# Bronx Window Decals Hiding Decay **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616 "2004-05-23T04:14:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/1 "2004-05-23T04:14:20Z")
Am I the only one who remembers this? I recall a time in the early 80s(?) when the Bronx was in severe decline with hundreds of burnt out and abandoned buildings, and the mayor of New York City addressed the situation by having decals of cheerful looking windows (complete with curtains) placed over the blank, bricked over windows to make things look more cheerful. I remember seeing a couple of buildings that had been subjected to this urban renewal on a shoestring while driving by the area years ago. I mentioned this to my nephew today, and, not surprisingly, he was incredulous. I couldn’t find any mention of it online using Google. Does anyone remember this, and could they provide any additional information and (preferably) a link to a picture of one such building? Thanks to all, and if anyone is interested enough to ask Cecil about this, so much the better! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/2 "2004-05-23T05:19:02Z")
Yes, I’m a Bronxite and I clearly remember seeing these in some of the abandoned buildings that were visible from the number 6 subway around Whitlock Avenue. I would have said it was in the late 70s, though. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/3 "2004-05-23T05:23:24Z")
From [here:](http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/saltz/saltz8-6-99.asp) > [@](#): > > By the late 1970s, 300,000 people had fled the borough; 40 percent of its housing was destroyed or condemned. In 1976 there were 33,465 fires in the Bronx; **1982 saw the city install decals of plants and venetian blinds in the windows of abandoned buildings in order to hide the blight.** By 1985 the Bronx was considered the poorest congressional district in the United States. (bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/4 "2004-05-23T05:30:55Z")
Here’s another: [http://www.housingfirst.net/on2003\_12\_21\_nyt.html](http://www.housingfirst.net/on2003_12_21_nyt.html) [quote] From the South Bronx to Central Brooklyn, this collection of scarred properties reconfigured the image of urban blight in America. On the windows of forsaken buildings lining the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the city pasted decals of potted plants and Venetian blinds in a half-baked beautification campaign./quote] There are several other sites that mention it. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/5 "2004-05-23T06:24:19Z")
Good God, yes this is true! The saddest aspect of this stunt was that the plywood sheets that covered the empty window holes looked like they were painted by preschoolers using a color pallette lifted from a Crayola crayon box (the 8 crayon set, not the 64). No attempt at tromp loeil here, let me tell you! I’ll never forget one “flower” that grew out of a “potted plant” that “sat” on a window sill. It consisted of a ring of five solid yellow circles with a black dot in the middle. The whole amateurishly rendered scene was something you could imagine finding taped to King Kong’s giant refrigerator door. I consider the passage of the pooper-scooper law in NYC the high water mark of the Ed Koch administration; I consider the painted window episode his low point. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/6 "2004-05-23T12:37:23Z")
I remember it well. Driving along the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87), you got a good view of a number of such buildings in the Highbridge section (north of Yankee Stadium). Like **stuyguy** said, the windows looked ridiculously fake - window panes, curtains and flower pots painted on a gray background. However, since not every painted window was the same (and indeed, there was not a flower pot in every window), _someone_ apparently spent some time working out the “aesthetics” of placing the fakes so that it would look realistic after some twisted fashion. :rolleyes: Those buildings have been rehabilitated for some time now. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/7 "2004-05-23T12:48:05Z")
> [@](#): > > In 1976 there were 33,465 fires in the Bronx How is this possible? That’s 91 fires a day sustained for the period of a year? How did they deal with that? Did they count people flicking their lighters? ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/8 "2004-05-23T16:33:40Z")
Any picture links? ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/9 "2004-05-23T17:03:56Z")
I looked for a while before I posted earlier, **cheddarsnax.** I wasn’t able to find any photos online either. The New York Public Library plans to have a digital collection of historic NYC photos online this fall, but that doesn’t help right now of course. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/10 "2004-05-23T17:15:23Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > How is this possible? That’s 91 fires a day sustained for the period of a year? How did they deal with that? Did they count people flicking their lighters? The Bronx is big. Most of those were probably small fires and bums burning garbage cans and whatnot, but for a period of five or six years at least one building in The Bronx went up in smoke just about every day. A lot of it was insurance fraud, and a lot of it was simple neglect. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/11 "2004-05-23T20:36:12Z")
There’s a photo of the Bronx I too, would love to find, but Googling does no good. It was a shot of Jimmy Carter on Charlotte Street, infamous at the time for its lack of a single building, only rubble. I know there were people around him, maybe they were children. It probably ran in the Daily News, my tabloid of choice then as well as now. JC was so moved by the devestation that he vowed the federal government would help to rebuild, the shame is that it diddn’t happen for more than a decade. The area today is one and two story one-family houses, pretty, peaceful. I 'd like the earlier photo for a contrast. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/12 "2004-05-23T22:07:45Z")
One of the jokes current in that era was that so many buildings had burned down in the 41st precinct in the South Bronx that it went from being known as “Ft. Apache” to “The Little House on the Prairie.” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/13 "2004-05-24T03:51:00Z")
Is this the photo, **postcards**? [http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/digital\_detail\_summary.jsp?&tn=176378&nw=y&rn=10&nh=17&st=b&rp=summary](http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/digital_detail_summary.jsp?&tn=176378&nw=y&rn=10&nh=17&st=b&rp=summary) Also for those interested, here’s a photo page of the neighborhood today. [http://www.demographia.com/db-sbrx.htm](http://www.demographia.com/db-sbrx.htm) ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/14 "2004-05-24T04:06:54Z")
Nuts, all I get on your first link is a ‘timed out’ message. The other link is a page I’ve seen, but thank you for trying. I’ve been familiarizing myself with the Bronx for the last two years, as one of my freelance jobs is photographing houses for a real estate magazine (ah, the glamorous life of a professional photographer!). I’ve become quite fond of the borough, and because I go through the area a lot, I’ve been looking for that 1977 shot. I do know a stringer for the News, I’ll have to ask her. I remember the decals, too, and now that I’m reminded, I’ll have to keep an eye out for any remaining ones. You never know what you could find. I’ll be there again this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bronx-window-decals-hiding-decay/246616/15 "2004-05-24T04:21:31Z")
Wait, never mind. I went to the main page (what a great site!) and searched on ‘Jimmy Carter’, and flipped through. I don’t think that’s that’s the one I was thinking of, but it may have been. Twenty-seven years is a long time.