Harlem: Where It Stands, Where It Stood.

Saying that Harlem is the most iconic neighborhood in the United States, and perhaps even in the world may be a stretch. But I believe it to be true. For decades, Harlem has been the capital of Black America with a very rich and turbulent history. Harlem has often been held as the typical example of the American ghetto. Even throughout the country today, Harlem has a very negative reputation and is often associated with drug use and violent crime. Despite its modern reputation as the problem child of New York, Harlem has had a very dense history that is often overshadowed.

Harlem was founded in the 17^th century as a Dutch outpost north of Manhattan. The Dutch were the first to colonize the area. The outpost was generally unstable and the Dutch settlers would often have to flee south when tensions with the Native Americans rose. The farmland controlled by the Dutch, and the remainder of New Amsterdam, was soon taken over by the English in 1664.

Pre-Civil War Harlem was characterized by the rapid urbanization of 19^th century America. Many in the area never believed Harlem would change from its then current state – a plethora of farmland estates as well as a country retreat for the rich and powerful. In 1811, the grid system downtown was extended northward into Harlem. Again, very few people actually believed that Harlem would become an urban area for a very long time, and for the most part they were right. Besides the construction of what would become Metro North in 1831, there were very few changes in Harlem. However, in the 1840’s, 50’s, and 60’s the land’s productivity declined and it was much more difficult to farm. Many of the old English, Dutch, and French settlers and estate owners began to sell their properties or just abandon their land entirely. This is one of the many economic downturns Harlem experiences throughout its history.

Throughout this period of economic depression in 19^th century Harlem, Ireland was experiencing its Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine. Between 1845 and 1852, 2 million people emigrated out of the country. Many of these emigrants ended up in Harlem in the form of squatters. They established shantytowns and occupied the abandoned properties, causing bedlam in the traditional community.

Though Harlem enjoyed a short period of prosperity after the Civil War, it grinded to a halt after the Panic of 1873. Just as most economic depressions in the United States, the Panic of 1873 was in a large part the result of over-speculation of real estate and in this case, the over-speculation of the railroads. Too much capital was invested in this industry, and it caused the overbuilding of auxiliary facilities. This also had a cascading effect because the backbone of the economy was centered around the construction of the railroads, which significantly slowed after the economic crisis.

Harlem did not escape this economic meltdown. Property values in Harlem dropped 80% as a result of The Panic, and the city subsequently annexed much of Harlem, up until 155^th street. This however, may have indirectly helped the neighborhood and contributed to its growth. Many residences were constructed, as well as a substantial amount of infrastructure in the form of subways and railroads.

Before Harlem became the capital of black America, it actually was home to a fairly large amount of European immigrants who were mainly Jewish. Eastern European Jews and Italians moved into Harlem due to the new construction and falling real estate prices. Incredibly, by 1930 there were only 5,000 Jews in Harlem, but many Italians remained in East Harlem where the Italian mafia became famous.

How did the demographics of Harlem shift so rapidly? Well, black residents began to move into Harlem in the late 1800’s. The population of blacks spiked in Harlem due to another economic downturn. Cheap and affordable housing opened up in Harlem, largely because landlords could not find white renters for their properties. Black churches began to follow their parishioners and established congregations in Harlem.

One of the main contributing factors to the rise in black populations in the North was the Great Migration. Even though the Civil War had ended atrocities such as sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, and the Ku Klux Klan made the South incredibly oppressive to live in for black Americans. As Black Americans migrated north to Harlem from southern states such as North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia many whites left Harlem. The phenomenon was an early version of the term known as white flight, the large scale migration of whites from racially mixed urban regions to homogenous regions, generally suburbs.

In the 1920’s the artistic movement which would later be known as the Harlem Renaissance began. This period was in a large part affected by the Great Migration and the new African-American culture being formed in the roaring 20’s, one of the most successful decades in American history. The rippling effects of the Harlem Renaissance are vast and far reaching. Many believe that the Harlem Renaissance created a united black identity that led to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. The Renaissance also exposed other races to black culture. Certain performers such as Duke Ellington drew massive crowds of difference backgrounds and ethnicities.

Even though the country was experiencing a large amount of economic success, Harlem was becoming a slum. High rent caused families to illegally lodge people in order to pay their rent. When the Great Depression hit, Harlem was hit especially hard. Unemployment was at 25%. Race riots drove away many white investors and audiences formerly captivated by the Harlem Renaissance. These race riots turned into rent riots which turned into more race riots, giving Harlem a very negative reputation in the press.

Because of the unrest and headlines in Harlem, the neighborhood became an important spot for Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, who was later assassinated in Washington Heights.

Even after the Civil Rights movement, Harlem still experienced more economic hardship. The population of Harlem declined rapidly due to crime and economic hardships, and the only people who remained were the most impoverished out of all of the residents. Government funding did not do anything to solve issues. Drug addiction, violent crime, and illness ran rampant throughout the neighborhood. The economic system was totally destroyed in the community. A majority of the economy either ran on illegal lottery rackets or the illicit drug trade.

In the 1970’s the phrase “War on Drugs” was popularized after Richard Nixon gave a speech in which he said that drug abuse was public enemy number 1 in the United States. Later, in 1994, Nixon’s White House Domestic Affairs Advisor, John Ehrlichman claimed that the War on Drugs was targeting black people. He said, “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war on black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” Ehrlichman’s sentiments also have historical precedent. When the Chinese began to immigrate to California, they competed for many white people’s jobs. So the Californian state government knew they couldn’t make it illegal to be Chinese, but they could make it illegal to smoke opium, so California was the first state to have opium regulations.

Minority communities such as Harlem were also hit hard by mandatory minimums as well as sentencing disparities. Mandatory minimums keep nonviolent criminals in prison for long periods of time, despite the details of the case. A judge’s discretion is limited, because mandatory minimums force judges to sentence offenders to at least a certain amount of time in prison.

In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack-cocaine when compared to powder cocaine. Even though these two substances are essentially the same, (crack is just a free base form of cocaine that can be smoked) this means that 5 grams of crack cocaine carries the same mandatory minimum sentence as 500 grams of powdered cocaine. Even though with recent legislation passed by Obama closing the gap to 18 to 1, many believe that these laws target the black community, where crack was prevalent.

Arrests, incarceration rates, and conviction rates all disproportionately affected black communities from the 70’s up until the present day. These laws and their effects create devastating economic effects in black communities such as Harlem. Taking such a large chunk of individuals out of a community has dangerous effects on it. When these individuals are forced to lead a life of crime because of their record, it creates a cycle of crime. Forty years later, many world leaders recognize these effects and are very vocal about the failure of these policies.

In spite of all of this, by the late 90’s Harlem had improved its community in many ways. Many new businesses began to open up all around the neighborhood, and even national chains began to open up along 125^th. The city improved the infrastructure of the area by doing things like repairing roads, replacing streetlights, and building sidewalks. However, even though Harlem seems to be cleaning its act up by this point, rapid gentrification began in the late 90’s continuing into the present day. Many renters and residents are getting pushed out of Harlem due to rising costs of living. This unfortunate reality leads to radical leaders opposing gentrification by advocating violence.

My experiences in Harlem have been reasonably limited, but have been incredibly eye-opening. At the beginning of my first semester I moved to Harlem from a town on Long Island. This means striking differences across the board. My interactions with members of the Harlem community are much different than members of my town on Long Island. I feel as though Harlem is more personal and connected as opposed to my hometown. Of course I’m not saying one is better than the other, but a diverse urban community with such a deep history will be different than my Irish-American suburban community. I have one story in particular from this past year that will stick with me for a very long time.

On New Years Day, I was with a group of my friends watching the fireworks from Harlem. We had a very good time and a small party that was mostly just a group of our friends. We ended up going to a Dunkin’ Donuts at around 5am off of 125^th street. While in this Dunkin Donuts, I was approached by two guys who said they were from Kosovo, and were impressed that I knew where that was. We were having a great conversation and I was listening to one of the guy’s music through a headphone. They were a little intoxicated, but I wasn’t too surprised considering it was 5 a.m. on New Years. All of the sudden, our conversation was interrupted by a Hispanic woman who claimed that the two black men, from Europe, were “pressing me.” I’m not entirely sure what she meant, but the confrontation escalated, she ended up screaming, and caused a huge scene. This made the entire situation incredibly uncomfortable. Not wanting to get involved in a fight on New Years and probably having to deal with police, I pulled my friends out of the Dunkin Donuts and we retreated back to the campus dorms. Reflecting on the situation, it all seemed very sudden. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what was happening, but this woman had to make a very big scene about it. In retrospect, it likely was about the color of not only his skin, but mine as well. Very simply, this was a result of a neighborhood that is currently being gentrified and is very diverse, as well as stereotypes. I’m sure that as an outsider, a young white man talking to two reasonably older black men late at night in Harlem would cause a speculative imagination to come up with many reasons for that situation, which is an unfortunate reality.

