Walking down Alexander Avenue in the heart of the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the country despite its five-mile proximity to some of the country’s wealthiest, you can see rows of folding tables and colorful fliers everywhere, advertising medical information or free cell phones. Its wide roads and low brick-and-mortar shops are a sharp contrast to the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
The horizon is made hazy with dusty air—a consequence of high levels of pollution. New high-rise housing properties—with their sleek steel metal frames and vivid pops of color demanding $3,000 per month on average, which are cropping up along the neighborhood’s waterfront—stick out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of longtime staples like laundromats, bodegas, and vacant buildings.
