Back in July, Bronx Financial Access Coalition members headed south from our beloved borough to join in the big block-party celebration on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for the 40^th anniversary of the LES People’s Federal Credit Union.  While there are many obvious contrasts between today’s gentrifying Lower East Side and our still-gritty Bronx neighborhoods, our people, neighborhoods, and organizations share many historical connections going back to the old days of the Third Avenue El.

 

By the mid-to-late 20th Century, we all faced redlining and organized abandonment based on the racial, ethnic, and class diversity of people in our neighborhoods. The very things that made our neighborhoods culturally rich, full of community and creativity, were deemed risky and undesirable by powerful policymakers and investors. Redlining created a self-fulfilling prophecy that led to the systemic disinvestment in housing, people, businesses, and neighborhoods.

 

But the people rose up and fought back! That community organizing, especially in the 1970s and 80s in the midst of fires, abandonment, and bank branch closures, led to the creation of new community entities such as the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (and its many spin-offs, including University Neighborhood Housing Program), Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association in the 1970s.

 

That same spirit led the Lower East Side Joint Planning Council to reclaim the last bank branch in their neighborhood from closure by Manufacturers Hanover Trust (“Manny Hanny”) and to win a Community Reinvestment Act settlement that helped seed the establishment of the credit union in 1986. That same grassroots spirit inspired our Bronx organizations (with We Stay/Nos Quedamos and WHEDco) to form BxFAC in 2021 and form this very partnership with LESPFCU to launch the Bronx People’s Federal Credit Union as a joint project. 

 

Read more about the 40th anniversary celebration on the Lower East Side in this article by NextCity’s Oscar Perry Abello.