Despite All-Star Game Makeover, Bronx is Still Burning with Staggering Unemployment & Low-Paying Jobs

Bronx, NY – Today the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), the Urban Justice Center, and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union were joined by dozens of Bronx youth, workers and unemployed residents to announce a new study that finds the Bronx is suffering from staggering unemployment and a low-paying job market – in stark contrast to the recent commercial development that many claim is revitalizing the borough.

Before the first pitch was thrown at the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in over three decades, the report, Boom for Whom? How the Resurgence of the Bronx is Leaving Residents Behind, calls for responsible public and private investment in the borough to ensure that hiring plans, wages and job training incorporate residents of the community.

"After years of disinvestment, the Bronx has become a site of major redevelopment, and yet this has done little to improve the lives of those who reside, work, worship, and attend school in the area," said Desiree Hunter, a member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition. "Schools aren't preparing youth for work, teens and adults looking for jobs can't find them, and when they do, the wages are hardly enough to stay afloat. This is still the poorest urban county in the United States," he stated

"If visitors to the All-Star Game are wondering: the Bronx is still burning," she said.

"The good news is there's an enormous opportunity now to pair the appetite for investment with the growing and hungry workforce," stated Laine Romero-Alston, Director of Research and Policy in the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center. "Lasting development can happen if it involves raising industry standards, enforcing workers' rights, and connecting living-wage job opportunities to the local Bronx workforce so that residents can benefit from development projects," she said.

"The Bronx is successfully rebuilding from a difficult past. In that process, however, we must ensure that there are quality jobs for Bronx residents," Congressman José E. Serrano said. "Often they say that a rising tide lifts all boats. Our challenge in the Bronx is to make sure that everyone has a boat to be lifted, and that the tide rises high enough to lift our working families out of poverty. A great deal of the new jobs that have been created in our district in recent years have kept families at or near the poverty line, as this new report indicates. I commend the NWBCCC and the Urban Justice Center for undertaking this valuable study and highlighting the need for a multi-faceted approach to living-wage employment in the Bronx."

Through community surveys and U.S. Census statistics, Boom for Whom? details often bleak conditions in the Northwest Bronx, where labor-force participation rates, employment rates, educational attainment, and income levels are lower than in the New York City, the state, and the country overall.

In a survey of 350 Bronx residents, ranging from 14 to 65 and over, the report finds that:

• 32% of all adults surveyed are not employed and are looking for work.
• 79% of community members who are unemployed and seeking work have been out of work for 6 months or more.
• 79% of 14 and 15 year olds, 86% of 16 and 17 year olds, 74% of 18 to 24 year olds, and 43% of 25 to 65 year olds are currently looking for work.
• In each age group, the majority of community members surveyed did not know about job centers and did not think there were adequate resources in the community.
• Only 55% of employed adults with a high-school education or below make a living wage, compared to 79% of employed adults with a higher level of formal education.
• Only 32% of the community have attended some college or beyond.

Census Bureau statistics also show that the six largest industries in the Northwest Bronx – retail, real estate, health care and social assistance, other services, accommodation and food services, and construction – have all expanded in the region between 1998 and 2005, with the exception of real estate. Nevertheless, Bronx residents of all ages are still struggling to find work that provides a decent wage, offers paths for advancement, and does not abuse workers through pay and overtime violations.

"At the Kingsbridge Armory, for example, developers want to create a mall of nearly 600,000 square feet – a tremendous opportunity to create jobs and use a great deal of space in a creative, exciting way. But unless the Related Companies comes to the table to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement with the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance, then there is no guarantee of anything more than more poverty wage jobs for the community," said Hunter.

"Most of the developments that are occurring in the city are creating poverty-wage retail jobs," added Jeff Eichler, Coordinator of the Retail Organizing Project of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "The RWDSU is committed to good development and to working with groups like the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance to ensure that the hundreds of retail jobs expected to be created at the Kingsbridge Armory are living wage jobs with the right of the employees to form a union without fear of retaliation."

In order to get a better sense of the types of industries and jobs available in the community, the Bronx report canvassed 50 businesses located in the area of East Fordham Road and Grand Concourse, a busy shopping area in the Northwest Bronx. The findings: most businesses in the area are not hiring, have confusing and difficult application processes, and pay low wages.

"I recently got my high school diploma and have been working seasonal jobs since I was 14," said graduate of Dewitt Clinton High School Stephanie Ventura. "Still, I'm told I don't have enough experience to get a good job. It seems like people leave us out when it comes to creating jobs even though the only way I will succeed in the future is if I get a job now," she said.

Underscoring the unique challenges young Bronx residents face in finding work, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that eleven percent (11%) of civilian youth age 16-19 years old in the Northwest Bronx are not enrolled in school and not in the labor force, a much higher percentage than throughout New York City (9%), New York State (6%), and the United States (6%).

For all age groups, community members also report not knowing about job centers and do not think there are adequate training resources in the community.

"When I got to high school, my mom could not support all of us on public assistance, so I tried to get a job to help out," said Cesar "Roar" Tejada, a 22-year-old from the Dominican Republic. "I went through long periods without work, without finding anything. Then Sistas and Brothas United and the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition took me on a tour of the Carpenter's union's apprenticeship program, and I'm now a carpenter at Yankee stadium," he said.

In the report survey, seventy-nine percent (79%) of those ages 25-65 who applied to a union job were hired. At the same time, the report finds that very few young adult workers (ages 18-24) are applying to these jobs— indicating that young adults need to be better supported in connecting to union jobs and be provided more information about opportunities and openings.

From jobs to education to the environment, Boom for Whom? recommends six policy solutions to promote development in the Northwest Bronx that will bring the residents along with the Bronx resurgence:

1. Raise wage and safety standards in all industries.

2. Promote responsible public and private investment, community benefits agreements, including first source and local hiring plans.

3. Prepare workers to connect to good jobs and local resources

4. Meet the specific needs of youth by increasing the high school graduation rate and preparing students for higher education and the world of work

5. Take advantage of emerging opportunities to attract green jobs and resources to the Bronx that will lift families out of poverty, reduce greenhouse gasses, and improve both affordability and energy efficiency for everyone.

6. Create a path to citizenship for currently undocumented immigrant workers and their families.

"Scripture says that without a vision the people will perish. Our vision is a for a Bronx Boom that ends poverty, not perpetuates it in a cycle of dead-end, part-time, low-wage work," concluded Rev. Katrina Foster, Pastor of Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church and a member of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance.