It has a lot to do with how poorly constructed the Cross Bronx Expressway was to begin with. There's a great book called "the power broker" that talks about the consciously negligent construction of the road which required the displacement of entire families, the lowering of property value, and compromising the air quality and health of anyone living by it even though they could have constructed it somewhere better for the people of the borough. Any part of the Bronx right next to the Cross Bronx is piled with garbage, full of muggy pollution in the air, and been dealing with all types of "urban decay" issues, like drugs and prostitution, for decades. Tremont, Bruckner, Jerome, Soundview. All on account of this massive road that cuts physically through the borough and makes any surrounding area poor, dirty, and terrible.
This is the reason New Yorkers will sometimes clown the Bronx as being trash, "whack", and "mad dirty." Blame the Cross Bronx. It's gonna keep the borough a trashy hood no one wants to touch compared to the rest of the city for a long time to come.
The construction went along with white flight at the time as the borough was becoming increasingly black and Hispanic. Race played a huge role in the witting choices that were made to hurt and inconvenience these communities into unsafe, polluted "ghettos" forever in favor of having this road. It's one of the most under-talked about stories of orchestrated racist conspiracies in America ever. Deserves to be known as much as black wall street imo.
So now I'm a coward for choosing to living in Bk for years? 
I see what people are talking about bow when they say 'Old New York'
Crazy. Crotona Park not far either.
