The Gentrification of Washington Heights
I know there are some Washington Heights readers in the audience. Please chime in on this issue. Do you feel that Washington Heights is starting to lose its flavor and character?
Along West 187th Street there used to be a tiny closet-sized kitchen where you could buy a whole roasted chicken through a small storefront window. The chicken window closed to make room for the hip new restaurant. It was meant to be “downtown uptown,” with its lounge-style lighting, red velvet couches and imported world music. The timing couldn’t have been better … or worse depending on how long you lived there.
The gentrification of Washington Heights would be forever linked, in my mind, to the opening of that one restaurant. Obviously one restaurant can’t possibly sway an entire neighborhood, but it wasn’t long after they placed a flowery menu out front that I began to notice an inordinate amount of new people strolling along Ft. Washington Avenue. You had to ask yourself, had the neighborhood already changed enough to warrant such a restaurant? Or did the restaurant attract more new buyers to the neighborhood?
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It’s funny to hear a self-proclaimed “transplant” talk about the neighborhood with that kind of attachment to it. and i do believe he is sincere. Can you imagine how those people who were here since the ’70’s and ’80’s feel? It’s ironic that way. Though I’m technically south of the official Washington Heights border i personally feel that 135 through 155 from Amsterdam to Broadway is that concentric circle from whence Washington Heights begins just because of the strong Dominican presence. And i have plenty of family in the “official” heights.
It’s not so much a problem for our parents’ generation who are now slowly moving back to DR to retire but for my generation who somewhat appropriated washington heights as our own little hideaway. the sad thing is that cultural face of the heights on its own gets diluted just by the fact that my generation has assimilated so much of this country being born here. that’s why you’ll have dominican-americans my age who may not know spanish, eat spanish food, dance bachata/merengue, or who know Rafael Trujillo is(check wikipedia).Now imagine that naturally occurring dilution mixed with the gentrification efforts.yes, there’ll be less drug dealers, higher quality business, and improvements on quality of life overall. but the dilution gets exacerbated. that’s why you’ll find a remnant of Dominican-americans (in my case) trying to relearn all the steps that brought our families here in hopes of not losing that binding cultural element.so in some cases you’ll have reinterpretations of elements from our culture for example through new restaurants that build on traditional dishes and revamp it or you’ll have complete obliteration of small gems that may not mean much to the transplants but for someone who immigrates here from DR to be able to get a big plate of food just like back in the homeland for just $3-$4 bucks assuages so many frustrations and fears of being in a foreign land.
in an ideal setting there should be room for both sides…downtown-esque eateries & lounges, and “gourmet” markets and then your bodegas, canchas, cormados, frituras.build on the essentials without destroying the foundations.but for that it requires active advocacy to preserve what is treasured by the people.
Sorry, I can’t get all worked up over worrying about Wash Heights when Black Harlem is on life support. Last I heard Dominicans were the #1 arriving immigrant to Manhattan and making home in Wash H and the Bronx. Ya’ll parade is approaching the size of your arch rivals, the Puerto Ricans. Cracks me up to see the PR’s complaining about the Doms.
At risk of appearing insensitive, Dom culture in Wash Heights has influenced culture how? Do you have time to hear how extensively Black culture in Harlem has influced American culture? World Culture?
Nearly 100 years of Black Culture is basically in its final stages in Harlem. That’s significant and meaningful. Harlem is a world brand, made so by a fading culture. Few outside of NYC ever heard of Wash Heights. Just being real ya’ll.
If Dom culture is on the decline or dilution in Wash Heights, has anything really been lost? What are we talking about, 2 or 3 decades of nothing significant diluted? Oh Boo-hoo. Sorry, on the hierarchy of concern of City culture on the decline, Dom culture ranks below the Italians being pushed out of little italy by the Chinese and no where even on the same map as Black culture in Harlem’s vanishing.
Sorry, nothing to get too worked up over.
Samuel, it’s the same cause. We’re minorities trying to preserve our roots. I don’t believe in separating the ranks. I am a Dominican-american born in Harlem. I have just as much reverence and love for black culture as for my parents culture. It’s part of my Harlem ethos growing up here. While it would be completely assinine to make comparable black history and dominican history in the US, it would be equally erroneous to say that there has been no contribution on behalf of Dominican culture. If you perceive it that way perhaps it’s because, as you admitted, we’ve only been around for “2 or 3 decades.”
Kudos to Hugo for the measure, clear cut response. Samuel, even the good points in your argument are completely undermined by your, yes, insensitive dismissal of Dominican culture. It is never productive to affirm ones own “status” at the expense of anothers. Do better next time.
aqua-i had the exact same thought…hugo, you are a good man.
Born and raised in Washington Heights, now living in West Harlem. My parents immigrated to NYC in the early 50’s, I was born in ‘61, and, as strange as it may sound, I knew of no other Dominicans in the neighborhood who weren’t related to me. Everyone was Puerto Rican, Irish, Jewish or Greek.
