Breaking news: Harlem blogger who acquired mainstream media attention in the New York Times has decided to “put the brakes on” her “love affair” with Harlem. Rachel Natalie Klein is citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the recent separation from her lofty unit in East Harlem. Read her reason for leaving Harlem over on her blog. Do you agree with her decision to move out of Harlem? Let it rip in the comment’s section.
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Posted in: Editor's Notes
Mookie
January 12, 2007
Getting hit with a bag of cans by a homeless person is about 1,435th of the list of bad shit that can happen to anyone anywhere. Maybe someone will throw a pie in her face in SOHO and then she’ll move to Staten Island.
reefinyateef
January 10, 2007
I’m with Anon. Harlem, like all parts of NY, has its good and bad. It’s part of living in any major metropolitan area, whether it’s NYC, Chicago, or Paris.
Anon
January 10, 2007
okay so one crazy man has reformed her entire view of Harlem…you either hate it or love it…and the one’s who love it grew up dreaming of the time when they could experience it (the good and the bad.)
Hugo
January 10, 2007
It’s a damn shame about Bagel.i found her blog around the same time i found uptown flavor and was pleased to find something smart and witty. I thought it was a good balance to see what “other side” was experiencing as I have lived here all my life. I did notice that for a while she had not been posting anything new so I suppose this is when the “rift” with Harlem made itself more evident. It’s a shame she went through such a beating, literally. It’s a fact that experiences color our opinions of things very strongly where sometimes it’s hard to separate our logic from our emotions.I have sometimes laid blame on certain groups of people because one person from that group did something horrible to me and I had to learn to disinguish the bad apple from the apple tree. I have experienced similar atrocities as bagel(gotten mugged, beaten, slapped) but have never gone so far as to say “I’m out of here”. Perhaps because I see home as MY home, my place to return to, my castle. And I would never let anything run me off from what is rightfully mine and have fought so hard to maintain. Perhaps Bagel never got to the point of making Harlem HER “home” in her heart. It was an experiment perhaps…a costly one it seems. However, this serves as a sobering reminder to people that dangers exist everywhere. And just because Harlem has gotten a facelift, you are not immune to the bad elements. To my caucasian/asian/(fill in the blank if you’re not black or latino) counterparts who are flurrying to Harlem and have managed to squash the stigmas, fears, stereotypes, and overt discrimination in favor of a better market price I say, do not assume that because the market is welcoming your new mecca uptown with open arms that somehow all evils have been exorcised in anticipation of your arrival. There are still crack dealers, there are still muggings, there is still prostitution, and there is still deep seeded discrimination in our backyard. This is no utopia. It’s something we hardworking and thoughtful natives have been fighting to eliminate for many years to make our streets safer for OUR children.Please take that into consideration. And if after a lot of thought you still decide Harlem is for you, add yourself to the ranks and fight the good battle with us.Do not retreat.
uppity whitey
January 10, 2007
oh, so when you “negroes” are being your true selves, you’re hitting people on the head? i guess i should be more careful around my black neighbors. clearly they are dying to let loose.
ac
January 9, 2007
NAT
that’s really unfair. no one deserves to get hit for any reason for just walking down the street. you think a crazy homeless man hitting people w/a bag of garbage for no reason is someone being non-docile????? that is someone being CRAZY!
i disagree with her leaving over it, because i think it’s truly unfair to judge harlem over something like that. if it happened walking across 14th street, she wouldnt have said “oh im leaving union square i cant take it!”. the fact is, a lot of white people show up in harlem scared and waiting for the other shoe to drop. and if you run into a crazy homeless man, and he acts crazy, and you take that as exactly what you were afraid would happen happening, then you’re deeply overreacting.
to bad. i really enjoyed her blog. and will miss it.
NAT
January 9, 2007
I guess she was a “Fair Weather Harlemite” and as long as we Negroes stayed docile, all was good.
The one of the docile Negroes tore the Matrix, Harlem was no longer the place for her.
She will find SoHo in so expensive the she’ll be back.