The Bronx is a borough of New York City that has experienced a remarkable transformation since its inception in 1914. Located between New England and Manhattan, the Bronx has been shaped by its advantageous position and the city's investment in affordable housing. According to Mike Gecan, the long-time leader of Nehemiah's affordable housing projects for the Industrial Areas Foundation, from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, the city's investment in affordable housing surpassed that of the next 50 largest cities. During this period, 15 percent of Bronx housing units were either built or renovated. The life of gangs in the Bronx was depicted in Richard Price's 1974 novel The Wanderers, and in the 1979 film adaptation of the same name. One of the reasons why the projects planned for the outskirts of the South Bronx are unlikely to extend inland, gentrifying as they go, is that this area has the highest density of public housing in the country.
The South Bronx is also home to the Bronx County Courthouse, City Hall and other government buildings, as well as Yankee Stadium. Even if most members are low-income, it is essential that some members and leaders who are not dealing with the ravages of poverty must constantly move to address the crises that poverty brings. In the 1990s, New York City began closing large public high schools in the Bronx and replacing them with small high schools. He is one of the youngest members to serve on the council and is also the first openly gay councilor in the Bronx. In the early 1980s, the Bronx was considered the most affected urban area in the country, particularly the South Bronx, where 60 percent of the population and 40 percent of housing units were lost. The Bronx's stark urban life had already been featured in movies even before, with depictions of Bronx joy, a loud disapproving sound, and flatulent, supposedly made for the first time by New York Yankees fans. Last Bronx, a 1996 Sega game that used the Bronx's bad reputation to give its name to an alternative version of post-Japanese Tokyo, where crime and gang warfare are rampant.
Woodlawn Cemetery, one of the largest in New York City, is located on the west bank of the Bronx River, near Yonkers. Community Districts 1 to 6 of the Bronx, plus a part of CD 7 that moves north, CDs 2, 3, and 6 border the Bronx River from its mouth to Bronx Park, while Districts 1, 4, 5, and 7 face Manhattan (on the other side of the Harlem River). Despite the development of recent decades, the South Bronx remains the poorest congressional district in the country, and has the highest number of people at risk of homelessness in the city, according to a study by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness.
