![]() Completion is imminent on two looming 11-story buildings, one of which has its seventh and eighth floors twisted at an angle from the rest of the structure, like the middle of a Rubik’s Cube. The area around the 3rd Avenue-138th Street subway stop – 138th street being the highway exit taken by McCoy – is becoming a desirable locale for young, often white professionals and families who want out of Manhattan. Half a mile further north, things are also changing. Along the industrial banks of the Harlem river, looking south to Manhattan, seven high-rise buildings are under construction. But racial tensions of a different kind linger, as the spectre of gentrification looms.Īround half a mile from the highway, the Mott Haven neighbourhood has become the focal point of the battle. Regeneration efforts have succeeded in improving the borough’s reputation. Buildings were abandoned or set on fire, so owners could claim insurance. In the 1980s, the South Bronx was still reeling from the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway, a road designed to ease traffic through Manhattan that essentially cut the most northerly borough in two, causing businesses to leave and residents to flee. Photograph: More than 30 years later, in the days after Wolfe’s death at the age of 88, the Bronx is far removed from the dystopia he described. ![]() Tom Hanks in the 1990 adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |