Comments on: Saving the soul of black businesses in Harlem

By: Mindful

Mindful — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 04:20:47 +0000

Nellie, the award list at the end of your post suggests that you’ve done some great work on behalf of those who possibly need it the most.

However, you mentioned the phrase “obfuscate the facts” in your post and after reading it, I still can’t help but feel that most of the things you mention do exactly that.

When a commercial tenant enters into a lease, there is a start point and an expiration date (maybe with an extension right or two). The rent is set out (usually clearly) and it is specified when the rent increases. Most leases also call attention to a concept called “holding over” – whereby if the tenant keeps possession of the premises after the expiration date, rent goes up tremendously (usually something along the lines of +50% – enough to make the tenant want to get a new lease in place or move altogether).

This is a situation where the tenant appears not to have paid attention to the lease that he signed. He may have assumed that he could enter into a new lease at the expiration date (and therefore did not look to extend the lease or enter into a new one early enough in the process) or that he could simply hold on to it without worrying about the paperwork. Either way does not reflect how the real world works, whether you’re red, black, yellow or green.

I myself make a real effort to support local businesses and restaurants. However, I must say that I don’t really have an occasion to support a record store – I listen to the radio, turn on my cable to the music channel or play an mp3. When (honestly) before this “issue” arose did you go to the record store to buy anything? This is not something that he is alone in – as I think was mentioned above, how many music stores have declared bankruptcy lately?

So let’s not obfuscate this issue and make this something that it is not. What it is: (1) A lease that expired and was not renewed. Happens all the time, almost always for economic reasons (would you sign a new lease with a floundering business?). (2) The macroeconomics of owning a record store in an era of digital music.
What it is not: (A) A gentrification/socioeconomic issue. (B) A race issue. (C) An affront to the history of Harlem.

Furthermore, you have made a lot of baseless and incendiary claims and rhetoric. Given the fears (some legitimate and many not) that some people have expressed about the benefits and drawbacks of a rapidly changing community, I think parts of your email above are irresponsible at best and at worst, are intentionally harmful. Regardless of your or my thoughts on any of these matters, Harlem will continue to change in all sorts of ways (as the rest of the city will do too – as it always does). Motives should not be assumed and we should all avoid casting aspersions. After all, the one thing we all have in common is that we’re looking for the best possible places to live (and raise a family, perhaps). That Harlem is attracting so many new residents who are looking for exactly those things should be a testiment to Harlem’s history, its beauty and the quality of its current residents.

By: Nellie Hester Bailey

Nellie Hester Bailey — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:17:11 +0000

In reading the responses to “Saving the Soul of Black Businesses in Harlem” I was struck by the vitriolic views expressed by some along the line of ‘these folks are blaming whites instead of taking personal responsibility’. The blame game bamboozle is of course nothing new but has reached new heights to confuse and obfuscate the issues of race and class that are unavoidable in Harlem’s gentrification debate. Some of the most mean-spirited and sophomoric comments derided Harlem’s notable legacy, the great urban epicenters of Black struggle for racial and economic justice that continues unabated to this day. For those dismissive few, Harlem has no historic significance beyond the Harlem Renaissance. Of little interest, and I suspect, just plain simple minded ignorance of history, is the fact that an unprecedented concentration of people of African descent made their historic mark in Harlem despite all odds after centuries of forced labor, state sanctioned violence, racial discrimination, and population dispersal. Without a doubt it was the establishment of Black Harlem within one large and solid geographic location that made it unique in New York City’s history.
Rule one; avoid all discussion on gentrification and the forced removal of Harlem’s Black population with the justifications of Black stupidity, ineptness, and laziness. It’s a sure winner every time, even better if it comes through a Black windpipe. Remember, you can always sweeten the pie by working for white realtors. Celebrate your next deal of conning some old Black couple out of their home or a hapless owner of an HDFC apt by having friends over for apple martinis (the kool-aid cocktail for Harlem’s petty bourgeois wannabes) with no less a full banner American flag unfurled in the back yard of your garden apartment of which you can hardly pay the rent!
Rule two; reserve the best of your poisonous venom for the poorest of the poor residents in Harlem and those small mom and pop stores struggling to stay in business. You’ll need some live targets, so anyone in the public eye opposing windfall public dollars subsidies to major corporations (such as $11.3 million subsidies from the UMEZ to Harlem USA or Columbia University’s 17 acre land grab in West Harlem), just line up those targets so you can take perfect aim! The nerve of those folks (I am really curious about the ethnicity of this one) thinking they can wrap themselves up in their ethnic shrine talking about race, hummn!! Clearly this air head has no sense or empathy for what is going on in Harlem: rising evictions; Harlem’s shrinking African American population, the same for the City overall with the number one problem being housing affordability; and increases in the City’s shelter system population with African American female head of household with children under five years of age the fastest growing population (the greatest concentration coming from Central Harlem. Our most vulnerable residents, senior citizens, are being evicted at such an alarming rate the Civil Court of Manhattan was forced to institute an anti-eviction program.
Third, obfuscate the facts with the blanket lie that “trouble makers,” “cast of characters,” or “self style activist” (the most reactionary language of southern segregationists during the civil rights movement) don’t want to see Harlem revitalized with neighborhood amenities and housing improvement. Red baiting is the underlying subliminal message here, because this is where the issue of class intersects in the debate among Blacks. Suffice it to say, there are Black people of the upper income rung but mostly those just pretending to have means but are living from paycheck to paycheck that are loath to live in close proximity with poor Black folks. It simply doesn’t suit their notion of climbing the social ladder so these folks are quick to embrace the New York Times’ candidly racist cold blooded argument, ‘Hey it’s too bad, I know we are going to have some sad stories but pushing Blacks out of Harlem is an inevitable consequence of progress’. The truth is this progress is about real estate speculative profit, often times made illegally off the back of the working class in Harlem and throughout NYC. The racketeering lawsuit announced several days ago against the giant landlord group Pinnacle puts this monstrosity into context.
In 1885 the Black journal, New York Freeman reported, “The colored people of New York City suffer more injustice in the matter of rental than any other class of citizens.” It is as true today in 2007 as it was in 1885.
Nellie Hester Bailey, Director of the Harlem Tenants Council
200l Recipient of the New York City’s Union Square Awards
2001 Recipient of the national Alston Bannerman Fellowship
2005 Awarded a Proclamation from the City Council of New York for outstanding service to indigent tenants in NYC.

