Not Without A Fight
Written by Samantha Blake / Photos by Dondre Green
When gentrification made an unwelcome visit to Jessica Martinez’s Bronx neighborhood, it arrived suited-up and clothed in camouflaged gear. She had spent her whole life calling Dyckman, Washington Heights and the South Bronx her home, so when changes swooped into her uptown New York community, Jessica recalls immediately feeling a difference in the vibe, before actually seeing the difference with her own eyes.
“In the park we would get weird looks, which hadn’t happened before,” she recalls. Suddenly the routine of hanging out with her friends in public felt wrong. “We were going to our regular bar and we just got upset. The crowd started changing. We felt like the place itself started catering to a new crowd.” Soon enough, the subtle changes became more apparent. “Walking the streets uptown now, it’s like a ghost town. All the stores that my friends and I knew growing up, they’re mostly gone,” she says, recalling all the mom and pop shops that have now been replaced. “I was in Mott Haven and I was in shock, like ‘Where am I?’”
In recent years, the Bronx’s Mott Haven community experienced a facelift, with a slew of new businesses. Yet even with the transformation, she argues, “right across the bridge is the projects and you see the disparity.” It was that visible disparity that prompted protests in a few uptown communities, including Inwood’s Sherman Plaza. “They wanted to turn Sherman Plaza into a shopping center of sorts. They wanted to make it bigger... right across the street from the park,” she recalls back in 2016. That’s when the community became furious and residents began protesting.
Fueled out of anger and inspired by the protests, Jessica gave birth to what is now called Save Uptown; a project under her gnrtn.WHY (Generation Why) brand, committed to putting up a fight against uptown gentrification. Save Uptown is the message branded across the apparel Jessica sells, which includes hoodies, sweatshirts, crop tops, t-shirts and tote bags, sold at www.gnrtnWHY.com. A percentage of the sales are used to create care packages and lunches for the homeless. The movement that started off with stickers plastered across the neighborhood, has now expanded in the past year to a growing brand with huge support. Bronx-bred comedian, Mero of Vice TV’s Desus and Mero, has even sported the brand on his television show.
Still, even with all the love, the brand has faced hate from naysayers. “Save Uptown? You’re a little too late for that,” they’ve told her.
Many don’t quite understand why the brand does not support neighborhood change. Jessica argues, however, “we are not against change. We are against the displacement of people and the expulsion of culture.”
“People focus on the wrong thing. We’re not talking about what really matters. I get angry at what’s happening, but also angry with the misinformation that’s out there. I think a lot of people focus on the racial aspect of gentrification and when you ask someone what they think about gentrification, the first thing they say is ‘white people.’ My thing is, yes, that is definitely a side effect of gentrification, but it’s not gentrification. We should be talking more about the people that are getting displaced. Where are they going? What’s happening to them? What are they going through? Why are we so focused on coffee shops and dog walking?”
She adds that although gentrification might be bigger than herself, the goal of the brand is to start a conversation and spread resistance. “I know I can’t take on this whole societal structure. I know that me, one person, I’m not going to go against that [on my own]. My goal is to get my peers involved, even if it is through conversation.”
“We are not against change. We are against the displacement of people and the expulsion of culture.”
“A lot of people don’t like what I’m doing,” she continues. “They tell me a sticker is not going to stop gentrification and people feel like maybe I’m further racially dividing the neighborhood, because they look at this as an attack on the gentrifiers. But it’s like, are you so privileged that you feel like even this struggle is about you? I’m not doing this to attack you. I’m doing this to bring awareness to my people, to the people that are being affected by this and don’t even know why.”
Though her brand mostly appeals to young people, the gnrtn.WHY founder also worries over the elders in her uptown neighborhood. When she’s not busy with her brand, Jessica serves her local church, where she says the elderly often go to seek help. “They’re scared. It’s an immigrant community so they see a paper from the city and they get scared. They don’t know what to do.”
