Why East Harlem?

As I said in my previous post's, East Harlem is located next to Yorkville and the Upper East Side, two of New York City's richest neighborhoods. This is what made East Harlem an easy target for gentrification. Also, there are many abandoned buildings and vacant lots in East Harlem which creates free space for anything to be built in those spots. East Harlem in 2014 is now a place where outsiders come to visit. There are some cafe's, Italian restaurants, whole food super markets, and new architecture, not to mention a shopping mall on 116th street. East Harlem is now an attraction in Manhattan, no longer a "danger zone" for outsiders. My childhood was spent in East Harlem, and I can honestly say, I don't mind the new look of the neighborhood. It looks cleaner and more safe. But if you asked me 10 years ago if I could imagine East Harlem looking as it looks today, my response would probably be "hell no".

East Harlem from my rooftop

East Harlem

East Harlem est. 1970

Her parents moved here from Puerto Rico in the 50s. She has been here since the 70s and will not be forced out. If she leaves, it will be by choice. My mother.

Abandoned

Abandoned buildings are still, to this day, frequently seen in East Harlem. In 2014, us native East Harlem residents know that this will one day be a luxury apartment building.

Were still here

Were Still Here

Throughout the decades of drugs, crime and death, we are still here. It has been a decrease since 1990, when Puerto Ricans made up 40 percent of East Harlems population, but we still are the dominant race, making up 35 percent of East Harlems population.

Luxury Rentals

East 100th street

Decades after Bruce Davidson's legendary book, East 100th street and first avenue holds a Luxury Rental apartment that stretches through the whole block on first avenue. I was reading an article yesterday where a father of 4 stated that the luxury apartment building has caused the prices in Associated supermarket to raise and that he has to head uptown to buy meat and milk. This luxury apartment was my first glimpse at gentrification in East Harlem.

Gentrification

"I lived through East Harlem's worst times. I witnessed things that you could not even imagine. Now that the neighborhood is finally getting cleaned up, after decades of poverty and crime, I may not even be able to live here". A sad statement made by my mother while talking with my professor about her upbringings and the gentrification in East Harlem. Gentrification is described as a shift in an urban community towards wealthier residents and/or businesses and increasing property values. In more simple words, its when poor people are driven out of the neighborhood that their ancestors helped build, and the rich come and take over. My outlook on gentrification is not totally bias. I do believe that there is some good within gentrification. The East River Plaza on 116th street in East Harlem created jobs and opportunities for a neighborhood that has the worst jobless rate in the city. My mother has told me that the location of the East River Plaza, used to be abandoned buildings where addicts would go to live and smoke crack in the 80s. With the good comes the bad and the ugly. I am against gentrification when landlords in tenements do things such as have their tenants living like animals because they want them out. I recently watched a mini documentary where a resident in a tenement building was being forced to live with mildew and asbestos because her landlord refused to get someone to clean it up. The landlord wants the residents that has been living in the building for years, out so that newer and wealthier residents could come and pay him more. Why should the residents that have been paying rent for decades and years, have to deal with this? Why should my mother, that has lived through the most horrid times in the neighborhood, through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, that has lost her parents due to the East Harlem streets and drugs, that has lost so much family due to the many social issues that affect East Harlem, be moved out of the neighborhood now that it is getting cleaned up? I am not against gentrification, but I am against how it is brought about.

6 Train chronicles

Taking the 6 train uptown from anywhere, downtown Manhattan was always interesting, especially in the 90s. As a child, I noticed something. As the train approached 96th street, ALL white people got up out of their seats and rushed to the train doors. When I say "rush" I mean it. I have been riding the subway for years and there are times that I dozed off and missed my stop, but to these people in those times, missing their 96th street destination seemed to be a sin. The next stop would be my stop. 103rd street. I would observe the train and see no more whites. Now, nothing but Puerto Ricans speaking my mothers language, some Mexicans speaking spanish in their accent, and some blacks. One stop made such a huge difference. A difference in race, household incomes, and a difference in architecture.

The 90s in East Harlem: The recovery from the 70s heroin epidemic and the 80s crack epidemic

My Grandmother on the right

The East Harlem I grew up seeing were streets paved with gold compared to what my mother grew up witnessing. The epidemic hit hard in East Harlem in the 80s. Everywhere, vacant lots, abandonned buildings, needles and crack pipes on the floor. Family members stealing from or even killing other family members just to get that stuff in their system. Unfortunately, it hit my Puerto Rican family hard, and many have passed before and after I was born due to over dose. It was a harsh reality my mother grew up with. Now I grew up in the 90s. The streets of East Harlem started to clean up. Vacant lots became gardens, and abandonned buildings were being renovated. On the contrary, I still had to witness some of the horror that the 80s left my 90s. Instead of hundreds of needles and pipes on the street, I would see 5 a day. While walking with my mother, she would tell me to never touch those things. I didn't know what they were at the time but she told me they were dangerous. We would walk around abandoned buildings and my mother would tell me to walk on the other side of the street. In the 90s, there were still people shooting in abandoned buildings. I witnessed the dope feins nodding there heads slowly while bending over so far close to the floor with drule coming out of their mouths. 125th and lexington avenue is where I witnessed it the most, while heading to path mark. Although less harsh than the 80s still harsh realities.