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By: smalltown

smalltown — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:37:57 +0000

amen, divine. simple truth. it’s beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time.

By: divine1906

divine1906 — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:26:11 +0000

#26 – I couldn’t agree with you more. Quite frankly, I don’t concern myself with what those folks think, say or do. I think we spend way too much time worrying about them. I’m a alot more concerned with what “we” think, say or do.
For example, I can’t get excercised the same ways others do about some of the changes in Harlem. In many ways I welcome some of the changes.
No reasonable person could have expected the Harlem real estate market not to change. It was only a matter of time before the market went up. And when residential values go up and development starts, big retail is not far behind.
The problem for “us” is that we didn’t anticipate this and plan for it. Individual non-profits did as much planning and development as they could, but were limited by capacity. There was little to no small business planning so when commercial rents went up, small businesses went out.
We live in a market economy and can never underestimate market forces and the power of capital.
So when it comes to being receptive to others, what comes across as intolerance is really masking our own failures to plan and act.
Others will only do what we allow them to.

By: divine1906

divine1906 — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:58:01 +0000

Neighborhood observer, you’re “observation” and knowledge of socio-economics is shockingly ignorant.
I wonder what people had to say about the Jews, Italians and Irish who dominated the urban criminal scene in the early 20th century?

By: Neighborhood observer

Neighborhood observer — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:39:31 +0000

This discussion started off so sensibly and then devolved into another blame whitey rant: for the schools (funded no worse than any other NYC DOE schools, thank you), for the drugs (who is selling them?), for the crime (who is committing it?). That’s right, all whitey’s fault. No doubt for the demise of the Record Shack, too.

This kind of thinking really hasn’t gotten anyone very far in the end, has it?

By: smalltown

smalltown — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:12:15 +0000

Divine-
Of course you are right. And while i agree, telling people to get over it doesn’t accomplish anything…i do feel that this real sense of hatred towards anything new coming to Harlem is also the sign of a real ill in this neighborhood. i think that “folks” see while “folks” as one huge wall of evil…and how will we ever overcome our struggles if we cant see each individual for who they are. We cannot insulate ourselves from white people and hope they go away and leave us alone. That is not the world we live in. if we can’t find a way to accept and integrate these newcomers into our neighborhood, they will run right over all of us. We have to step to them and bring them into OUR fold…

Additionally, we cannot expect that national chains will stay out of our neighborhood. Go to any town in America – there used to be the mom and pop shops, the small town diner, the hardware store, the butcher, baker, etc etc…But these days it’s home depot, target, Wal-Mart and Applebee’s. Every town America is now exactly that…no individuality and no diversity of business ownership.

If we truly convince ourselves that this is happening only to us, then we will continue to play the victim and never overcome.

By: Divine1906

Divine1906 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:01:45 +0000

#24. Folks are always telling “folks” to get over it. The problem is, you have no sense of what “it” is.
I’d agree that folks have allowed themselves to be paralyzed by their history and their own personal experiences. It prohibits them from seeing and taking advantage of opportunities that others who don’t share the same history and experiences see and jump on right away.
But I always caution folks who are so quick to tell folks to “get over it” and “move on”, to walk in their shoes for a little while and then see how quick your are to be so flip about it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:17:01 +0000

Enough already! Get over it.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:08:32 +0000

Harlem Proud said, “they have finally understood that black people are normal loving caring and share the same values as they do”.

2007 and you’ve come to this grand conclusion. We’re survivors, the product of a disenfranchisement of a people. You uprooted us, tore apart our families, our language, our culture, you erased our identity entirely. We’re survivors in your world, not doing as well as the recent immigrants who were spared such disenfranchisement, but doing better than the poor Native Americans, the only people who’ve been more F##’ed over by the White man than Blacks.

I know of no immigrant from India to be lynched, do you? We’re survivors. The cradle of our culture of the 20th Century is Harlem. That cradle rocks no more, has not rocked in a while.

You just don’t understand. the changing of the guard of Harlem taking place at hyperspeed is a bitter pill for many to have to swallow.