Hunts Point, Bronx
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Hunts Point is a very poor residential and industrial neighborhood located in the South Bronx. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 2. Its boundaries, starting from the north are: the Bruckner Expressway to the north and west, the Bronx River to the east, and the East River to the south. Hunts Point Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through Hunts Point. Zip codes include 10474. The area is patrolled by the 41st Precinct located at located at 1035 Longwood Avenue in Longwood. NYCHA property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 7 at 737 Melrose Avenue located in the Melrose section of the Bronx.
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[edit] Demographics
Hunts Point has a population over 10,000. For decades, Hunts Point has been one of poorest communities in the country. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (AFDC, Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). Hunts Point has one of the highest concentrations of Hispanics in all of New York City. Only 3,361 people in the area are reported to be in the labor force, which translates as approximately 40% of the total available working population that is employed. The average family here makes around $17,000 per year and the average household income is $16,000 per year. In the United States as whole the average household income is $42,000 per year and the average family makes $50,000 per year.[1]
[edit] Land use and terrain
Most of the land area in Hunts Point is dominated by industry. There is a small but dense residential pocket that occupies the high ground in the northern half of the peninsula along Hunts Point Avenue. It primarily consist of older tenement buildings with a smaller number of semi-detached multi-unit rowhouses. There are also two secure detention centers located in Hunts Point with a third planned. The total land area is 1.5 square miles.
[edit] Hunts Point food distribution center
Hunts Point is home to the largest food distribution center in the world. The Produce and Meat Distribution Center were opened along the Bronx river in 1967 and 1974, respectively. In 2005, Hunts Point became the site for New York City's New Fulton Fish Market, which replaced the 180 year old fish market formerly located in downtown Manhattan. Over 800 industrial businesses, employing over 25,000 workers, are located on the peninsula. A large concentration of food wholesalers, distributors, and processing businesses are scattered throughout the industrial district which surrounds the residential area. Between 1996 and 2002, the Industrial Park experienced a net increase of 200 businesses. Although this brought many workers into the area, there were very few new jobs for those already living in the neighborhood, which does not help the struggling local population, and does very little to improve residential life in the neighborhood. In addition, the trucking in and out of the market (1000/day) exacerbates the already high asthma rates found in the South Bronx.
Below are some of the facilities that make up the Food Distribution Center in Hunts Point:
[edit] New York City Terminal Market
The New York City Terminal Market carries fresh fruit and vegetables from 49 states and 55 foreign countries. The market consists of four buildings, each one-third of a mile in length. More than 65 fruit and vegetable wholesalers own and operate the coop, which has 475,000 square feet (44,100 m²) of warehouse space. Each year approximately 2.7 billion pounds of produce are sold from the Market which as recently as 1998 posted $1.5 billion in revenues. The market caters to the largest ethnically diverse region in the world with an estimated population that exceeds 15 million people (N.Y.C. metro area). One of largest selections of fresh fruits & vegetables in the world is available from the 50+ market merchants at the N.Y.C. Produce Terminal Market.
[edit] Hunts Point Cooperative Market
The Hunts Point Cooperative Market handles the production, processing, distribution and sale of meat, poultry and related products. Spread over 38 acres, the market’s six main buildings offer 700,000 square feet (70,000 m²) of refrigerated space. More than 50 independent wholesale food companies operate facilities here. In 2002, a state-of-the art, 100,000-square-foot (10,000 m²) refrigerated warehouse was added to accommodate the ever expanding needs businesses.
[edit] New Fulton Fish Market
In November 2001, shortly before leaving office, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani broke ground for the New Fulton Fish Market in Hunts Point. Nearly 4 years after the structure was completed, which cost $85 million to build, 55 businesses moved into a 450,000-square-foot (42,000 m²) complex, located within the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center. The facility generates an estimated $1 billion in yearly revenue, as it allows seafood distributors to store their goods in a temperature controlled warehouse with ease of access to NYC, New Jersey and Connecticut.
