New York City / Bronx, New York

bodegacatBX / Living in the Bronx / Updated 4mo
✭✭✭✭

Hey there, born and raised in the Bronx for 33 years! I love my borough. Probably the last remaining boro that hasn’t been gentrified yet. Rent is more affordable, food is amazing & the culture is still intact. If you don’t mind a 45 min - 1hr commute into the city via train, you’ll be set. Pick your area carefully, maybe want to avoid the south Bronx as well as parts of the west Bronx but every area has its safe neighborhoods and bad ones. I would look into east or north Bronx. I can whole heartedly recommend morris park, Pelham bay, throggs neck, Norwood & riverdale if you want the some safe neighborhoods. Van court land park & Bronx river park are a runners dream.

There are amazing murals and art exhibits that pop up in the Bronx but don’t expect Brooklyn type shows and exhibits. If you have any questions I’m more than happy to help.

SwagSkoolBX / Living in the Bronx / 4mo ago
✭✭✭✭

I am 55 and have lived in The Bronx for all but two years of my life.

I’m white my wife is black we are raising two biracial children in the North East Bronx.

Since you are from Michigan, my best friend’s daughter will be graduating from MSU this year and he tells me often how being at our house is not like he expected The Bronx to be.

There are some truly awful places in the Bronx, but also some of the last “neighborhoods “ in the city. I currently live in the house I grew up in as a child. My parents bought this house 45 years ago and there are people living on my block that have been here longer than that.

It may be a longer commute than other places, but there are a lot of quiet peaceful places.

**mxdalloway **/ Live next to the Bronx / 4mo ago

I live uptown Manhattan in Inwood, but I consider myself Bronx adjacent because I walk and bike around the Bronx all the time.

When I was looking to move from Brooklyn to this area I also looked at Norwood and Bedford Park areas.

The Bronx is a really diverse borough, there are so many different neighborhoods and they are all unique and some are quite distinct from each other so it's hard to generalize.

There is pretty decent subway coverage into Manhattan, and there are a couple neighborhoods that have stations for commuter rail - that's really convenient if you're going into midtown, or if you wanna head upstate and like me you don't have a drivers license. BUT there are some spots that don't have great coverage and could be a 20-25 min walk to the subway station. There are also buses that go across The Bronx but I find them painfully slow (it's faster to bike!)

I work near Grand Central, so if I were taking the commuter rail from University Heights, or Botanic Garden that's 20 mins into grand central! (they run every 30 mins peak or every hour off peak). It's more expensive than the subway, but you get to sit down instead of being crammed in, and for me it's a nice benefit.

The Bronx Museum (formally The Bronx Museum of Arts) is a smaller museum but has some really nice well curated shows. No matter what subway line you end up on you'll have pretty easy access to all the big Manhattan museums like the Met too. I've also visited the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage (very small, took maybe 30 mins to see everything) and also the Van Cortland House Museum which also has some interested events.

As a Bronx resident you also get free access to the grounds of NY Botanic Gardens which is a nice perk (but you still have to pay for events).

I've lived in NYC for 14 years now and maybe it's just the people I've met, but from a dating perspective I will say that I think that most people will not be interested in dating someone who lives more than a 20 minute subway ride away (and definitely not a transfer) or more than a 15 min uber. Just keep that in mind if you're looking at neighborhoods that are more deep in The Bronx.

MarketMan123 / Living in the Bronx / Updated 1yr
✭✭✭

The Bronx is huge so it depends on where.

I spent most of my 20s working in theater and living right near Yankee stadium off the 161st st D/4

Biggest Pros:

Very affordable, allowing me to be more flexible about work and/or have more discretionary income*

Living at the intersection of two subway lines meant construction wasn’t disruptive and getting to the east and west side was easy.

Living on express stops meant although it seemed like the neighborhood was far away from the “core” of Manhattan, getting places was quite fast

If you like biking it’s a very bike friendly neighborhood (something I didn’t appreciate until I moved to Queens)

Biggest Cons:

There wasn’t much to do in my neighborhood, doing almost anything required getting on the subway. Even food delivery options were limited.

Odds are none of your friends are gonna live nearby.

All and all, I think living in the South Bronx was an amazing decision. One that significantly contributed to my 20s and time in the arts being as good as they were.

One note: My hunch is it varies significant based on what building you live in. 3 years ago, there were only a handful of coops that were known to be really well run, cleaned up, and I’ll just say it… gentrified (but not necessarily white). Not sure what it’s like now or if there were/are any rental buildings that are well run around there (although further south they were building some).

*I owned a shoebox-sized studio, but I assume the same is true for rent relative to other neighborhoods.

The Bronx NYC Travel Guide: Everything you need to know