Bronx, NY
about
The South Bronx Active Living Campaign envisions the South Bronx Greenway as a lively "third place" in the Hunts Point neighborhood — not home and not work — where people meet and interact, and where physical activity is natural and fun. This four-mile waterfront esplanade will include a series of parks and on-street portions with traffc calming features and enhanced streetscapes along routes to the greenway.
In order to achieve this vision, Sustainable South Bronx (SSB) is working with a diverse group of partners including The Point Community Development Corporation, New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Bronx River Alliance, the Pratt Institute, Greening for Breathing, and others. The focus of the partnership is to conduct planning and design for the greenway that reflects, involves, and inspires the entire community, to monitor public policies and investments, and to advocate for park facilities and on-street connections. Projects planned include a bridge and bikeway to the large sports park at Randall's Island and Hunts Point Riverside, Farragut and Concrete parks, and Hunts Point and Lafayette Avenue streetscape improvements.
The partnership also is working with the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance to decommission the Sheridan Expressway to redirect 28 acres for alternative community use. The Montefiore Medical Center School Health Program is involving youth and parents in physical activity programs that relate to the waterfront and the history of the community (e.g., a fishing program for children, a walking program for mothers) and encourage and train neighborhood healthcare providers to promote active living during doctors' visits. SSB and Montefiore are creating and distributing targeted messages that encourage physical activity and use of the planned greenway and parks under development.
our story
A story about the future South Bronx Greenway from Marta Rodriguez, Sustainable South Bronx's Community Outreach Coordinator and lifelong Hunts Point resident: "The experience of learning and creating the History of Hunts Point walking club began as an incentive to make people interested in joining [the walking club]. It took me a long time to do the research on Hunts Point, but as I uncovered our past, I was fascinated by how different Hunts Point was in the 1800s compared to today. Hunts Point was a beautiful, vibrant place filled with farmland, mansions, and places to escape for people who lived throughout the city. Learning about this and then going to the actual spots where many of these mansions, farmland, and rich history [had been] was sad and inspiring. For example, the Casanova mansion was where el Senor Casanova fought Cuba's revolutionary war by hiding and smuggling guns to Cuba. To see the exact place that General Slocum sank [a ship] in the Bronx River [and] where thousands of women and children died was very emotional. Then to compare all of Hunts Point's glory of the past to its struggle and hardship of today seemed so unreal to me. To see the reality of Hunts Point today made me angry to think how people who do not even live in this community destroy its environment and potential. The experience made me determined to bring Hunts Point back to its glory and beauty, to return to a place where many can come and enjoy its wonder and history. That is why the South Bronx Greenway is so important to me. I see its future as a healing process for Hunts Point, and it will make me, as a resident for over 26 years, proud to call it home."
opportunities
The Hunts Point and Port Morris neighborhoods of the South Bronx are a dense, urban district of more than 360,000 people. Forty-four percent of its residents live in poverty. The neighborhoods also have high rates of obesity and diabetes, and six times the national rate of asthma. The district is roughly 66% Latino and 33% African American, and 33% of residents are under the age of 18. The environment is characterized by several major polluting industries, poor air quality, heavy diesel truck traffic, illegal dumping, unattractive streetscapes, high crime and a lack of green space. The community faces extraordinary challenges as a result of divestment, concentrated poverty, and environmental abuse. As a result, it is difficult to promote active living as a primary concern or rallying point unless it is closely linked to other community priorities.
The South Bronx Active Living Campaign also wrestles with significant ironies. Hunts Point is a peninsula, but the neighborhood has poor public access to the waterfront due primarily to the presence of heavy industry. Hunts Point also is home to one of the region's largest wholesale food distribution operations, but residents have poor access to healthy food and rely heavily on fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and other unhealthy food outlets.
Despite these issues, Hunts Point has many reasons to be optimistic. The community is rich with dedicated and increasingly effective activist groups, coalitions, and leaders. The Hunts Point Vision Plan was recently completed. The area is beginning to attract artists and middle class households seeking affordable housing in New York City, and the community has recently secured large public investments related to the South Bronx Greenway.
accomplishments
In Action