[edit] Detention centers
[edit] Spofford Juvenile Center
Spofford Juvenile Center was the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ) only Secure Detention center until August 1st 1998, when it was vacated by the DJJ. It was located in the Bronx borough of New York City. On January 18, 1998, the Horizon Juvenile Center, in the Melrose neighborhood of the Bronx, and the Crossroads Juvenile Center, in Brownsville, were both opened to fill the void left by the shuttering of the Spofford facility. It is currently used as an Intake and Admissions facility for both boys and girls, as well as a transfer point for state ready youth.
[edit] Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center
The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center (VCBC) is an 800-bed barge built in New York, NY, USA, for $161 million, currently used as part of the New York City Department of Corrections. It is designed to handle inmates from medium- to maximum-security in 16 dormitories and 100 cells. It was opened in 1992 and was named for Vernon C. Bain, a warden who died in a car accident. It has been used by the city of New York as a prison, but has also temporarily held juvenile inmates.
[edit] Low income public housing projects
- There is one NYCHA development located in Hunts Point.[2]
- Hunts Point Avenue Rehab; thirteen rehabilitated tenement buildings, 4 and 5-stories tall.
[edit] History
The Europeans first settled Hunt’s Point in 1663. At this time, Edward Jessup and John Richardson arrived on the peninsula and purchased the land from the Wekkguasegeeck tribe indigenous to the area. After Jessup died his widow, Elizabeth entrusted the land to Thomas Hunt Jr., her son in-law for whom the area is named. [3]
In the years between the Hunts’ inheritance and 1850, several other wealthy landowning families occupied the peninsula. Legend has it that George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers), preached in the area in 1672. William H. Fox, a descendant of the Quaker leader, and his wife Charlotte Leggett, owned much of the land that is now Hunts Point.
As time passed and more New Yorkers became aware of the luxurious lifestyle available in Hunt’s Point, more City dwellers flocked to the area between 1850 and 1900. Later, the property wound up in the hands of Fox's and Leggett's son-in-law, H.D. Tiffany, a member of the family that owned the famous jewelry and decorative arts store now on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Fox, Tiffany and Leggett Streets derive their names from these former landowners. In 1909, the Fox mansion was demolished.
Hunts Point’s status as a home and vacation spot to the City’s elite came to a rather abrupt end in the period following World War I. At this time, a train line was built along Southern Boulevard. Apartment buildings replaced mansions, streets replaced meadows and Hunt’s Point became a virtual melting pot for the City’s masses. [4]
Aside from being a period of residential growth for Hunt’s Point, the 20th century has also been a time of industrial expansion for the peninsula. As more people moved to the area, the city’s business owners began to realize the advantages of locating to Hunt’s Point. Among them were the convenient access to the Tri-State region, the existing rail lines running through the Hunt’s Point area and the abundance of space available for the development of industrial and commercial activity.
This discovery led to an influx of businesses to the area. As the momentum of incoming businesses increased, the reputation of Hunt’s Point grew accordingly among business circles. With the openings of the New York City Produce market in 1967 and Hunts Point Meat Market in 1974, and culminating with the designation of Hunts Point as an In-Place-Industrial Park in 1980, Hunt’s Point has grown into a booming economic zone. Today Hunt’s Point thrives as an Industrial Park hosting over 800 businesses providing an array of products and services to points throughout the world. Since 1988 Josephine Infante, Executive Director of The Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation, has been managing the Hunts Point In-Place Industrial Park and providing development assistance to the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center: HPEDC helped the Hunts Point Cooperative Market obtain $16 million for the construction of a state of-the-art refrigerated 100,000 s.f. warehouse. The construction was completed in 2001, creating 200 new jobs in Hunts Point.
The second half of the 20th century, however, as a difficult time for the districts’ residential community. Characterized by frequent arson and mass abandonment throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, this period was undoubtedly the low point in the area’s history. Living conditions became so difficult that almost 60,000 residents, approximately two-thirds of the existing population, left the neighborhood during the 1970’s. [5] Hunts Point today is a struggling neighborhood, with over half the population living below the poverty line and a very high violent crime rate. The neighborhood received it's own post office only in the past couple of years.
