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:
| Alabama | 1 |
| Alaska | 1 |
| Arizona | 3 |
| California | 6 |
| Colorado | 3 |
| Connecticut | 3 |
| Florida | 15 |
| Georgia | 2 |
| Illinois | 1 |
| Maine | 1 |
| Massachussets | 3 |
| Maryland | 1 |
| Montana | 1 |
| Nevada | 1 |
| New Jersey | 20 |
| New Mexico | 2 |
| New York | 24 |
| North Carolina | 3 |
| Ohio | 1 |
| Oregon | 2 |
| Pennsylvania | 1 |
| Puerto Rico | 1 |
| Rhode Island | 1 |
| Texas | 3 |
| Virginia | 5 |
| Washington | 4 |
| Albania (?) | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
How many years has it been since you lived in the Bronx?
| Years | Responses | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 1 | .8% |
| 5 - 9 | 3 | 2% |
| 10 - 14 | 8 | 6% |
| 15 - 19 | 18 | 16% |
| 20 - 25 | 35 | 31% |
| 26 - 30 | 29 | 26% |
| More than 30 | 18 | 16% |
Your current location is...
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Urban | 15 | 13% |
| Suburban | 80 | 71% |
| Rural | 17 | 15% |
When you lived in the Bronx, you lived in...
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| An apartment building | 84 | 75% |
| A garden apartment | 0 | 0% |
| A private house | 12 | 11% |
| A row (attached) house | 10 | 9% |
| Another type of home | 6 | 5% |
Now you're living in...
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| An apartment building | 8 | 7% |
| A garden apartment | 9 | 8% |
| A private house | 81 | 72% |
| A row (attached) house | 13 | 12% |
| Another type of home | 6 | 5% |
Are there other ex-Bronxites in your social circle now
(not including relatives)?
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 67 | 60% |
| No | 37 | 33% |
| I don't know | 8 | 7% |
Do your friends/neighbors know you're from the Bronx?
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 94 | 84% |
| No | 13 | 12% |
| I don't know | 5 | 4% |
Do you ever get back to the Bronx?
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Never | 20 | 18% |
| Rarely | 49 | 44% |
| Occassionally | 33 | 29% |
| Often | 10 | 9% |
You like where you're living now...
| Responses | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| much less than | 5 | 4% |
| less than | 13 | 12% |
| the same as | 15 | 13% |
| more than | 26 | 23% |
| much more than | 21 | 19% |
| indescribably more than | 32 | 29% |
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.