Saving the soul of black businesses in Harlem
We’ve been following this topic for quite a while now and it has also received quite a bit of media coverage in The Times, Amsterdam News and even national magazines. Now, it seems that the owner of the Record Shack has taken the next step toward holding onto his store front by calling a Town Hall meeting.
Interestingly, the Record Shack has outlasted the national chain, HMV, which was once on 125th along with The Disney Store. Around the corner on 8th Avenue, Bobby’s Happy House [see bad Google translation here] still seems to be holding on, despite the shift from vinyl and cassettes to CDs to an iPod driven society.
Is this simply a sign of the times or another example of losing more of Harlem’s original flavor? More after the jump….
The Town Hall Meeting has been called by Sikhulu Shange, proprietor of The Record Shack. Mr. Shange has remained in business for over 40 years in the Harlem Community serving as an ambassador of culture and music. The Record Shack is now the oldest surviving business on 125th street specializing in music from the throughout the African Diaspora. Like so many Black owned businesses Mr. Shange faces eviction from his location and eradication from the fabric of Harlem.
HARLEM: RACE, CLASS & GENTRIFICATION
“Saving the Soul of Black Businesses in Harlem :
Ending the Economic Siege of Our Community”
“Wake up & Smell the Power of Your Black Dollars”
Connecting the dots Community Forum St. Ambrose Church
Saturday, July 14, 2007 9 West 130th Street (Between Fifth and Lenox Avenues)
Speakers:
Sikhulu Shange (owner of the Record Shack for past 35 years), Minister Kevin Mahammad (Mosque #7), Rev. James David Manning (ATLAH Ministries), Harlem Filmmaker Duana Butler, Maurice Powell ( 125th St. Vendors), Representatives from the 116th Vendors, Nellie Bailey ( Harlem Tenants Council), and others!!
Special Report: Marcus Garvey Park Drummers Will not Be Silence!
The so called “revitalization” of Harlem is taking place with the ethnic cleansing of local Black businesses. Major corporate chains are moving in while local Black businesses are being forced out, incredibly with funds from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) that subsidized $11.2 million in loans to Harlem USA that also received funds from Chase Manhattan Bank and the Empire State Development Corp. This is nothing more than “economic racism”!! Join us in this powerful community discussion on how to take back the local Black economic life of Harlem.
Light Refreshments Served
Sponsors: Harlem Tenants Council (HTC at 212-234-5005 or email: harlemtenants@aol.com) and Harlem Committee To Protect Black Businesses ( 212-866-1600) or email:saredi@aol.com. Directions: 2 or 3 Train to 125th or 135th Street .
Related: Metafilter :: Good Crimethink
Filed under: Business/Finance
D. Bell
illoquentgent
narmer
“serving as an ambassador of culture”
“music from the throughout the African Diaspora”
“eradication from the fabric of Harlem”
_
LOL, why not also say he bought Malcolm X lunch and gave Adam Clayton Powell 33″ LP records? Did he send flowers to Rosa Parks and also free the slaves on the side?
Don’tcha think you’re laying the ethnic rapture on a little thick? The speech used to romanticize the place is ridiculous. Rule One, when you have no legs to stand on, wrap yourself up in ethnicity and proclaim yourself that status of sacred ground.
Fact? He sold records, he’s a business man, NOT a ART CURATOR, give me a brake, you make it sound like he’s the Schombourg Center or something. Truth? I was in the music induustry, if this guy was in the music industry this long, as a retailer, he was a link in the chain of exploitation of hundreds of black people.
The music industry is notorious for screwing over Black people, the jewish lawyers made the lions share of the money in the era of this business thanks to guys like this record shop. I said it, it’s true, how do you like that spin?
In fact, perhaps this guy should be brought up on charges for being part of the exploitation of black artist for ever? Do you really want to know the history of how the Black singer and song write would get a penny or two off the record this guy sold and the white man and Jew the vast majority of the money?
Well thanks to this clown, he made it all possible, he was a critical link for the white man, as far as I am concerned, he can’t go out of business soon enough for participating in the exploitation of black artist for over 40 years.
Now instead of wrapping this guy up in the ethnic bullcrap and trying to protect him as if he’s a shrine, how about viewing his role from the perspective I just layed out?
Truth a little too hard to handle? Look, the guy’s a business man, period, nothing more, nothing less. Maybe he should have been smart enough years ago to get a new lease elsewhere on the street, is that too much to ask for? For him to be responsible for hismself on a business level?
How many excuses do you want to concoct for this joker? Why is he immune for haivng to be professionally smart over the previous numerous years? What’s his excuse?
He has none, and you Black people don’t want to view him through that context, do you? Why did this guy not secure another location like lots of Black businesses have had to do over the years? He’s not the first to face this? What’s the excuse people?
But no, you want to give him the right to be immune from the realities of business, immune from everything, and protect him, based on??????? Oh, I forgot, he basically freed the slaves from all this poetic ethnic rose colored glasses bullcrap nonsense that you’re embracing him with.
Whatever ever happened to professional responsibility of private business? Oh, I forgot, we don’t require that of Black business, we look for excuse elsewhere and away from ourselves and assume it’s our god given right to rent space, why sure it is. If Slyvia’s was smart and prudent and shrwed enoght to rent then BUY their place, why could not this man? What’s his excuse? Sylvia’s took professional responsibility over the decades to secure their place by OWNING and not having a renter mentality, again, what’s this bozo’s excuse? The music industry has pimped a whole lot of Black folks and he was a critical link in that machine. He’s getting pimped now? Oh dear, (yawn). Don’t let the doorknob hit him where the dog should of bit him on the way out.
