The Residents

 

East of Amsterdam Avenue

For those on the East Side of Amsterdam Avenue, the opportunities offered by the neighborhood are unrivaled. Not only is the area dominated by wealthy individuals, but the premium educational facilities like the MLK school are just a walk away. Similarly, the specialized service jobs in the finance and science industries that these residents are trained for are often located within the neighborhood. Walking throughout the neighborhood Evans and I saw numerous Asset Management firms.  The result, is a neighborhood that is 78.4% white and 73%working age. In fact, whites are the only overrepresented demographic in the neighborhood. The rest of the ethnicities, with the exception of Asians, are all underrepresented. Although the neighborhood has relatively low fertility rates, for the families that are there, the marriage rates are significantly higher than the rest of the city. Only 7% of males and 11% of females over the age of 15 classified themselves as “separated” or “divorced.”

(The picture above is the view of Lincoln Center from the subsidized housing units. The picture below is Lincoln Center from the front)

 

 

West of Amsterdam Avenue

It is quite a different story on the other side of Amsterdam Avenue. A large subset of the black and hispanic residents who do reside near the 59th street D-stop are located in the projects behind Lincoln Center. The pictures above which show Lincoln Center from both the front and the back in many ways symbolize the neighborhood’s attitude towards its two groups of residents. The residents facing the back of Lincoln Center attend their own primary schools which lack the resources of the higher-end schools available to white students.  Most striking, though, is the sense of community among those in the government housing. Many of the residents have grown up together their entire lives. However, despite their close proximity, most of the blacks have very little interaction with the rest of the community. In fact, many of our interviewees openly admitted that they preferred to socialize within the development.

(The building in front of the public housing is sponsored by none other than David H. Koch)