Neighborhood Portrait of Washington Heights
I originally chose to write about Washington Heights because I knew that my parents and I were moving there next summer. At the time, all I knew about the neighborhood was that it was uptown, a little less gentrified than what we were used to, and had a large Dominican population. Since that time, I’ve learned a lot about a quirky and unique neighborhood up where Manhattan starts to look like it needs to be ironed before it can be put away. It has an interesting past, and possible an even more interesting present.
Washington Heights takes its name from Fort Washington, which was built during the Revolutionary War. The fort was built on the highest point in Manhattan for strategic reasons, the area not really having been settled at that point. The fort was pretty much a failure from the strategic perspective (it got captured by the British), but it enjoys modest fame today as a tourist attraction, so that’s something. The area wasn’t permanently settled until the early 1900s. There were certainly structures built there before that, but for the most part they were the summer retreats of the wealthy New York elite, rather than permanent residences.
Washington Heights has been an immigrant/minority community as long as it’s been a community at all. The first people to settle there permanently were Irish immigrants, and the trend they started continues to the present day. They were joined by other Europeans, but the area didn’t change substantially until WWII, when Germanic Jews flooded into the neighborhood, fleeing the ascent to power of the Nazi party. Their numbers and influence transformed the area, to the point that it came to be known as Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson. This remained the defining character of the area until the 1970s, when immigrants from Soviet Russia redefined the neighborhood once again. They were in turn followed by the Dominicans and other Hispanics who currently define the neighborhood.
This latest transition, which only recently came to a close, was readily apparent in the first few people I interviewed: an elderly Russian couple and a young Dominican high schooler. They had very different perspectives on the neighborhood. Anna and Vladamir Shevel left Russia behind thirty years ago due to anti-Semitism. They worked and retired in Washington Heights, and their favorite thing about the about the neighborhood was its aesthetics; they simply thought it was a beautiful place. This contrasts with the fifteen year old Walder. He came to Washington Heights when he was six, his parents having decided to leave the Dominican Republic in search of better education for their children. He seemed surprised by the question of what made Washington Heights special, saying he viewed it as a pretty typical neighborhood.
The most common responses I got to such a question, though, involved the neighborhood’s ethnic makeup. A man walking his dog said that what impressed him most about the place was its diversity and tolerance, which he considered impressive even by the standards of New York City. A woman from California said the strong Latino culture reminded her of home. This is backed up by my research online, as the strong Hispanic/Latino/Dominican/Caribbean culture is invariably one of the first things mentioned about the neighborhood. This was visible even in the relatively short time I spent in the neighborhood. Just while interviewing people in Fort Tryon Park I saw two separate instances of people playing guitars while singing in what I assume was Spanish, which is probably the only ‘ethnic’ activity I would be able to identify at a glance. More seriously, the description from the man with the dog (whose name was actually Luke) was also borne out. Just walking around the park, I saw an enormous degree of diversity. I expected to see White and Hispanic people, but I was surprised at how many people I saw who looked like they might be Asian or Indian Americans. Running into representatives of every continent on a walk in the park isn’t that unusual by New York standards, but it still made an impression on me.
Sadly, I didn’t have time to visit every part of Washington Heights in order to understand regional variations between sub-neighborhoods. Fortunately, the internet is a wonderful thing, and I managed to find the information I needed by a less direct route. The most significant distinction I found is between Washington Heights as a whole and the smaller area of Hudson Heights. Hudson Heights is basically a richer, whiter, version of Washington Heights proper. Hudson Heights is 43% Hispanic, whereas Hispanics are the majority in Washington Heights as a whole. In addition, most of the apartments there are co-ops, and tend to be more expensive than in other parts of the neighborhood. It occupies the highest part of Washington Heights, overlooking the Hudson River.
My first thought after learning about Hudson Heights was how similar it was to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, which we learned about earlier in the semester. They are both more expensive and prestigious than the areas around them. They are both located physically higher up than the areas around them, creating sought-after views. They are both part of immigrant communities and, most importantly, they both hold (or held) onto the previous generations of immigrants long after they have ceased to be the dominant factor in the neighborhood at large. The Grand Concourse remained largely Jewish long after the rest of the Bronx had become predominantly African-American and Latino. Whites are still the largest demographic in Hudson Heights, even though Washington Heights as a whole has long since had a Hispanic majority.
