Crotona Park East, Bronx

Crotona Park East
Neighborhood of The Bronx
Ranch style homes along Charlotte Street
Crotona Park East Show map of New York City Crotona Park East Show map of New York Crotona Park East Show map of the US Location in New York City
Coordinates: 40°50′19″N 73°53′42″W / 40.8387115°N 73.8951361°W / 40.8387115; -73.8951361Coordinates: 40°50′19″N 73°53′42″W / 40.8387115°N 73.8951361°W / 40.8387115; -73.8951361
Country	United States
State	New York
City	New York City
Borough	Bronx
Area
• Total	1.27 km2 (0.491 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	37,075
• Density	29,000/km2 (76,000/sq mi)
Economics
• Median income	$26,509
Ethnicity
• Hispanic	65.3%
• Black	32%
• White	0.9%
• Asian	0.6%
• Others	1.2%
ZIP codes	10459, 10460
Area code	718, 347, 646

Crotona Park East, also known as Crotona (not to be confused with Crotona Avenue in nearby East Tremont) or East Morrisania, is a residential neighborhood geographically located in the southwest Bronx in New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 3. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the north, the Bronx River to the east, East 167th Street to the south, and Crotona/Prospect Avenues to the west. Southern Boulevard is the primary thoroughfare through the area. Zip codes include 10459 and 10460. The area is patrolled by the NYPD's 42nd Precinct located at 830 Washington Ave in Morrisania. NYCHA property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 7 at 737 Melrose Avenue in the Melrose section of the Bronx. Crotona Park East is considered part of the socioeconomic South Bronx.

Crotona Park East is a low-income neighborhood with a population of around 37,075. The neighborhood predominantly consists of Latin Americans and African Americans. The vast majority of households are renter-occupied, 93.5% of all housing. Almost half of the population lives below the federal poverty line.

Crotona Park East is dominated by public housing projects and newly constructed subsidized attached multi-unit townhouses and apartment buildings, although tenement buildings, older multi-unit homes, and vacant lots are also present. Most of the original housing stock was structurally damaged by arson and eventually razed by the city. The total land area is less than a square mile. The terrain is somewhat hilly.

There are eight NYCHA properties located in Crotona Park East.

From 1670, the land of the neighborhood was the estate of the Morris family in Westchester County.

In the 1970s, Crotona Park East and many other low income sections of the New York City were being ravaged by arson. By the 1980s, the South Bronx had become a national symbol of urban decay; Charlotte Street, a street in the neighborhood's heart, had decayed the worst. The area was filled with burned-out tenement buildings, empty lots, and arsons happening nearly every day, as more than 66% of residents left the area. On October 5, 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter visited Charlotte Street, declaring the South Bronx to be the worst neighborhood in the United States. A year later, the city still had not renovated Charlotte Street. The urban decay of Charlotte Street was used as one of the symbolic locations for the 1981 film Wolfen.