Effect of Gentrification on Northern Manhattan

I almost missed this article last week, but thank you to Evan Abramson for writing the story we've all been talking about for years. Hell, I was thinking about this before even moving to Inwood when I saw the divide between east and west of Broadway in Manhattan Valley.

This kind of situation exists to some degree all over the city and the concerns of being pushed out of your home to make way for a new crop of people better able to pay rents is frightening--I lived it in the aforementioned Manhattan Valley-- but it is heartening to see some proof of somewhat harmoniously mixing cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds up in our hood as the article looks at what's going on throughout the area and filters it through a moment at the Red Room.

From "Where Boundaries Are Melting, a Place to Celebrate Differences:"

Today, these differences are most apparent north of the convergence of Broadway and St. Nicholas Avenue, at 169th Street. To the east, paint peels and graffiti spreads on blocks where maintenance has not been a priority; the streets are louder, the sidewalks more crowded. Signs on stores are translated more often into Spanish. To the west, rents are higher, there are more parks, and one can hear a mix of English, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish.

Now, with newcomers pushing north, the lines are not as clear as they once were, residents say, but they are there. “Because of the lack of development in housing, and a larger white population coming up here,” Mr. Nuñez said, “it is bringing things to a point of friction.”

“The rent is going up, you see more people that you’re not used to seeing around — it’s heightened that friction,” he added.

Comments

[Sarah]

What makes me nuts (among other things) is that there are no Yiddish speakers up here. None. The 3 German Jews that are still young enough to walk around on the street speak _German_. The old Russians mostly understand some Yiddish, but would never speak it on the street, and speak Russian in their homes, anyway. It sounds cool to say Yiddish is being spoken, and it gets across the point that there are Jews here, duh, but there are NO Yiddish speakers.