Upon further reflection, Washington Heights has a lot in common with the Bronx in general, even leaving aside the Concourse all together. They are both immigrant neighborhoods that exchanged their European immigrants for a population of Blacks or Latinos during the fourth wave of immigration. I hesitate to say Black or Latino immigrants because many of the people traveling to the Bronx were technically coming from within the same country. Nevertheless, they both became destinations for working class or poor members of minorities, so the semantics are beside the point. I have been unable to find descriptions of the severity or lack thereof of the ‘white flight’ phenomenon in Washington Heights. However, the rapid transition of the neighborhood away from ethnicities falling under the category of ’white’ strongly suggests that it must have happened to some degree, as in the Bronx.
Now, Washington Heights never burned quite the way the Bronx did. Exactly why it sustained less physical damage and recovered more quickly is a difficult question to answer, given that it isn’t really certain what caused the Bronx to turn out the way it did in the first place. That Washington Heights lacked the particular combination of legislative and economic factors that created a strong incentive toward arson seems like a good guess, but it’s hard to say for certain. Whatever the reason, though, most of Washington Heights’ multitude of pre-war buildings still survive today, untouched by arson.
That is most certainly not to say that Washington Heights was not affected by the wave of crime and drugs that swept over the United States in the 1980s. Washington Heights was hit very, very hard by the crack epidemic, thanks in part to a gang called the Wild Cowboys. In fact, Washington Heights was at one point considered the largest center for the distribution of drugs in the Northeastern United States. The neighborhood also had severe problems with homelessness during that time. So Washington Heights did manage to compare with the Bronx in sheer amount of crime for a while, just not as far as damaged infrastructure is concerned.
Ultimately, Washington Heights is a neighborhood with a long and complex history, and a staggering amount of diversity, even for New York. Learning the facts described in this essay has definitely changed my perspective on the place. While I can’t say I’m now totally behind the move (I’m one of those people that reacts to change the way cats react to a thrown bucket of water), I can definitely say that there are things I’m looking forward to exploring. I know for sure that everything I’ve done so far has only scratched the surface of what there is to know about Washington Heights. If you’re even in the neighborhood next summer, feel free to say Hi. I’ll be the guy trying not to trip and fall in the Hudson.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Heights,_Manhattan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Heights,_Manhattan
https://www.airbnb.com/locations/new-york/washington-heights
http://www.nycgo.com/articles/neighborhood-spotlight-washington-heights
http://pix11.com/2015/11/11/washington-heights-community-faces-issues-of-racism-through-theatre/
http://www.artstroll.com/
“Little Russia” in New York (Brighton Beach)
The existence of “Brighton Beach” in Brooklyn has allowed people to travel from the Russian Federation to the place that is regarded by local people as “Little Russia” or “Little Odessa” in New York. Preservation and use of the Russian language have always been the contributing factors in attracting newcomers and returning guests to the neighborhood. Brighton Beach is one of the very few places that help Russian-speaking immigrants avoid the experience of a cultural shock upon coming to the United States. Reduced assimilation time and familiarity with the atmosphere and the people combine to create a feeling of momentum that can be sensed in the air – the pride from being home, so far away from home. You are naturally and unanimously accepted…
The answers to the questions about the origin and history of Brighton Beach are rooted in the actions of the German-American railroad magnate William Engelman. Austin Corbin, a wealthy railroad developer of the 1870s, was the one who fueled and financed the development of Manhattan Beach. It was interesting to find out that one of the key reasons for Corbin’s desire to invest and develop the area was his son’s health. The doctor said that the best remedy for his son would be to live by the ocean, and Corbin immediately decided to provide resources for the construction and development of a neighborhood by the ocean (Simpson, para. 3). At the moment, William Engelman was already rich enough – he owned the Ocean Hotel, and Corbin was once a guest at the hotel. Knowing that Corbin was taking over the territories and turning them into resort destinations, Engelman could not ignore the fact that the bright activities of Corbin forced him into the pale background…
Engelman created his own resort, and he called it “Brighton Beach.” The Ocean Hotel, which was located at what today is the intersection of Brighton 4th street and Brightwater Court, was gaining popularity with the extension of Ocean Parkway, since the road led the carriages to the doors of the hotel. Engelman continued the development of Brighton Beach by creating the 2-story Brighton Beach Bathing Pavillion and Ocean Pier in 1878. Engelman died in 1884, and in 1905 a mile-long boardwalk was opened (Simpson, para. 5). “Brighton Beach Baths” club was opened in 1907, offering access to the pools, tennis, handball, and miniature golf courts, card playing, and even a nude beach. However, it was closed in 1994 due to community protest. It was replaced by the Oceana Condominium and Club, which offers luxury apartments even today, extending to the beach from the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Brighton Beach Ave (“Our Brooklyn – Brighton Beach,” para.7).
