Kingsbridge Heights, Bronx

Kingsbridge Heights is a working class residential neighborhood geographically located in the northwest Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 8. Its boundaries are Van Cortlandt Park to the north, Jerome Park Reservoir to the east, Kingsbridge Road to the south, and the Major Deegan Expressway to the west. Sedgwick Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through Kingsbridge Heights. Zip codes include 10463 and 10468. The area is patrolled by the 50th Precinct located at 3450 Kingsbridge Ave in Kingsbridge. NYCHA property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 8 at 2794 Randall Avenue in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx.

Demographics

Kingsbridge Heights has a population over 35,000. The neighborhood has a high concentration of Dominicans especially in the southern and central sections of the neighborhood. [ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/bx8profile.pdf Bronx Community District 8] ] In these two areas over 30% of the population lives below the poverty line. A small aging White non-Hispanic population does exist concentrated near Van Courtlandt Park or Van Cortlandt Village. In more recent years young professionals, mostly White non-Hispanic, have started to move into Van Cortlandt Village. The vast majority of households are renter occupied.

Land use and Terrain

Kingsbridge Heights is dominated by multi-unit detached homes. There is also a significant presence of tenement buildings concentrated mostly in the central and southern sections of the neighborhood. In the northern subsection known as Van Courtlandt Village there is a number of larger luxury buildings. The Jerome Park Reservoir is the most dominant landmark in the area.

The Jerome Park Reservoir

The Jerome Park Reservoir was built in 1906 to serve the Croton Aqueduct as part of the New York City water supply system. The perimeter of this reservoir is approximately 2.2 miles.

Low income public housing projects

*There is one NYCHA development located in Kingsbridge Heights.
#Fort Independence Street-Heath Avenue; one, 21-story building

Also notable

*Kingsbridge Armory

History

Historically, Kingsbridge Heights once had a predominantly Jewish and Irish population. However, White flight over the past few decades led to the neighborhood's demographics shifting to mostly Hispanic. Dominicans becoming the largest ethnic group in the community.

ocial problems

Kingsbridge Heights contains the highest concentration of poverty in Community District 8. It is believed many of the newest resident are those displaced from lower income sections of Manhattan, primarily Washington Heights and Inwood. With this relocation many of the social problems commonly associated with those communities has come to Kingsbridge Heights. [http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs050pct.pdf 50th Precinct CompStat Report] ] Drug trafficking, teen pregnancy, incarceration, violent crime including gang activity (Such as the D.D.P.'s and Trinitario's). Most of this of course is concentrated in the higher poverty sections of Kingsbridge Heights in the southern and central portions of the neighborhood. These two areas account for a significant percentage of the overall violent crime in the 50th Precinct.

Urban renewal

Due to White flight some of the homes in the southern and central parts of the area have been left vacant. Many homes today are being rehabilitated and offered as rentals to the booming Dominican population found in the area. At the same time higher end construction is taking place in the northernmost section of the neighborhood.

ubsections

Van Cortlandt Village

Recently the northern subsection known as Van Cortlandt Village has seen an increase in higher-end rental and co-op building construction. This subsection is bordered by the Major Deegan Expressway to the west, the Jerome Park Reservoir to the east, W 238th Street to the south, and Van Cortlandt Park to the north. On April 4, 2007, Business Week Online (MSNBC.com) called Van Cortlandt Village one of "America's next hot neighborhoods". [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17523026/page/2/] .

References