[edit] Crime and poverty
Hunts Point has suffered from crime and poverty for many years, and is part of the poorest congressional district in the country, with over half the population living well below the poverty line. The neighborhood's 41st precinct consistently records the highest violent crime rate in New York City,and due to such a small and dense residential area, it is considered to be one of the most dangerous areas in both the city and country. Violence due to gangs and drugs are a common throughout the community, and it is one of the NYPD's "impact zones". Due to the lucrative drug trade in the area, many drug addicts reside in the community. The incarceration rate in the area is extremely high. Many, if not most males in the community have been arrested at some point in their lives. Violence is also a problem in the neighborhood's schools. Students are required to pass through metal detectors and swipe ID cards to enter the buildings. The neighborhood is very notorious for its prostitution industry. HBO has made four documentaries about prostitution in Hunts Point, the most recent in April 2002.
[edit] Non-profits' presence
There are several non profits operating in this section of the South Bronx, most notably: the Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation (HPEDC), Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), the Point Community Development Corporation, Rocking the Boat, and The Legal Aid Society, Bronx Neighborhood Office. The South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO) is also involved in this area.
[edit] Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation
The Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation(HPEDC) was established in 1988 as a not-for-profit economic development corporation with the aim of improving and enhancing the challenging Hunts Point business environment.
Josephine Infante founder and executive director of The Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation (HPEDC) has worked with public and private agencies to obtain federal empowerment and empire state incentives to try to revitalize a devastated Hunts Point industrial zone. Since 1988 she's worked with 4 mayors and monitored more than five hundred million dollars in public works projects. She worked with the City of New York to relocate of the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan to Hunts Point and thus consolidate the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center as World Class Food Center and a major generator of jobs in the Bronx.
She partnered with the 41st Precinct to relocate the infamous “Fort Apache” precinct to a more central location in the community, developed the first 10474 full service post office for Hunts Point approved by the U.S.Postal Service in 1996 and opened in 2001. In 1995 she successfully lobbied NYNEX to accelerate the investment of $51 million to upgrade telephone system for fiber optic lines underground. In 2005, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg inaugurated an employment and training center for Hunts Point with her leadership. To date, no reliable records on how many people have been placed during the pilot program have been produced.
[edit] Sustainable South Bronx
Sustainable South Bronx(SSBx) is a community-led environmental justice solutions organization working to improve the environment.
SSBx Founder, Majora Carter, a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, has been instrumental in bringing government, corporate, and foundation money into the area to build two new waterfront parks along the Bronx River at Lafayette Avenue, and along the East River at the end of Tiffany Street, providing the first formalized waterfront access in 60 years to the community.
In addition, SSBx runs the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program, which takes qualifying students through 10 weeks of intensive training covering everything from tree pruning and climbing to OSHA brownfield remediation to green roof installation & maintenance to estuary restoration to job/life skills. This program gives local residents a personal and financial stake in the management of their local environment. In Dec 2006, Mitsubishi International Corp contributed $150,000 to expand this successful endeavor.
In 2005, above their offices in the historic American Banknote Building they built the SSBx Cool and Greenroof Demonstration Project - the first such roof in the City of New York. Greenroofs mitigate Urban Heat Island Effect, retain storm water runoff from overwhelming the city sewerage system and dumping into the rivers, and provide local jobs for installation and maintenance. In 2007, SSBx launched the for-profit SmartRoofs, LLC green roof installation business.
Majora Carter has been the driving force behind the South Bronx Greenway plan. Starting with a $1.25m federal transportation grant she wrote to design the project with acclaimed landscape architects Matthews-Nielsen, so far, over $20M has been secured for the project.
