09/01/2023
Experiencing the Bronx through the eyes of the late Helmreich (The Manhattan Nobody Knows) is like having a friendly, knowledgeable walking companion show the area the way locals experience it. Determined to change the dismal perception many have of the northernmost borough of New York City, the author describes it as an area filled with hope, history, beauty, and a sense of community, while still acknowledging that certain areas should be approached with caution. Neighborhood by neighborhood and with detailed street maps showing points of interest, the book's vivid descriptions of the architecture, infused with interesting tidbits of history and the occasional photo, bring the distinctiveness of this borough to light. The conversations the author has with people he encounters—shop owners, basketball-playing teens, delivery drivers, homeowners, and more—on his walks differentiate this work from other travel books. Sadly, Helmreich died of COVID in 2020 after finishing this book and leaving his next work on Staten Island unfinished. His family, however, hopes to complete the series. VERDICT Like every book in this series, this one has something for everyone, whether they are foodies, people watchers, lovers of travel and discoveries, or fans of architecture or history.—Holly Hebert
2023-04-25
Inveterate city walker Helmreich continues his on-foot exploration of New York’s five boroughs.
In his latest journey, Helmreich takes on the Bronx, perhaps Gotham’s most underestimated (in terms of both reputation and real estate prices) area. “The tenements are slowly diminishing in number,” he writes, “and affordable housing, while not luxurious, is newer and far more attractive.” The author insists that the Bronx has much natural beauty to recommend it, even if you might not know it along some of his routes, with grand hotels and art deco structures of yore gone to seed and parks full of addicts. Head down Arthur Avenue, though, and you’re in what used to be a handsome Little Italy that rivaled the one in downtown Manhattan—though, as Helmreich notes, many of its pizzerias, like those of nearby Belmont Avenue, are now owned by Albanians. That’s a constant story. “In the not-so-distant future,” Helmreich writes, “they will be the dominant group, if they aren’t already.” The same is true in other parts of the borough, with enclaves of immigrants from all over the world. Sometimes there’s tension: One young Dominican woman he talked to strongly dislikes the Haitians who shared her island homeland, and one elderly White man grouses about the “5,000 killings a year on average” (the correct number, Helmreich notes, is 300). Thankfully, the author discovered more harmony than discord from block to block and refreshing diversity everywhere. Naturally, not everywhere is Eden: In Seton Falls Park, for instance, he observed garbage strewn everywhere, with sullen maintenance workers picking up “perhaps 10 percent of the total.” Refuse and occasional ill tempers notwithstanding, readers will be inspired to don sturdy shoes and head out to see some of the sights for themselves, especially little-known places such as Billie Holiday’s grave and tiny City Island, with “all the trappings of a New England coastal town.”
An opinionated, entertaining tour of a “gritty, tough, no-nonsense” place well worth visiting.