South of Cross Bronx Expressway, decals belie the truth of destruction for suburban commuters.

Mel Rosenthal in his old bedroom in the South Bronx

Cambodian children in the South Bronx.

People marching: poster saying "South Bronx for Change".

Cambodian Buddhist Monastery in the South Bronx

Teens clean up the rubble in order to create a neighborhood garden.

Among the last residents, [an] African-American boy standing in rubble, his "neighborhood," with abandoned buildings in the background.

One of the high school students told me she was going to be a dental assistant. The other two said they wanted to be models.

Doll laying in empty lot filled with rubble

When I looked for her to give her the picture, her building had burned and she had moved

Large, four foot, poster on the side of a building.

Mother and daughter pause in the ruins, which is still their home, Claremont Parkway.

She had been left behind when her family and friends moved out of the neighborhood

Deserted, desolated buildings: "War Zone"

Storefronts on East 173rd Street. One with a German Shepard behind the roll-down gate.

A poster in an evening demonstration (against violence and drug use) featuring a silhouette of a long knife and pictures of syringes

Venerable architecture of the period, slated for destruction, Bathgate Avenue and East 173rd Street

Candido with neighborhood kids

Fourth of July, hanging out on the stoop of their apartment house

Among the Last Residents, their playground: Bathgate Avenue and East 173rd Street.