Pelham Parkway is a working- and middle-class residential neighborhood geographically located in the center of the Bronx, a borough of New York City in the United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Waring Avenue to the north, the IRT Dyre Avenue Line tracks () to the east, Neill Avenue to the South, and Bronx River Parkway to the west. White Plains Road is the primary commercial thoroughfare through Pelham Parkway. The neighborhood is named after Pelham Parkway, a major west–east parkway that travels through the East Bronx.
Pelham Parkway is part of Bronx Community District 11 and its primary ZIP Codes are 10461 and 10462. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 49th Precinct.
History
The road named Pelham Parkway was officially called the Bronx and Pelham Parkway since it connects Bronx Park and Pelham Bay Park. It is also an integral part of the Mosholu-Pelham Greenway. The road was established in 1911 and was originally only one lane, which is today's westbound lane. The parkway was one part of John Mullaly's vision of creating a vast system of six parks along with connecting parkway roads to link them.
The parkway was lined with trees on both sides and had a strict building code. Nobody was allowed to build within of the center. No railroads were allowed to cross over the parkway; this is why the roadbed of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, which is now the Dyre Avenue subway line, had to be laid in a tunnel underneath the parkway. Bars and hotels are also prohibited alongside the parkway. Land in 1900 cost between $3,500 and $5,000 for one lot; near Bronx Park the prices were even higher. The neighborhood was named after the Parkway.
After a late 20th-century deterioration of the neighborhood, coinciding with what was known as white flight from the Bronx, the Pelham Parkway neighborhood showed signs of revitalization in the new century. Many apartments have been rehabilitated and offered as rentals to the growing middle income population found in the area. A number of buildings have been converted to cooperative ownership and the business section on White Plains Road and Lydig Avenue is a beehive of activity. Their stores reflect the neighborhood's polyglot lineage with many ethnic restaurants side by side with Kosher and Italian butchers and bakeries.
Today's parkway was constructed in the 1930s and is in length and wide and features wide expanses of lawn with full canopies of trees. The center of the parkway, prior to World War II, was closed off on Sunday mornings for professional bicycle racing. Today, a recreational bikeway runs alongside the westbound motor lanes of the parkway, near the north side of the Parkway.
Demographics
Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Pelham Parkway was 30,073, an increase of 67 (0.2%) from the 30,006 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of . The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 36.2% (10,875) White, 10.7% (3,223) African American, 0.2% (59) Native American, 11.3% (3,389) Asian, 0.0% (4) Pacific Islander, 0.7% (196) from other races, and 1.5% (466) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 39.4% (11,861) of the population.
The neighborhood has a significantly diverse population including Albanians (the largest concentration in New York City), Arabs, African Americans, Bosnians, Dominicans, Filipino, Germans, Guyanese, Indians, Irish, Italians, Jamaicans, Jews, Muslims, Pakistanis, Puerto Ricans, and Russians. Hispanics of various races account for 45% of the community; 38% of the community are non-Hispanic White and 20% non-Hispanic Black. Like most neighborhoods in New York City, the vast majority of households are renter occupied. However, there is a large community of co-op owners in the area. There is significant income diversity on a block by block basis, spanning from low wage immigrant households to solid upper middle class. While the poverty rate for The Bronx as a whole is 28%, the poverty rate in the neighborhood, at less than 20%, is much closer to the overall New York City rate of 15%.
The entirety of Community District 11, which comprises Pelham Parkway, Allerton, and Morris Park, had 116,180 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 79.9 years. This is lower than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 22% are between the ages of between 0–17, 30% between 25 and 44, and 24% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 9% and 14% respectively.