The culmination of this piece will be two interviews with local residents of Harlem, Jamie and Raymond, and my closing thoughts.

Jamie is currently happy with her neighborhood. A mother of two, Jamie is satisfied with the police presence in the past 5 years. The schools are improving, and most of all are happiest with the fact that they are getting safer. However, she doesn’t believe the neighborhood is completely safe. Her most important concern with the neighborhood is the drug use.

“125^th street is the worst; I tell my kids not to go on up there. There are constantly people standing around. The mental illness is an issue as well. Getting approached by crazy, maybe drug addicts, is and has been a concern for 20 years in this neighborhood.” Jamie said

Raymond is also concerned with the homeless problem on 125^th street.

“It’s so gross to walk by all the homeless. Sad, but still gross. They really needa clean up the street, it’s been a problem for years. More cops but no improvement in the community.” Raymond said.

Jamie and Raymond echoed concerns of many long time residents. Both are blue collar workers who are struggling with rising costs of living because of rising rent and gentrification.

“We can’t afford the rent anymore. It’s finally gettin cleaned up, and all of the sudden we’re getting moved further into the ghetto, now that the Harlem isn’t a ghetto no more. I’ve lived here my whole life, and they gonna take that away from me.”

These two residents reflected common sentiments of many in the community. Often, they care less about who is moving into the community race wise, and more who is moving into the community wealth wise.

Harlem today looks a lot like many diverse and changing neighborhoods. But now that I’ve gone through the history, had my own experiences living there, and having interacted with many residents, I believe it’s more accurate to say that Harlem hasn’t changed much at all. Harlem has always been characterized by struggle and hardship. If there weren’t racial tensions, there were economic tensions, and if there were not those tensions there were drug and safety problems. Even culturally black music, rhythm and blues and traditional hip hop, are based in struggle and fighting through adversity.

Living in Harlem has with no doubt changed my life. Coming here at a very formative period in my life and forcing myself to see the perspectives and needs of those living in Harlem which are very easy to ignore when you haven’t lived in a minority community. I’m very fortunate to be able to do a project on a community I have come to know and love while learning all about the roots of not only Harlem’s history but the history of blacks in America as well.

Sources

Gill, Jonathan. Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America. New York: Grove, 2011. Print.

The House I Live In. 2012. Web. (I highly recommend this film)

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

Washington Heights community faces issues of racism through theater

Welcome

Brighton Beach

The Brighton Beach neighborhood is one of the most exciting scenes in New York. Located on the southern end of Brooklyn, Brighton is situated directly along the Atlantic Ocean, giving its residents immediate access to one of the most beautiful beaches in New York City. The Boardwalk is lined with first-class restaurants, bars, and amusement parks. Perhaps more defining to Brighton Beach than its vibrant beach scene is its huge population of Russian speaking immigrants. Often called “Little Russia by the Sea,” I truly feel like I enter an entirely different country whenever the subway brings me to Brighton Beach. As soon as you step off the subway platform you will notice that English is no longer the common tongue on Brighton Beach. In fact, I am often surprised if a person approaches me speaking in English while I am working or grocery shopping in Brighton Beach

Under the tremoring subway platform that runs along Brighton Beach Avenue are several ethnic Russian establishments including food bazaars, Russian book stores, and much more. More than half the stores on Brighton Beach Avenue are owned by immigrants that were once part of the Soviet Union, according to the New York Times. As for the night life in Brighton Beach, restaurants like Tatianna’s delight its patrons with authentic Russian cuisine and live Russian singing and dancing. Karaoke bars allow Brighton goers to enjoy all the latest Russian pop- culture (Kusnyer).

Brighton Beach is also home to one of the most legendary performance centers: The Millennium Theater. The Millennium Theater has featured numerous performances that reflect the Russian culture of Brighton Beach, like genius Russian violinists Vladimir Spivakov and Yuri Bashmet, Russian Ballet performances, and classical Russian theater productions. The Millennium theatre is versatile as it is ethnic, having performances by Ray Charles and several world Championship Kickboxing events on top of the authentic Russian culture it’s known to showcase (Mastertheater.com).

The influx of Russian immigrants to Brighton Beach started to occur during the 1970’s. The Soviet Union started to adopt a laxer emigration policy for its Jewish citizens. Many of the Jewish Soviets faced constant discrimination and antisemitism. Applying for anything in the Soviet Union required citizens to present their passports: those that were labeled “Jewish” were often put at a disadvantage (Lewin). “Sometimes I went to school and the kids would throw things at me and yell ‘Jew!’”, said Sasha Lyubarov. He faced a constant stream of anti-semitism. All the high-paying jobs were denied to him on the basis of his Judaism.

In addition, many Uzbeks and Soviets from the “Stan” nations came to America because of the economic conditions in the destabilizing Soviet Union. They thought they would find more opportunity and prosperity in America. Igor Sultanov, who I met during my afternoon shift at the Shorefront Y on Bright Beach Avenue said, “In Russia, there is always crisis. I used to have a big gym where everyone would come and exercise. All the [weight lifting] champions came to my gym but making a business in Russia is always very difficult.” This is what brought Igor to settle in the Brighton area in 1992.

Brighton Beach initially had little to offer its Russian Speaking immigrants in the beginning. Brighton Beach was stricken with poverty, arson, and drug trade during the period following World War II. Indeed, it was not Brighton’s liveliness that attracted the plethora of Russian-speaking immigrants that live there today. But just as they were in the Soviet Union, the Russian-speaking immigrants were unified by their knowledge of the Russian language (Kordunsky et. al.). Truly it would be hard to feel far from home when all your neighbors spoke the language of your home country. Finding work and networking was made easier for immigrants; the commonality found in knowing the same language made Brighton a tightly knit community. “I came here with only my suit cases with clothes in them. I did not know English,” said Lyudmilla Buda, the head lifeguard at the Shorefront Y for 22 years. “My whole life I taught swimming in Russia but here I had nothing. I made friends and they helped me get my license to work.” For Lyudmilla, the familiarity of the Brighton culture made it easy to adjust and assimilate into life in America.

Since the large influx of Russian immigrants arrived in the Brighton Beach neighborhood, it has seen much better days than its previous, crime ridden state. Since 1993, the 60^th police precinct saw a 72 percent decrease in major crimes in Brighton Beach (60^th Police Precinct). As poverty in the area dropped, the luxury condominiums Oceana were built in the early 2000s and became iconic parts of the Brighton Beach neighborhood. These high-income beach homes of course attracted the wealthy businessmen and performers of what used to be the Soviet Union (Wikimedia). Brighton Beach had almost been completely revitalized.

Life in Little Russia by the Sea is now much different than the life these immigrants had in the dying Soviet Union. Many former Soviets have stories of the everyday struggle of simply trying to acquire the most basic of food items in Russia. “I would get up very early in the morning just to wait on line at the store,” said Eliot Milskiy who emigrated from Russia in 1988. “I would wait for hours and when I finally got inside there was nothing. Some stale bread and some carrots on the shelf in the corner.” Now Eliot buys his food at the local Bazaar. To his great appreciation, the food in Brighton is plentiful and he does not need to awake in the early hours in the morning for fear that the food will be gone later in the day.

Many are appreciative of the work they have found in Brighton Beach when juxtaposed with the kind of work available in their former home lands. “My father worked in the mine for many hours a day,” said Kapiton Karabanov, who grew up in Siberia before moving to Moscow and then to the United States. “He would leave in the morning before I woke up and come back at night.” Mining in Siberia was a very arduous and dangerous profession. The mines were dark and it was hard to breathe. The risk for injury is high in the unpredictable mining setting where cave-ins are not uncommon. Kapiton, now a karate instructor, is happy to have taken the opportunity to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

Of course there is still much to be improved on, as with any New York neighborhood. Most of Brighton Beach Avenue, with all of its colorful and authentic Russian stores, lies underneath the loud and dirty subway Brighton Beach subway platform. “If I could get rid of one thing, it would be the train,” said Elizabeth Mestechkina who spent her whole life in the Brighton Beach area. “Every 10 minutes the ground starts shaking and there’s loud screeching noise from the train… the sun can never touch the ground because it is blocked by the train platform.” Many complain that the subway ruins the Brighton Beach atmosphere.

The wage gap in Brighton Beach has also been a cause for complaints amongst its inhabitants. Housing in the Brighton Beach consists of two different extremes: the luxurious Oceana upper class housing versus the remaining affordable housing, built when Brighton was struggling with poverty and crime. Oceana goers can enjoy beautiful views of the beach from their balconies, various amenities, and large, spacious living spaces. However, living in affordable housing is a much different lifestyle. “The building I live in is very horrible. It’s really tiny and its always very cold,” says Lior Agaronov, who lives in an affordable housing compound on Brighton 5^th St. “The walls are made of really cheap material I think because they’re always breaking. I always have problems with the equipment like the lights and the elevators and we are always receiving very outrageous bills. The subway is always really loud and it wakes me up when I’m asleep.”  Many of these problems are not present in the small community of Oceana. Oceana was built far from the subway platform and is far more aesthetically pleasing as a result. The buildings are new so residents face much fewer problems with utilities.

