TAN-worthy article in the NY Times over the weekend about my hood East Harlem. It's a familiar profile on the consequences of gentrification in "northern" Manhattan, but I loved this quote from Jose Hidalgo, 76, who doesn't believe the displacement of Puerto Ricans will stick past the winter:“These people come here and they don’t last long,” Mr. Hidalgo said. “Once they see what the neighborhood is really like, especially in the summer,” he said, when the streets become noisy and the crime rate typically climbs, they will sell their apartments and leave.That's right, El Barrio gets ferocious in the summer my amigos!! Not only do these people sell their apartments, but I make them sell their apartments to me, for like $50. See, right now it's way too cold for me to grab my piece and start mugging folks, but a few weeks ago, when it was 60-70 degrees out, wasn't NOBODY moving into East Harlem without giving up their wallet and/or lease to their property. Feel me?
But when it's cold, I just stick to blogging.
As East Harlem Develops, Accents Change [NYTimes]
Related:
Ghetto Pass Person of the Year: You, Caucasians [Gawker]
Mason-Dixon Line Official [TAN]
T.A.N.,
ReplyDeleteWhen filling out a resume do you say that your hobbies are blogging and robbing? I am just checking so that I can tell my students that their boosting capabilities actually count as a skill. LOL
Ms. Denva
P.S.
The Block is hot
T.A.N.,
ReplyDeleteWhen filling out a resume do you say that your hobbies are blogging and robbing? I am just checking so that I can tell my students that their boosting capabilities actually count as a skill. LOL
Ms. Denva
P.S.
The Block is hot
T.A.N.,
ReplyDeleteWhen filling out a resume do you say that your hobbies are blogging and robbing? I am just checking so that I can tell my students that their boosting capabilities actually count as a skill. LOL
Ms. Denva
P.S.
The Block is hot
I've said it before and I'll say it again ... Shallow waters of gentrification? Good. Gentrification tsunami? Not good.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I've never been up to East Harlem. Nevertheless -- judging by what I've read about the neighborhood lately -- you're in shallow waters now, but the tsunami should roll in within the next 3 - 5 years. ;)
Blogging and robbing; that's how we work it in my neighborhood too. In Eastern Canada they have fishing and clubbing little baby seals, but it's the same principle.
ReplyDeleteif I move to NYC, I think I'd probably move to one of the 'hoods. Hope you don't mind TAN. Maybe we can be SpaHaneighbors?
ReplyDeletedenva - robbing is definitely a skill, don't deprive the chil'ren of a propa education now.
ReplyDeletefbc - its crazy you've neber been to SpaHa. The watters are a little more than shallow I think now, but no tsunami yet. i guess the storm is building downtown and over brooklyn now before it heads up.
raincoaster - I had a baby seal club sandwich the other day, it was delicious!
choatey - of course ... hurry up! I actually thought you were moving in with me.
anon - thanks for the link, posted.
I grew up in El Barrio. It always cracks me up that the yuppies, who dare not even set foot off the #6 train, especially after dark, are trying to give 'tude in the hood.
ReplyDeleteWhat really makes me chuckle is when they want to make idle conversation, as if to see if I might be a "friendly native." Puleeze, I don't need any patronizing from the same folks, who turned their noses up at me when I entered their neighborhood to go to college.
You can call Spanish Harlem, SpaHa, The new SoHo or whatever you want...it's still the hood to some of us.
webigail.com
The economic and cultural consequences of gentrification are emblematic of the worst aspects of capitalism. I'm not feelin' the yuppie lifestyle anymore than you, but sometimes I wonder if some peeps are confusing yuppies with all peeps of European descent and are confusing gentrification with integration. I lived off the 4 and 167 street, BX for 6 months before I had to move back to Chitown to help out my fam. As far as I knew I was the only Irish/Italian anywhere near that neighborhood. But I wasn't owning, I was renting, so that's not gentrifying. I think yuppies not only raise the property values and make it unaffordable for the poor, but they also move into the hood with hubris and no respect for the culture already established there. And yes, I went to Longwood off the 6 to see my boys bout a dozen times. I refuse to let media conditioning dictate an internalized fear of the poor and peeps of color as it does among many so-called "whites." I never had no probs there and I'd move there again. One.
ReplyDeletemyspace.com/hatch_bx