Australian here. We use the term “the Bronx” to colloquially mean the bad part of town, or the public housing estates. What is the Bronx actually like?

22 comments

1. I’m from California, so I can’t answer what the Bronx is like, but it’s a borough of New York City, so it’s the name of a specific place. I imagine like any other place, though it has good and bad parts.

2. Autocorrect has intervened and now NY is a place where rabbits live

3. It’s like any other city of a million and a half people. There’s good parts and bad parts.

   Riverdale is full of mansions. Hunts Point is full of car repair shops, prostitutes and drug needles (at least it was when I worked out there).

   There is a world class zoo and a great botanical garden. There’s multiple universities. The NY Yankees (aka The Bronx Bombers) have had a home in the Bronx since ~~1903~~ 1923. (Edit to correct)

   Thousands of restaurants from a multitude of cuisines can be found in The Bronx. Hatian, Jamaican, Dominican, Italian, Albanian, Indian, Korean and many, many more are represented. 27 language groups are spoken in The Bronx.

   The third largest park in NYC, Van Cortlandt Park, is in The Bronx.

   It’s entirely unfair to the fine residents of the Bronx to compare them to your estates (projects) or bad parts of town.

   You should be calling them Memphis.

4. Like any city, it depends on where one is. Some parts of Bronx are basically dense suburb, other parts are rather run down and hit hard with crime.

   The absolute highest priced areas sit along a parkway known as Henry Hudson Parkway. These are Fieldston and Riverdale. Probably the priceiest places to live in NYC aside Midtown; hell Fieldston has private security roaming around.

   The worst is South Bronx near the Triboro from my experience but others have different experiences in the area.

5. Like someone pointed out, The Bronx has good and bad parts like most cities of similar size in the US. It’s probably one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. There is lots to do and likely never a dull moment.

   you could ask r/bronx or r/nyc to get a good answer on everyday life in Bronx

6. There’s no single answer. Keep in mind that in addition to being home to almost 1.5 million people, it’s also over 100 sq. km. in area, so it’s not a tiny place. Some areas are more commercial, some more residential. Some places are nice, some a little on the rougher side.

   Also, out of curiosity, what part of Australia are you from? This is the first time I’ve ever heard of “The Bronx” being used that way. I’m trying to think of what suburbs would be described that way.

7. NYC used to be one of America’s most dangerous cities, but the big crime reduction of the 90s/2000s was especially pronounced in NYC. So maybe that idiom lags behind reality a bit

8. >We use “the Bronx” to colloquially mean the bad part of town, or public housing

   Yeah, who would want to live somewhere like [here](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5247-Independence-Ave-Bronx-NY-10471/29854467_zpid/). Or look at this [shack](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/478-King-Ave-Bronx-NY-10464/29851169_zpid/). Never catch me setting foot [here](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4501-Livingston-Ave-Bronx-NY-10471/29852641_zpid/). I personally wouldn’t be caught dead owning a home with such a small [pool](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/750-W-232nd-St-Bronx-NY-10463/29851862_zpid/?). I should probably move to Australia so I don’t have to live in a skid row like [this](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/355-W-246th-St-Bronx-NY-10471/29852733_zpid/)

   Obviously there are rough parts of The Bronx too, but using a burough of more than a million people as a descriptor of “the bad part of town” is just ignorant.

9. Lmao you guys actually call places the Bronx? Crazy.

10. The idea that the Bronx is poor or run down is largely an outdated one from the 60s/70s. It has been on the upswing ever since and today has some of the wealthiest and most extensively gentrified areas in New York.

    There are certainly still bad parts, but calling the Bronx as a whole a bad part of town is wrong.

11. During the 70s and into the early 90s, the Bronx had a particularly bad reputation, even for NYC, which generally seemed to be in termninal decline.
    Its still probably the least desirable borough of the city and large parts of it are occupied by rather ugly apartment towers.

    But like the rest of the larger city, most of the worst of prior decades has been cleaned up. Some areas were never bad, and most of the nieghborhoods that were previously derelict have been revitalized. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the Bronx “beautiful”, but rather, “not unpleasent”.

12. Imagine any other city (yes, it’s a borough and not a city, but in terms of population it might as well be),There are good and bad areas, but the idea of the ‘Bronx’ being the overall worst of New York City is outdated.

13. Wow, how “friendly.” smh You guys talk a good game about friendliness and welcoming and all this other BS and then refer to America and Americans in the most insulting and denigrating terms you can come up with. And the thing is, most Americans show nothing but love toward Australia in general and Australians in particular. I used to be one of those people but have been disabused of that notion 100% by the behavior/words of Australians about America and Americans. And it is far more common than the friendly type of interactions I’ve had and witnessed. I don’t know what it is with you guys, but “you be hatin’.”

14. It’s unfair to say the Bronx to mean that however parts of the Bronx are pretty much “the bad part of town”.. like Mott Haven or Hunts Point.

    Saying “the Bronx” probably sounds way cooler to you guys though so whatever.. I’d just say to keep that in Australia but if you ever come to visit NY, don’t use the name in that way here.. It’s not accurate and won’t go over so well with the locals

15. r/askNYC

16. Damn why y’all coming for the Bronx like that for? I wonder how y’all came up with this one? What do Australians know about the Bronx anyways?

    Y’all ignorant as hell. Why you naming stuff after the U.S. anyways, hop of the U.S. let us live

17. The Bronx is pretty much divided perfectly between north and south by the Cross Bronx Expressway (I95). The areas north of I95 tend to be nicer than the areas south of I95

18. Can I just say I find that incredibly weird. Not in a bad way or anything, just like, completely random. Is there a specific reason why the Bronx stood out to Australians?

19. Mocking under privileged neighborhoods ain’t it Aussie friend!

    The Bronx is filled with good and bad parts… the people are all so unique and beautiful and the food diversity is unreal.

20. The South Bronx congressional district (about 800k people) is statistically the poorest congressional district in the entire country. Not the poorest in the city, the poorest in the *entire united states*.

    It has some nice parts, but people in these comments are kidding themselves trying to make the Bronx out to be some normal average urban area.

    That being said, it maintains a relatively moderate-low crime and homicide rate, and it’s not blighted or torn down the way detroit is. It is [quite dense actually, which is pretty unique for a poorer inner city area in america](https://earth.google.com/web/@40.8298929,-73.91663276,13.06432077a,676.76606128d,35y,1.47854979h,63.65322193t,0r?utm_source=earth7&utm_campaign=vine&hl=en) Its also an incredibly vibrant, diverse, interesting, and fun place. Block parties are everywhere in the summer, music is blasting, street vendors selling food all over, people are very friendly. It’s a bombastic, wild place. It’s extremely poor, but it’s not all depressing.

21. Hey hey. Chicago gets shit for crime and Aussies aren’t calling it the South Side.

    Just fun banter. Please don’t get upset. I just find it funny.

22. I would never associate “the Bronx” with “the bad part of town”. It’s a huge city with a high cost of living.