Despite the issues the Brighton Beach area has, according to its residents, it has seen much improvements since its earlier days of crime and poverty. Many of the people living in Brighton see a bright future for it and believe Brighton will continue to improve as it has in the past. However, its relatively homogeneous Russian community may slowly start to fade away. The number of people who qualify for immigration from Russia and other Russian speaking countries is steadily dropping. In addition, many of the later generations of Russian speaking immigrants are leaving the Brighton area. On top of this, Brighton has seen immigration from people coming from countries like Pakistan and India. All of these sudden changes lead many to believe that Brighton may not remain an all-Russian community in the future (Lewine).

Works Cited

Kordunsky, Anna, Ariel Stulberg, Bingling Liao, and Michael Larson. “Changing Face of Brighton Beach.” Forward. N.p., Sept.-Oct. 2012. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.

Kusnyer, Laura. “Guide to Brighton Beach in New York City – Russian Restaurants, Stores and Entertainment.” Nycgo.com. NYC and Company, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

Lewine, Edward. “From Brighton Beach to America; The Wave of Immigrants Began 25 Years Ago. Soon Russian Filled the Streets. Now, the Tide Is Ebbing.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Mar. 1999. Web. 10 May 2016.

“DNAinfo.com.” DNAinfo. 60th Police Precinct, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

“Master Theater.” Mastertheater.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

“Brighton Beach.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

The West Village: Then and Now

After my A train arrives at the West 4^th subway station, I walk up the stairs to end up on Waverly Place and the Avenue of the Americas. I walk westward on Waverly to Grove, and follow that for just a short while before using West 4^th to cross over onto Christopher Street. The streets of the West Village don’t conform to the rest of the New York City grid, so it’s taken me almost a dozen trips to be able to navigate the area. Once I land my feet onto Christopher Street, I’m set; I walk straight along the street towards the southwest until I’m only 2 blocks from the water. It is here that I arrive at 154 Christopher Street: the office of Chemo Comfort where I volunteer once a week. However, the West Village is much bigger than the one building I’m most comfortable with. The neighborhood is bordered by West Houston on the south, the Avenue of the Americas on the east, West 14^th on the north, and the Hudson on the west. And that isn’t even considering the entirety of Greenwich Village, which is an extension of West Village to Broadway on the east.

The current demographic of the West Village is dominantly white, rich, young people – a much different description than much of New York. With about three-quarters of households being nonfamily ones, it is easy to accept that about 69% of West Village residents are in college or graduate school. However, even without much ethnic diversity, this area has a rich history that can be related to much of the development of Manhattan itself. Everything from the Village’s wacky streets to its thriving food scene and artistic culture can be explained through an analysis of how the neighborhood became settled. There have been many changes in the socioeconomic make-up of the area; the West Village hasn’t always been a land of high rents, but its history of art, culture, and cultural diversity has been constant for the past 200 years. With a 2010 population of 66,880, the Village only contributes 4.2% of the Manhattan population and less than 1% of the total NYC population (US Census Bureau), but almost every New Yorker knows of the neighborhood. Ask someone what they think of the Village, and they’ll conjure up images of hip coffee shops, artistic endeavors, and “the area’s charms and its vivid bohemian past” (Jacobson, 2015). Paul Whitteby, a student at NYU, says that although he moved from upstate New York when he started to attend the university, he had “known about Greenwich Village forever, it always seemed so fun and exciting compared to where [he’s] from …When [he] moved here, [he] couldn’t believe all the food that was everywhere you looked. [He] went out for like, every meal.” However, even with ideas of today’s Village, not many people know the history of this section of New York dating back to the city’s first settlement.

When the Canarsee Indians still occupied current-day Manhattan, the Greenwich Village area was known as “Seppanikan” and they focused their settlement around today’s Minetta Street, where there was a small stream. When the Dutch arrived in the Americas, they decided to make the area a tobacco plantation until the British arrived and renamed the area Greenwich (The Street Necrology, n.d.). As the Industrial Era began in the 1800s, the village of Greenwich developed and became more populated as the economy in New York began to thrive. As the wealthy citizens became more established, they wanted somewhere to go to relax after the long work day. A contrast to industrial, crowded downtown Manhattan, the village of Greenwich and nearby Bowery village became suburban recluses for the downtown workers (Strykowski, Ehrlich & Greer, 2010).

As the area became more populated, structures such a prison, gallows, and potter’s field, or burial ground, were established near current-day Washington Square Park (“Village History,” n.d.). The existence of these structures, in hindsight, seem to foreshadow the next era of Greenwich Village; the future unique and unparalleled atmosphere of the neighborhood can also trace its roots to this time period. Although the rest of Manhattan had plans to come together and conform to cohesive gridded streets in 1811, Greenwich Village didn’t change because a “yellow fever and cholera epidemic in the early 1800s” kept it isolated (“The Street Necrology,” n.d.). This explains why this area of Manhattan is exceptionally hard to navigate, especially compared to the easy-to-understand streets of midtown and uptown.

Additionally, the outbreak of yellow fever led to people deciding to flee their downtown homes to more “open spaces,” such as Greenwich Village, because it was thought that yellow fever came from unsanitary conditions, rather than mosquitos (Strykowski, Ehrlich & Greer, 2010). Upon being told this tidbit of history, Steve Nicolls, a long-time employee at Pizzetteria Brunetti, told me, “I simply can’t imagine a bunch of sick folks hangin’ out around here! The place is so clean and beautiful now, I hate to think it was ever dirty.” As people flocked to the Village, merchants settled and opened stores, which led to the construction of a church and school, and suddenly, Greenwich Village was a functioning neighborhood. Even after the epidemic ended, many people stayed in the area and turned their temporary houses and shops into more permanent settlements.

At this point, it was the early 1800s and the first waves of European immigration were starting. In the 1820s and 1830s, “Greenwich Village began to be a neighborhood of extremes in wealth disparity” as freedmen from the south, free blacks from the North, Irish immigrants, and other merchant groups decided to move to the Village. Tenements were built in the neighborhood, although “antebellum, urban architecture” was the norm. Newcomers began to find permanent housing in the Village, whereas the previous residents were wealthy folks just looking for vacation homes.

During this time between 1830 and 1850, New York University also opened and offered housing to not just the staff and students but to their friends and affiliates, such as many artists, scientists, writers like Samuel Colt, Samuel Morse, and Edgar Allen Poe (Strykowski, Ehrlich & Greer, 2010). This influx of intellectuals set the foundation for the Bohemian era and a lower cost of living in the West Village, as they established “art clubs, private picture galleries, learned societies, literary salons, … fine hotels, shopping emporia, and theaters.” Additionally, “when German, Irish, and Italian immigrants [came and] found work in the breweries, warehouses, and coal and lumber yards … [older] residences were subdivided into cheap lodging hotels and [plummeting] real estate values prompted nervous retailers and genteel property owners to move uptown” (“Village History,” n.d.).

When I chatted with Betty Calanzo, a resident of the West Village for over 50 years, she thought back to her first days here and compared them to both today and the history I told her. “You know, me and Pat came here when I was only twenty-five. Bright-eyed and scared as hell, I came here not knowin’ what to expect. We felt at home in the community here, and over the years, I’ve realized I don’t wanna be anywhere else … But what you’re tellin’ me sounds crazy: it was cheap to live there then too? I’m lucky I got here when I did, [I’ve had] the same apartment for so long, there’s no way I could buy one now!”

As the late 1800s approached, these “new waves of immigrant groups including [the] French, Irish, and Italian” settled in the Village, and “the area experienced a rise in Bohemianism,” caused also by “the departure of the upper classes” who moved more uptown near Central Park. By 1900, the area was “quaintly picturesque and ethnically diverse; … [it] was widely known as a bohemian enclave with secluded side streets, low rents, and a tolerance for radicalism and nonconformity.” This reputation led Greenwich Village to be a tourist attraction for many. Then when Prohibition began, “local speakeasies attracted uptown patrons” (“Village History,” n.d.). Furthermore, by the 1950s, the neighborhood became influential place in the Beat movement, which was a movement by “beatniks” to separate from society and strive toward “personal release, purification, and illumination” through the use of jazz, poetry, and unique vocabulary, among other things (“Beat movement,” 2016).

The next decade brought “a homosexual community [that] formed around Christopher Street.” The Village’s reputation as a gay-friendly place began in 1969 when the police and local patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a well-known gay bar, got into a week-long confrontation called the Stonewall Rebellion. Following these riots, New York saw many groups form over civil rights, and on the one-year anniversary, “the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and near the Stonewall Inn in New York” (“Stonewall Riots,” 2009). Soon after, a movement for LGBT rights began all throughout the United States. Greenwich Village’s penchant for backlash continued has it “became a rallying place for antiwar protesters in the 1970s and for activity mobilized in response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s” (“Village History,” n.d.).

