Adorned with a floral shirt, a green bomber jacket, and a cat print snapback on top of a man-bun, Keri and I found Colin in Fort Tyron Park. Among the dozens of people sitting on the park’s benches admiring the view of the Hudson, Colin was planning ahead for work, jotting down notes for his upcoming physical education classes which he instructs at a local school. As we apologized for the disturbance, he kindly gave us his time to answer some of our questions, which smoothly transitioned into an enjoyably eye-opening conversation.
Colin recalls a lifetime of memories growing up in Washington Heights, despite having only lived here until he was nine years old. Around 1990, his family moved upstate to Amsterdam, New York; a town with a population of no more than 20,000. Reasons for his leaving ranged from the drugs to the gangs in the neighborhood, which, along with other sinful activities, fostered an era that stained the 1980s. And Colin, born in 1981, experienced the peak of this period of lawlessness. In 1990, the neighborhood was the site of 10,000 reported crimes.
My parents held strict rules but allowed me and my brother to hang out after school with our friends. For fun we would ride our bikes around for hours and go to the park and do what kids do. We wouldn’t stray away more than a few blocks and we had to be home before dark because that was when it would be a hazard for anyone to be out. I never disobeyed that rule. The crime culture was so evident that I would often spot white bags (crack cocaine) along the sidewalks and groups of people in the middle of drug deals along alleys and stoops.
When I asked if he knew what those white bags and congregations were at that age, he quickly but calmly replied, “Oh yeah”. He went on to explain that his parents had told him and his siblings what they should and shouldn’t be doing in the neighborhood and the consequences had they involved themselves with the “shouldn’t”. Better safe than sorry his parents thought and they lugged their belongings to rural upstate New York. In this small town, Colin only reeled in two things that he remembered doing for fun: riding his bike around broken down warehouses and going to the movies with friends. “It was like someone had paused my life.”
By the turn of the century, Colin and his siblings would return to metropolitan New York. His brother and sister resumed life Downtown while Colin returned to his place of upbringing, despite the rough first impressions. He had also returned for further education. A fellow CUNY student, Colin majored in Physical Education in Queens College. Upon graduating, he found a job as a gym teacher in a school in the neighborhood which he expressed, “made [him] hyperaware of his surroundings. This led into the discussion of the differences or similarities he has observed since leaving Dominican dominated Washington Heights in 1990 and the gradual changes throughout the 12 years of his living in the Heights since his return.
There is still a strong Dominican or even a Hispanic presence and can be seen through the numbers of restaurants, bars, and other businesses that have sprouted. The streets down Fort Washington are noticeably cleaner and safer now than they were before. Back then, those streets were the worst in terms of poverty and crime. Since I’ve returned, the demographic has also become extremely mixed and rent has gone up significantly. A lot of people are coming here not for cheap housing as before but for recreational purposes; they choose to live here, like the Irish and even Asians! Although rent has gone up, some people such as the Jews and Eastern Europeans were able to stay, but they have always kept a low profile. Also, many of the Puerto Ricans I know have left not because of the expensive apartments but because they have climbed up socially and moved to the suburbs.
Gentrification was a word Colin used several times throughout his explanation. While businesses and incomes were flourishing, there was still a relatively poor region in Washington Heights. This group, unfortunately, didn’t get to move up the rungs of the social ladder, they instead, fell off completely and were displaced from their homes. Replacing these lower income groups (Hispanics and African-Americans), Colin observed, were higher income whites.
Aside from the rising real estate price tags and growing businesses, Colin’s affiliation with the school showed him the most gentrification-affected aspect of his neighborhood. In an area populated mainly by Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites, he teaches in a public school that is “almost entirely Black”. “In Washington Heights, African Americans remain the poorer group. White and Hispanic parents can afford to send their children to private schools, leaving my kids where I teach, a false picture of their neighborhood.” He emphasized his open arms to the incoming groups but wishes that they would contribute to the fabric of the community.
While Colin has not lived in Washington Heights his entire life, the years he spent away from the neighborhood gave him a better sense of how much his home has developed. When asked if he is bothered by this, he said that Washington Heights has always and will continue evolving. “Besides the lesser known effects of gentrification, I like the changes, they’re refreshing.”
