken the vision document seriously, and that wants to uphold those standards.”
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Construction has begun on what will be the South Bronx’s tallest building at 355 Exterior Street just south of the 145th Street Bridge.
Almost overnight, the South Bronx grew a glittering skyline of market rate luxury rental towers along the Harlem River with many of them rising as tall as twenty five stories as the gentrification of Port Morris and Mott Haven began several years ago.
Now, the slowly growing sprawl of luxury towers is creeping further north along the Harlem River as construction begins on a 43 story development in what will be the tallest building in the South Bronx and second tallest in the borough once it’s completed (River Park Towers are currently the tallest).
First announced in late 2020, construction has begun at 355 Exterior Street, a waterfront property that was once owned by Verizon and billed as the largest development site available in New York City at the time which sold for a whopping $59 million in an all cash transaction a year prior in 2019.
The site sits right between the 145th Street bridge at 149th Street and the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th street an is within walking distance to the 149th Street and Grand Concourse subway station along the 2, 4 and 5 lines, and the 138th Street and Grand Concourse on the 4 and 5.
355 Exterior Street residents will have to access the building under the Major Deegan Expressway.
While no details have recently emerged on the development from the owners, The Lightstone Group, when the sale was finalized, it was reported that the development would include 2,000 units of housing of which 30% would be set aside for “affordable” housing and the remaining units would be market-rate luxury.
Rendering of the development posted at the construction site at 355 Exterior
According to plans filed with New York City Department of Buildings, the 43 story building will reach a height of 400 feet (the same height as Tracey Towers up in the North Bronx) and will have 710 residential units spread across 554,846 square feet with an additional 10,651 square feet of commercial space.
Plans also include for parking for 325 vehicles as well.
The face of the South Bronx is changing and will continue to change and in a decade, it will be completely unrecognizable.
While there have been only a handful of truly affordable apartments available on New York City’s Housing Connect portal over the past two years, every now and again a development pops up that truly can be called affordable housing.
One such development is Bedford Green House Phase II in the Bedford Park section of The Bronx.
Bedford Green Phase II / Via Housing Connect
The development has 116 units of which almost half will be set aside for seniors but in this latest lottery, there are a number of units with no age restrictions and rents starting as low as $454 a month for studios for qualifying applicants meeting the income guidelines for such units.
The development also accepts Project Based Vouchers for some studio and one-bedroom units.
According to the listing on Housing Connect, Bedford Green House Phase II is a pet-friendly development with WIFI available in common areas, a gym, community center, a recreation room, a children’s playroom, outdoor terrace, package locker room, and gated access.
Breakdown of available units and income requirements are as follows (see website for full details and household size requirements):
30%AMI
$454 a month for studio units for households making $18,480 – $37,290
$577 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $23,109-$41,940
40%AMI
$654 a month for studio units for households making $25,338-$49,720
$827 a month for 1 bedroom units for households making $31,680-$55,920
60%AMI
TENANT PAYS 30% OF THEIR INCOME IN RENT FOR STUDIO UNITS FOR HOUSEHOLDS MAKING $0-$74,580
TENANT PAYS 30% OF THEIR INCOME IN RENT FOR STUDIO UNITS FOR HOUSEHOLDS MAKING $0-$83,880
$1,581 a month for 2 bedroom units for households making $58,595-$100,620
Please note, for each unit, there are other requirements such as number of people per household and further income requirements based on household size so refer to the Housing Connect website for further details.
How to Apply
For those interested in applying, you have until December 30, 2024 and you can do so online or you can request an application by mail by sending a self-addressed envelope to: Bedford Green House II Lottery c/o Settlement Housing Fund, 247 West 37th Street, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10018
Remember, you can only apply ONCE and you may not apply both online and by mail. Applying more than once can and will disqualify you according to the lottery rules.
Also, please note: We are NOT connected with this or any other real estate developments and cannot assist you in obtaining an apartment so please do not contact us regarding these units.
For over a year, there have been less and less truly affordable housing developments opening up in The Bronx that the majority of local residents can actually afford let alone qualify for due to income requirements that are often beyond the reach of the average household in the borough.
And now, almost every development that has been offered on New York City’s Housing Connect portal where affordable housing lotteries are announced are anything but affordable.
For a time, most of these (un)affordable housing units were located mostly in the South Bronx, with over 95% of them within Mott Haven but now as of late, we’ve seen more and more miles away and further north from the borough’s ground zero of gentrification.
Rendering of 2077 Ryer Avenue via Housing Connect
Located at 2077 Ryer Avenue in the Fordham Heights section of The Bronx, the new development is offering “affordable” one and two bedroom units ranging from $3,515 a month for one bedroom units to $4,376 a month for a two-bedroom unit.
For the record, the typical two-bedroom unit in the area list for anywhere from $1,800 to $2,400 a month.
In order to qualify for these units, your household income needs to fall anywhere from $120,515 a year to no more than $218,000 a year depending on your household size.
The brand new development is located in Bronx community board 5 which has a poverty rate of 37% which is almost twice the poverty rate of New York City which sits at 19.7%.
How then, are these units affordable or advertised as such when the majority of residents in the neighborhood and borough cannot afford them?
The median household income in The Bronx is $47,260 as of 2022 according to NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and for Bronx renters that number is even lower at just $38,680.
For comparison, the two bedroom units at 2077 Ryer Avenue are on average $500 MORE expensive than the luxury, waterfront Bankside development on the Harlem River in the South Bronx where you have a host of amenities like concierge services, outdoor rooftops and swimming pools, fitness centers and the likes.
2077 Ryer has nothing to justify even half the rent they’re asking for.
The affordable housing program and system in New York City is broken and we can’t continue to pretend that they’re offering any rental relief to the average Bronxite and New Yorker.
So remember developments like this when the next time Mayor Eric Adams touts all the supposed affordable housing that has been constructed during his tenure as mayor.
For the past several decades, The Bronx was considered to be one of the ‘bluest’ counties in the US with an overwhelming majority of the electorate as registered Democrats and consistently and overwhelmingly voting for the Democratic candidate in presidential elections.
In 2008, almost 89% of Bronx voters voted for Obama with almost 92% voting for him for his re-election in 2012 solidly locking in The Bronx as one of the most Democratic counties in the country.
In 2016 when Trump was first elected, the trend continued to be roughly the same with 88% voting for Hillary Clinton and only 10% for Trump but in 2020, the total percent of voters for the Democratic ticket dropped by 5 percentage points swinging over to Trump who managed to get 15.9% of voters.
But last Tuesday, The Bronx took a dramatic shift to the right with a whopping 27% of the electorate voting for Trump and representing by far the largest increase in New York City from the previous presidential cycle with a 35% jump from 2016 with Kamala Harris only receiving 73% of the vote.
While many people, especially the Democratic establishment are in shock at the dramatic shift across the country and here in our own city and borough, it really shouldn’t be too surprising and perhaps the canary in the coal mine was the defeat of Democratic Councilmember Marjorie Velasquez last year by Republican Kristy Marmorato who became the first Republican elected in The Bronx in almost 50 years.
For decades, Democrats have banked on the immigrant community of New York City and The Bronx as a solid, liberal voting block but the results of the 2024 elections have upended those notions not just in our home borough but perhaps across the country as well.
America voted and decided to elect a convicted felon and a rapist as their leader. Someone who has been conning people for decades and he has now once again conned his way to the most powerful position on the planet.
With Republicans controlling every branch of our government come January, the consequences of the most consequential election in our lifetimes will soon be felt and known across the country and the world.