Until the early- to mid-70’s, when Washington Heights literally was washed away by the tsunami from the island of Hispaniola. Almost overnight, a solid, working-class and lower-middle-class neighborhood made up of people who treated each other with respect…well, it just disappeared. It was replaced by a neighborhood filled with people who didn’t give a d–m if you or your kids were trying to sleep, or if you were blocked in by their double-parked car and you were late for work, or if you really didn’t like seeing bags of garbage left in the hallway by people too lazy to take it down to the basement.
i say bring the gentrification on, the sooner the better.
As a former resident who left in ‘92 sometimes it takes being away from a place for awhile before you see change. I remember returning 4 years later and thinking how different the Heights looked and felt. But now from what I’ve read, the Heights is the place to live in Manhattan. And with change comes higher rents for those who have made the Heights home. A home that has now becomes unaffordable. The new Starbucks on the corner, the restaurant that now takes reservations. Hudson Heights. Sometimes with change you wish it stayed the way it was. To me the Heights was always a melting pot. But when those now see different groups moving out because of the new arrivals then its a whole new ball game. But a game that has been played before. For those of us who have lived in the Heights before and currently it will always hold a place in our hearts. But over time everything changes or goes back to the way it was. To keep my Heights memory alive, I have created some Heights T-shirts. http://www.cafepress.com/johnycdesign
Have lived in Southern WaHi since 1979. There is a new sign in my elevator from the super: “Don’t throw your trash out the window.” I’ve heard “things are changing” for 28 years. The police consider Broadway between 155th and 162nd a drug corridor. The community meetings are racially mixed and decidedly in favor of getting things cleaned up. There was a drug shooting a couple of weeks ago. Trash, noise, constant loitering on Broadway, drugs…would that I am alive to see rapid and extreme gentrification of this architecturally, geographically beautiful area of Manhattan.
audubonhtsguy i agree that that particular stretch has been a stronghold in terms of drug related crime. i grew up in the midst of it and have even lost family member to it. my question is…is gentrification the only solution to make a community safer and more livable? any definition of gentrification you look up typically shares the following elements:
1) rehabilitating deteriorated/neglected neighborhoods by wealthier residents
2) displacing long-term/low income residents
3) transforming low value property into high value property
is it truely the only solution? i’m just saying there have to be more options. Touting “Bring on the gentrification” brings a lot more to the table than cleaner streets and a starbucks.
Hey Hugo,
I agree, it would be ideal to strike a balance. I’m not interested in the starbuckification of WaHi–just a safe neigborhood where basic civics is respected.
I do think ownership is key–this area is 95% rental and many people just don’t care–it’s not their problem. HPD has started converting a large number of rental buildings to owner co-ops (check out how many have turned on 160th between Broadway/Amsterdam.) This is a good alternative because it gives the current renters the opportunity to become owners rather than displacing long-term residents. Pride in ownership is a wonderful thing and you see how buildings clean up once they turn–with the same people who have been living there!
If 30% of the area became owned in this way, there would be a marked change in quality of life for everyone.
amen! couldn’t agree more! you actually brought a point that hadn’t come to me in this discussion. from other posts I read earlier, harlem had a number of such programs empowring people to own. however, most people, feeling that rent would always be cheap passed it up. some folks were smart and bought apartments or townhouses at a marked discount. my only excuse is that I was barely in my 20’s when that was going on (no income, no credit
. had my family had the mindset of ownership here in the US as a priority we would have been living in a brownstone or something.now i’m left with these “luxury” condos at an exhorbitant price (by old harlem standards). oh well!
but it is true that there is a correlation between homeownership and safer streets & cleaner streets in that case folks have a vested interest.thing is that nyc has always been for the most part a renter’s city (at least that’s been the case on this side of the island).you have a host of young professionals who simply want a piece of the city while they get there stuff in order.
homeownership was never a part of my upbringing. when i visited friends whose families owned houses in yonkers, riverdale, or jersey it’d be like stepping into p. diddy’s crib or something! i would be so impressed about something like someone OWNING a house and having a backyard. it’s funny like that.
I think it’s good to note that Washington Heights was a lot of things before it became primarily Dominican. I know at one point there was a large Irish population and there have been many other waves of ethnicities over the years. I like that you can still see elements of many of these communities in the Heights and now it’s turning into a nice melting pot.
The worst case scenario, obviously, is that the community ends up becoming another upper-west-side generic clone, but the only thing that’ll really ensure that that doesn’t happen are the people that live there. So the thing to do is to pay attention to those opportunities for affordable home ownership and make sure you tell your neighbors to do the same. In the end it’s the people that make the neighborhood what it is and if we all work together we can make sure that the heights remains the place that we all love. And maybe we can all learn from each other in the process.