Rest in peace Alexandria Esquilin and Pedro Beauchamp

Moving on up?

Luxury Apartment on the Upper East Side

After living in Clinton Houses for the first 12 years of my life my mother and I would relocate to another public housing, this time not in East Harlem, but in the neighborhood blocks away, the upper east side. I remember not wanting to leave Clinton when my mother told me about the move. By this time, it was just my mother and I living in the 1 bedroom apartment a few yards away from the metro north train that woke me up every night. When my mother and I walked to the new apartment I noticed a change. We made our way from 104th heading downtown to 93rd street. When getting to 93rd street I noticed the public housing development that I would be living in, but across the street was much different than what I was used to. Instead of a neighborhood full of small tenements and Projects, it was a neighborhood of tenements and luxury apartments. Earlier in my life I didn't consider myself to be low income, mostly because my surroundings did not suggest that. I was now living in one of New York's Highest income neighborhoods after living in one of New York's "poorest" for my whole life. When I was 12 I kind of got the feeling that my mother and I "moved up" but in reality we lived the same. I just saw people in this neighborhood living more comfortably. Keep this in mind. One of New York's richest neighborhoods (Upper East Side) is literally ONE block away from East Harlem, Manhattans lowest income neighborhood. This will be important when I get to the topic of gentrification.

Growing up in the projects.....Was I poor?

104th street, and park avenue, apartment 11 E was my childhood apartment. Dewitt Clinton Homes. It was a 1 bedroom apartment for me, my brother, my mother and for a short time my father. Statistically I grew up in a low income home. It didn't feel like I was poor or of low income though. There was always food on the table, clean clothes for me to wear, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Growing up in the projects was not bad at all. The media portrays public housing throughout America as these small barricaded areas that are somewhat like small war-zones. To me, it was just regular. As I stated in the last post, East Harlem has the second highest concentration of public housing in America with over 20 housing projects. It especially didn't feel like I was poor because of this. Everywhere I looked, there were people living in the projects or small tenement buildings. They were just like me, I thought as a child. They were the same color, or the same race. Everywhere I looked. Blacks, Puerto Ricans and on 116th street, Mexicans. They spoke the same language as my grandparents. So no, I didn't think I was poor at all.

East Harlem from a "statistical" view

I just want to get this one out bright and early. I am not a fan of statistics at all, especially statistics that targets a group of people negatively. Instead of flooding you with a bunch of numbers, I will give you some statistical statements about my East Harlem neighborhood. Let me start off by saying that according to my research, East Harlem's crime rate is Manhattan's worst. Rape, Murder, Burglary, Robbery ect. It is an unfortunate fact that I witnessed the little time that I had to roam the streets while growing up. The H.I.V rate in East Harlem is far above average than Manhattan's rate and the cities rate. There are many health problems in East Harlem that are above the cities average, from Diabetes to Cancer. East Harlem holds the cities highest jobless rate. More than half of East Harlem's residents receive the government's financial assistance and the household annual income is the lowest in Manhattan. East Harlem has the second highest concentration of public housing (projects) in the United States. There is a higher percentage of high school drop outs than college graduates in East Harlem. Most of the neighborhood's population is Hispanic and Black with very small percentages of Whites and Asians. These are the statistics that kept outsiders out of the neighborhood for many years. I would have never expected to see outsiders roaming around the neighborhood in today's East Harlem. In the 90s, it was a place to stay away from if you weren't from there.

Mis Abuelo's/ My grandparents....Before I was born into the East Harlem society

Christino Esquilin was my great grandfather. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He was a working man, a carpenter. He moved wherever there was work for him. He lived in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and St. Croix throughout his years. His last and final move was to the Lower east side, Manhattan, where he took his daughter (my grandmother) Alexandria Esquilin along with him. Pedro Richard Beauchamp (my grandfather) was born in Puerto Rico but moved to East Harlem as a child. His family immigrated to East Harlem for better opportunities as most Puerto Ricans at this time did. Pedro and Alexandria met each other in New York City when they were young teenagers. Alexandria was 14 and Pedro was 13. Young love is what it was and in 1966 Alice Beauchamp (my mother) was born. My grandmother was 19 when she gave birth. For the first 10 years of my mothers life, she grew up in the projects on the lower east side but in 1977 she moved to Harlem and remains in the neighborhood today. My family has been living in the neighborhood since the 1950's.

 Grandfather Pedro

 Grandmother Alexandria

 Great Grandmother Donecia 

Great Grandfather Christino

Welcome/Introduction

Young me!

Hello. My name is Justin Brown, 22 years of age, and attending SUNY Oswego, majoring in Graphic Design while minoring in Photography. My most recent accomplishment was receiving my Associates degree in Photography from Tompkins Cortland Community College. Last but not least I am from East Harlem. Over the course of this summer (between now and August 18th), I will be posting images and text posts of what East Harlem means to me, my family history in the neighborhood and most importantly images representing the gentrification that has been going on in the neighborhood over the last few years. Stay tuned