Even though Engelman shared Corbin’s anti-Semitic attitudes, Jews from Brownsville, Lower East Side and East New York were moving to Brighton Beach, forming numerous societies for the improvement of the neighborhood. The beginning of 1930s to the end of 1940s was the crucial period in the formation of the neighborhood’s ethnic structure. People from Europe were escaping the harshness and oppression of the Nazis and the Fascists during World War II. Immigrants arrived from Vietnam, China, Mexico, Pakistan, and Russians arrived mostly after the war. Another wave of Jews settled on Brighton Beach between 1948 and 1958. They were the survivors of the death camps coming from Romania, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and different cities of Poland. They were all hoping to get support on Brighton Beach (Rangel, para. 17). A wave of Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews arrived with their families in the 1970s, during the period of relaxed Soviet Union immigration policies, and that is when Brighton Beach acquired a nickname “Little Odessa.” (D’Onfro, para. 3)
The total population of Brighton Beach is approximately 80,285 people. Males account for 52.5% of the population, while 47.5% are females (“Brighton Beach Demographics & Statistics”, Figure 1). There are about 34,208 households in the neighborhood, almost twenty thousand of which are family households, making it an average of about 2.3 people per household (Figures 2 and 3). The overall education level of Brighton Beach is fairly high, since less than 10% of the population did not attend high school, and almost 40% of the people have Bachelors degree (Figure 4).
Average household income is approximately $60,900, and average total expenditure per household is close to $50,000 (“Brighton Beach Demographics & Statistics”, Figure 6). Brighton Beach is a relatively poor neighborhood with the beautiful Oceana Condominium on Coney Island Avenue that gathered the wealth of the neighborhood, which explains why Brighton is considered a slightly above average income neighborhood. Overall, the consumer spending in Brighton Beach is slightly below average (Figure 8).
Brighton Beach has more Russian and Ukrainian people than any other neighborhood in the United States. With 20.6% of the residents having Russian ancestry and 8.5% having Ukrainian ancestry, the population of Brighton Beach is united by the spoken language. Other groups include: 2.1% Asian ancestry, 2.7% Irish, and 3.5% Polish (“Brighton Beach”, Section 2, para. 5). About 63% of the residents speak Russian at home from childhood, which is the highest percentage among all the neighborhoods in the United States (“Brighton Beach”, Section 2, para. 7).
Most of the Brighton Beach residents take the train to get to work. Even though I own a car for personal transportation, I still prefer taking the train, since it is a fast, efficient, and pollution-free way to commute. About 53% take the train to work, while 29.5% drive in private automobiles, and 8.1% of residents ride the bus (“Brighton Beach”, Section 4, para. 1).
Even though the crime rate in Brighton Beach is slightly above the national average with a high robbery risk (“Brighton Beach Demographics & Statistics”, Figure 9), I did not find that to be noticeable after living on Brighton Beach for almost two years. About once a week two or three NYPD vehicles stop on Brighton 5th street and Brighton Beach Avenue. A group of police officers would knock at the doors of our Mexican neighbors and go in, I am almost certain, to check for presence of any illegal substances. I saw some of the people being detained and arrested right in front of the building I live in. There was only one occasion of robbery that I know of, and that was when my friend forgot to lock the car at night, and his stereo system was stolen. However, even though this is unethical, I do not consider this a robbery, since it was provoked in a way. Overall, I would definitely say that tranquility in terms of safety is one of the key characteristics of Brighton Beach Avenue. Living under the above-ground subway station doesn’t allow me to use the word “tranquility” in describing the noise levels on Brighton Beach. I still close my ears with my hands every time a train passes by, screaming and roaring to wake up the slowly-walking people on the street.
