While I honor Julie List ’78’s work providing mental-health services to poor Bronx residents (Perspective, Feb. 9), her description of the neighborhood in which she works perpetuates decades-old stereotypes of the Bronx as synonymous with urban decay. It is also at odds with my experience as a former longtime resident of that neighborhood, which I still visit often.
An accurate description of this neighborhood, known as Pelham Parkway, would cite its well-kept co-ops and single-family homes, many with elaborate gardens; thriving commercial areas; its walkers, joggers, and tai chi practitioners; and the neighborhood associations that have worked for decades to keep the neighborhood stable and safe.
The problems of poverty in the Bronx are real and need to be addressed, especially among the mentally ill. But to equate Pelham Parkway’s largely minority population with violence and despair only distances PAW readers from the reality of this stable, working-class community where people of many ethnicities work hard to support their families and educate their children, just like in Manhattan.