In the past two years, she’s observed that gentrification coupled with the English-to-Spanish language barrier has been very crippling. “I started going to the rezoning meetings to try to figure out what was really going on and in those meetings, I would notice that they really make it difficult for [attendees]. They get small rooms so that a lot of people cannot fit. They barely get interpreters even though they are in a predominantly Hispanic community.” Jessica says the interpreters are not Hispanic and for whatever reason, they always have to leave the meetings early. “Things like that make it difficult for the community to get informed.”
“There weren’t a lot of people of color in those meetings. Our people need to do better at getting informed and really putting priority on things.”
She’s willing to admit, however, that the failure she sees at the rezoning meetings don’t completely fall on the city’s shoulders. “There weren’t a lot of people of color in those meetings. Our people need to do better at getting informed and really putting priority on things.” Jessica hopes that her brand will help bring more awareness to her people and take away the culture of fear.
And to the people who say gentrification is good for the Bronx’s economy, Jessica argues that, “Yes, gentrification can be good, but it’s usually for a certain crowd. Yes, they might have new services available in the neighborhood, but it’s usually not even available to the people who have been [living] there. Yes, our streets can get cleaner and things can look nicer but I don’t feel like that’s ok if it comes at the cost of a whole community. Yes, there are good side effects of gentrification, but I don’t think that we reap them. I don’t think that we ever get to see that side, unless it’s [neighborhood] beautification, but I don’t need that. I want my community to be what it is. So if we’re all being wiped out so things can look nicer, I don’t think that’s good.”
Though the activism behind her brand is often fueled by anger, Jessica also receives a lot of positivity. “I get so much love, that it’s overwhelming,” she says. “People are writing to me, and then they find out that I’m a girl and that I’m young and they’re like ‘wow that’s insane.’ I have a lot of love and support from people who think it’s really cool that I’m young and that I’m interested...but really, I’m here to learn. I’m not here stating that I know everything about gentrification. I’m learning along with [the community].”
Jessica also gets messages from past residents who by now, have moved out of New York. “I grew up in the Heights...I visited and it’s completely different,” some of the messages say. “What you’re doing is amazing. Thank you so much.” The community love and support is what inspires Jessica to keep fighting for her ‘hood.
You can follow the Save Uptown movement on Instagram @gnrtn.WHY or at www.gnrtnWHY.com
Visiting the Bronx Museum of the Arts: The Intersection of Anarchy and Architecture
Written by Tiffany Hernandez / Photos by Dondre Green
The definition of anarchism, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is “a political theory which is skeptical of the justification of authority and power.” The work of Gordon Matta-Clark which is currently on display at the Bronx Museum of Arts is intended to be the intersection of anarchy and architecture, an exhibition titled accordingly Anarchitect.
When one thinks of architecture, one often thinks of physical structures. Especially as New Yorkers, we picture the structures that envelope our everyday life – skyscrapers, apartment buildings, subway stations. Gordon Matta-Clark, as an artist, looked at those same structures and created work that contemplated how structured political systems, such as a local and/or federal government, influence the structuring of everyday physical spaces.
Walking into the Anarchitect exhibit at the Bronx Museum of Arts, the first thing that caught my attention was the paper cut outs of graffiti-covered subway carts wrapped around the exhibit rooms white walls. Below the wallpaper-like display were framed zoomed-in graffiti prints, leaving the location of the graffiti’s original placement ambiguous.
I have always had a special interest in graffiti art; it’s relationship with systemic structures, and our relationship with graffiti as Bronx dwellers. We see graffiti everywhere, on everything and I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think much of it on an everyday basis.
That being said, it was back in 2016, when I first read the words of Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez, in the March 2016 publication of Poetry that I began to think about the significance of graffiti in the lives of people who grew up and live in disenfranchised neighborhoods.
“If the city was a body, graffiti would tell us where it hurts”
That Bojórquez quote immediately came into mind when walking around the Matta-Clark’s exhibit, an exhibit where graffiti was displayed as art – graffiti displayed as work worth being framed. This quote is followed by the thought of my local subway station, the Kingsbridge station off of the D line, and the amount of times I’ve seen graffiti come and go through the years – painted over hastily and mostly carelessly with white paint.