Brighton Beach Subway
Brighton Beach Subway
When I first came to Brighton Beach, I completely lost the feeling of living in a new country. Being a Jew, it was exciting to move into a neighborhood that was established by a German magnate with anti-Semitic attitudes. I simply moved into a smaller town in Russia with new people and places. Very few buildings on Brighton Beach resemble luxurious condominiums. In fact, the only place that can be categorized as “for rich people” is the Oceana Condominium. My uncle lives on the first floor in one of the buildings. He can go to the swimming pool outside directly from the balcony. Every resident gets access to the Oceana Club and can participate in different academic and athletic activities for free.
Outside of the Oceana is, what I call it, “the true Brighton Beach.” Brighton Beach Avenue starts at Brighton 1st street, and that block is filled with different clothing stores that sell mostly female apparel. Most of the stores look old and somewhat run-down, and none of them have more than two levels above ground. The next block, between Brighton 2nd and Brighton 3rd streets, has lots of electronics stores that I visit very often. I like building electronic devices, and very often I would spend hours in a single store, reading the specifications of a computer processor. However, I rarely buy anything in those shops, since the majority of the merchandise can be bought for a cheaper price online.
The block between Brighton 3rd and Brighton 4th streets is the one that I always try to avoid. It is the center of food stores and bakeries. Most of the people living on Brighton Beach are above 45 years old, and food seems to be the focus of the Brighton Beach’s population. Every time I walk through this block, I have to suffer from an internal conflict, since these old grandmothers and grandfathers are walking slowly with the walking canes and enjoying each other’s company, and it would be disrespectful to just speedily go around them to get through the block. Very often, a couple would notice me patiently walking behind them and stop their conversation, trying to clear the way for me, which makes me feel guilty. I understand that at some point in the future I will be in a similar physical state, and I am trying my best to show my due respect for them.
The next three blocks are packed with banks, immigration offices, notary publics, and Internet cafés. There is always that homeless violinist with long hair and a beautiful suit that plays in front of the Chase bank to earn money for food. Sometimes he takes the “B” train in the morning and keeps playing until the train arrives at 145th street from Brighton Beach. He is always around…
The Violinist
An old man on Brighton 12th street told me that “people come here to avoid the rush, to get old, and just enjoy life with no worries, since the government provides health and financial assistance for the majority of the people on Brighton Beach.” As I was listening to him, several drivers started yelling at the man leaving the Chase bank for double parking and blocking one lane. I thanked the old man and started walking towards the boardwalk and the ocean, thinking about myself in the future. I raised my head and looked to the left. Oceana… This beautiful Oceana… It shouldn’t be here… It is not a part of Brighton Beach…
Oceana
Works Cited:
“Brighton Beach Demographics & Statistics.” Demographics & Statistics. Point 2 Homes, n.d. Web. 6 May 2016.
“Brighton Beach.” Brighton Beach 11235 Brooklyn, NY Neighborhood Profile. Neighborhood Scout, n.d. Web. 6 May 2016.
D’Onfro, Melia Robinson and Jillian. “WELCOME TO ‘LITTLE ODESSA’: Inside The Brooklyn Neighborhood That’s A Miniature Version Of Russia.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 2014. Web. 7 May 2016.
“Our Brooklyn – Brighton Beach.” – Brighton Beach History. Brooklyn Public Library, n.d. Web. 6 May 2016.
Rangel, Jesus. “IN BRIGHTON BEACH, ANOTHER TIME OF CHANGE.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 1986. Web. 5 May 2016.
Simpson, Willie. “The History Of Manhattan Beach And Brighton Beach – Sheepshead Bay News Site.” Sheepshead Bites. N.p., 2013. Web. 6 May 2016.
