A Trip To Harlem
Throughout the years, there have been a lot of communities in New York City that have gone through gentrification. Gentrification is the change that a community goes through. In this case, it’s the entire Harlem community. Gentrification in Harlem started in the early 2000’s and even before that, which brought both positives and negatives that are still being discussed today. Processing the stages of gentrification and the consequences of gentrification have been hard for a lot of people already living in Harlem. People always say that the lower class people disagree with gentrification and that the higher class people agree; but can there be people with vice versa opinions? As in higher class people disagreeing and lower class people agreeing?
I am interested in writing about the stages that the communities have to go through for gentrification and the consequences of gentrification because there’s a lot of controversy when talking about gentrification due to people looking at it from one side more than the other. I want to be able to obtain information from both sides and be able to come to a true conclusion . I think that the gentrification in Harlem even though it’s more seen as how the communities look (building wise or people wise), they should also be a focus on the gentrification in people. In addition, to talking about how people are affecting and changing what Harlem means/stands by or just what Harlem is all about overall.
Now imagine having a time machine and going back in time; It’s 1969 and it’s late at night and all of the sudden you see a group of people looking like they are arguing about something. The next morning crews wake you up with their loud machines in the northwest corner of Harlem’s Lenox Avenue and 125th street and start building. Then you go back in the time machine and go into the next few years, and the house you saw there before is no longer there. Now you see a skyscraper and more construction happening in the next block. It makes you wonder why its gone? Where did the people go? Then comes those groups of people that you saw before and see that they’re arguing with people and trying to stop the construction workers, but nothing works. This is what Brian D. Goldstein explains in his article.
In his article, The Roots of Urban Renaissance:Gentrification and the Struggle over Harlem. he mentions a writer and resident of Harlem, Albert Murray. In this source, he talks about how the gentrification started. In addition, shows how the people reacted towards first knowing about the change that was going to happen. Furthermore, explains about the housing problems, problems between the different races and the difference in the new construct. He states “Mass media images of contemporary Harlem reveal only a part of the actual texture of the lives of the people who inhabit that vast, richly varied, infinitely complex and endlessly fascinating area of uptown Manhattan” (Goldstein). With this he means that residents of Harlem were not happy with this change happening. With this change, it’s causing residents to lose the Harlem they knew.
He also states “In recent years, meetings, rallies, pickets, and demonstrations against gentrification have become commonplace in Harlem” (Goldstein). This shows that Harlem has now turned into a place where a lot of argument is happening. Gentrification not only is changing the physical side of Harlem but also how the people are treating each other. This just comes to show how much residents disagreed with it and no one wanted it to be changed. Everyone wanted everything to be the same. Even though they were only thinking about it in a visual way, more problems came when more problems started occurring with the coming of gentrification. These included, a place to live, a job and even a change in neighbors. Let’s go back to our time machine real quick to the 20th century, where the beginning of this community known as Harlem started off.
In the article The Double Movements’ of Neighbourhood Change: Gentrification and Public Policy in Harlem and Prenzlauer Berg by Matthias Bernt he states “Harlem has proven to be a durable symbol of black life in part because the idea of Harlem has been used as a temporal vector, a means of charting the historical position and trajectory of black Americans”(Bernt, 27-46). With this we can see why a lot of Harlem residents were confused or felt uncomfortable when people from all different races came in. They were used to seeing their own race that they felt like they were not in the place that they grew up in. It also shows how people already know Harlem for how it was and its history and this happening makes a whole 360 turn to what Harlem is seen as.
In addition he states “Over the decades, Harlem’s congressmen had served as national power brokers and senior leaders of the Democratic Party. Now, however, without an African American representing Harlem in Congress, many black Harlemites believed their political power was disappearing (Bernt)”. This comes to further show how residents don’t feel as secure as they did before when there were people of their own race being represented for them. We see how black people know that people always see whites as superior and are afraid that a place to call “home sweet home” has now turned into the complete opposite. Getting back into the time machine and going into the 1900s- 2000s, where most businesses are now leaving because of gentrification but most are staying. So many people say that gentrification is destroying the business and kicking them out but is this true?
In Rachel Meltzer’s article Gentrification and Small Business: Threat or Opportunity?, she talks about the small business in Harlem and how it’s changing. In addition, showing how whenever there is some type change, the small business always gets affected in one way or another. Furthermore, explains how small businesses get positives and negatives from the gentrification. She states “Older businesses were actually less likely to leave in the gentrifying areas than the in the nongentrifying ones (even though the average business age is the same across the two types of tracts) (Melter, 17). When saying this, it basically means that business that were already there before the gentrification stated even though the gentrification was happening. In addition saying that the problem was that these neighborhoods were not getting gentrified, because if they aren’t people with their business will leave. With this she is basically contradicting everything that everyone believes about the small business getting kicked out.
Furthermore, saying that gentrification is good for the small business, they get more profit and are able to sustain their business better. In addition she says “Opportunity appears to exist for the neighborhoods that gain quality-of-life services and that retain more business under conditions of gentrification”(Melter, 24). In this she is basically saying that due to gentrification the neighborhood has a lot more that they can use and can take advantage of. In addition saying that Harlem is at its best when now being gentrified because they have more and more opportunity to have the success that they couldn’t have as much before.
Our last stop is now at Andrew M Fearnley and Daniel Matlin’s article Race Capital?: Harlem as Setting and Symbol in which they talk about Harlem overall. They show the way that everyone sees and or the way that they think of Harlem. It explains how the history impacted what everyone believes Harlem to be and includes how the change since the start. They state “But with Harlem’s demographic, physical, and commercial landscapes rapidly changing, the neighborhood’s status as a setting and symbol of black political and cultural life looks uncertain” (Fearnley and Matlin). This comes to show that Harlem is known to be seen as a place to look up to for many black people and due to all these changes, it’s changing the entire point of view that people want others to see about Harlem.
Furthermore they state “Together they reveal a community at once local and transnational, coalescing and conflicted; one that articulated new visions of a cosmopolitan black modernity while clashing over distinctions of ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality.” This just comes to show that even though these changes in Harlem are being made it doesn’t take away the fact that Harlem will always be remembered as a black community and all the things that were done in Harlem. Even though things are different doesn’t mean other things have to change as in any tradition or anything that they had done before.
We are now getting off the time machine and landing into actual time. Were there more positives or negatives? Well as we can see it’s neutral. Some people will always think that gentrification is a bad thing, some will always see it as a good thing and some will be in between. What did we learn? Everyone had different opinions but even those who were seen as opposites, were on different sides. Meaning that people that were for it (whites) did say that even though these changes were going to happen, Harlem’s history would never be forgotten and will always stay and be remembered. People that were against it (blacks) did say that it brought higher profit in business and can help them with their everyday life. Both sides saw both positive and negative ways of seeing the situation and turned it into being a very understanding and respectful way towards each side. What side would you be on? Get on your own time machine and fine out!