And in contrast, I consider the graffiti lined streets of gentrified Brooklyn that tourists and transplants take selfies in front of them for their Instagram pages. It is with these two images in mind, the Anarchitect exhibit I am left with questions about who has the authority to decide what graffiti is covered and which is displayed. What structures – what social, political and economic structures – have a role in deciding what gets to stay and what gets to go in our neighborhoods? That question is not limited to graffiti – but expands to our local shops, apartment buildings and schools.
It is interesting to note that while Gordon Matta-Clark is on display in museums – the Anarchitect exhibit will be traveling to Paris, Estonia and Massachusetts after its stay at the Bronx Museum of Arts – the graffiti in the Bronx has continued to cover the structures of our borough. And faceless authorities continue to paint over what Bojórquez would call the bruises of our city.
That being said, Gordon-Matta Clark’s work is a portfolio worth being displayed. His work is politically charged and potent with social significance – holding a specific weight by being displayed within the walls of the Bronx Museum of Art in the South Bronx.
Gordon Matta-Clark’s work considered the relationship between what is constructed and what is destroyed. Besides graffiti, Matta-clark focused on the architecture that filled the South Bronx. As written as a precursor to the exhibit, speaking of Matta-Clark’s work with the demolished buildings of the Bronx, the exhibit wall reads “Like an urban archeologist he captured these remnants of by-gone habitation, peeling paint and residual wallpaper, evidence of the structure’s obsolesce as ‘home’.” It is through this description that we can begin to understand how physical structures such as an apartment building and abstract ideas such as the concept of home intersection, specifically for disenfranchised communities.
Throughout his work and throughout the exhibit, the common thread is turning abstract ideas on their heads. By looking at how destruction and abandonment interact with physical structures, populations and systemic structures such as a local government that leaves behind a whole borough to fend for itself, Gordon Matta-Clark demands us to look closely at the spaces around us. In turn, he asks his audience to consider the ways physical structures speak to the abstract structure of our everyday lives. From subway stations, apartment buildings and the skyscrapers around us, from graffiti in the Bronx and graffiti in Brooklyn, these spaces speak volumes for how our social circumstances are constructed and deconstructed.
If you’re interested in experiencing the Bronx in a new way, from the lens of an artist who brought attention to the aching bruises that filled and continue to fill the physical structures of our borough, I recommend visiting the Anarchitect exhibit, displaying at the Bronx Museum of Arts until April 8th, 2018. There, you can see for yourself, the intersection of anarchy and architecture from the eyes of Gordon Matta-Clark.
Bronx Narratives Issue 02 Release Event at The Miles Coffee Bar
Written by Dondre Green / Photos by Hunter Reveur
Our second annual magazine release event was a success. We appreciate everyone who came out and supported. If you weren't able to snag your copy but reside in NYC, you can via one of our retailers. These include: The Miles Coffee Bar, Verde Flowers, Casa Magazines, Quimby's Bookstore NYC and MoMa PS1.
BXN RADIO - EP 17: Eric Hoke
Written by Dondre Green / Design by Hoay Smith
For our seventeenth episode we talked with Founding Pastor of All Saints Church, Eric Hoke.
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BXN RADIO - EP 16: Hunter Reveur
Written by Dondre Green / Design by Hoay Smith
For our sixteenth episode we talked with Photographer, Hunter Reveur
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Dropping Anchor: Pulling into Port at One of South Bronx’s Latest Restaurants Porto Salvo
Written by Jeannie Smith / Photos by Dondre Green
I smacked the back of my spoon on top of my crème brûlée, revealing the basil infused custard lying beneath its torched surface, it’s aroma incredibly charming. I was already full, but I'm not one to turn down dessert. I took a spoonful.
"Oh my goodness," I moaned loudly, leaning all of my weight from tonight’s dinner into the back of the chair. My friend who sat across from me looked up from her spoon and laughed. We couldn't understand how we were in an Italian restaurant in the Bronx and NOT on Arthur Avenue, for me, the two is seemingly synonymous with one another. This association was surely challenged by tonight’s adventure in the South Bronx to Porto Salvo on 161st between Melrose and Elton Avenues as part of “Savor the Bronx” restaurant week.
