Jeffrey S. Gurock - Parkchester: A Bronx Tale of Race and Ethnicity

Jeffrey S. Gurock

WASHINGTON MEWS BOOKS

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NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

WASHINGTON MEWS BOOKS

An Imprint of

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York

www.nyupress.org

2019 by New York University

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gurock, Jeffrey S., 1949 author.

Title: Parkchester : a Bronx tale of race and ethnicity / Jeffrey S. Gurock.

Description: New York : New York University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019001461 | ISBN 9781479896707 (cl : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Parkchester (New York, N.Y.)Race relationsCase studies. | Parkchester (New York, N.Y.)History.

Classification: LCC F128.9.A1 G87 2019 | DDC 974.7/275dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001461

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Frontispiece: Maps of Parkchester. Courtesy of the Yeshiva University Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

The following abbreviations are used in the text:

Parkchester has been home over the past eight decades to tens of thousands of aspiring working- and lower-middle-class men and women. Amid an expanse of 129 acres of land situated in the East Bronx, its 12,271 apartments in 171 buildings, some rising as high as thirteen stories, are readily visible to motorists as their cars speed or crawl on the Cross Bronx Expressway eastbound toward the northernmost reaches of the borough or out to Queens or westbound toward New Jersey. No matter their direction, drivers are on the road to suburbia. This enclave has often been referred to as a city within a city by its founders, tenants, and the media since the day it opened with some fanfare in the early spring of 1940. Back then, its scale was compared to that of New Brunswick, New Jersey, or Bangor, Maine, except that Parkchester was even larger.

Parkchester is a short subway ride from Manhattanwhat its residents call the cityconvenient for the army of civil servants, garment workers, salespeople, and small business owners who have daily marched together down Metropolitan Avenue, the areas main thoroughfare, to the 177th Street/Parkchester local and express stop at Hugh J. Grant Circle. Straphangers awaiting their trains at this elevated subway station have, for generations, looked down upon the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the onerous workday lot of suburban commuters.

In keeping with the tenor of those times, in the 1940s and early 1950s the MLIC relied on the laws and the courts to maintain segregation. Subsequently, even when civil rights legislation was on the books, rental agents and the home office back in Manhattan used a variety of tactical subterfuges to forestall integration. While the chairman of the MLIC went on the record in 1943 to assert that Negroes and whites dont mix, the company never admitted publicly that it, in fact, practiced institutionalized racism. Integration was not part of company chairman Frederick H. Eckers pet business and sociological dream. If anything, he and other officials frequently asserted that blacks were not among its more than forty thousand residents because they were not interested in living there. Those applicants who were turned away or steered away because of their race knew better. So did their advocates within and without the civil rights movement who struggled to break down the walls of racism in housing, often with no assistance from the municipal government.

Starting late in the 1960s, the stain of segregation was finally removed from the neighborhoods buildings. Since the 1990s, community residents have been predominantly black or Latino, with a significant and growing population that hails from Asia, Africa, and South America. The whites who live in early-21st-century Parkchester are mostly elderly Christians; almost no Jews remain. One of Parkchesters former synagogues is now a mosque, one of the six Muslim places of worship that ring the community.

Over the decades, the neighborhood has been perceived as an idyllic setting. It is a place that folks of many backgrounds have wanted to be part of and it has been a source of frustration for those who were systematically excluded. Residents have largely been pleased to live in a bucolic environment within city limits replete with flowers, gardens, and well-kept playgrounds. The neighborhoods signature place is its magnificent Metropolitan Oval, situated in the very heart of the complex. This is the spot where, in summertime, people have sat out in the shade on park benches and admired the beautifully landscaped area while catching breezes from the sculpture fountain. During holiday seasons, passersby have admired both the Christmas stockings hung over a faux fireplace and the electric menorah on display, which also contributed to a sense that the residents lived in a peaceful preserve. Nonetheless, when tenants found themselves in disagreement with the managements policies, as tried and true New Yorkers, they made their complaints heard loud and clear. Indeed, the largest ball field was the site of many protest meetings. However, in the end, Parkchesterites have tacitly subscribed to a viewpoint that the MLIC articulated early in the developments existence. Unquestionably, from the 1940s through the 1960s, those who were admitted sincerely believed that they were better off than those who flocked to suburbia. Even beyond the daily commutation advantages of a subway whose fare until 1966 did not rise above twenty cents a ride, they liked the idea that they would not be obliged to rake leaves in the fall or shovel snow in the winter, not to mention arrive home late for dinner year-round after extricating themselves from traffic jams. During the MLICs tenure, scores of skilled maintenance employees were on the premises to handle householders chores. These crack workers were at the beck and call of residents, ready to fix electrical and plumbing problems or even to help hang photographs and mirrors.