As we walked away toward the river from the subway there was a reassuring smell in the air, somewhere between laundry detergent and fresh air. We heard soft latin music playing out of a bodega somewhere down the block and the windows of one apartment were adorned with makeshift curtains made out of Puerto Rican flags. The space felt quieter and much more like a neighborhood then the bustling Upper East Side from which we had come.

115th Street: 2nd Avenue – Pleasant Avenue

We observed 115^th street between 2^nd and Pleasant Avenue and the area seemed just on the cusp of changing. On one side of the street there was a large public housing complex that was decorated with the characteristic green scaffolding that always seems to be atta

Community Garden on E. 115th St.

ched to public housing. And across the street were brick apartment buildings, a large Laundromat and a bodega with a beautiful multicolored mural that read, “rest in paint,” over a woman’s face. We noted that it was interesting that there was such a large Laundromat, and a full supermarket and a bodega all on one street. Downtown everything feels much more cramped and every business feels like it is vying for your attention and patronage, but there it was more relaxed and open. There were lush, low-lying trees and more open spaces, two community gardens and people loitering on street corners or chatting with friends from their car.

There were also some aspects of the area that were less appealing. There were three abandoned buildings, practically collapsing in on themselves, empty lots that were overridden by leaves and garbage and grimy storefronts with heavy curtains placed over the windows and the paint ferociously scrubbed off the sign, leaving behind only a dirty imprint.

Corcoran Real Estate sign on abandoned building

This is where the signs of change could be found if you looked. A Corcoran “For Sale” sign was hanging off the window of one of the most defective buildings; the same real estate company that was listing $3 million properties in downtown Manhattan. And, the lots were either being sold for, or slotted for residential development. Additionally, there were much newer, residential buildings between 2^nd and 1^st avenue and we noticed a resident walking toward the subway carrying two reusable Whole Foods bags, despite the fact that the nearest Whole Foods was twenty blocks south.

But this didn’t seem to be the majority of the neighborhood, which lead us to believe that any change that is occurring has not truly taken hold yet. What we mainly noticed were families carrying grocery bags from the local bodegas and grocery stores, and established local Barber Shops, Halal Deli’s and Nail Salons and a tire service run out what seemed to be a guy’s back yard. There was also a brand new community Health Center, with new facilities and a thrift store in the basement that seemed there to stay.

Little Sisters of Assumption Community Health Center

Although there does seem to be new development and a new future coming for this little neighborhood, it would be nice to think that these streets will be able to hold on to some of what gives them their identity.

However, it is important to acknowledge our own biases about the observations we made: which details we chose to omit and which we chose to include. For example, we noticed that we were actively looking two streets to place in juxtaposition. In the end we compared the two adjacent avenue streets on 115^th street on starting on Second Avenue walking towards east. Moreover, we were keeping an eye out for indicators of gentrification in our observations. Our eyes were sensitive to the reusable Whole Foods bags. The reception of a Whole Foods in a neighborhood has been used as a signifier of changes due to gentrification in public discourse and this has probably affected how we analyzed the presence of the bag in the neighborhood.

In our observations, the difficulty of spotting change coming from within the community comes from our unfamiliarity of the neighborhood. Recently opened delis and shops would go by unnoticed. Ultimately, the markers of change we took note of were details, which we deemed as belong out of place in the neighborhood’s history and reputation. It is immensely important to acknowledge these biases when we conduct observations. Our background as students of seminar 4 almost dictates us to try to look for comparative changes. However, our position as visitors to the neighborhood provides us a non-effective lens through which we can describe the characteristics of the two streets, no less the personality of the whole neighborhood.

Kendra Cornelis & Eldrich Doyogan