The Bronx is the only section of NYC that is not an island, and its distinctive landscape boasts more parkland than any other borough and more green space than any urban area nationwide. Its university campuses are among the most bucolic in NYC, yet still surrounded by bustling communities and located within 12 miles of Midtown Manhattan.

As the birthplace of hip-hop music and culture, the official stomping ground of New York's beloved Yankees, and one of the most affordable boroughs, the Bronx has something to make everyone feel at home. Students, artists, and young professionals alike love the Bronx for its variety of universities and colleges, bustling shopping districts, ethnic restaurants, grass-roots creative culture, and the new forms of artistic expression continuing to emerge from its communities.

Take a tour of the Bronx to find out where students & faculty are living and how the completion of several exciting development projects, including a brand-new Yankee Stadium in 2009, promises to further reinvigorate the borough!

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Approximately 44,000 students attend eleven colleges and universities in the Bronx. From the family of CUNY colleges to Yeshiva's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the diversity of education in the Bronx is as rich as that of the people who make up its communities. For the most part, colleges are clustered in Riverdale, University Heights/ Fordham (home to Monroe College and Fordham University), and Morris Park, featuring expansive green campuses that are uncommon elsewhere in the City.

Check out a complete list of the Bronx's colleges and universities.

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The Bronx offers a vast selection of residential options and neighborhood amenities that vary tremendously in affordability, type, and location.

Riverdale, one of NYC's hidden treasures, sits on the banks of the Hudson River, and houses several eclectic, diverse communities. Here you can hike through the largely wild trails of the 1,000-acre Van Cortland Park or check out the College of Mount Saint Vincent's campus overlooking New Jersey's Palisade Mountains.

Farther south, in University Heights and Fordham, a large number of college students routinely congregate on the lawns of several university campuses, like Fordham University, while shoppers take advantage of the Bronx's largest retail strip.

Continuing south on Grand Concourse, a famous historical boulevard, you'll enter the South Bronx Cultural Corridor, flanked by Mott Haven's charming Antiques District. Here, a unique cluster of arts organizations, galleries, and cultural institutions paired with local colleges, like Hostos Community College, are empowering local artists and spurring economic development. Ample lofts and attractively-priced studio spaces are also enabling an influx of new residents and artists to the area - as is the new development of housing, retail, and parkland underway throughout the entire South Bronx.

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The Bronx features the northern termini of seven Manhattan subway lines (B, D, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6), as well as twelve Metro North Railroad stations collectively serving the Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven commuter lines.

As NYC's northern gateway to the rest of the NY State and Connecticut, the Bronx houses several major expressways and highways that continue south to Manhattan and Queens and north/east to Westchester County. Accordingly, a series of large toll and smaller free bridges connect the Bronx to Manhattan, Queens, and New Jersey, notably the George Washington, Broadway, Triborough, Whitestone, and Throgs Neck Bridges, from west to east. Likewise, the Bronx has an excellent network of local buses and express commuter buses to Manhattan and Westchester. Ferries currently shuttle passengers between Manhattan and the Bronx for special events, like Yankees games, and there is future potential for regular commuter service.

Major public transit hubs in the Bronx include:

• Yankee Stadium/161st Street (B, D, 4, buses)
• 149th Street/Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5, buses)
• Fordham Road/Grand Concourse (B, D, Metro North Railroad, buses)

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Take in a Yankees game at the legendary Yankee Stadium one last time before the opening of the adjacent, new state-of-the-art stadium in the Spring of 2009. Experience the multi-cultural work of both emerging and established artists at the Bronx River Art Center, or head to the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, which showcases cutting-edge choreography in the South Bronx. Be sure to catch a performance at the new Pregones Theatre also in the South Bronx, where musical theatre rooted in Latino culture is presented in both Spanish and English. Also, visit Edgar Allen Poe Cottage on the historic Grand Concourse, or explore the world-famous Bronx Zoo, home to more than 4,000 animals. Or, relax in the natural beauty of the New York Botanical Garden or Wave Hill, a natural preserve with spectacular views of the Hudson River. Lastly, don't forget to take a trip out to City Island, the Bronx's very own version of a New England fishing village, complete with the City's freshest seafood.

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The borough's most ambitious development projects are occurring in the South Bronx, where comprehensive revitalization and substantial public and private investment are occurring in Hunts Point, Melrose, and the area surrounding the new Yankee Stadium.

New projects, like the Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market - slated to create one million square feet of new retail space - and the South Bronx Greenway - opening up the waterfront to residents of Hunts Point and Point Morris - reflect the overall development strategy to increase area retail and commercial potential, while creating sustainable open space and waterfront access.

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