Van Cortlandt Village , The Bronx : NYC Tourist Guide

Van Cortlandt Village

Van Cortlandt Village is a neighborhood in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Named after Van Cortlandt Park, which is located immediately to the north of the neighborhood, Van Cortlandt Village is home to a large elderly Jewish community (due to the longstanding residents of the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative and its garment-center union-related population and their descendants), with a less but still significant Irish community as well as a recently growing Hispanic population. Van Cortlandt Village is also known for being one of the few neighborhoods in the Bronx that has maintained many white residents that did not leave during White flight issues in the 1970s. Many ex-Manhattanites, especially young couples in search of tree-lined streets, reasonable rents and housing prices have moved northwest to Van Cortlandt Village. Housing stock includes a range of private homes, many stately and huge, rental apartment buildings, including Amalgamated Housing, and a few fair market value co-ops. The BX1, BX2, BX10, and BXM3 buses run through this area. The IRT Broadway-Seventh Ave. Line (#1) is nearby.

On April 4, 2007, Business Week Online (MSNBC News) called Kingsbridge Heights (of which Van Cortlandt Village is the northern part) one of "America's next hot neighborhoods". Some nearby attractions include: Van Cortlandt Park, the S&S Cheesecake store, The Bronx Botanical Gardens, The Bronx Zoological Park (formerly The Bronx Zoo), Wave Hill (Riverdale), Belmont (Little Italy in The Bronx), and City Island. The BXM3 Express Bus whisks you down to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in about forty minutes. Jerome Park Reservoir attracts neighborhood runners and naturalists.

Although Van Cortlandt Village has not yet been recognized officially as a neighborhood, its residents consider it as such in its own right. The unofficial boundaries are: the intersection of Giles Place and Fort Independence Street on the south; Sedgwick Avenue and Jerome Park Reservoir on the east; Bailey Avenue on the west, and Van Cortlandt Park South and Dickinson Avenue on the north.