Upon seating, I quickly took stock of the space around me: seahorses, low hanging lights, white tiles and wood lining the bar and walls. A boat steering wheel hung on the far end of the bar. Behind it hung a captain’s hat. The nautical décor transports one to an old Italian port tavern to which the restaurant derives its interior.
The ambience was relaxed. It was something I found myself taking note of repeatedly: how comfortable I was, how comfortable everyone around me seemed to be. It was a relatively busy night for the budding restaurant, shy of being open only five months. We sat next to a table of about eight, a good-humored and lively group, but I was able to hear my friend clearly as if she were sitting right next to me. For the most part, patrons appeared to be locals. The restaurant stands alone on the block, save for a deli at one corner, and a fresh foods market and an African market sandwiching both sides of the restaurant. Service wasn’t rushed, which I typically prefer. I’m not one to want my meals so quickly, especially multiple courses. It helps to appreciate the full culinary experience of a home cooked meal coupled with the intimacy of enjoying good conversation and several glasses of wine in between. From my experience, this also tends to be typical of most authentic style restaurants where one can be assured that their food is prepared fresh and made to order.
Porto Salvo was one of the latest restaurants I couldn’t wait to try out. I followed them on Facebook, on Instagram, all before actually stepping foot inside of it. For all I knew this could have been a total disappointment, which, thankfully, it was not. In a recent conversation, Mark Lu, one of the restaurant partners, spoke a truth that all foodies live by:
“[Customers] are looking for an experience. They are not just looking for something to eat. They are coming out to connect with people. They are coming out to socialize versus ordering in.”
This is an important fact. To live in one of the most incredible, diverse cities in the world, as much as I love to eat, I am hungrier for an experience and I don’t always want to swipe my Metrocard and leave the mainland behind in search of it. Call it Bronx pride. Heck, call it sheer laziness, I wouldn’t be entirely offended, but one thing I do know is that I can have both a good meal and the experience of fine dining right here in my home borough.
In the beginning of the restaurant’s establishment, finding ways to bring the fine dining experience to the locals has always been a priority. Often, Lu and his partner (in business and in life) Luigi Ghidetti, who is also the executive chef, would shed their labels as restaurant owners and sit down with the patrons and casually converse with them in order to understand what they most desired in a fine dining experience:
“The idea of us being owners and chefs, being there and engaging [with] the locals after they consumed a meal; we [would ask], ‘How do you feel, you know, when you look at the menu?’ and ‘What would you like to see? What sort of basic ingredients would you like to see?’ And then we connect those meals that they would like to consume with some of the recipes we already have and then we can present that dish later on…[W]e have done two or three iterations of the menu, and those menus have been adjusted and continue to adjust to the local taste but without compromising the recipes we already have. That I think is important because, you know, you cannot say that, or no restaurant can say that, ‘Well we have great food!’, but is it the food that the local people are looking forward to having [for] dinner?”
“Savor the Bronx” restaurant week afforded us the opportunity to enjoy a three-course old Italian style cuisine meal for only $35, which included a glass of their house wine. I started with their homemade crab cake served over cauliflower and string beans with a light white drizzle sauce, my friend enjoying their Bruschetta Funghi e Fontina (mixed mushrooms, fontina cheese, and truffle oil over toasted peasant bread). For the main course, I had their homemade ravioli with sausage and potatoes with a rosemary sauce (an incredibly aromatic meal!) while she had the grilled salmon with string beans, roasted tomatoes and potatoes. Portions sizes of both of our appetizers and main courses were impressive and we find ourselves full rather quickly and taking leftovers home. Of course, saving enough room for dessert.
