Auntie M...
I Don't Think We're in Harlem Anymore!
Reparation Tower
The Aspen 1955 First Avenue
Senneca Terrace 324 East 112th Street
El Marqueta Internacional Park Avenue 111th to 119th Streets
East River Plaza - 116th/119th Streets Above & Below
Second Avenue Subway Link to 125th St.
Harlem Tower125th St. and Park Avenue
Harlem Park Tower 125th Street and Park Avenue
Harlem Park Development Enrique Norton125th street and Park Avenue
Promise Academy125th Street at Madison Avenue
Hotel125th Street at
Fifth Avenue
Victoria Tower233 West 125th Street
Harlem USA 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard
Columbia University 130th Street West of Broadway
Columbia Universiy North on 12th Avenue
Harlem PiersHudson River at 125th St.
The Dwyer Warehouse
18 Morningside Avenue
111 Central Park North
Museum for African Art Fifth Avenue at 110th Street
1405 Fifth Avenue
Madison Avenue at 119th Street
5th On The ParkFifth Avenue at 120th Street
The Kalahari West 116th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues
Graceline CourtW. 116th Street
Brownstone Townhouses West 118th & West 119th StreetWest of
St Nicholas Avenue
Larkspur PlazaFrederick Douglass Boulevard and 117th Street
SOHA2119 Frederick Douglass Boulevard
The GatewayFrederick Douglass Boulevard at 114th Street
50 West 127th Street
The Walden69 East 130th Street
The LenoxWest 129th Street at Lenox Avenue
Thurgood Marshall Academy135th Street at Adam C. Powell Boulevard
The Marshall222 West 135th Street
The Loftsat Strivers Row
2605 Frederick Douglass Blvd.
Strivers North202 West 140th Street
Fortune Society625 West 140th Street
Bradhurst CourtWest 145th Street and Edgecombe Avenue
The Langston
145th Street at Bradhurst Avenue
The SuttonWest 147th St.
Bradhurst Avenue -
Frederick Douglass Blvd.
posted by Harlem Eye: Beat on the Street at 10:32 PM
12 Comments:
So, so sad. I just hope and pray that at some point the gentrification will slow down, and they'll find some other area to "improve". While I'm not a "long-time" Harlem resident (I'd only been here for 6 years), it truly saddens me to see that some people have no choice now but to move out due to rising rents, etc. The people that have been living in Harlem for years are what makes Harlem HARLEM. NOT all these fancy high-rises. I recently moved out of Harlem, but only because I couldn't take my slumlord anymore. And I couldn't find another place in Harlem that I liked and could also afford, so I now live in Qns. But my slumlord aside, I absolutely loved Harlem, and it was because of the people there, pure and simple. Now whenever I'm back in Harlem, it almost brings tears of joy to my eyes to be around "my peeps" again. To me, African Americans are truly special people with beautiful souls and spirits. And it is in everybody's interest to help them remain in their Harlem.
I feel you. six years in Harlem is long enough to know and learn about the place and its people. But the new settlers in Harlem have no respect or desire to keep some of its character. Now it is just a extension of 96th street-bland and souless like it new invaders.
Are you saying that the new comers don't have any culture and can't contribute anything to the community? Also, when people say "newcomers" it's not entirely accurate being that they (Whites)inhabited the area prior to us minorities moving in. The renters and small business owners are the who are really in danger of being displace...other than that no one else seems to be complaining because for many the gentrification of the area is a very good thing. Harlem looks better to me now than before.
who says that Harlem belongs exclusively to Black people? That kind of nonsense is what made Harlem stagnant for so long. Harlem belongs to everyone!
HARLEM IS A COMMUNITY THAT HAS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER... fOR that answer we would have to wait and see. I HAVE LIVED IN HARLEM FOR OVER 37 YEARS.I WAS/AM AGAINST THE STORES BEING BUILT ON 125TH BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLLY GREW UP IN THE HARLEM COMMUNITY KNOWS THAT HARLEM IS COMMUNTITY BASED MEANING SMALL SIDEWALKS,SMALL BUSINESS(ES)LACK OF SPACE. Now 125th looks like A MINI 34th street. It is too crowded. The new apartment buildings yes they are beautiful and no they are not affordable to the residents of Harlem on a whole. Wake up everybody, I remember in the MID 1980's when I was in college the daily news had an article about housing issues and what would be happening in the next 20 years was I the only one who read that article. It was written in black and white. And it showed all the vacant lots in the various boroughs ( remember 8th ave( that would have housing in the next 10-15 years. That was the ONLY opportunity for people from the neighborhood to apply for affordable housing. Whether it was a co-op, townhouse or even a brownstone. ( remember the dollar to purchase a shell of a building) If you didn't then sorry charlie all of these new buildings are not for the residence of Harlem unless you hit Lotto. Either you have the dollars or you don't. So it really depends on who is telling the new HARLEM story whether or not I want to listen. By the way did they tell these people that are paying hundreds and thousands OOPS MILLIONS of dollars on their homes....... that I will let them guess that part.
HELP THEM??
Wow...what an arrogant comment.
Help.
"African Americans" don't need your damn help to stay in Harlem. They can stay wherever the hell they want to stay, if they decide to make the effort to do so.
So what if it's become more expensive? Where in God's name hasn't it?? Apartment prices (sales) have doubled EVERYWHERE in New York City, not just Harlem. Apartments that were bought in The Bronx for $25,000 5 years ago now go for $100,000.
