A teenage party turns into a founding myth Structural racism also contributed to the fact that it was predominantly African Americans and Latinos who stayed behind in the socially disadvantaged and neglected neighborhoods. Although racial segregation was officially abolished in the US in the early 1970s, many white people did not want to live alongside African Americans, and continued to discriminate against them, making it difficult for Blacks to change their situation. Those who could afford it fled the neighborhood, but they also had to find a landlord who would rent them an apartment elsewhere. There was great poverty, with a majority of residents living on welfare. Not because they didn't want to work, but because there was no employment at all. The Bronx was one of New York City's worst slum areas in the 1970s Image: Jim Wells/AP Photo/picture alliance The entire neighborhood was crumbling, with many residential buildings empty and increasingly dilapidated.Īs photojournalist Allan Tannenbaum wrote in an essay describing his personal experience of the area, in the early 1970s, the Bronx and other parts of New York City, such as the Lower East Side, Bedford-Stuyvesant or Harlem, looked like European cities after the Second World War. The streets were littered with debris and junk the neglected parks attracted drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes. Firefighters regularly had to put out blazes in tenement blocks, as landlords used arson to speculate on insurance premiums. Youths organized themselves into street gangs, taking control of their blocks and fighting each other. Robbery, muggings and murder were part of the residents' everyday life. Thanks again Jorge and Rafel, for such a memorable educational ride.In 1973, the Bronx in New York City was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States. I cannot recomend him and this trip enough. You can really sense that he loves to make sure that we all had a good time, and he really succeeded in doing so. Jorge was also really fun and made us laugh as we headed onto the next part of town and I would love to have him as a tour guide once again. He was constantly filling us with educational information and it was just a thrill to get to learn about all kinds of different things that we also simply drove past. Jorge was such a class act in that he was extremely generous with his many facts about the different areas we visited. Doing a tour in this comfortable bus is also a relaxing way to get around. It really makes sense to book this trip, as you get to see many different areas within a short amount of time and still get to feel as if you have actually been to these places. Jorge and Rafael were such a good team and really complemented each other well on this amazing tour around New York City. This was a waste of money and we will be asking for part refund, The day prior our guide on the NY day tour had so much more history and anecdotes about where we were. A few of us got him to drop us at the subway, although he drove 4 blocks further before letting us out at 4 and we caught subway got my2 kids some food finally and we made the theatre on time. a number of us had events that evening we had to get back for but he was adamant to go to Coney Island even though he said only the hotdog place was open for food.

Brooklyn tour thru Jewish area was good but due to gridlock traffic we were never going to make it to Coney Island and back by 3… or even 5 as Carlos suggested. Guide Carlos only really talked about price of homes and no history of the region beyond who lived there who were famous. Stopped at dodgy corner store with kitchen for restroom stop for 20 mins and then rest of your through Queens and Bronx. Understandable that traffic was an issue but the bus started and said first place to see would be Central Park and we didn’t even drive by it for anyone to see.

Hop on hop off new york bronx