"Frittura mista” (mixed with apple, cauliflower and zucchini)
From my seat, I could smell several other patron’s plates as they were being delivered to their tables, curious about that they were having, asking myself if I made the wrong decision, instead confirming that I would just need to come back and try another menu item. In chatting with the waiter, it was clear that the restaurant met the need for more options for “a night out” without having to travel too far from home, a personal philosophy I stand by for my weekend adventures. Lu recalls similar frustrations with trying to convince some of his friends to come visit him here in the Bronx:
“When we call up friends, they always say, ‘Well you come to me and meet me at such and such,’ which is usually not in the Bronx, and then you have to be the one, as a resident of the Bronx, that has to travel out of the borough. But then when you decide to say, ‘Well, why don’t you come up for once?’, then they quickly say, ‘Well, there’s nothing near you,’ or you all end up going to Riverdale, or Arthur Avenue or a little further [out and away]. They come and meet you at your apartment and then [you all] have to travel to another place…it’s always an extra step further and it really prevents people from connecting.”
These “compromises” shouldn’t have to come at a cost of living in the Bronx. Bronx pride is strong, and real! And anything that deepens this emotion is worth proudly representing, Thankfully, places like Porto Salvo are an important reminder on all that our borough has to offer, specifically to its locals. We can begin to abandon the idea that we need to travel into Manhattan for a good meal and great drinks. Instead, we can invest in exploring the open seas that is our home borough and discover new places to drop anchor. With a well-stocked bar featuring local draft beers, a variety of wines, and a menu full of authentic Italian cookery made to order at an affordable price, and most important, the feeling of being home, I wouldn’t be surprised if Porto Salvo becomes a frequent weeknight hot spot. And knowing that they offer brunch (with outdoor seating, sch’mon summer!), I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself pulling into port and dropping my anchor again and again.
BXN RADIO - EP 15: Henry Obispo
Written by Dondre Green / Design by Hoay Smith
For our fifteenth episode we talked with Founder & CEO of BORNjuice, Henry Obispo.
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Bronx Sidewalks Need a Cleanup
Written by Samantha Blake / Photos by Dondre Green
Take a walk down Bronx Boulevard and you’re sure to be greeted by food wrappers, used toothpicks and most notoriously, dog feces. In fact, at the Montefiore Medical facilities between East 234th and East 236th street, lab tests placed in outside pickup bins, sit just a few feet from piles of dog waste.
There are very few public litter baskets in this North Bronx community, so pedestrians tend to throw personal garbage right on the sidewalk. Although residents have the right to request public litter baskets, a September request for a litter basket was denied by the Department of Sanitation (DSNY). “It’s a low trafficked area and placing a litter basket there would attract further dumping,” James O’Connor, a Community Associate at DSNY informed Bronx Narratives.
However, with the presence of a cardiovascular facility, an OB/GYN and Geriatrics center, along with the Metro North Railroad Woodlawn Station just two blocks away, many would argue that the area receives a moderate amount of traffic – enough traffic to deserve a garbage bin.
“[The Department of Sanitation] should come clean the sidewalk, but they don’t.”
Although street cleaning happens here six days a week, sidewalks are not included in that process. Business owners and employees on that street gave cleanliness a poor rating. Pedestrians have also spotted rats in the daytime. “[The Department of Sanitation] should come clean the sidewalk, but they don’t,” says Tanairy Gonzalez, a medical secretary at the OBGYN facility on the block.
And that’s where finger pointing and the blame-game come to play.
Tamar, a Customer Service Representative at NYC’s 311, says the DSNY is not responsible for sidewalk cleaning. They are only held responsible for garbage removal, street cleaning and snow removal. “Residential property owners must clean the sidewalks adjoining their property and 18 inches from the curb into the street.”
As for the neighborhood’s animal waste problem, there are no “Curb Your Dog” signs to remind dog walkers of their responsibility. In fact, since 2013, there has been a cutback on more than 1,000 dog waste signs, in an attempt to clear up sign clutter across NYC. At the time, former DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told the New York Post that, “New Yorkers know they need to clean up after their dogs, so I don’t foresee any problems....” Four years later and residents feel dog waste continues to be an ongoing issue.
Employees in the neighborhood also agree they have witnessed the DSNY police hand out more fines for parking violations than for dog waste.
