South Bronx Rising: 35th Anniversary Edition

Thirty-five years after this landmark of urban history first captured the rise, fall, and rebirth of a once-thriving New York City borough--ravaged in the 1970s and ’80s by disinvestment and fires, then heroically revived and rebuilt in the 1990s by community activists--Jill Jonnes returns to chronicle the ongoing revival of the South Bronx. Though now globally renowned as the birthplace of hip-hop, the South Bronx remains America’s poorest urban congressional district. In this new edition, we meet the present generation of activists who are transforming their communities with the arts and greening, notably the restoration of the Bronx River. For better or worse, real estate investors have noticed, setting off new gentrification struggles.

Daughter of American civil servant abroad, Jill Jonnes grew up in many countries. She graduated from Barnard College and the Columbia School of Journalism, has written for The Record (Bergen, N.J.), and free-lances for numerous magazines. Married to a physician, she now lives in Baltimore.