The Bruckner Expressway bisects the neighborhood horizontally along the center and the Bronx River Parkway runs north to south.

Later in the 1970s, large high-rise rental and co-op apartment complexes were constructed across the neighborhood following the establishment of the Mitchell Lama program.

Like neighboring Hunts Point, Soundview began to fall into rapid decay in the 1970s due to white flight, growing poverty rates, and a citywide fiscal crisis.

The neighborhood was gravely affected by the crack epidemic throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, setting yearly murder totals among the highest in the city.

During that time, the Weed and Seed program was put into place by the federal government to improve the situation in Soundview, nearby Mott Haven, and East New York, Brooklyn and later Operation Impact.

Policing methods include NYPD monitored CCTV along known high drug trafficking areas, increased foot presence, and improved statistical mapping.

In 1999, an unarmed man, Amadou Diallo, was shot and killed by four plainclothes officers near the corner of Wheeler and Westchester Avenues.

There are also plans to develop this type of housing on vacant land within the confines of NYCHA property along with significant renovations and improvements to existing grounds and buildings.

Future plans in accordance with PlaNYC initiatives will create an urban oasis in this dense community; complete with recreation nodes, Greenway connections, bike/hike trails, designated fishing areas, a boat launch, and esplanades with skyline views.

Crime has also seen a significant decline as a result of a number of factors including enhanced policing techniques and changing economic demographics.

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the combined population of the Soundview/Clason Point/Castle Hill/Harding Park tabulation area (which includes the southern half of the Soundview neighborhood) was 53,686.

Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update] Soundview and Parkchester are considered low-income relative to the rest of the city, and are not undergoing gentrification.

The central western border of the neighborhood, adjacent to the Bronx River, is primarily used for storage, warehousing, and automotive repair and modification.

York Studios' Michelangelo Campus motion picture and television production facilities, is located at 1421 Story Avenue.

The Shops at Bruckner Commons, which was greatly expanded throughout the 1990s and was mostly renovated in 2018, divides Soundview from neighboring Castle Hill and contains some national chains like The Gap and Old Navy.

Other primary thoroughfares contain amenities like supermarkets, pharmacies, barbershops, hair salons, fast food, bodegas, and cheap shops.

Soundview Park occupies 205 acres (83 ha) in the southwestern section of the neighborhood, with ballfields and playgrounds and a pedestrian/bike greenway along the left bank of the Bronx River estuary from Lafayette to Leland Avenue.

[19] "Parque de los Ninos", a playground at the corner of Morrison and Watson Avenues, opened in 1956 and was renamed in 1995 to honor six neighborhood children who were killed in the late 1980s.

[9]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Bronx Community District 9 is 0.0076 milligrams per cubic metre (7.6×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.