According to some residents of the West Village, the neighborhood’s past is both allowing it to continue thriving and causing it to lose some of its uniqueness. After the Stonewall Rebellion, the Village was a “cool place to live” but now that acceptance has spread, the area isn’t as concentrated with LGBT residents and it “is attracting more families … as well as “successful young people in financial services, and a lot of high-tech people.” Because “about 80 percent of the West Village has landmark status,” most of the people who live there reside in “low-rise historic buildings.”

However, because of the novelty of “the area’s charms and its vivid bohemian past,” prices are rising (Jacobson, 2015). About 27% of West Village residents have a yearly income over $200,000 and 54% have an income over $100,000, compared to only 7% over $200,000 and 25% over $100,000 in all of New York City. This is most likely due to about 72% of residents being involved in jobs in management, business, arts, and science, compared to the 39% in New York City overall. These contrasts in jobs can be traced back to 98% of West Village residents having a high school degree or higher and 84% having a bachelor’s degree or higher (US Census Bureau).

While a higher median income and younger population is good for the economy and local businesses, some long-time residents are opposed. One resident claims that the demographics have shifted from “respectable” artists to a younger, more party-loving crowd. They seem to care less about the community and its bohemian history, and more about their own personal lives (Lynne, 2013).

Overall, the West Village has faced many shifts and evolutions over time, but they all coincided and interlocked to create the current dynamic of the neighborhood. A hub for art, culture, and unique residents, the neighborhood has had an impact nationwide through the Stonewall Riots, but also on the entirety of Manhattan through its function as first a suburban recluse, then a bustling commercial center, and finally a cultural center. The demographic has been consistently shifting toward a new, younger, more wealthy crowd, but the history of the neighborhood is evident whenever you walk through the jigsaw streets or look at the old, low-rise buildings.

Works Cited

“Beat movement.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016.

Jacobson, A. “The West Village: Bohemian Past, Lofty Prices.” New York Times, 2 September

2015. Web.

Lynne, J. “Dorm Mentality: Trending WV Demographics.” Huffpost New York. 14 January 2013.

“Stonewall Riots: The Beginning of the LGBT Movement.” The Leadership Conference. 22 June

2009.

Strykowski, J., Ehrlich, K., Greer, R. “The Early 19^th Century.” Creating Digital History. 20

November 2010. Web.

“The Street Necrology of Greenwich Village.” Forgotten New York. n.d. Web.

United States Census Bureau. New York City: GPO, 2010. Web.

“Village History.” The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. n.d. Web.

The Chinatown in Brooklyn

Avenue U is a street located in Brooklyn, New York. Its cross streets were named by numbers from west to east, such as East 15^th Street, where the Q train station is located. It starts from Bergen Avenue in Bergen Beach near Jamaica Bay and is essentially cut off by Stillwell Avenue, one block after West 13^th street. The neighborhood after Stillwell Avenue is 86^th street, another area that has many Chinese stores. Avenue U is very long, but only the section between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay is considered as Chinatown. This part of the neighborhood covers areas from Coney Island Avenue (E 11^th St.) to Nostrand Avenue (E 30^th St.).

Avenue U is actually the boundary that separates Homecrest from Sheepshead Bay. Known as the second Chinatown of Brooklyn, Avenue U does not actually have clear borders. The Chinese spreads from Kings Highway to Sheepshead Bay, but they are densely populated near Avenue U. The Homecrest neighborhood is consisted of mostly white collar family households. The community makes up mainly by Italians. Sheepshead Bay’s occupational employment is mainly white collar as well. White people dominate the community, which makes up 75.4% of the population in the neighborhood.

With a large number of white people residing in the surrounding neighborhoods, how did the Avenue U turn into Chinatown? In fact, there had been racial tension during the late 1980s that the Chinese will take over the whole neighborhood. The history has to go back to the rapidly growing number of Chinese immigrants that were filling up 8 Avenue in Sunset Park. Congestion and the skyrocketing price of real estates in 8 Avenue during the 1990s had caused the Chinese to moved out from Sunset Park. The pouring number of Chinese into Avenue U led to the establishment of the second Chinatown of Brooklyn in the late 1990s, between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay sections.

Avenue U is an area that draws back a lot of my childhood memories. When I initially moved to the United States from GuangZhou, the first place I took a step on is E 26^th Street between Avenue U and Avenue T. Back in time, I was surprised by the inexpensiveness of things. Though I was not familiar with currencies at the age of 11, I was still amazed by how you can get a product without even paying a dollar.

My father and I were the only two from our family who live in New York. My father immigrated three years before I did, and he initially resided at E 26^th Street at a distant relative’s house. A one-bedroom house with a kitchen and a bathroom was rented for $400, which also included the fees for all utilities. The landlord thought that the rent might be too cheap and he imposed some additional requirements: my father needed to regulate and move the garbage cans to the edge of the street every week, and he had to shovel the snow during the winter. My father agreed to it and lived there for 9 years.

“Right at where we lived, the 26^th Street, is actually an Italian neighborhood. When I first moved there around 2006, Avenue U used to be a lot quieter and has fewer people,” my father said. The Italians moved away probably because they were buying houses from other states. As a result, more and more Chinese immigrants have moved to New York and they choose to settle on Avenue U because their family members and relatives had already been living here. The neighborhood now is supported by the southern Chinese from GuangDong (Canton) Province. To be more specific, it is mostly populated with Taishanese.

My middle school friend, Christina, is one of the examples. She moved to New York in 2008 and settled at E 28^th St until now. Her family is renting her aunt’s property and they are paying a lower-than-average amount. Similarly, they also need to keep the house in good condition because her aunt would occasionally come over for a spontaneous check. Christina grumbles, “sometimes it is annoying to rent your relative’s house because she complains a lot about what you do to her house.”

In recent years, as Christina’s mother recognized, there is a growing number of Fuzhounese moving into the neighborhood. This doesn’t seem to pose a problem to the younger generation because young people tend to focus more on schools and jobs. However, the older generation would sometimes complain that the Fuzhounese from 8 Avenue, Sunset Park is going to flood Avenue U in the future. Ironically, the Cantonese are now concerned with the same thing as the white people did twenty years ago. They worried that too many people moving in will increase the rent and turned Avenue U into an overcrowded and unclean place, just like 8 Avenue at Sunset Park.

Their concern is not necessarily a problem. Since the Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs. The inflation rate reached its peak in July 2008, which was 5.6%. Though the rate was negative in 2009, but the average inflation rate remains positive after that, which means the prices are still rising. The rise in prices cannot be solely caused by a small group of people. Inflation occurs in the entire country, and Avenue U is not an exception to this. Price in general only gets higher and higher.

Joyce Situ, who is currently attending Hunter College, admitted that the price of housing increased. She noticed that a house that would cost you about $70,000 a few years ago is now going to cost you over a million dollars. However, she did not agree that the Fuzhounese pose the threat. Joyce said, “I don’t think the Fuzhounese is going to flood this area. There is an increase in the number of Mandarin speakers, but it’s only a few.” She believed that the neighborhood is nearly as perfect and there were no complaints she can make. Joyce’s family also settled in Avenue U because of its relatives. Her family originally resided on the first floor of her aunt’s house at Bedford Avenue. The rent was cheap, but the place was extremely small with only one bedroom for a family that has three people. After living there for two years, they moved to a new house across the street. Her family wanted to stay in this area because the Chinese community has made it a comfort zone. Her new home is on the first floor with two bedrooms including a kitchen and a bedroom. They are renting it for $1300 per month, which does not include electricity fee. I believe that is the average rent for a family. After living here for so many years, Joyce is familiar with her neighbors, especially people around the same age. Now, her biggest concern is not putting on makeup when she goes out to the street because her friends are everywhere.

Joyce’s mother, Yoyo, opened up a new hair salon last year on 12^th Street. She took over Paul’s Hair Salon from her old boss and renamed it as YoYo Hair & Beauty Salon.  Yoyo said, “I opened up this salon because it is near my home. I have been living here for almost ten years and I find it convenient to travel to work.” She recognized that her customers were not just Chinese, but they were a mix of different kinds of people. I observed that the salon has many white customers, and most of them specified Yoyo to be their stylist. The customers all left the salon with beautiful hair with great smiles on the faces and appreciation to the stylists. Yoyo’s talent has brought people with different ethnicities together.

