Jerome Ave: inside one of New York City's last working class areas - in pictures | US news

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Jerome Ave: inside one of New York City's last working class areas - in pictures

Photographs have gone on display from a project documenting and celebrating the workers and tradespeople of Jerome Avenue, in the Bronx, where many people still make a living in small shops and factories. The city is considering a plan to rezone two miles along the street, which has already led to the raising of rents

The Bronx Photo League, a project of the Bronx Documentary Center, is committed to documenting social issues and change in the borough. The Jerome Avenue exhibition is at the Urban Justice Center, Manhattan, until 15 August 2018

Bronx Photo League/Bronx Documentary Center

Main image: Rebecca, originally from Ghana, works part-time at the God is Wonderful Hair Weave & Braiding Center at Jerome and 183rd Street, which her sister Beatrice has owned for more than years Photograph: Adi Talwar/Bronx Photo League/Bronx Documentary Center

Mon 9 Apr 2018 07.00 BST Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 14.32 GMT

  • Tessie Polygerinos at Munchtime Diner on 170th St between Jerome Ave and Townsend Ave. Her husband, Laki, has owned the diner since the 1960s

    I have always been back and forth from the Bronx and Manhattan. I grew up on Dyckman street and my husband is from the Bronx. The diner has been here for 60-plus years. It was open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We were the only diner in the neighborhood. And we provided fast helpful service to the customers. The customers come from all over, from Manhattan to Yonkers. They come for the gyro and the sauce

  • Isabel Kahlife came to the Bronx 24 years ago from Ponce, Puerto Rico, in search of a better life. She has worked at the 99 Cents USA store, located at 1370 Jerome Avenue, as a cashier for two years

    She worries the possible city rezoning of Jerome Avenue will adversely affect the residents of the area who shop at her store daily

  • Rebecca, originally from Ghana, works part time at the God is Wonderful Hair Weave & Braiding Center at Jerome and 183rd Street, which her sister Beatrice has owned for more than 10 years

    Rebecca has been married for two years: she and her husband are both studying health care and she aspires to be a doctor

  • Kevin and Pepe from Fordham Glass & Windows. Kevin is retiring soon and Pepe will take over

    When I was 13, I met Pepe and started working here, taking out the trash. Every time I got in trouble, he was there. I did four months in jail and he helped. I would like to make it big so Pepe sees I did it to thank him the way a man should thank another manI arrived in 1971 from Argentina. I started working in this glassware store in 1973. Almost my whole life I’ve worked here. I know everyone; they respect me. I know boys who today are men and who were kids when I started

  • An imam on his way to a mosque on Davidson Avenue to teach a summer study program

  • A client takes a cigarette break at Bellissima Beauty Studio at 2175 Jerome Avenue

  • Josè Cruz, a mechanic at Diffo Auto Glass & Flat Fix, 1510 Jerome Avenue

    Josè has been working on Jerome Avenue for 25 years since he fled the civil war in his native El Salvador in 1990

  • Tony Ramos giving one of his customers a haircut in a barber shop at 1476 Jerome Avenue

    Tony lives and grew up in the neighborhood where he works and has been working at the shop for the past three years

  • Raymond Herskovits inside Mel’s Locksmiths at 4 East 170th Street

    Raymond is a third generation locksmith; his grandfather opened the shop in 1932. He no longer resides in the Bronx, but commutes six days a week from his home in New Jersey. Everyone is for progress or should be, but what is progress? And progress is a slow-moving train with many stops on the way to the destination of achievement
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