We have visited South Bronx like 1980.
There were no standing houses except for some projects.
The city looked like WWII remnant, just full of skeletons of burned houses! It seemed to me from these skeletons, that those houses had been once pretty good!
I heard rumors, that the houses were mostly torched by the owners, so they could at least collect the insurance money?!
The South Bronx was 80 percent burned then. Lots of places went up for insurance money. Some were pumped up in price before gaining insurance, then burned.
As a teen I took the train from NJ to Penn Station, then the Subway to Yankee Stadium. The train was always near empty pulling out north after Yankee Stadium Station.