My father, who doesn’t speak English, was also praised by many patients with different ethnicities. In 2006, he received a satisfying job at a clinic near the Avenue U Q train station as a physical therapy assistant. He found the transportation very convenient and worked there for 8 years. The clinic provided a comfortable environment for him to work in because everybody around knew how to speak Chinese. Often, there were non-Chinese patients who came to receive treatment, but he wasn’t afraid of the language barrier because he can always find someone to translate for him. Regardless of his language barriers, the patients always specified that they wanted Mr. Hu to assist them during their treatments. “The clinic had more and more patients over the years because people shared and spread the fact that the clinic has an amazing assistant who provides excellent health care,” my father said.

Cross from the clinic is the Health Star Pharmacy. It is the most populated pharmacy I have seen in Avenue U due to its location. There are three clinics around and it is very convenient for patients to come pick up their medicines right away.  After that, they can shop for groceries in the supermarket next door, and get ready to prepare the night’s dinner. There have been numbers of grand open food markets and restaurants. Food markets seem to be most profitable business in this area. Lan, a 55 years old woman who has been living on Avenue U with her husband and son for twenty-five years, enjoyed shopping in the traditional Chinese supermarkets. She said, “These food markets sell fresh vegetables, fruits, and even fresh meats! I do not have to travel elsewhere to get my groceries. I can just buy it near my home.” Lan also liked the fact that she always bumps into someone while she was shopping. They would stop at the spot and gather for a short conversation.

Hang, who lives in Staten Island, opened a sushi restaurant on 19^th street around Avenue U. “I took over this restaurant in 1998. The business is pretty good and stable throughout the years.” Sushi Bistro is very small and it only fits eight small tables, but customers were continuously coming in for take-outs, and some people waited in line to eat inside. My two friends and I sat down on a table, and right next to us was a group of white customers who were speaking in English. While I was waiting for the food, I asked Hang if he has any complaint about the neighborhood. His eyes rolled over and he thought about the question for a few seconds, then he answered, “No.” We ordered a party tray and we were enjoying the meal with nice cups of tea. The food was very delicious. No wonder why people are constantly coming back to order.

Now, my father is working at a different clinic in midtown. His eyes were full of nostalgia, and he griped that if it wasn’t the stingy and selfish boss, he would never leave Avenue U. He admitted that the neighborhood is undergoing expansion throughout the years and the economy is getting better. The depression in 2008 had struck many people’s hearts. But living in this neighborhood never gave him the sense of insecurity because he had made so many friends there and the Chinese community resembled a big family. We would introduce jobs and places to live to the ones who need help. Though many people do not speak English, the ones with more knowledge would never hesitate to help out.

The increasing number of stores opened on Avenue U has characterized its ongoing economic expansion. This Chinatown has practically everything. It has food markets, restaurants, 99 cents stores, banks, schools, Rite Aid, shoes and clothing stores, bakeries, Laundromats, train station, bus stops, bubble tea shops, electrical shops, phone stores, clinics, pharmacies, and salons. Many of these shops are owned by Chinese immigrants. Immigration has posed a huge benefit to the society. It has made the people living around a lot more convenient by providing a variety of services and resources. The whole community is working well. People with different ethnicities are getting along with each other. More importantly, Avenue U has also served to be a family for Chinese immigrants to reunite.

Source

http://stateofworkingamerica.org/great-recession/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/paula-hair-and-beauty-salon-brooklyn

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Homecrest-Brooklyn-NY.html

http://stateofworkingamerica.org/great-recession/

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/

http://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NY/Brooklyn/Sheepshead-Bay-Demographics.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/22/nyregion/neighborhood-report-sheepshead-bay-new-language-and-a-new-life-for-avenue-u.html

Sunset Park

When the train arrived in 8 Av on the N line, I got off following most of the passengers from my cart – all of whom were Chinese. The cart was instantly emptied out. My first sight out of the station was a sea of people. The background was hundreds of colorful signs written in a familiar language. I had a sense that I was back in Hong Kong.

A neighborhood located on the West side of Brooklyn, Sunset Park endured influxes of immigrants over the past twenty years. Now, the neighborhood had become racially distinct from the rest of the city. Within itself, the neighborhood is separated into three regions in terms of ethnic groups. Chinese immigrants dominate 8^th Avenue, Hispanic immigrants dominate 5^th Avenue, and Jews dominate the East of them. Between 5^th and 8^th Avenue, I saw mostly Chinese stores and sporadically Hispanic ones.

I walked down along 8^th Avenue from the station on the 62^nd street. Signs in all sizes and colors protrude in all directions, competing for attention. Since the businesses there aim for customers who live around there and speak the same language, some of them even bother not to put an English translation beside the Chinese title on the signs. When they do, the translations are often only a phonetic translation of the Chinese name. In other words, you cannot figure out what type of store it is if you look at the English “translation” alone.

Anyone who comes to the neighborhood for the first time would probably have a bad impression on 8 Av, for it is unbearably crowded, unhygienic, and noisy. I could not possibly take a picture of the street view without someone bumping into me. The situation was like two waves from the North and the South flushing into each other. I was a drop of water that is trying to swim against the opposing stream with my side of army. Walking along with my stream of people on the narrow pavement, I felt as if it was unlawful to stop in the middle of the street. It was impossible to keep my friend by my side when we were walking. We both tried very hard to penetrate through the moving herd of people. Passing a lot of bakeries and cafes, I reached fish market of 8^th Avenue.

Boxes of live fishes are lined up from the stores to outside of the stores, making the street even narrower. The ground is all wet. It was even harder for us to walk. Then I realized 8^th Avenue is filled with pregnant women, because they would block the only space between the boxes of fish and the road with their baby carriages, while they were bargaining.

“That’s for sure. Guess what. Because they cannot in China,” the old woman at a bakery explained to me. The population growth control policy in China restricted that its people can only bear two babies in a family. When some of them have the opportunities to come to the United States, their traditional sense of 「兒孫滿堂」(which means having descendants filled up the hall) is finally unbound. The old woman resumed, “Of course it’s better to have them ABC sons than Chinese sons. (Why?) For the welfare they could suck from the government of course.” She meant that Chinese immigrant parents prefer their children to be American-born Chinese (ABC) because they could exploit the benefits and welfare for citizens. It is surprising that a Chinese would denounce another Chinese from the same community. It turns out they are really not from the same exact community.

The old woman is a Cantonese who immigrated twenty-seven years ago and have been living in Sunset Park since then. She started to complain about the Fujianese coming in. She said, “At the start it was all Hispanics. Then the Taishanese Chinese came and that made the Hispanics on 8^th Avenue move away. This became the Chinatown of Brooklyn. About ten years ago, the Fujianese started to come from China and made this place such a mess.” This old woman thinks that the ongoing immigration of the Fujianese caused the hygiene problems in the neighborhood because they have less of a sense of morality in the province they are from, according to her. It turns out that some Chinese groups are actually at odds even though they have seemingly established a strong sense of unity of a Chinese-American community by living close to each other.

On 8^th Avenue, there are two large Chinese American organizations, Brooklyn Chinese-American Association (BCA) and Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), which aim at assisting all Chinese people to acquire good quality of life just as other Americans do. These organizations promote a interprovincial community. However, I discovered that the staff in both organizations are almost all Cantonese or Taishanese, who share the same Chinese dialect – Cantonese. They could speak Mandarin as well to the Fujianese, and they do hire some Fujianese people who speak in their dialect. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the Fujianese are more or less excluded from the Chinese community and the services.

Another phenomenon I saw was the variation of stores (or the lack thereof) there is. Along 8^th Avenue, you can see a lot of bakeries, cuisines, bubble tea places, fish and vegetable markets, and SAT-test preparation schools. “Sunset Park is ghetto. It gets more ghetto as you go towards forty-somethingth street,” said a fifteen-year-old girl who was stepping out of one of the many test preparation schools on 8^th Avenue. She told me that she does not like living in this neighborhood because it is “dirty” and “crowded.”

It is unexpected that although 8^th Avenue is filled with Chinese people, the Asians only comprise 11.6 percent of the population of Sunset Park. And 78.7 percent of population is Hispanics. In the neighborhood, the most concentrated and vibrant region lies on 5^th Avenue. It predominantly contains Hispanic stores. Like 8^th Avenue, the stores on 5^th Avenue lacks variations. They are mostly boutiques and supermarkets.

Walking along 5^th Avenue, I could see that Chinese people are starting to enter this region. Unlike 8^th Avenue where almost 95% of pedestrians are Chinese, 5^th Avenue seems to involve more interracial interactions. There are some Chinese accessories stores and Chinese bubble tea places. There are more Chinese people on the streets of 5^th Avenue than Hispanics on those of 8^th Avenue. There is even a senior day care center, that targets to serve both Hispanics and Chinese in the neighborhood.

