A South Bronx social media account has issued a strongly-worded open letter to multiple elected officials alleging “abandonment” on issues of public drug use, trash dumping, dog waste, aging infrastructure, business closures, NYCHA conditions and more in the South Bronx.
The Instagram account MottHavenBx, which has more than 2,540 followers and generally posts about South Bronx eateries, events and community issues, wrote the March 22 post directed at Mayor Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Assembly Member Amanda Septimo, State Senator José M. Serrano and Council Member Elsie Encarnacion.
The letter, titled, “WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED” and signed from “the concerned residents and business owners of the South Bronx,” has been liked and shared by hundreds of users across Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
The letter posed the question, “What is happening in the South Bronx?”
“We are demanding an answer. An answer from you [Mamdani] and your agencies. Because what we are seeing on our streets every day is not growth. It is not progress. It is neglect — systemic, visible, and ongoing.”
The letter says the neighborhood is trapped in a cycle of ongoing new development amid a lack of accountability for current conditions.
Some of the issues addressed fall under the purview of the city, state and/or federal government. For instance, the letter said NYCHA’s South Bronx residents “are living with conditions that would not be tolerated anywhere else in this city,” pointing to the Oct. 1 boiler explosion at Mitchel Houses, which they said still has not resulted in a report on what happened or clear timeline of full repairs.
According to a city hall official, work to re-pipe and restore gas service to all of Mitchel Houses just finished on March 20.
Other issues in the letter fall within residents’ own control — for instance, piles of dog poop and trash littering the sidewalks. Even so, it said the government is failing to hold people accountable.
“Where is the enforcement? Where is the coordination? Where is the response?” the letter said. “This is not an oversight. This is abandonment and it rests squarely on the City of New York.”
Many of the issues have persisted for years or even decades, and residents in the letter expressed a palpable resentment for the conditions that brought the community to this point.
Just days into Mamdani’s tenure, he pledged that the Bronx would not be a “forgotten borough,” and his administration beginning to implement policies that may address some of these concerns — for instance, the Rental Ripoff hearings taking aim at negligent landlords who allow poor housing conditions.
City Hall officials also pointed to several targeted South Bronx initiatives in an email to the Bronx Times, mentioning a 24/7 cleaning effort around The Hub at East 149th Street and Third Ave, needle removal operations that are only conducted in the South Bronx and Harlem, cameras to catch illegal trash dumping, $50 million in capital improvements to St. Mary’s Park, upgrading lighting at the Alexander Ave. underpass and more.
“The Mamdani administration takes the concerns of every New Yorker seriously, and the Mayor has long said that no longer can the Bronx be a forgotten borough in this city of five, said Jeremy Edwards, deputy press secretary for the mayor, in a statement sent to the Bronx Times. “Our agencies are hard at work in the South Bronx delivering essential safety upgrades, running intensive cleaning operations, and addressing quality-of-life issues in the neighborhood every day. This work is not over, and we will continue to build on these critical improvements in partnership with the South Bronx community.”
South Bronx residents will be watching for immediate, visible action, according to the letter. “Our communities are not afterthoughts,” the letter said. “They are not dumping grounds for failed policy, unmanaged development, and neglected infrastructure. We built these neighborhoods. We sustained them when no one else did. And we are not going to watch it be undone without a response.”
‘I can’t do this anymore’
The letter also expressed concern about longtime residents moving out “not because of rising rents, but because of lack of services and response from the City of New York.”
One of those who recently left was Alex Brown, 37, who lived in Mott Haven for about 15 years, in four different apartments, before relocating to Long Island City just days ago.
During his time in the South Bronx, Brown told the Bronx Times he lived in two different apartments on Alexander Avenue, one on Grand Concourse and finally at The Maven, a luxury building on Third Avenue.
But Brown said his partner, whom he lives with, is not from New York and “his expectations for what is acceptable are a little shorter than mine are.”
After three years of living together in Mott Haven, Brown said his partner came to believe that no progress was being made on the kinds of challenges discussed in the letter. “He’s like, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” Brown said.
He said that while city and elected officials are not paying enough attention, the biggest issue for him and his partner was “lack of care from our fellow community members.”
Dodging dog poop, trash and syringes on the ground began to take its toll, even for a longtime resident like Brown. “It feels like no one really respects each other.”
He said poor conditions are present even in high-end buildings, where he said most of his neighbors were actually locals, not outsiders. “Why aren’t we respecting our home?”
Property managers have a responsibility, but so do residents and those in charge of enforcement, he said. “At some point, it really is the community that has to step up — or in this case, the city needs to step up and resolve some of these quality of life issues.”
At the same time, he said he loves the South Bronx and was hoping to stay longer. From earning his first college degree at Hostos to building a career in retail operations and a life with his partner, he built an attachment to the community that will always remain. For instance, Brown said he planned to stop by his South Bronx barbershop amid hauling more belongings to the Queens apartment.
Even though he moved out, “I still have a stake in the neighborhood,” Brown said. “My hope is, I wanna see this thrive.”
This story was updated at 2:05 p.m. to include a statement from the mayor’s office.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
