period of time, everything i know about writing. today i m dropping by in my role as substitute teacher. i m from manhattan. and i don t know anything about the bronx, really. i m i m rid ridiculously, shamefully ignorant. do you think people know about the bronx? what it s like to grow up in the bronx? male student: everybody perceives the bronx as the emergence of hip-hop and all that, the culture. but, apart from that, the bronx is actually lively at all times. at night, at in the morning, you hear people screaming from outside your window. female student: i ve grown up with them since i was what, like second female student: like seven. female student: yeah. you know? and it just happened that way. so i feel like the sense of community is like the biggest thing. teacher: i ve been teaching here for eight years. and i think that what people forget is, a lot of times, we ve talked about this in class, they focus on lots of diseases, health issues, lack of education,
born and raised here, he s never really left for over seven decades. this is a disappearing aspect of new york, for sure. the real thing jewish deli. liebman s is one of the last. there used to be dozens of places where you could get your brisket, chopped liver, a good pastrami, some pickles, with a black cherry soda or a cel-ray of course to drink. lloyd: the world series is going on. howard cosell is on the air. suddenly you see a tongue of flame ricking up into the, uh, up into the sky. and he says, this is the kind of thing that jimmy carter saw, ladies and gentlemen. the bronx is burning. the old image of the bronx as middle class, upwardly mobile, healthy area had survived up until 1977. this shattered it. anthony: right. the bronx was burning like the story, and that stuck. politicians making the south bronx a poster child for what
showman, iconoclast, explorer, and gourmet. baron ambrosia: the bronx is so multi-faceted, but for some reason, this is the first place i always take people because this just oozes and emanates, kind of, that flavor of the bronx. anthony: and he knows what i like places like this. 188 cuchifritos on 188th street and the grand concourse. old school new york puerto rican good stuff. get within 20 feet of this place and prepare to lose your freaking mind. baron ambrosia: cuchifrito itself is basically fried pig. the ears, the tongue, chopped up and deep-fried. anthony: so off-cut pig parts, deep-fried? what s not to like about that? baron ambrosia: right. anthony: what s that, the shank there? baron ambrosia: yeah, they re cutting meat off the shoulder. we re got to get that in there. anthony: oh yeah. it s it s amazing. baron ambrosia: big piece of chicharrón with the skin just chopped up. anthony: so, skin baron ambrosia: skin, fat. anthony: skin and fat?
was hopelessly wrong. would always be wrong. would never, we were told, get any better. so we now have what you call a slumlord, essentially. lloyd: yes, right. anthony: who s snapping up large numbers of buildings. lloyd: yeah. first of all, he takes out a huge fire insurance policy. so as he goes to these junkies, and he says, listen, you see that empty apartment on the top floor? i m going to turn my back. you take all of the lead pipes that are in there, but i have one request please. before you leave turn on the water. and the water comes down, and the water comes down, driving evybody else out. they then hire an arsonist, and sets fire to the building, they collect all the money, and they leave. anthony: i remember it well. i remember those few years. things were bad. are things, borough-wide, are things getting better? lloyd: is the bronx better? absolutely. there is more home ownership in
so i want to talk today, really, i m going to tell you in a short period of time, everything i know about writing. today i m dropping by in my role as substitute teacher. i m from manhattan. and i don t know anything about the bronx, really. i m i m rid ridiculously, shamefully ignorant. do you think people know about the bronx? what it s like to grow up in the bronx? male student: everybody perceives the bronx as the emergence of hip-hop and all that, the culture. but, apart from that, the bronx is actually lively at all times. at night, at in the morning, you hear people screaming from outside your window. female student: i ve grown up with them since i was what, like second female student: like seven. female student: yeah. you know? and it just happened that way. so i feel like the sense of community is like the biggest thing. teacher: i ve been teaching here for eight years. and i think that what people forget is, a lot of time we ve talked about this in class, th