The owner of the day care center, Ms. Ng Pang, is a Chinese lady born in Puerto Rico who spent her childhood in China and came back to America since high school. “Because of my cross-cultural background, I feel obliged to bring both immigrant communities together and help them strive in society,” she said, “I chose to open the day care center here because Sunset Park is a place where minorities work together as one, regardless of their ‘sub-identities.’” The population shift there was very thorough in the past twenty years. It started as almost entirely a Hispanic neighborhood, then the Taishanese Chinese moved in and dominated 8^th Avenue, and now new waves of Fujianese Chinese are flushing out the previous Chinese group. The neighborhood has always been an immigrant community albeit the racial shift. Ms. Ng Pang does not see it this way. She thinks this is a time when the underprivileged unite and work for the better for themselves.

Sunset Park has been the neighborhood dedicated for new immigrants. I can foresee that more immigrants of different cultural backgrounds will settle there. The neighborhood is an exceptional gift for new immigrants because of the old immigrants already settled there and the many organizations that seek to help. The people seem to be living in harmony across cultures despite some hostility against a particular Chinese group. The hygiene and noise pollution are also significant issues in the neighborhood. Better management and restrictions should be made to limit and improve the unwanted output of the local stores. Despite that, it is very nice to live in this neighborhood because of the close bonding between people of a common background. It is easy for them to find help that suits their needs.

After the new immigrants get accustomed to living in this country and become more independent from the help of others in the same community, they tend to move out to the more Southeast part of Brooklyn. There sees a new growing Chinatown in Bensonhurst right now. More Cantonese speaking Chinese are moving there because of the fact that they have come to the country for the longer and that a rapidly increasing number of Fujianese is residing in Sunset Park. Apparently, Sunset Park is very dynamic, always welcoming new waves of people coming in. This neighborhood has been dutiful to accommodates for thousands and thousands of immigrants in New York City. It will continue to be a lot of new immigrants’ new home in the future and the dynamics will endure.

Neighborhood Brief: Arthur Avenue

The space that Little Italy now occupies was originally called “Belle Mont,” or “Beautiful Mountain” in Latin, which was the estate of a family of French tobacco manufacturers¹. The family bought the tract of land in 1778, after the head of the household, Pierre Lorillard was killed during the Revolutionary War. The estate was 661 acres, and its centerpiece was the Lorillard mansion, which was built in the 1850s and was donated to become St. Barnabas Hospital and Medical Center. The estate was inherited by a niece, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, in 1870, effectively making her the richest woman in America at the time. She sold off portions of the estate; one was divided into streets and avenues, others were transformed into the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Gardens. Construction at both sites began in 1898, enticing newly arrived Italian immigrants with the possibility of employment at the zoos or the gardens. By 1913, the former estate became known as the Italian colonies in the Bronx because the Italians had already established themselves as the majority, with a Jewish population present as well. During Prohibition, the Bronx, along with the rest United States, saw a rise of the mafia and bootleggers of all nationalities. From the 1930s to the 1960s, people left in droves to different places; those who could afford it moved to the suburbs. This was all part of the urban decline of the neighborhood, which culminated finally in the 1960s and 1970s in many landlords burning down their buildings to collect insurance. As many of the mainstay ethnic groups left the neighborhood, the first wave of Albanian immigration to America began, in the 1960s and 1970s². With many cheap apartments and housing available, Albanian immigrants adopted the practice of the former Jewish inhabitants had formerly used in the beginning of their Bronx residency—that is, buying out cheap apartments in bulk. That strategy has not been unsuccessful for the Albanians either. One third of all apartments are owned by Albanians, with some having made fortunes off of this enterprise. For example, Hajdar Bajraktari immigrated into the Bronx after college, having started from scratch at the time, but he now is a millionaire with many buildings bought under his name. He isn’t the only one as for who occupies the highest class in the Bronx, there are more Albanians than Italians living in Little Italy.

Albanians have immigrated to America in several waves, with the most prominent of which having had occurred from the early 1960s and late 1970s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Under communism, but more specifically, under the country’s dictator Enver Hoxha, who had ruled over the country for over 40 years, the country suffered a high degree of poverty. Under his totalitarian, 1 out of 15 people were pronounced enemies of the state and were sent to one of the many state prisons established by Hoxha, which were made to be like the gulags used in communist Russia³. In these state prisons, inmates were forced to to work on the government’s mining and construction projects, and many died as a result of appalling conditions.” Coupled with this cruelty towards citizens, indoctrination of children oftentimes led to parents being arrested and sent to jail as a result of being spied upon by their own children. The isolation of the country from the rest of the world stopped it from receiving aid that it could have used due to unsuccessful ventures to increase wealth and give jobs to its citizens⁴. This overall ill treatment of its people left many Albanians disenchanted and frustrated with their old way of life. Many were glad to leave when they were given the chance to, and that chance came between 1990 and 1995, shortly after the fall of communism in Albania. Around this time, about 7,000 Albanians immigrated to America,⁵ the fear that had held many back from leaving Albania having finally dissipated—no longer was there a threat of the government executing their family. This exodus to America was connected with a much larger one in which 500,000 Albanians left their homeland. Emigration was further augmented by the ethnic conflict between Serbians and Kosovar Albanians, leading to one million Albanians displaced from their homeland. As a result, annual immigration to America averaged more than 4,100 people between 1996 and 2002, bringing the total number of Albanians in the United States from 47,710 in 1990 to 113,661 in 2000. In addition, the US government granted 20,000 annual refugee visas with “preference given to those with family connections in the United States.” Since the Bronx had had a large Albanian population at the time, many flocked there to make connections with former emigrants and find jobs.

Little Italy on Arthur Avenue is a tiny oasis in the Bronx surrounded on all sides by neighborhoods seeing much fewer tourists. The neighborhood is narrow—it is only about 5 paces wide. The main road is surrounded by authentic Italian, “Italian” (managed or staffed by Albanian) and openly Albanian restaurants. The best place to park your car is in the municipal parking space behind the restaurant Giovanni’s. It is attended by a local who is perhaps not employed by the city but still helps drivers find a parking spot, and he does “accept tips.” Although the parking lot has meters, they don’t accept anything except coins, and so if you’re lacking you or the driver is obliged to become preemptively familiar with the neighborhood to at least make change before you order your meal—at least that is what most of the tourists that come to Little Italy are there for. People come from upstate and the rest of the five boroughs look for the traditional Italian experience and rediscover this little enclave of old Italy, even though it, like the other Little Italy in Manhattan, has been taken over by the next wave of immigrants.

I was sitting in an Albanian restaurant eating cevape—a Yugoslavian meat dish—with my father and brother when my father’s friend, Haxhi Berishe, showed up. Haxhi is a medium sized man, of average height and skinny build, and has thinning hair and horn rimmed glasses. His eyes are small yet sharp, and his forehead is lined from the many expressions he had made during life. His voice exhumes confidence and yet he is not overly manly. Having lived in the Bronx for over 20 years, I assume that this last feature in particular is important to “making it” here. He sits down and has cevape with us. His first question to me is in Albanian, and my first answer is in English, as it has to be since that is the only language I speak fluently. Slowly we get to know one another. I learn that he teaches computer science at Monroe College, and he formerly worked at St. Barnabas hospital for 5 years, helping the hospital put up their computer system. He was educated in Fordham university, where obtained a degree in electrical engineering, and where he learned, out of all things, a love for Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry (he would later take me to see Poe’s former house in the Bronx after the tour). Upon learning that I started college, he asked me a few more questions, which I tried to answer. Having done so, he thought it would be good to have a go at describing the neighborhood, or at least some facet of it, but not without asking, in a slightly playful manner not out of touch, I thought, with his personality, “do you want to know about the good or the bad about this neighborhood?” Seeing that it is my duty to have a most accurate picture of this neighborhood, I reply back to him, “everything.” He then proceeded to tell me that the restaurant right across the street from the place we were eating in, on the corner of the block, was found to have the chopped remains of people as well as of animals in a police bust in the 1980s. After a lull in the conversation, we decided that it would be high time to leave the restaurant and begin our informal tour of the neighborhood.

“This neighborhood has seen some dark times, for sure,” Haxhi said, “especially with the drug addicts that have been present in the neighborhood for a while, but for the past ten years this has been a safe place to go to. Part of the trouble of this neighborhood is that near St. Barnabas medical center there is a place where addicts can get drugs out cleared out of their system quickly which has made them more likely to do more drugs because there is less of a perceived danger in doing drugs if the person doing them doesn’t suffer as much. It’s good that people get treatment, but it isn’t enough to make sure that they stop.”

“The streets usually have some students from Fordham University over, but since they’re having finals this week it’ll take some time before they come over again.” Perhaps one reason why Little Italy is safer is because Fordham University is so nearby. College options for the neighborhood are not sparse, since the Bronx offers a selection of private and public universities such as Fordham University, Lehman College, and Monroe College, where Haxhi teaches. “These schools educate the next generation of Albanian immigrants,’ Haxhi said, “and those kids work hard because they want a better life for their families. You can see a few of them really studying in the library for hours to get high marks.” For high school students, there is several schools within the vicinity that range from low test scores and graduation rates in the 40s such as Dewitt Clinton High school to Bronx Science High School, which boasts a high rank even among the specialized high schools. There seems to be some racial inequality, however, in education. “One of the worst schools in the Bronx,” Haxhi said as he pointed to Clinton DeWitt, passing by with car, “In Bronx Science you see an Asian majority, in DeWitt, there is an even greater majority who are African-American.”

