Each Sunday, “Your New York” takes an inside look at a city neighborhood. This week, explore the sights and sounds of the Bronx‘s Castle Hill.
Once a no-go zone due to high crime rates, local residents have taken back the streets, with a burst of new housing and a tight-knit community of artists and musicians. From the students at local schools to an Afrobeat musician who traveled the world with Fela Kuti, Castle Hill’s vibrant artistic community has revived this waterfront hood.
The landscape of Castle Hill Ave. changes several times over from the bustling restaurants and fast-food joints near the 6 train to Castle Hill’s southern tip, where $500,000 single- and multi-family homes sprawl out in front of Castle Hill Park and the East River. The neighborhood, complete with the Bronx’s only YMCA, enjoys a family-friendly, almost suburban feel that counters its urban reputation.
Jamar and Shemar DaCosta (r.), both 9, walk home from Holy Family school in a neighborhood that is significantly safer now than it was before they were born. In fact, police reports from the local 43rd Precinct show that there has been a 33% decrease in crime in the last 10 years, and a nearly 70% decrease in the last 16 years.
Even Castle Hill Houses, a 14-building public housing development, is getting a face-lift. “They’re going green up here. It’s nice,” says tenant association president Reid Roxanne, 53, and he’s not just talking about the fresh produce. Over the last year, the Housing Authority has invested $25 million in the buildings, installing energy-saving lights and brand-new boilers to kick-start the city’s public housing greening project.
Prayer flags and statuettes add to the beauty of the rocky waterfront on the southern tip of Castle Hill Park, where locals fish with views of the Whitestone Bridge. Though the neighborhood is still primarily Hispanic, the number of Asian and Pacific Islander residents nearly doubled between 2000 and 2007, according to figures from the local community board and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Mom and pop businesses, including PJ’s Liquor (678 Castle Hill Ave.), are daily meeting spots for many residents. On a November afternoon, Castle Hill natives sporting Yankees apparel sat in folding chairs along the city sidewalk across from Castle Hill Houses, listening to one musician playing a broken recorder. “This is where we bond. We’re teenagers here,” says retired truck driver Jose Hernandez, 72.
Around every street corner is another mural. Some celebrate local cultures. Others mourn the loss of icons. Near this freshly painted Michael Jackson tribute is another well-known and tragic mural in memory of Amadou Diallo. It now serves as a reminder of the area’s troubled history.
Brisas del Caribe (1207 Castle Hill Ave.) serves heaping platefuls of rice and beans ($3.75), fried plantains ($2.50) and half a chicken ($7), with items listed in both Spanish and English on a menu board. Situated at the point where Castle Hill becomes Unionport, this neighborhood mainstay has been serving customers on both sides of Bruckner Expressway for 14 years. “The people who come here come every day. They’re part of the family,” says waitress Geraldine Abru, 19, who has worked at Brisas del Caribe for five years.
Jennifer Lopez may be the most famous artist to come out of the neighborhood, but equally worldly musicians like Kaleta, 40, still draw inspiration from Castle Hill. “I came here performing with Fela Kuti on the last tour before he died,” says Kaleta. Now that the musical “Fela!” is making its Broadway debut in two weeks, a new generation of music lovers will discover Fela’s trademark Afrobeat sound. It’s people like Kaleta, though, and his band, Zozo Afrobeat, that keep the “beat” alive.
One mural near Castle Hill Music (1406 Castle Hill Ave.) reads: “Stop Crimes in Our Community. Young People Are Our Future,” and no one believes that more than John Giannini, owner of the 32-year-old music shop. “It’s the students that keep me going,” the native New Yorker says. Offering music lessons as well as merchandise, Giannini, 60, also attributes his decades-old success to the dense Hispanic population in Castle Hill. “Latinos still love their instruments. They want to feel the maracas,” he says. “They love their percussion.”
