Jaylene Clark was the mastermind behind the spoken word performance “Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale.” The play stemmed from a random Facebook status she wrote before she was on her way to a poetry reading. It read: “It’s time to stop dipping a toe in here/ Wading in a little bit there/I need to jump back into this Sea World of poetry like I’m Shamu/ Heavy/ Too much gentrification going on in Harlem to get light/ Time to spit killer lines, with killer rhymes, of killer tales/ Cuz Harlem is looking more and more like the belly of a killer whale.”
The play takes a look at gentrification as actresses Janelle Heatley, Hollis Heath and Jaylene play the roles of three different young women discussing the changes in Harlem. The most prominent change being how Jaylene’s character’s parents are struggling to keep their brownstone apartment because of the increase in costs with real estate.
As the play goes on, the three actresses play different roles expressing their feelings on how Harlem was, how it is now, and how they hope it will be. Mostly, how they hope Harlem will also be indulged in its culture and originality.
Jaylene takes a stroll through 125th Street, close to the National Black Theatre, speaking about how Harlem doesn’t need any fancy makeovers to be “trendy” because it is an area that is already rich in culture and history.
About a month ago I put out a survey both on my Facebook and Twitter asking for people to express their opinions on the Columbia University expansion throughout Manhattanville in West Harlem. I heard from Harlem locals that the expansion was causing a lot of small businesses to relocate or shut down completely. Many also feared that whatever resources Columbia could get with the expansion wouldn’t be shared with the community.
So, I put out a survey to see how others feel. In the survey, I asked two questions. The first question was what could be the worst effect of the expansion. The second question was what could be the best effect. This is the rundown:
The first question possible answers were:
Both had an “other” option for people to add in other possibilities. The general outcome:
1. For the first question, three out of the five people who responded chose “all of the above.” This tells me that with a project as big as the Columbia expansion, many feel that it is inevitable that there will be a plethora of effects, not just one. However, the other two people who answered were split, with one choosing the option that West Harlem will lose its originality/mom and pop shops and the other one choosing the option that there could be increased tension with locals and newcomers.
2. For the second question, there was a another three to five split with answers, and many believed the project will bring new employment opportunities to the area. The other two chose the all of the above option. Overall, I think many believe that the opportunities may be outweighing the negative effects that could come out of the expansion. It seems that the possibility of more employment is better than the risk of tension or the loss of old shops.
3. Another way I got responses were by comments on Facebook and by continuing to ask the general public in the West Harlem community.
A. Facebook comments: Three people responded and all believed that overall the expansion will give the area a better face value, however will increase the overall cost of living which would be trouble for locals who may not be able to stay.
B. Many locals say that this project is just another example of how gentrification works. The overall feeling is mixed: many like and appreciate that new businesses are coming to the area so that Harlem locals don’t have to travel downtown to shop. However, the main concern is the increase in living costs for the people who have lived in Harlem almost all their lives and the idea that the people of Harlem don’t have much of a say with what changes are made in their community.
In the end I felt I got better responses on the issue by physically asking locals rather than relying on social media, since many people who responded via social media aren’t even from Harlem.
I had a few goals with my survey about Coney Island. The first was to discern how much people knew about Coney Island. I wanted to ask this question because people whom I spoke with about my community district would often be surprised by the fact that Coney Island houses a significant year-round residential population and not just a part-time amusement park. My second goal was to gage a better sense of how people felt about Coney Island being redeveloped by New York City.
Out of the 22 individuals who responded to my survey, a little over half of them actually responded correctly in answering that over 40,000 people live in Coney Island. The 2010 US Census reported Coney Island’s population (Zip code 11224) being 45,606.
This was surprising to me because I made the assumption that anyone not living in New York would assume Coney Island was purely an amusement district. Yet, only 23 percent of the people who responded to my survey were from New York. Continue reading →
Seema Gul, 35, is the owner of Star Electronic Discount, Inc. between 110th and 109th streets, on Third Avenue. She bought the store with her husband two years ago.
“We were making $2000 a day. Now I can’t pay the rent. I have to borrow,” Gul says. They make about $200 a day now, and their rent is $5500, according to her.
According to a report by MNS, a real estate broker in Manhattan, while rent there is still low compared with any other area, when you scroll down to the very bottom and look at Harlem’s price trends, rates there are clearly rising as well.
While the rent prices going up has definitely affected local business owners, there has been a sharp drop in the bottom line of most local stores in the last two to three years specifically because of the opening of the East River Plaza.
As more people of middle income moved there, it made sense for stores like Target, Best Buy, Marshalls and Costco to to open as these people would be more inclined to buy a lamp from, say, Target than the 99 cents store. Unfortunately, local businesses like Gul’s electronic store cannot compete in terms of pricing.
“Sometimes people come in and say, “It’s cheaper in Best Buy,” and I say that this is not Best Buy. We are a small business, we can’t afford to have such low prices,” she says.
On the other hand, the competition might be good for the local community, specifically for people who live in Public Housing or are struggling to make ends meet as their rent goes up.
What do you think? Is the East River Plaza opening up a good thing for the community? Or do you feel that it’s not worth it due to way it affects local businesses?