One of the important tourist destinations in the neighborhood is the Arthur Avenue Market, or as the Albanians call it—Haxhi assures me—the “marketa.” This Italian bazaar features shops selling everything from electronics to traditional deli items, and alcohol to flowers. “This is what all tourists come to see,” Haxhi said. “It’s got this old Italian feeling, like how the shops used to line up around here a hundred years ago.” Although now its off peak hours, reflecting our night tour, this place usually has many tourists coming in to see what they’ve got here. The bazaar has a door out on Arthur Avenue and has the width of a normal Italian restaurant but its depth spans across the lot, giving an overall impression of it being a stowed away immigrant haven of years past.

As we walk across the block, Haxhi, with over 20 years experience in this neighborhood and its habitants, proceeds to point out which stores and restaurants are owned by whom and for how long. His face betrays an expression of pride to show me how many of the restaurants are either Albanian specialty stores, or owned, managed, or staffed by Albanians. There is a power balance that tips in the albanians favor here, mostly because there are more of them now, and also because they own more of the restaurants here. It seems as though the Albanians of yesterday have become the Italians of today, and their own spot is taken up by newer waves of Albanian or Hispanic immigrants that have slowly made themselves a presence in the neighborhood for the past few years. “A couple of years ago,” Haxhi said, “Blacks and Hispanics were definitely kept away by the Italians who used to live here. Now, it’s totally different. You look at the Albert Avenue Market, for instance, and you see that they cater to them to. The whole market is open at least two hours later than it used because it’s more convenient for some to come. This and the fact that many of them work here—who knows, maybe they’ll reach our positions soon.”

References

1. “Bronx Little Italy | Arthur Avenue.” Bronx Little Italy | Arthur Avenue. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.bronxlittleitaly.com/history/>.
2. ““Little Albania” in the Bronx | The Bronx Ink.” “Little Albania” in the Bronx | The Bronx Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://bronxink.org/2011/12/15/21004-little-albania/nggallery/image/image-275/>.
3. The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/victims-of-albanian-communism-struggle-for-closure/265956/>.
4. “Albania under the Command Economy.” Albania under the Command Economy. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/Economics/Economic_History/Albania/echist_albania.htm>.
5. “Albanian Immigration.” Immigration to North America. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://immigrationtous.net/10-albanian-immigration.html>.
6. “Arthur Avenue Market.” NYCEDC. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.nycedc.com/project/arthur-avenue-market>.

NYC’s Chinatown: Past to Present

New York City’s Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States and home to the largest concentration of Chinese in the western hemisphere is located on the lower east side of Manhattan. Its two square miles are bounded by Kenmore and Delancey streets on the north, East and Worth streets on the south, Allen street on the east, and Broadway on the west. With a population between 70,000 and 150,000 people, Chinatown is the favored destination point for Chinese immigrants, though in recent years the neighborhood has also become home to many other ethnic immigrants.

The rise of Chinatown began in the mid eighteenth century with Chinese sailors and traders trickling into the United States. In the mid nineteenth century, there was a significant increase in the number of Chinese immigrants pulled into the west coast. This was due to stories of the “Gold Mountain” in California during the gold rush of the 1840’s and 1850’s. The Chinese were also brought by many labor brokers to build the Central Pacific Railroad. Most Chinese arrived expecting to spend a few years working, hoping to earn enough money where they could return to China, build a house, get married, and have children.

As the gold mines began yielding less gold and the railroad was coming to completion, the wide availability of cheap and willing Chinese labor became a source of tension for white laborers. This was especially prevalent in industries such as cigar-rolling and textiles. The white American’s feared that the Chinese were coming over to take over their jobs and threatening their lifestyle. Violence from mobs and discrimination from nativists on the west coast drove the Chinese into larger cities. These cities offered more job opportunities where the Chinese could blend more easily into the already diverse culture. By 1880, the growing area of Chinatown became home to between 200 and 1,100 Chinese, sparking an abundance of laundries in the area.

Since the beginning of Chinatown’s birth, immigrants were often found in clusters as a result of racial discrimination and self-segregation. Different from many ethnic immigrant enclaves in New York, Chinatown was mainly self-supporting. It offered a wealth of governing associations and businesses which supplied jobs, economic aid, social services, and protection for the community. Chinatown continued to grow until the end of the nineteenth century where living space became limited. Often living arrangements consisted of 5 – 15 people in a two room tenement divided into multiple segments.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a federal law enacted by the American government as a reaction to the rising anti-Chinese sentiment. This hate was mainly a result of Chinese laborers willing to work for far less money under far worse and more dangerous conditions compared to those of white laborers. White nativists also disliked the fact that the Chinese were unwilling to “assimilate properly” but rather “just took over the country.” The Act forbade any Chinese national already living in the United States to become naturalized and become an American citizen. It also prevented the immigration of any Chinese person not given a special work permit such as merchant or diplomatic status. Worst of all, the Act prohibited the immigration of families of Chinese nationals already living in the United States. The Exclusion Act was becoming a more serious issue in the following decades and was finally lifted during World War II.

Chinatown consisted of a highly imbalanced male-female ratio that became much worse as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1900, there were between 40 – 150 women compared to the total population of around 7,000 Chinese in Manhattan. This affected the social landscape in Chinatown leading it to become known as the “Bachelor’s Society.” There were often rumors of opium dens, prostitution, and slavery causing increased hatred from the white nativists towards the Chinese. In order to keep with Chinese tradition and to protect against the United States government’s hostility towards the immigrants, the Chinese of Chinatown formed their own associations and societies to protect their own interests. An underground economy was developed allowing undocumented immigrants to work illegally without leaving small area of Chinatown.

Chinatown developed its own political structure comprising of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and other fraternal organizations. Some of their responsibilities included managing business operations, making funeral arrangements, and mediating disputes between members of the community. The organizations also created their own constitution and imposed their own tax on the Chinese. The CCBA ruled Chinatown throughout the early and mid twentieth century and represented the elite of the community.

After the removal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, China was given a small immigration quota and the community of Chinatown continued to grow, slowly expanding throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s. The garment industry which was a booming industry employed many Chinese internally. Restaurants and laundry businesses were also paying less than minimum wage under the table to thousands of Chinese. Despite the growing population of Chinatown, the community also faced segregation between its members. Many of the newly arriving Chinese immigrants came from mainland China and were viewed as the “downtown Chinese”, while the Taiwan and Hong Kong educated were called the “uptown Chinese.” This distinction between “downtown” and “uptown” resulted in a hierarchy where an elite class emerged.

In 1968, when the quota for immigrants was raised, the Chinese flooded into the country from their homeland and the population of Chinatown peaked. Chinatown expanded into Little Italy, often purchasing buildings to be turned into garment factories or office buildings. While many of the buildings in Chinatown are tenements that are a century old, the rents in the area are some of the highest in the city competing with apartments in midtown and the Upper West Side.

During my visit to Chinatown in the last week, I met with my aunt whose apartment is located on Monroe street and has been living there for over 30 years. Her apartment was built in the late nineteenth century and is on the third floor of the building above a busy supermarket. Inside the apartment, there lies a clawfoot tub in the middle of the living room with steel bars covering the windows. Separating the living space are thin walls and clothes on clotheslines. I ask my aunt in Chinese “how are you able to afford to live in this apartment?” despite the skyrocketing rents in Chinatown. She responds “the apartment is rent-stabilized and that’s the only way I’m still here.”

My aunt later takes me to her favorite Cantonese restaurant where we have dim sum. The restaurant is fairly empty with a few tables being served despite being a Sunday afternoon. I ask the waiter who has been working there since the restaurant opened in the 1980’s about its vacancy. He tells me about the declining business due to people moving out in the area. He says “the rent is simply too high” informing me of many new restaurants and business taking over ones that have been open for decades. I ask him how he deals with the slow business and increasing rent. He points to the section of the menu labeled “specials” and tells me how he significantly lowered the prices in order to attract customers. He also tells me how he relies on regular customers to keep the business alive. “The owner is happy if we break even or take just a small loss”, the waiter says. My aunt and I then leave happily leaving a generous tip for the courteous waiter.

My next stop was Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing Queens where my cousins live. From my first impression, this area was very busy, making it hard to walk on the sidewalk without bumping into other people.  There were many cars honking through the busy traffic and vast amounts of people entering and leaving the subway station. I approach an elderly woman sitting on the footsteps in front of her house. I ask her in Chinese, “what it’s like to live in the area?” and she tells me that the area is quickly getting more busy with new buildings and construction to account for the growing population. She then tells me how she used to work at a garment factory on Lafayette Street in Chinatown 25 years ago and moved to Flushing after she lost her job. “Machines have taken our jobs” she says, with new technology being used that is cheaper and more efficient than human labor.

