Survey No. 3: WHERE WE ARE NOW



Where have we gone since the days of strolling up Fordham Road, or down the Concourse, or around Metropolitan Oval? Not far, judging from the survey results. More than a third of the responses indicated that many of us are either still in New York or nearby in New Jersey or Connecticut. Hard to break the gravitational pull back to our old stomping grounds, perhaps? As you might have anticipated, a number of responses came from Florida as well, but fewer than I personally expected. The overall response was the largest of our surveys so far. Ex-Bronxites responded from twenty-four states, Puerto Rico, and three other countries. We even received a response from someone who claims to be living in Albania, but I'm counting that one with several grains of salt.

An interesting although certainly unsurprising fact is how many people changed from apartment dwelling to private homeownership (more than half of all responses). On the other hand, only one person changed from home-ownership to apartment dwelling (hated mowing the lawn perhaps?). Glaringly absent from the cross-section of states we're living in now are the dust-bowl and midwest states: Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho, Indiana, etc. Somehow that makes sense, but I'll back out of sharing my opinion why this is, if you don't mind.

Thanks to everyone who participated. The next survey is in development and should appear in a few weeks.


The total number of unique, usable responses was 112.


Here is a list and count of where everyone is living:

Alabama1
Alaska1
Arizona3
California6
Colorado3
Connecticut3
Florida15
Georgia2
Illinois1
Maine1
Massachussets3
Maryland1
Montana1
Nevada1
New Jersey20
New Mexico2
New York24
North Carolina3
Ohio1
Oregon2
Pennsylvania1
Puerto Rico1
Rhode Island1
Texas3
Virginia5
Washington4
Albania (?)1
Canada1
Switzerland1

How many years has it been since you lived in the Bronx?

YearsResponsesPercentage
Fewer than 51.8%
5 - 932%
10 - 1486%
15 - 191816%
20 - 253531%
26 - 302926%
More than 301816%

Your current location is...

ResponsesPercentage
Urban1513%
Suburban8071%
Rural1715%

When you lived in the Bronx, you lived in...

ResponsesPercentage
An apartment building8475%
A garden apartment00%
A private house1211%
A row (attached) house109%
Another type of home65%

Now you're living in...

ResponsesPercentage
An apartment building87%
A garden apartment98%
A private house8172%
A row (attached) house1312%
Another type of home65%

Are there other ex-Bronxites in your social circle now
(not including relatives)?

ResponsesPercentage
Yes6760%
No3733%
I don't know87%

Do your friends/neighbors know you're from the Bronx?

ResponsesPercentage
Yes9484%
No1312%
I don't know54%

Do you ever get back to the Bronx?

ResponsesPercentage
Never2018%
Rarely4944%
Occassionally3329%
Often109%

You like where you're living now...

ResponsesPercentage
much less than54%
less than1312%
the same as1513%
more than2623%
much more than2119%
indescribably more than3229%
...where you last lived in the Bronx.

Almost three-quarters of us prefer where we're living now to our last Bronx haunt. I hope things improve for those who don't feel that way. While those unhappy ones could move back to the Bronx, they can't move back in time, and my guess is that's the primary factor in their current dissatisfaction.

I thought it would be interesting to see which relatively unknown towns would show up in the responses. Well, several of them were unknown to me. Here's a sampling:

Thanks again for participating. Our next survey's topic is a secret for now.


[SURVEYS and POLLS]

©1997 SofTech Consulting
Chappaqua, N.Y., USA