"The In-Between" Borough: The Bronx as Paradise Lost

You must read this article from The New Yorker where the legendary writer Ian Frazier chronicles his many walks around the only NYC borough attached to the mainland -- and intertwines it with the fascinating history of the Bronx stretching back 300 years.

Much like Staten Island, one might argue that the Bronx is a "forgotten borough", perched to the north of its four sister boroughs, and more often driven through (or just visited for Yankee games) than really lived in or appreciated. But it has a great history, starting with the discovery and birth of America, the Revolutionary War, and the evolution of NYC. 

Of course, the Bronx also has a sad history -- what was once a working class "paradise", a city unto itself of middle class homes, has brutally cut up by the various highways in the 20th century that literally destroyed neighborhoods and decimated communities, creating big pockets of crime and poverty that it's never really recovered from.

That said, as Frazier makes clear in his article, the Bronx is no longer "burning" -- like the rest of the city, it has been revived, many of the destroyed neighborhoods rebuilt, and yet an air of mystery and haunting still hangs over the only borough that attaches itself to the rest of the Lower 48 -- and that will always be its distinction.