According to Wei Leng Chang, a 60 year old resident of Flushing, “I lived in Chinatown before, but the apartments there are too small and expensive.” Another Queens resident said “Flushing is convenient. We have lots of buses and the subway and the shopping is cheaper here.” Owning a car is almost impossible in Chinatown with busy congested traffic and narrow roads with expensive parking. This makes it hard for new immigrants with families to live in Chinatown and often flock to the outer boroughs instead.
Through my experience traveling through Manhattan’s Chinatown and learning about its history, the once busy enclave for Chinese immigrants is slowly dying. With the rise of new “Chinatowns” in Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn offering more space for a lower price, these areas are attractive to many people. Today, as the number of immigrants continue to grow, downtown Chinatown no longer remains as the most populated and favored destination for the Chinese.

Remiss

We drove over the Whitestone Bridge after an hour journey coming from our house located in upstate New York. As we approached 14th Avenue, the woman in the car began to recall her childhood memories. “I remember growing up in Queens,” she told me, “going to a little amusement park and playing softball with my dad and sisters right here.” Where she was pointing to was now converted into a multipurpose center with commercial businesses now occupying the lots. “A lot of these place didn’t even have roads, back in my day. [long pause] It’s amazing how much stuff is here now.”

We continued driving along the perimeter of the former “whitbread” neighborhood that is College Point, Queens, both reliving past memories and analyzing the current state of the neighborhood. The woman driving us around showed me where she used to live in queens with her parents and two sisters through the 60’s, 70’s, and a bit of the 80’s. “I remember being able to play with my friends in the street and picking tomatoes from our backyard. But’ there are so many cars and so many houses here now, I doubt you could ever relive that now. I remember Joanne and I would meet up on that corner over there and walk to Saint Agnes. I bet even the school has changed quite a bit since I’ve been here too.”

Not too long after stopping by the house, we went towards College Point Boulevard to stop into one of the oldest businesses in the borough. There, we saw a sign that lie above a building reading “Empire Market – The Family Butchers.” We walked in only to be greeted by a man with outrageous charisma towards his job and towards his customers. “Karen! Is that you?” he asked right as we walked into the storefront. She replied back, “Hey John! Long time no see.” The man who greeted us is John Lepine, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1957. The woman that he was so excited to see is named Karen Hika-Borrello, though I personally call her Mom.

The two adults beside me were catching up and shooting the breeze while I surveyed the scene. I recalled being in this market as a young child, buying homemade sausages and clean cut meats. I especially remember buying penny candy from the charismatic John over a decade ago. For old times sake, I asked John if they still had the penny candies. Sure enough, he guided me back towards the edge of the counter and showed me the selection of over fifty types of specialty candy, just as if I were sent in a time machine back to the 40’s, when my grandpa would buy penny candies from the local shops in New York. I had to ask John how it was still possible that the penny candy scene never changed. To which he replied “This is about the only thing around town that hasn’t changed.”

He told me, back when he and my mom were growing up in the neighborhood, everything was run by small business owners of mostly German and Southern European descent. “There was never a sign that was not in English,” he said. “But now look around! A rush of Asians and Hispanics hit the town over the years. It’s really taken over everything.”

The last bit took me aback. Did he mean this with negative connotation? Diversity within the neighborhood should really be a positive aspect of life. I followed up John’s statement by asking him to elaborate of his former claim. “I’m not against change! I’m changing this business every day from since my dad handed it down to me and I know he changed it a bunch since his dad handed it down. But if you look around, no one is keeping their property clean. All the buildings are getting run down.”

John was definitely correct here. I walked up and down College Point Boulevard, noticing how run down and desolate all of the old and new buildings looked. The avenues did not look any better. Walking down 14th Avenue, I expected to see quaint suburban scene with houses keeping a mowed lawn and fresh paint job. However, I saw peeling paint, overgrown gardens, cracked pavement, and general garbage in the streets. My mom was upset at seeing what had become of her old neighborhood.

We continued to walk and drive around College Point, stopping where parks used to be and where factories used to be up and running. Now, the parks were replaced by construction lots and the factories were all shut down or in a state of disrepair. Hardly a whitbread neighborhood anymore. My mom told me when we were kids, we would come play in some of these parks. Now in the remaining parks, there was not a sole.

Around 3pm, we drove to a restaurant called Coppola’s for a stop to eat. The owner came to our tablet and greeted us with another “Karen! Is that you?” The owner of this little Italian restaurant is named Marcelo. He knew my grandpa back in the 60’s when the restaurant had just started. Without hesitation, we gave Macelo our order and began to ask him about the neighborhood. Once our food came to us, Marcelo pulled up a chair and began talking about all the changes he has noticed.

“First of all,” he said, “the people moving in are all nasty. They don’t keep the place looking nice, they throw their garbage around, they’re not very friendly, it’s not a nice place.” This seemed to align with what John was telling us before, so I played along and kept listening. “The people coming into this place, they’re just spilling over.” Now I became curious. I asked Marcelo where they were coming from. “Flushing, Forest Hills, a little of Jackson Heights, and everywhere around here. But mostly, it’s the people coming from Flushing.”

“They’re mostly Asians and some Hispanics coming into the neighborhood and leaving it trashy.” I felt slightly offended that two people made a correlation between neighborhood diversity and trashy neighborhoods in the same day. Nevertheless, I asked Marcelo to elaborate his point. He told me “There are some nice people coming in. There really are. My neighbors are new to the place. Both Asians. The one of them is a nice guy. The other guy, though, is a real nasty guy. He’s not keeping his house nice, he makes a racket, he smokes all the time around kids, it’s like he’s from the streets. But the thing is, I complain to the town about this guy and they can’t do anything about it. He bought the property in cash, made it his own for whatever, and now he doesn’t keep everything looking nice. Me? I’d sooner move from the neighborhood than deal with this guy.”

Marcelo made a good point in his rant. I was understanding something about the general flow of the Queens population. The largest flux in diversity is definitely in Flushing, but the flux is so great that property in Flushing is becoming more expensive quickly. This is causing many of the people that are around the neighborhood to move where it’s cheaper. Enter: College Point. This quaint, family neighborhood has been slowly dying since factories started moving out of the city. With the neighborhood getting older and quieter, a lot of property went up for grabs at cheap price. It can be generalized that the people now moving into College Point are barely making ends meet, fiscally that is, which leaves their property in a state of disrepair. This changing dynamic can only be described as a sort of reverse gentrification, where the neighborhood is becoming less valuable and the state of the infrastructure is deteriorating. Unfortunately, the direction the neighborhood dynamic is going is not positive.

After talking with Marcelo, my Mom and I continued to drive around the neighborhood, getting our last good looks around. She showed me the church where her and my dad were married. She showed me where one of the oldest buildings once stood, only to find a new apartment, already in shambles, in its place. She showed me the funeral home that took care of my grandma and aunt’s funeral arrangements. The entire parlor had changed hands and become an Asian-centric funeral parlor. What John and Marcelo had told us was visible as daylight. The population of the neighborhood really switched. The once German run neighborhood had become an Asian-centric neighborhood with various minorities making the run down neighborhood their new home.

It’s upsetting to see what the neighborhood looks like with new eyes like mine. I cannot hold any one group of people to blame for its current state of disrepair, nor should there be blame put on anyone for the state of the neighborhood. Though what is apparent is the neighborhood needs revitalization. More small, independent businesses need to run College Point. The Empire Market and Coppola’s are two great examples of small independent business that bring life into the neighborhood. The Empire Market has been thriving for over three generations. People build relationships and bonds with one another when there are small businesses in the town. I come from Beacon, a small urban center from upstate New York, where independent business owners run the town. College Point used to be run like this as well. It’s a mystery why this aspect of the neighborhood changed and turned into commercial businesses.

In the car heading back upstate, my Mom kept reliving old memories with a couple of “Oh my goodness”s here and a few “I can’t believe it”s there. To someone that used to live in this neighborhood during its prime, I can understand why she was so upset with the direction the place has turned. There is a sort of reverse gentrification happening in the neighborhood, where the property is cheap enough to house those being displaced by normal gentrification. However, the people cannot maintain their property and uphold the neighborhood as it used to be run with mass factories and small businesses. Perhaps this is but a sign that is calling for a revitalization. More small business owners need to take advantage of the lower property costs and open up show again. It is a start, but anything seems better than leaving the neighborhood as it is in its current state.

The last few things John said to us that day really resounded with me. They went something along the lines of, “I’m not going anywhere. This is my passion and I love this neighborhood. I grew up here! Your mom grew up here! We know what this place used to look like. It would be a shame if no one cared about making this place look good again. It doesn’t matter if it’s White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Indian, whatever! No one here has pride in the neighborhood anymore. I really hope that we can change that.”