The New Yorker’s book blog interviewed Constance about the book and the Bronx.

The area nurtured literary genius—Theodore Dreiser, Edgar Allan Poe. But, you also note, sometimes “a budding poet was also suffocated by the relentlessly middle-class values that engulfed him.” How so?

This was for the most part a middle-class neighborhood, and certain relentlessly middle-class values were cherished. A mother loved to brag about “my son the doctor” or “my son the lawyer” or “my son the professor.” But “my son the aspiring novelist”? Not so good. And certain sorts of sensitivity were even frowned upon. Jules Feiffer, the cartoonist and writer who grew up in the area, said to me, “If you admired a sunset, everyone assumed you were gay.” The Bronx certainly produced its share of artistic and literary figures, but it wasn’t always an easy place in which to be a sensitive, creative soul.

The influence of Robert Moses on the area is the source of some controversy. Would you describe it?

Controversy is too weak a word. Even today, and probably until the end of time, people will be arguing about the impact of Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway on this part of the borough. Many people maintain that the expressway was largely responsible for problems the southern half of the Bronx faced during the last part of the twentieth century. The ramming of a major highway through residential neighborhoods along and near the Grand Concourse was clearly destructive and highly traumatic. But the forces that brought trouble to these neighborhoods were many and complicated and involved much more than the highway, devastating as it was.

Could you elaborate on what happened during the last three decades of the twentieth century?

So many things happened. The city overall was changing in profound ways during those years, and the Grand Concourse was no exception. This street, which represented so much for so long, fell victim to broader forces that were making it increasingly hard for urban neighborhoods to survive. Money and political power were being directed to the suburbs. Jobs that for generations had supported working-class families were disappearing. Racism was a major factor, and so was public and private indifference. And because change swept through the area so quickly, its effect was especially traumatic; residents said it was as if the Grand Concourse had been transformed “overnight.” It hadn’t, but it felt that way.