[edit] South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO)
SoBRO was founded in 1972 by a group of business executives and community leaders. Their mission was to reverse the flight of businesses and jobs from the South Bronx. It was the first and most fundamental step toward rebuilding a community whose name evoked images of burned out buildings, crime, poverty and drugs. But as SoBRO began to evolve, it became clearer that community revitalization required a multi-faceted effort. Today, SoBRO addresses all aspects of community development: assisting local businesses to get started and grow, training residents according to the needs of employers, offering opportunities for youth to learn and develop, and creating affordable housing and commercial space that reverses blight in the community. They have also partnered with the NYC Economic Development Corporation to build 2000 new jail cells in the South Bronx.
[edit] Rocking the Boat
Rocking the Boat uses traditional wooden boatbuilding and on-water education to help youth develop into empowered and responsible adults. Through these mediums, Rocking the Boat allows South Bronx students to deal with everyday realities that are often not addressed at home or in school. Five levels of community and youth development programs operate during the fall and spring academic semesters and over the summer. Together, the programs directly serve over 2,000 students and community members drawn from a range of New York City public middle schools, high schools and neighborhoods, the majority being in the South Bronx. Rocking the Boat teaches, challenges, nurtures, and motivates, providing the tools to transition into the next phase of life. Kids don’t just build boats at Rocking the Boat, boats build kids.Rocking the Boat holds community rowing on Fridays and Saturdays which teaches kids and adults how to row and understands how decated we care for the community.
Rocking the Boat is located at the Jose E. Serrano Riverside Campus for Arts in the Environment immediately adjacent to Hunts Point Riverside Park on the Bronx River.
[edit] The Legal Aid Society, Bronx neighborhood office
The Legal Aid Society has provided free civil legal services to the Bronx community from its Bronx Neighborhood Office located at 953 Southern Boulevard for over 20 years. Specializing in housing, government benefits, and matrimonial law, The Legal Aid Society provides free legal services to the borough's most needy residents.
[edit] The Hunts Point Express
In 2006, an on-line news outlet at huntspointexpress.com [1]began reporting on Hunts Point and Longwood. Written by students at Hunter College, The Hunts Point Express is updated regularly. The Express is edited by journalism professor Bernard L. Stein, and now appears in a print edition as well, available free at community centers, clinics and stores throughout the neighborhood.
[edit] Cultural institutions
Today an urban arts scene is emerging in Hunts Point. Cultural institutions have recently emerged such as The Point Community Development Corporation, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), MUD/BONE, Rocking The Boat, and charter schools such as the Bronx Charter School for the Arts and South Bronx Classical Charter School. BAAD is located in the historic Bank Note Building[2].
The Point, which is located in a former bagel factory, provides performance art space, visual art galleries, after-school programs in the visual and performing arts for schoolchildren in the community, and community organizing around environmental improvement and infrastructure development in the neighborhood.
[edit] Bronx Charter School for the Arts
Hunts Point has been experiencing some growth characterized by industrial and residential development. However, quality education has been lagging behind. In response to this, between 1999-2002 Bronx Arts founding team, led by Xanthe Jory, convened to draft charter proposal and create educational plan for Bronx Charter School for the Arts. The Bronx Arts team comprised a dynamic, group of educators, parents, and community residents who recognized the critical need for quality education in the South Bronx.
In 2002, New York State Board of Regents awards charter to Bronx Charter School for the Arts. Shortly after receiving the charter, Bronx Arts wins, in succession, the National Social Venture Competition sponsored by Columbia and Berkeley business schools and major grants from Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Council of La Raza.
Then between 2002-2003; or a one-and-a-half year start-up period, with a staff of six advance planning for the school began. Subsequently, in July 2003, Bronx Arts founding instructional staff is hired and convenes for first annual Summer Institute which led to Bronx Charter School for the Arts opening its doors to 162 students in grades K-3 September 2003. In August 2004 Bronx Arts relocated to its current state-of-the-art permanent facility on Longfellow Avenue in Hunts Point. The school increased to 200 students in grades K-4.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Bronx Community District 2
- ^ NYCHA locations in Hunts Point
- ^ Van Tassel Family Genealogy Page. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ NYC Parks. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ Bronx Community Board #2. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ History of Bronx Charter School for the Arts. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
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