This past weekend I had an interesting conversation with my friend, Natasha, who is a biracial Jew originally from Maryland and currently living in Crown Heights. She mentioned that the neighborhood is a blend of Caribbean Americans and Chabad Jews as well as hipsters. She was saying that local businesses try to  target as many consumers as they can. For instance, fun hipster pizzerias happen to be kosher. Even though this is a good place to live in New York, she still has to commute about an hour each way to get from where she is in Brooklyn to Manhattan where she works.

I identified with the issue of losing one’s community when moving someplace more affordable. For me, I never expected to be able to afford a place in Riverdale, where many wealthy Jews live in beautiful homes in gated enclaves. But traditionally, Harlem has been known as an affordable place for low income New Yorkers. However, soaring rents and gentrification have changed this reality. When Natasha asked me why I don’t move to the City I replied that downtown is too expensive, but it’s also not my crowd. And uptown, in Washington Heights, has a solid community where I would belong, but it wouldn’t in any way eliminate my commute.

Being on the lower end of the income spectrum in a community also struck a chord. The article mentions $12 ice cream as unaffordable for a man who grew up on the lower East Side and observed his neighborhood change. Although I attended private school all my life, my commuter high school was filled with wealthy girls from the Upper West Side, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Perhaps that’s why I feel more comfortable at Baruch, where the general attitude is that your family or personal income is less important than who you are as a person and what you are planning to do when you leave.