South Yonkers Worries About The Future

“I don’t want to live in this area anymore, my nephew didn’t deserve to die like that,” Gladys Santiago said.  The South Yonkers resident came running down Ludlow Street after police called on  Labor Day. “They called me down to see him and he died in my arms. Nobody deserves that,” she said with a sad inflection and an even sadder expression.

The murder happened about 100 feet from my house. We heard what sounded like fireworks. I looked out the window and saw a man pointing a gun at another man. I saw the alleged shooter fire the gun three times. I couldn’t see the victim, but watched the man who fired the gun run away. I rushed to call 911 and they arrived quickly.

South Yonkers covers 3.3 square miles of lower Westchester and 43.7% of the residents are Hispanic, 16.9% Black and 11.3% White. Yonkers was rated as one of the safest cities in America by Wallet Hub. But South Yonkers is a different story. The Yonkers Police Department  reported a fatal shooting that happened on Ludlow Street in August, and one on 30 Cliff Street that occurred a month prior in July.

“It’s been quiet around here for 20 years, but recently things have just progressively gotten worse.” said Edmonton Johnson. The long-time resident of South Yonkers has watched small businesses disappear from a stretch of South Broadway. He said that they are, “Closing in favor of Dollar and Amazon return stores, I feel it lowers the quality of the neighborhood.”

Lionsgate and Great Point Studios received approval from the Yonkers City Council to build a multi-million dollar movie studio. Their selling point is creating over 800 jobs, according to the Hudson Valley Post. Mayor Mike Spano told the paper it is meant to be a “…game changer for the City of Yonkers.”

This comes with some backlash.  News 12 Westchester  reported some people have said “We all have seen film studios and they don’t look very nice. They don’t look residential at all and Ludlow Park is a residential neighborhood.” While on the flip side, some are optimistic.  “I know that the movie studio and stores being made are gonna make things better,” Henry Delgado said. And in the meantime, people worry about crime and gun violence.  The Yonkers Police Department did not respond to our repeated requests for an interview, did the City Councilperson.