Broken Pawns in Ferrer's Bronx

If you look carefully at the Bronx, you can see the problem with the word "Mayor" ever being connected to the name "Fernando Ferrer." Ferrer claims that since the late 80s?when he began his reign as Bronx borough president?the area has undergone a renaissance, which he has orchestrated. He is fast to conjure up images of the Bronx circa 1975 to prove his point: packs of wild dogs running the empty streets; avenues of burnt-out shells lined up like tombstones, chilling reminders of the once-vibrant apartment life here; the famous lament, "The Bronx is burning!"

Today, according to Ferrer, all that has changed. And because of those changes, he says, he should have been the man to rebuild Lower Manhattan. Some of what he says is true?although to what extent Ferrer gets the credit is open to serious debate. The trouble with Ferrer's claims about the 2001 Bronx is that while the most blighted areas of the borough did get better, the stable neighborhoods got worse. And that old Bronx saw about white flight being to blame doesn't wash. Finger-pointing blacks and Latinos, along with guilt-ridden whites, are going to have to find a new bogeyman: the white man left this building a long time ago. It was middle-class blacks and second- and third-generation Puerto Rican families?like Ferrer's?who jumped ship. They were replaced by Africans, Dominicans and Mexicans with less money and fewer ties to the Bronx. The borough suffered because of this.

If you want to see Ferrer's Bronx, take a tour of Fordham Rd. from University to Webster Aves., where you can witness how a shopping district that was stable and thriving in 1991 has fallen into utter despair. In 1991 the district had a Caldor's and scores of flourishing shops. Now the biggest storefront?on the corner of Fordham Rd. and the Concourse?stands empty. Fordham Rd. is still home to small businesses, but they are all struggling. The district is filled with unkempt and filthy streets; crime is rampant. Ferrer took care of the South Bronx but dropped the ball on one of his borough's biggest shopping centers. It is now a low-rent district where shop owners fear for their lives.

The one industry?the one success story?on Fordham Rd. that has hung on is pawnshops. Think of the image of pawnshops?always seen in gritty black-and-white, their gloomy interiors patroled by greedy owners, small-time criminals and poor people?and then think of the Bronx, and it does seem like a good match.

During the 1960s New York City had more than 150 pawnshops. Today only 70 remain, and 30 percent of them are in the Bronx; most have been around for a long time, and none seem ready to go out of business.

Here's how pawnbrokers (or "collateral loan brokers," as they now want to be called) operate: Say you have a gold chain worth 300 bucks. You take it to a pawnshop and you might get $100 to $150 and a pawn ticket. Now you have four months to come up with the original money plus 3 percent interest monthly?a yearly rate of 36 percent. If you can't come up with the shekel, the broker now owns your gold and can sell it for a nice profit. Pawnbroking is a no-lose proposition. And if you think the 3-percent vig is steep?that's the legal limit in New York state?in Georgia a pawnbroker can whack you for 25 percent interest a month.

I recently took a walk down Fordham Rd. to Gem Pawnbrokers. Gem's been around since 1947, in the same location, and business is still good. Gone from the storefront is the three-ball symbol, supposedly from the coat of arms of the Medici family who once ruled the pawn biz back in the Renaissance. Now Gem has a plain sign, while the windows have huge displays of every kind of ring, bracelet, chain and pendant imaginable. A gaudy diamond and gold Jesus hangs from a thick chain, baubles left behind.

Inside the store two Latina women work the jewelry counter, ready to sell goods, though today no one is looking to buy. When asked a question, they find jewelry to dust. They don't want to talk about their job?it's almost like they are embarrassed to be there. I turn and check out a line of 20 men and women who stand in front of two plexiglas windows, waiting their turns to hand over valuables for some cash. Behind the bulletproof glass the store manager and other clerks shuffle about, checking IDs and handing out money. Gem Pawnbrokers is a clean, bright store, but there is still something dirty about the place. No one?from the workers to the customers?looks happy to be there. Everyone realizes this is a desperate part of his day.

I walk outside and see that next to the window that holds jewelry is a display of musical instruments. Musicians have always been avid customers of pawnshops. Ace Frehley of Kiss grew up near Fordham Rd. and once told an interviewer that the best bargains for guitars can be had at pawnshops, because the store owners never realize the worth of instruments. Today Gem is selling a trombone for $429, a set of drums for $499 and a tricked-out electric guitar for $199.

I had little success in getting anyone to talk inside the shop. Customers feel humbled that they have to be there, so someone with a pen and pad asking questions is not welcome. Outside, a young man named Carlos was waiting for his mother, who was pawning a gold chain.

"Who wants to talk about this shit? It's embarrassing having to come here. But it's money. They rip you off but you do walk away with cash, so I guess it's worth it. We need it."

I ask Carlos if perhaps thieves might be steady customers at pawnshops. He sucks his teeth and smiles, "What you think?"

I think yes and Carlos laughs in agreement, although pawnbrokers would recoil in horror at that question. But not Isaac Jones. Jones was a serial rapist who allegedly attacked as many as 50 women in Manhattan and the Bronx from 1993 to 1999. He was busted in the Bronx when he returned to a pawnshop there?where his girlfriend pawned some jewelry he grabbed during a 1999 St. Valentine's Day rape. Jones' criminal run hurt a lot of people. It was Jones whom the Bronx Street Crime Unit was looking for on that fateful night in February 1999 when they shot up poor Amadou Diallo.

I later talked with the manager?who would only give his name as Jeff?of Fordham Pawnbrokers, a family-owned business that has been operating for more than 40 years, about some of the challenges facing a pawnbroker.

"We don't encourage thieves to come here. We do check everyone's ID and everything we take in, we send an inventory to the cops?that way they can check it with anything reported stolen."

I asked him about the old three balls hanging outside of pawnshops. "Only Gem?that's down a bit on Fordham Rd.?ever had the three balls hanging outside the store. We never did, but we do have it on our business cards. We're a smaller business. My father founded the store over 40 years ago. We just deal in jewelry and make loans for that. We go half on gold weight, so something that is worth $200 we will give $100 for. About 75 percent of the people do come back for the jewelry. They pay us the interest plus an $8 service charge."

I asked Jeff how business has been.

"Not as good as it was. I only have 10 to 20 people a day coming in. The last three years it has dropped off. The Bronx is a mess. A storeowner down the street was killed. A lot of people are scared."

[sullivan@nypress.com](mailto:sullivan@nypress.com)