Grand Avenue Undergoes Drastic Changes

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Dr. Donald Clarke’s home on Grand Avenue in the Bronx is a spacious three-story, seven-bedroom home enveloped by a wrap-around porch and sheltered from the sun’s glare by a large leafy tree out front. A short way down the street is a brick building in the midst of construction, flanked by uneven planks of wood in a graffitied make-shift fence. The structure is without windows or a roof and gives off a toothy grin. Finally, a few houses down on this block of transitions is a multi-family home with a series of bay-windows protruding from the front. There are cars parked in the driveways out front and little kids play outfront.

In recent years the Victorian homes in the Bronx have been slowly torn down and multi-family units are being built in their place. Clarke, who receives one or two offers a week to sell, knows first hand how much developers are salivating for the opportunity to transform these old homes into block units.

A chemistry professor at Fordham University, Clarke has lived in his Grand Ave. home since 1962 when he, his wife and seven kids moved from Queens because their attached house was getting to be a tight fit. Forty years ago, he said the whole block was filled with Victorian homes. Although the development frenzy started before 2000, he said a particularly drastic change occurred last year because many of his neighbors recently retired and developers jumped right in. The change has brought a new feel to the neighborhood, sometimes positive and other times negative.

“There were no children on the block,” Clarke said. “Now there’s much more life on the street.” Now, children play outside their homes and other bike by after school. It’s harder for Clarke to get to know his neighbors in the multi-family homes because of the age gap, but he admits the change is good.

More children in the area might liven up the block, but it has other effects as well. While building more homes in a city with a housing crunch helps alieve that stress, it also means overcrowding, pointed out Greg Lobo-Jost, deputy director of the University Neighborhood Housing Program.

“In some ways it’s great to have more places to live,” he said. “But the downside is over crowding of schools.”

Another quality of life issue Lobo-Jost worries about is more aesthetic. People are attracted to the idea of buying the three-family buildings and then renting out two of the units to make money on rent. However, Lobo-Jost said some buyers rent out all three units and live elsewhere, leaving the tasks of maintenance lingering.

“It’s like a mini apartment building without a super[intendent]. Who’s taking care of the property and upkeep?” said Lobo-Jost. “There’s already a lot of graffiti on some of the garages.”

The change from older architecture, single-family homes to utilitarian, three-family buildings is not unique to the Bronx, or to New York City, and there are many such trends occurring across the United States. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is an advocacy group that provides information on preserving historical homes, offers information about teardowns. The term “teardown” refers to buying a home on a lot, demolishing it and building a usually larger building in its place. In some cases the teardowns result in much larger single-family homes next to more modest, smaller ones, but in the Bronx the result is larger buildings that house multi-family structures.

It might be possible to turn these older homes into landmarks and people can collect information about a particular house and write up a nomination for the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. While the house is on the calendar waiting to be considered, all construction on the house must cease and the process can take years. However, this would stall the inevitable unless the house was actually named a landmark. In the Bronx, though, community members don’t seem to be taking up this option as a means to preserve the homes on Grand Avenue. Whatever the reason, development is continuing to occur rapidly.

One reason for this growth is the improving image of the Bronx over recent years. It is difficult to shake the borough’s history of the ‘70s, but developers have been working on projects outside residential ones, like stores and office buildings. There is even a discernible change in billboards on Fordham Road, the Bronx’s main outside shopping district, where there are more current ads going up.

Amidst borough-wide development, Victorian homes are becoming extinct in the Bronx because of their high cost. For people like Clarke who have long paid off the mortgage, the price of maintenance and repairs are not restrictive and he can afford to stay. Many others, though, are forced to either sell their homes or rent out rooms, which can result in unsafe living conditions if too many people are living in the same space. Clarke recognizes this dilemma but is in a good position to stay, and frustrate more eager developers. If the amount of development occurring on Grand Avenue is any indication, the trend will continue and the area, for better or for worse, will continue to change.