Anna Ortiz-Irving brings today’s Bronx to the thousands of ex-pats who long ago left the Borough of Universities for other pastures, greener and otherwise.
Every day, no matter the weather, the 63-year old single mother of five walks the streets of the Bronx’s Fordham and Kingsbridge neighborhoods, in the 52nd, 46th and 50th police precincts, and takes pictures of apartment buildings, private houses, stores, alleys, step-streets and more – all on behalf of former Bronx residents eager to see what their old haunts look like.
She then takes cell phone photos and posts them on her Facebook group “Fordham Road Yesterday & Today” https://www.facebook.com/groups/410381689001622/.
As an added plus, she posts the occasional photo essay, such as the timely “New York Blizzards, Then & Now,” or a look at early ’60s Bronx bars.
“They see their old homes, and it takes them back, yet they are so surprised,” Ortiz-Irving said. “They’re surprised at how GOOD it looks. It’s like a shock to them. They’re expecting burned out buildings, like a scene out of ‘Escape From New York’ or ‘Fort Apache, The Bronx.’”
The former Verizon service technician is comfortable walking anywhere in the area, day or night. And she is comfortable dealing with building supers, allowing easy access to the back alleys that connect many Bronx apartment buildings.
Ex-pat Bronx people seem to be everywhere, based on a visit to the Facebook affinity groups that abound, with names such as “Grew Up in the Bronx in the 1960s,” “Bronx People Who Have Moved Elsewhere,” “Born, Raised & Schooled on Da Streets of Da Bronx,” “You Grew Up in the Bronx When…,” “Bronxites Now Living in Southern California,” and “Fordham Area Bronxites.”
Many long-time residents left in the era of high crime and economic collapse, and headed for first-ring New York City suburbs, as well as Florida,Arizona and California.
And then there is Ortiz-Irving, born in Morningside Heights and a Bronx resident since she was a baby. She has never left the Bronx’s Kingsbridge area, except to take an infrequent, domestic, vacation.
“Why should I?” she said. “People are surprised that I didn’t run. I tell them, ‘This is my home, my neighborhood – it’s where I belong. Why should I run?’” Her mother, on the other hand, was sometimes terrified for Anna’s safety back in the day, as her teen-aged daughter would leave for parties around the city late at night.
Anna was unfazed.
“I never got in trouble,” Ortiz-Irving said, referring to dangerous situations. “The Bronx was, and is, beautiful. And I’m comfortable everywhere I go.”
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In fact, NYPD Compstat Unit statistics show that felonies are down 75.67 percent from 1990 in the 52nd Precinct, 81.13 percent in the 50th Precinct, and 80.70 percent in the 46th Precinct. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml
The gentrification that has changed vast parts of Brooklyn and northern Manhattan is still nascent, at best, in isolated sections of the south Bronx, as reported in cool blogs such as Ed Garcia Conde’s Welcome2TheBronx show www.welcome2thebronx.com/wordpress/. And, according to many longtime residents, a wholesale revamp of the borough may not be desirable.
Nevertheless, recent newspaper articles, such as this one in The New York Times, point out the aesthetic and financial appeal of Ortiz-Irving’s neighborhood http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/realestate/attention-priced-out-shoppers.html.
“I show them their old apartment buildings, the lobbies, the parks, schools and they’re amazed,” Ortiz-Irving said. “They can’t believe how nice it looks, how elegant the buildings are, how blue the sky is. They marvel at the green grass in St. James Park. Yes, we have grass in the Bronx!
“They’ve left and they’re older now – they won’t come back. So I bring their Bronx to them.”