People that truly want to stay and contribute to the neighborhood will find ways to stay.
Everyone is sorta, kinda, right. I live in Brooklyn, have a co-op apartment in Brooklyn Heights and a house in Bedford Stuyvesant. Let's talk about over crowdedness, and congestion pricing...remember all of the flower and plant wholesalers that were on 6th Avenue in Manhattan? The parking lots...everywhere you look another million dollar highrise/condo is being built. Yes, Harlem is changing, but so is everywhere else. If the Mayor gets his way, those folks who would be driving into Manhattan, will be jocking for parking spots in my neighborhood, your neighborhood and yes, even Harlem. I remember when a Black person couldn't catch a yellow cab, now there's so many of them you can barely catch one before two others run you over. Yes, my friends, life it be a changein' in the Big Apple. I was born here so my advice to you is get with it, or get lost.
If all black folk didn't get 40 acres and mule after the civil war why do they expect to get low-income housing in Harlem for everybody? African Americans have an heir of entitlement because of slavery and that mentality is going to keep a lot of us out in the cold. I remember when the 125th street MetroNorth station was being renovated; that was the first sign the area was changing. It also meant current residents had to make a decision to shape or be shipped out. If people want to stay in Harlem they are going to have to be creative. That may mean having family member pool their resources together until they can afford what they want. Everyone else but African Americans takes advantage of all the programs out there we want everything laid out on a platter...
As a social worker and as a citizen of NYC who has been witness to the evolution of our city, the proposed changes to Harlem are apalling, horrendous, aesthetically unappealing and lack any sensitivity to developing changes that make sense. Never mind that the facades of the these buildings will be incongruous with anything in the Harlem landscape, glass Lego blocks dwarfing artistic brownstones? What will become of the essence of Harlem, the people who make Harlem Harlem? Of course change and progress is a necessary part of the growth of any major city. However, who is the change going to benefit? Certainly not those who continue to survive paycheck to paycheck just to live in a $1500/mth one bedroom with exposed brick, that's not a creative choice....perhaps reinvestment in the community to revitalize what's already here so those that ARE already here can STAY here?!
I love Harlem. I remember when there were no white folks here... except for the few that could not join the others in "White Flight". I don't have problem with whites coming to live in the area, even though not too long ago they wouldn't come past 96th street. What I have is a problem with the pricing of apartments here in Harlem. I couldn't afford an apartment here unless it was subsidized by the government. Attract wealth, yes, but don't drive out the current inhabitants. We are what give Harlem its' flavor. What really saddens me is that this has been a long time coming, it didn't just happen, and our community didn't wake up and buy property. We would have more say in what happened in Harlem if we owned some of Harlem.
It seems to me that what's happening in Harlem is happening all over the country. Yuppies are moving closer to their jobs in the cities and taking over the neighborhoods that historically have been filled with "projects" and low-income housing. I guess commuting from the suburbs is out of style. Blacks and other minorities have always been pushed around into areas that either no one else wanted or where they could be most exploited. I've done some reading on the history of blacks in Harlem and what's commonly believed is that they had little choice and paid twice as much to live in Harlem until they became the dominant population. Now the tables are turning and it saddens me as well on many levels and for many reasons. But what can be done, and for what reason? People talk as though they would like to freeze time and keep it so that it fits their particualar comfort level. Good luck. We all know that "cash rules everything around me" and most people in government see progress as more people with money spending it in their city. I'm black, a resident of Harlem since 93 and an artist. To me Harlem is a beautiful place filled with many cultural and spiritual treasures that I personally relate to and have not experienced in other cities. I understand that progress will change the community and I do not look forward to what will disapear forever. The uniqueness of this place is whay I moved here and why I've stayed, but like a lot of others, I too will have little choice but to love it from afar because it will be out of my price range. I guess for me it's just one more reminder that someone who could not care less about me controls something very important and dear to me, and the only thing I can do about it is to either give it up, or become like them. Something that I believe the gentrification will never understand or even see the importance of it.
Well, well, well, you all talk a good game, armchair quarterbacks. They (the powers that think they be) are doing their very best to make us (Black Harlem Residents)extinct - Tourism will abound - Looka here, looka there, this is where Langston Hughes lived, this is where so and so performed. FYI - We were not allowed to buy those brownstones. Banks would not lend us the money. Anywhere Caucasions (invaders) go destruction and life changes follow, not for the betterment of the people who live there. We (Black people) started from downtown - then were displaced and had to move uptown. Now they want it back. Skullduggery and politics did it. Introduced drugs (do you think the people decided to destroy and abandon the neighbhorhood?) Now because of a long gone history of Renaissance, it's become valuable again? It has always been valuable - that's the point. That's why this plan was implemented in the sixties.
I don't know about you all, but I'm going to fight. How about I come into your living rooms and redecorate without your permission. That would get your dander up wouldn't it. Well this is the same thing. Passivist and so-called Black politicians allowed this to continue under some of our noses. But there are those of us who are saying "enough is enough." By the way, I am a BLACK WOMAN, who does not think of herself as a minority. If you do - I feel sorry for you. I don't let anyone else define me. I aint' WAITING to see anything. Keep waiting, you'll be wind up someplace else.
haarlemvictoria125@yahoo.com
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