The changing of neighborhoods happen all the time and it often brings about interesting changes in the community. This can be said for Harlem during the early 1900s. The amount of native and Caribbean blacks that moved into this area created a new community. I was surprised to learn about this change when I read the first few chapters. I didn’t know that just by having new groups of people move in, the lifestyle of both the existing people and the new group of people can be changed so drastically. However, if I think about it, it isn’t as surprising as I thought it was.
I grew up in a dense Chinese community in Brooklyn. When I was young, I remember that there were far fewer Chinese Americans in this community. Shops and stores were predominantly owned and occupied by non-Asian American. Slowly, the amount of Chinese immigrants increased, and most of them from Fuzhou province. Prior to this, the community I live in was mostly from Guangzhou. As more and more people came in, the Chinese American community spread. Today, many shops and stores are filled with Chinese people, much different than it once was. 8th avenue, which is Brooklyn’s own Chinatown, is now seen as a Chinese hub. It’s so significant that the Lunar New Year would cause the avenue to close for celebration. This year, street lights were even added for this holiday.
Similar to how some African Americans saved up to buy their own homes during the early 1900s, the Chinese Americans sought to become homeowners in the community. The strong demand for homes slowly displaced the existing Italian community. Property value in Brooklyn shot up as well. Over my lifetime, the property value of a house doubled, and in some cases tripled due to the Chinese. A house might have cost around $350,000 in the last 90s. Now, that same house may cost $1 million. The closer the property is to the Chinese community, the higher the value and the greater the cahnge. I’m not sure if the same happened for Harlem, but I would imagine a huge change taking place.
