The Bronx

I live in The Boggie Down Bronx.  The Bronx.  It is the only borough in New York City whose name is proceeded by the word "THE".  Perhaps that word proceeds the name of the borough to signify its importance.  The Bronx of the the 1980's was a place of transition.  I first lived in The Bronx during this decade and it was ablaze.  When riding the #4 elevated train and looking out at the charred edifices that once housed people of different ethnicities, I wondered about the landlords that most likely were the ones who set the buildings on fire so that they could collect insurance money.  How crazy is it that a human being could displace so many hundreds of people, and perhaps, should the evacuation of such building not go well, kill countless people because of a deliberately set blaze, all for a dollar.  It happened many, many times.  I had residents of my borough tell me that they slept with one eye open just in case they had to run from their home because they understood how lucrative the burning of an apartment building was to a landlord versus the renting of those same apartments.
 
Through that horrendous time of The Bronx its residents and I subsisted, and better times have emerged.  It is a new Bronx, one that embodies the many cultures that now occupy it.  Cambodians, Mexicans, Italians, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, West Indians, they are all here, loving and living in The Bronx.
 
When I now take my train ride on The #4 Train to get home to my apartment in The Bronx, I see the vast amount of construction of new buildings.  There is such a boom of  construction that it is hard to remember how bombed out The Bronx used to look.  Those of us who lived through those times called The Bronx "Beirut"
 
I am proud of my adopted borough and the way in which it has rebounded.  It was always looked down upon.  Once, when I was in Paris, France and a cab driver asked where I was from I replied that I lived in The Bronx, and he looked back at me and said that he knew there was a lot of killing in my town, and asked how could I live there and feel safe.  I didn't know how to answer the question as I had never felt threatened my whole time of living there.  No matter how rough times were, there was always a certain understanding amongst the small, small criminal element of my neighborhood of The Bronx, and the other, vast law-abiding citizenry of The Bronx.  The understanding was that those who didn't do dirt should not get dirty.  If one was not part of the life of crime, one should not become a victim of it.    So one would see the pimps and the other criminal elements on the various excursions through the neighborhood, but it often did not impinge upon you drastically.  One knew the cops knew of the situation, and that it would be dealt with.  And the other also knew that people are just trying to live, and to let them pass without incident.  Cohesiveness of the different elements of the neighborhood allowed all to exists peacefully.
 
The 2000's has proven for The Bronx to be the the century that has seen it flourish and prosper.  Those that are residents of its majestic hills and valleys have seen its lows and now are proud of its highs.   The Boogie Down Bronx is worthy of its own Bronx Cheer.  So here's to you, my beloved Bronx.  You are revered and deserving, and I am proud to be a resident.