GOOD NEWS: The Bronx Gets Its First Independently-Owned Cultural Venue In Five Decades

South Bronx’s musical legacy was nearly lost in the flames. A mixed-use development with affordable housing and the new Bronx Music Hall is ensuring it lives on.

In the 1970s, the Bronx burned. Literally.

While urban historians don’t have a definitive answer as to why so many buildings were set ablaze, it’s long been suspected that landlords, burned their properties for an insurance payout rather than pay for building upkeep or high mortgages in “risky” redlined neighborhoods.

The borough had already been devastated by decades of highway construction,

The borough had already been devastated by decades of highway construction, white flight, and policies of “urban renewal” and “slum clearance.”

With the borough’s main industries moving out, serious revenue deficits impacting the city’s essential services, and a recession underway nationwide, much of the Bronx was left to went up in flames. A quarter of a million people were displaced, and in seven of the borough’s census tracts, 97% of buildings were burned or abandoned.

Most of the damage was done in the South Bronx, which lost 80% of its housing stock. Today, two dozen grassroots organizations focused on housing justice trace their roots back to post-fire activism.

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation, or WHEDco, saw the need for housing, too. But the nonprofit also saw that the fires didn’t just burn down homes — it nearly took the entire music industry with it.

In 2008, they saw a chance to bring both back to the South Bronx.

They successfully bid on a request for proposal on a city-owned lot in the heart of the South Bronx neighborhood of Melrose. Their winning idea: build mixed-income housing and preserve the musical legacy of the Bronx for future generations.

Now, with the Oct. 18 opening of the Bronx Music Hall, the borough is getting its first independently-owned cultural venue in over 50 years. The performance venue and cultural center anchors the new Bronx Commons, which offers 305 affordable studio units and apartments.

The Bronx Commons is a 426,000 square foot mixed-use development that includes affordable housing, the Bronx Music Hall, retail space and green recreational space. (Rendering courtesy WHEDco)

Putting the “boogie” back in the Boogie Down Bronx

With its dense population of working-class Black, Puerto Rican and Jewish communities, the South Bronx was one home to a unique hyper-local music and performance arts culture.