Metropolitics

The Burning of the Bronx: Reconstructing a Decade of Abandonment, Arson, and Reform

Benjamin Holtzman — 2026-05-26T05:00:00Z

Between 1970 and 1981, the Bronx lost one out of every five units of housing to abandonment and arson. But why did the Bronx burn? Bench Ansfield reconstructs this largely forgotten period in the borough's history and its relevance to enduring struggles for housing, racial, and economic justice.
Bronx landlord Carmine Lanni knew that even amid New York City's 1970s fiscal crisis you could still make money off of the poor. Lanni began purchasing cheap, low-income buildings and collecting rent

- Reviews / housing, Bronx, New York, United States, displacement, FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate), fires, arson

Manifested Stories

Rebecca Blythe Pryor — 2021-01-05T06:00:00Z

Rebecca Pryor traces the history of the revitalization of the Bronx River, illustrating an alternative narrative to the urban-frontier myth—one that centers Black and Brown communities and is community-generated.
At the beginning of the film The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), which takes place in the not-so-distant future, a curbside preacher asks passersby why San Francisco is only now cleaning the Bay when residents have lived by its toxicity for decades. The cleanup is not for us,

- From the Field / New York, Bronx, urban regeneration, revitalization, gentrification, community-based organizations

Crisis Makes Heroes: Affordable Housing in New York City During and After a “Decade of Fire”

Susan Saegert — 2019-07-02T05:10:00Z

Susan Saegert discusses the memoirs of two hard-fighting Bronx housing advocates, active at a particularly turbulent time in the borough's—and New York City's—history.
Carol Lamberg (2018) in Neighborhood Success Stories and Harry DeRienzo (2008) in The Concept of Community: Lessons from the Bronx begin their main narratives in the Bronx at about the same time, around New York City's near bankruptcy and the Daily News headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Each tells dramatic personal stories

- Reviews / New York, Bronx, affordable housing, housing

Whose Bronx?: Decade of Fire Looks Back at a Complicated History of Neighborhood Abandonment and the Rise of Community Control in the South Bronx

Aly Hassell — 2019-07-02T05:05:00Z

Decade of Fire, a new documentary film by lifelong South Bronx resident and first-time filmmaker Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and co‑director Gretchen Hildebran, revisits the South Bronx of the 1970s, when a series of unchecked fires destroyed block after block of the neighborhood, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.
Decade of Fire investigates the root causes of the fires and attempts to set the record straight about the complex confluence of events that let such flagrant neglect

- Reviews / New York, Bronx, housing, displacement, gentrification, fires, arson, United States

Special Feature: Whose Bronx?

Aly Hassell & Susan Saegert — 2019-07-02T04:00:00Z

As New York City's overheated real-estate market begins to affect the Bronx, researchers and memoirists are rejecting received wisdom about the borough's crisis-ridden past and warning of new threats to the stability of its working-class neighborhoods.
In this special review feature, Aly Hassell comments on the historical documentary Decade of Fire, while Susan Saegert discusses the memoirs of two hard-fighting Bronx housing advocates. Whose Bronx?: Decade of Fire Looks Back at a Complicated

- Reviews / New York, Bronx, hide

Fixing the Accessibility Gap in Municipal Procurement

Emily Holloway & Nicholas Shatan — 2019-03-05T06:00:00Z

How can minority- and women-owned businesses overcome structural disadvantages to building wealth through entrepreneurship? Emily Holloway and Nicholas Shatan assess minority- and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) procurement policies in New York City and show that while these programs are designed to generate equitable access to business growth, M/WBE participants are not receiving enough contracts—however, if implemented more strategically and equitably, such policies have the potential

- Debates / New York, Brooklyn, Bronx, United States, accessibility, procurement, women, gender, ethnicity, race, businesses, minorities, entrepreneurship

Taste of Home: A Sociocultural Exploration of Food Habits and Health Among Bangladeshi Immigrants in New York City

Fatema Kamal — 2018-05-22T05:00:00Z

Resettlement in an entirely different country may have drastic consequences for an individual's health. This is particularly true among immigrants to the US from South Asia; people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives experience particularly severe obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes post-migration. Sociologist Fatema Kamal investigates the nutritional practices of Bangladeshi adults living in New York City, exploring the influence of cultural

- From the Field / immigration, food, New York, migration, Queens, identity, Bronx, Bangladeshi, nutrition, ethnic identity