According to the city’s Pooper Scooper Law, property owners are expected to clean up animal waste, even if the animal doesn’t belong to them. So when a dog litters on your sidewalk, if the dog walker doesn’t clean up, that waste becomes your responsibility. However, property owners do have the right to report any dog walkers who fail to pick up after their dogs. Property owners can call 311 or file a Dog or Animal Waste Complaint online. Violators are subject to a $250 fine. This law does not apply to Service Dogs being walked by those who have special needs.
Since Bronx Narratives began researching this story in late September, sidewalks have become visibly cleaner, proving that, neighborhood cleanliness is not just one party's responsibility. When the DSNY, property owners and pedestrians each do their part to pick up trash and properly dispose of litter, residents experience a cleaner, more improved Bronx.
Tour de Bronx Celebrates 23 Years
Written by Kayla Smith / Photos by Dondre Green
An EDM version of “Treasure” by Bruno Mars blared through the speakers to pump up the crowd for the bike ride ahead. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. started the countdown and the first group of cyclists, the 40 milers, were off followed by my group, the 25 milers.
Sunday, October 22nd marked the 23rd Annual Tour de Bronx, New York State’s largest free cycling event. I joined with more than 6000 people who trekked up the steep urban terrain of the Grand Concourse to take part in Tour de Bronx. Some 2000+ avid riders tackled the scenic 40 mile route through City Island, Orchard Beach, Woodlawn Cemetery and more. While those choosing the casual 25 mile course rode through several lovely Bronx parks.
Riders from all over New York City, visitors from New Jersey, Connecticut and a few participants from out of the country were greeted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. He spoke highly of the birthplace of doo-wop, salsa and hip hop, and also reminded us that the tour was an opportunity to make strides in #Not62, a collaborative campaign for a healthier Bronx by 2020. #Not62 was created after the release of the 2014 Robert Wood Johnson County Health Ranking Report which ranked the Bronx the unhealthiest county; last of 62 counties.
“My favorite route was the Soundview Greenway, a trail along the Bronx River. The sun bounced off the river while golden brown leaves fell from the trees, it was the perfect view to complement the unusually warm mid-October morning. ”
Bikers doing their final registration before they started the race.
I spoke with riders who participated in Tour de Bronx for many years, one rider mentioned this was his seventh year. Another rider told me this was her comeback after a few years hiatus. For me, the novice, Tour de Bronx was an opportunity for a new experience and to view the Bronx from a new perspective.
My favorite route was the Soundview Greenway, a trail along the Bronx River. The sun bounced off the river while golden brown leaves fell from the trees, it was the perfect view to complement the unusually warm mid-October morning.
Some riders pedaled past me, the bikes they rode were as diverse as the crowd. Unicycles, bikes with the thickest tires I’d ever seen, some that looked like motorcycles, and bikes made for two, carried the young and the old, experienced and the novice. Together we shared this experience. The unity was palpable.
That feeling began for me after I carried my bike up the steps to the Lexington Avenue bound 4 train platform and spotted a few riders on their way. It grew as I exited the train at 161-Yankee Stadium and saw the sea of people rolling their bikes out of every train car. It grew even more still along the way to the finish line. Bronx residents encouraged us almost every step of the way with signs. Some shouted, “Keep going! Don't quit!” This was the fuel I needed to keep going.
A cyclist and his unique bike who we ran into after the event.
I crossed the finish line and received my trophy, a t-shirt commemorating the 23rd ride. We sat in a large grassy field in The New York Botanical Garden enjoying the music festival and a free slice of pizza courtesy of Domino’s. My legs felt like jelly but It was worth it.
Putting yourself in new situations is a great way to learn about yourself and the world around you. It connects you with people you may not otherwise meet. I gained two new bike riding partners that day. They’ve invited me to do a 40 mile ride with them, my acceptance is pending. But I don’t doubt that I can do it, Tour de Bronx was a testament that I could.
BXN RADIO - EP 14: Efrain Opus
Written by Dondre Green / Design by Hoay Smith
For our fourteenth episode we talked with Bronx Emcee and Fitness Instructor, Efrain Opus.
Press play below.