Take the free Bronx Culture Trolley the first Wednesday of every month through different neighborhoods of the Bronx, or the free City Island Seaside Trolley the first Friday of every month except September and January.
The Bronx Culture Trolley starts with a free reception at the Longwood Art Gallery at Grand Concourse and 149th Street at 5 p.m. and stops at other galleries, museums, musical performances, cultural sites and restaurants. The Bronx Arts Council, the trolley's organizers, suggests advanced reservations.
Bronx Arts Council
Bronx, NY 10461
718-931-9500, ext. 33
Bronxarts.org
City Island Seaside Trolley
718-885-9100
cityislandchamber.org/Sea%20Side%20Trolley.html
Designed at the turn of the 20th century as the "Champs-Élysées of the Bronx", a walk down the Grand Concourse's six tree-lined lanes over four and a half miles in the south Bronx, takes visitors from the neighborhood's hey-day in the 1930s, its decline in the 1960s and back to its resurgence in the early 2000s. Depression-era murals and mosaics are on display at The Bronx General Post Office at 149th Street and the so-called "Fish Building" at 1150 Grand Concourse. Just across the street, the Andrew Freedman House at 166th Street was built as a sumptuous retirement home for businessmen of the 1920s who fell on hard times and now houses social service programs. The Paradise Theater at 187th Street is a ornate "movie palace"-type theater originally built in 1929 and dramatically restored in 2009 that now features regular concerts and events. Toward the northern end at 192nd Street, visit the cottage where poet Edgar Allen Poe wrote his famous poem "Annabel Lee". Tired or have a little less time? Just ride the Bx1 bus along Grand Concourse.
Wind through 25 or 40 miles of Bronx historic districts, shoreline and parks on bike with hundreds of other locals and tourists in the Tour de Bronx, organized every October by the non-profit Transportation Alternatives. Amateurs shouldn't be intimidated by the shorter 25 mile tour which organizers describes as "flat, open stretches" traveled at "approximately 11 miles per hour" with marshals, police escorts and snacks at rest stops along the route.
Tour de Bronx
718-590-3518
Tourdebronx.org
Discover the Bronx's polluted past and successful efforts to turn the tide in these tours. Sustainable South Bronx, a local non-profit, guides 90-minute walking tours of the Hunts Point neighborhood's environmental issues and their recognized work in developing sustainable solutions to these problems. Tours are available by reservation Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. A $10 donation is suggested.
The Bronx River Alliance sponsors canoe tours along the Bronx River at least once a month every May through October. Reservations fill up quickly through their Web site.
Sustainable South Bronx
1231 Lafayette Avenue, 4th Floor
Bronx, NY 10474
646-400-5431
Ssbx.org
Bronx River Alliance
718-430-4665
bronxriver.org
