On a Friday afternoon while walking through Washington Heights, I find myself walking around Bennett Park looking for people to interview. After several rejections from babysitters, high school students, and people on their lunch break, I found Dave sitting on a bench, looking at the people in the park, having lunch.
Dave is a middle class white male living with his wife. They recently moved to Washington Heights on October 2012. Dave currently teaches at SUNY Plattsburgh, while his wife works as a freelancer in movies. Dave has been all over United States, though he was born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended college in Massachusetts, then he moved to San Francisco, and eventually returned to Alphabet City in Manhattan to teach high school. However, due to gentrification and increase in rents, they found their new solace at the Overlook Terrace. When asked why they decided to move to Washington Heights, he told me that his wife was afraid of global warming, and flooding, and thus they decided to move near the highest natural point in the city.
Dave then shared his thoughts on the neighborhood. He loves it, though he does not like the gentrification. He is afraid that the shoe repair place, and the gyro stores may disappear, and that the rents will eventually become too high. He describes Washington Heights to be a really peaceful neighborhood. This is why he often grabs lunch at Bennett Park at least twice a week.
Dave described to me the neighborhood around him. He states that there are a number of Orthodox Jewish Organizations, and a number of schools, such as Mother Cabrini – an all girls school. He describes that the neighborhood is very hilly as well. In terms of the people, he says that there are lots of respects towards and from different cultures. In his apartment building, although he described the superintendent is very homophobic dominican, there are still lots of gay people in the building, some african americans, and some single parents. He described to me how his apartment building is a little representation of the entire neighborhood itself.
