Bronx by the bad numbers

To the editors:

The Bronx may be dying. The numbers of housing violations, eviction filings, large fires, medical emergencies, all-cause deaths per population, premature deaths per population, and drug-deaths per population rose tremendously since 2005, the first year in the Fire Department’s open access database. I began my study of other factors in other NYC governmental open-access databases with year 2005.

Our local stats reflect the fact that the Bronx is a unified system. Just because Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, and Kingsbridge have somewhat better socioeconomic markers than the rest of the Bronx does not mean that these neighborhoods stand alone and unaffected.

In 2005, the number of housing violations registered for ZIP code 10463 was 410; in 2020, 2,462, and in 2022, 5,447. Those for 10470 were 160, 795, and 2,222; for 10471, 93, 279, 649.

In 2005, 10463 had 9493 medical emergencies attended by either an ambulance or a fire unit; in 2020, 12,466. Medical emergencies for 10470 were 1,682 in 2005 and 4,194 in 2020. Those for 10471 were 2,358 in 2005 and 3,642 in 2020.

Fires per population did decline in 10463 between 2005 and 2020 by 10 percent; but they rose in 10470 by 12 percent and in 10471 by 84 percent. The firefighting units per structural fire remained the same for 10463 in 2005 and 2020; but decreased by 2.5 percent in 10470 and by 25.4 percent in 10471 between 2005 and 2020.

The audience for The Riverdale Press is largely CD 8Bx with some in CD 7Bx. Mortality rate for CD 8 in 2005 was 7 per 1,000 and in 2020 8.6. That for CD 7 was 7.6 in 2005 and 10 in 2020. Premature mortality rate in 2015 (DoH began reporting premature mortality rates well after 2005) for CD 8 was 186.6 per 100,000 and 252.5 in 2020. Premature mortality rate for CD 7 in 2015 was 205.1 and in 2020, 323.1. We might attribute these increases to Covid.

Drug death rates, however, give a more nuanced picture. CD 8 had a rate of 3.9 per 100,000 in 2005, 6.9 in 2015, and 15.8 in 2020. CD 7 had a drug death rate of 10.6 in 2005, 19 in 2015, and 32.7 in 2020.

In 1969, over 405,000 votes were cast in the Bronx for the mayoral election. In 2021, about 126,000 votes were cast for the mayoral election, a decline of 68 percent, far greater than the declines in the other boroughs. 

As political power shifts from residents to big donors, measures that protect residents from unhealthy living conditions and despair go unenforced. More people become homeless, must live in extreme housing overcrowding, endure major violations such as lack of heat, and pay rent that increases faster than wages. 

The entire Bronx is in deep trouble, including its wealthiest and best-educated neighborhoods. Our local elected officials must pull together to resist and to solve these problems. The bitter fighting now prevalent must have the FIRE industries (finance, insurance, and real estate) utterly gleeful because it fractures potential resistance.

The corrupt cronyism between the Mayor’s office and the FIRE industries will doom thousands of us to early disability and even death. Bronx legislators, district attorney, and borough president must develop a united, active force to protect their constituents. They must meet this assault on the public head-on.

Deborah Wallace