Is the Upper West Side moving uptown or is Harlem moving downtown?
One of our readers presented the question of geographic boundaries in the comments section the other day:
I thought that the geographical boundaries of Harlem was/is 110th to 155th street, from the East river to the Hudson River. Now it appears that Harlem now runs from East 96th street north to 181st street, east river to the Hudson. Lets stop using the Newspapers boundaries and start using the original boundaries.
What do you think? Here is one definition.
Advertisement
playdagame
February 12, 2008
Harlem begins at 96 st. and goes up to 155 st. that iz the original boundaries.
Kid Playa
January 15, 2008
WORD SON, WORD just go up a few blocks to Washington Heights
knikka1
November 11, 2007
manhattan valley iz a part of harlem.
HarlemWorld
November 8, 2007
Upper westside has always been from 59st. to around 110st. Harlem begins around 96 st. which is also called Manhattan Valley and keeps going to around 155 or 156 st. Once you see park west village and the frederick douglass housing projects it is basically Harlem.
Hugo
October 21, 2007
One can certainly many argue sides to this. Almost like the glass being half full vs half empty. The truth is that this phenomenon is occuring all over the city, not just Harlem. Just look at the Williamsburg neighborhood and areas that border the Park Slope area. They have gone major facelifts. Whereas once you had the image of working class immigrants and citizens you now see hotbeds for artists and young 30 something families in condos. We can go on and on about aggressive gentrification, but we’ve covered that already.
At the heart of this particular discussion is branding and marketing. How do you sell neighborhoods that have been historically overlooked. Attach it to one that is familiar to the mainstream and can be associated with affluence and higher quality (at least the appearance of). We see it all the time with movies that producers fear will be shredded by critics. You’ll see trailers announcing “From the producers of ‘Saw’” or “From the writers of ‘Knocked Up’”. If you call up something people recognize and can associate with being of a greater value then you’ve in effect created a demand for it can therefore justify the higher price. That’s the beauty of the free market.
The flavor-of-the-day (or more accurately, the decade) in the city has been luxury condo residences with access to franchises/chain stores that are sought after by working class and middle-class young adults. THAT’S THE MARKET! So you blur the boundaries and repackage your product. This is the magic wand being waved across many neighborhoods. Even in quiet, residential neighborhoods mainly populated by older, middle-class people you’re seeing this invasion. Even they’re resisting new condo constructions and jamba juice spots.
What the developers are pushing towards (intentionally or unintentionally) is painting a homogeneous picture of the city…a romanticized version of new york city that resembles the “Sex in the City”.
So i think it’s more accurate to see the landscape of Harlem as one giant river and you have undercurrents of the upper-west side “life-style” criss-crossing its way uptown.
dipsetupper23
October 19, 2007
iz 96 st. Harlem
Harlem Ni99a
October 18, 2007
Harlem is whatever u want it to be, dont care what other people tell u what ur neighboorhood iz.
Tiffany Johnson
August 25, 2007
RE: Narmer’s description of Harlem
I think your description of Harlems rings most true to what I’ve always believed. What is so eery to me is that I always thought a neighborhood was a geographical boundary, but truly it’s an economic and racial thing. I live in Spanish Harlem and even notice on some maps they are starting to call East of 2nd ave “Pleasantville”. You know, this kind of thing happens not just in New York City, but all across the country- boundaries of neighborhoods changings due to shifting demographics, usually for real estate purposes or to rid the more affluent sections of neighborhoods of responsibilty (via taxes) for the less affluent sections (fixing schools, roads, etc).
Uptown Boy
August 23, 2007
Yo Harlem is from 96 st. to 155 both on east and west side but white rich people have tooken harlem over and most of harlem is considered the upperwestside. Notice how the upperwestside is a made up name for the neighborhood to make the whites feel safe.
uptownflavor
September 23, 2006
Speaking of boundaries, please try to keep your comments constructive and respectful. If you need further clarification please visit the ABOUT page’s section on comments. Loving the input. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Invisible Man
September 23, 2006
There are no more Negroes Uptown – just real niggaz and Uncle Toms. Ellison’s Harlem is no more.
narmer
September 23, 2006
“Harlem stretches from the East River to the Hudson River between 155th Street — where it meets Washington Heights — to a ragged border along the south. Central Harlem begins at 110th Street, at the northern boundary of Central Park; Spanish Harlem extends east Harlem’s boundaries south to 96th Street, while in the west it begins north of Morningside Heights, which gives an irregular border along 125th Street, west of Morningside Avenue.” Harlem’s boundaries have changed over the years; as Ralph Ellison observed: “Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem.”
reefinyateef
September 23, 2006
I agree wth Jerry Travis.
Amn.eris
September 23, 2006
Harlem – Prince is correct. The city books state that Harlem begins at 96th Street.
As for Columbia…don’t be fooled. Columbia is all over in more ways than people know. They are trying to take over ALL of Harlem.
ac
September 23, 2006
to the west it’s morningside park that’s the divider…so manhattan ave and east starting at 110th is harlem…then above 125th, harlem extends fully to the river…which of course is where the whole columbia debate sparks.
in the east-it starts in earnest at 110th, but heading east from central park, it creaps down towards 96th street the closer to the river you get.
Jerry Travis
September 23, 2006
There is no official rule. Mine is, Harlem starts at 110th above the Park, but at 125th West of the Park. Below 125th at that point is Morningside, formerly Bloomingdale.
Harlem-Prince
September 22, 2006
Harlem begins at 96th Street but because brokers have been trying to gentrify Harlem for decades the Upper West Side has crept into Harlem territory. In order to get them to buy in Harlem simply tell them that they are in the Upper West Side. Problem solved.
And don’t even get me started on Columbia University…
narmer
September 22, 2006
If Columbia University gets its way, the Upper West Side will be moving into Hamilton Grange/Heights but not into Harlem.