The Bronx Is Not Burning Anymore – A Neighborhood and Its Proud Citizens | NDR.de – News – NDR Info

A feature by Antje Passenheim, ARD Studio New York

“You had to be tough to survive.” Ana “Rokafella” Garcia remembers broken glass and the smell of urine in the stairwell. To the arguing voices behind the apartment doors. The sound of the sirens. She grew up in the South Bronx. As one of the first female breakers, Rokafella danced her way through the hip hop boys club of the 1980s.

Vivian Vázquez was also a little girl when the Bronx burned. “We grew up in the rubble,” she says. “In burnt out ruins. In the midst of decay.” In the 1970s, hundreds of buildings in the South Bronx caught fire. 90 percent of the houses were destroyed.

gentrification and cohesion

“The South Bronx was burning down all around us,” says Vivian. “And nobody knew why.” The politicians blamed the poor residents. The fire department couldn’t keep up. Neither should she. The city planners wanted to evict the residents – mostly immigrants from Africa and Latin America. To make housing for the rich in Manhattan. But the people of the Bronx stuck together. Her neighborhood was her family. Documentary filmmaker Vázquez says: “We saved the Bronx.”

Today the Bronx is no longer burning. Hip hop is celebrating its 50th birthday in its cradle. But the residents of one of the structurally weakest districts in the USA are still fighting: for their existence. But above all against the stigma and gentrification. The neighborhood of the gangs has changed. On the banks of the Harlem River there are yoga studios, ateliers and cafes with vegan Matcha Latte. Chic apartment buildings should attract a new clientele. Many residents of the Bronx fear that even without a fire, they could soon be driven out.