Thousands of Black artist were F’ed over buy this guy and the necessary role he played in the exploitation of Black by the music industry. Good Riddance to him I say.
If he bought Malcolm X lunch and gave records to Adam Clayton Powell means he has been around a pretty long time and in that amount of time he has paid enough rent to Own the place. Most of the places that the Asians rented in Harlem, they now own.
Isn’t’ Harlem an Empowerment Zone if so, who is getting the money? That is where our attention should be focused. Black businesses are being forced out of business while other Nationalities are prospering in Harlem.
HARLEM: RACE, CLASS & GENTRIFICATION
“Saving the Soul of Black Businesses in Harlem :
Ending the Economic Siege of Our Community”
“Wake up & Smell the Power of Your Black Dollars”
Connecting the dots Community Forum
St. Ambrose Church
Saturday, July 14, 2007
9 West 130th Street
4 PM - 7 PM
(Between Fifth and Lenox Avenues)
Speakers:
Sikhulu Shange (owner of the Record Shack for past 35 years), Minister Kevin Mahammad (Mosque #7), Rev. James David Manning (ATLAH Ministries), Harlem Filmmaker Duana Butler, Maurice Powell ( 125th St. Vendors), Representatives from the 116th Vendors, Nellie Bailey ( Harlem Tenants Council), and others!!
Special Report: Marcus Garvey Park Drummers Will not Be Silenced!
The so called “revitalization” of Harlem is taking place with the ethnic cleansing of local Black businesses. Major corporate chains are moving in while local Black businesses are being forced out, incredibly with funds from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) that subsidized $11.2 million in loans to Harlem USA that also received funds from Chase Manhattan Bank and the Empire State Development Corp. This is nothing more than “economic racism”!! Join us in this powerful community discussion on how to take back the local Black economic life of Harlem.
Light Refreshments Served
Sponsors: Harlem Tenants Council (HTC at 212-234-5005 or email: harlemtenants@aol.com) and Harlem Committee To Protect Black Businesses ( 212-866-1600) or email:saredi@aol.com. Directions: 2 or 3 Train to 125th or 135th Street .
A common problem of Harlem (residential and business) is the mindset that longevity merits entitlement. Those at this townhall meeting will want it both ways, the right to assert longevity merits entitlement while also dismissing the merchant’s responsibility, the apparent absence of planning that all business must do. This is nothing more than a merchant who has failed to plan as a business owner. Lots of businesses on that same street have had to relocate to other locations on that street. It’s a shame and very exploitive to turn this into a community cultural cause when it’s really just an irresponsible business owner who did not do what they could have and should have some years ago, some decades ago. Of course they won’t acknowledge this at this townhall meeting, personal responsibility is generally a taboo topic at these things, it’ll be a “blame whitey-fest” of some sort no doubt.
I can see where all this is going and I hope it doesn’t end up going where it went in 1995.
Back then, Sikhulu Shange also got into an eviction battle with the landlord for the property, The House of the Lord Church (founded by Daddy Grace).
Shange was a subtenant of an adjoining store, Freddy’s, who wanted to expand their store into Shange’s space.
Shange waged a public campaign against the church and Freddy’s. It became heated with demonstrators picketing Freddy’s and Al Sharpton showing up at one of the pickets.
A few weeks later, a man, who was apparently mentally unbalanced, walked into Freddy’s, opened fire on those in the store and then threw a fire bomb.
Eight people died in what became known as the “Freddy’s Fire” on 125th Street. It was a national story when it happened.
So here we are again 12 years later and with Sikhulu Shange. This could get really ugly.
My personal opinion on Shange is that he’s just a business guy who plays the ethnic/culture card when it suits his purposes which is staying on 125th Street. Otherwise you don’t really get much participation from him in terms of the well being of the Harlem community.
What’s happening here though is some of the local activists are using him, and by extension the drummers, to wage a larger ideological struggle around gentrification.
The group sponsoring this forum, The Harlem Tenants Council, is led (if you want to call it that) by Nellie Bailey. A self- styled activist, Nellie can always be counted on to get in the middle of these issues. In reality she contributes little to nothing.
All this heat that is being generated and will be generated is too little too late. Nellie and her cast of characters should have seen the hand writing on the wall years ago and began planning and executing to help locally-owned businesses survive as the commercial and residential market in Harlem changed.
Instead they did what many activists in our community do.
Nothing.
Small, independent stores have gone out of business all over NYC over the last decade or so because of high rents, not just in Harlem. The only difference is that when it happens in Harlem, it is labeled “economic racism” and “ethnic cleansing”. Constantly claiming victim status is so tiresome and making these racist accusations is completely divisive. Once again some people in Harlem want to be immune to the economic realities of the rest of the city.
Here is what I have observed during my years in Harlem.
Harlem was a vast wasteland when it came to goods and services. If you couldn’t find it on Broadway or on 125th Street then you were forced to head downtown. I appreciate places like Kev’s, Cafe E-go and other indies that stuck their neck out to provide services to Harlem when no one else would take a chance.
Now, moving forward…our first wave of new emigrants arrive from downtown and the midwestern part of the U.S. They are immediately impacted by the lack of quality of goods and services in Harlem. They are empathetic to the plight of Harlem residents. They lobby to get better goods and services. As the goods and services arrive, so does the next wave of emigrants. These are the ones who are a bit more well heeled. They weren’t venturing into Harlem until they had at least a few of the familiarities they were used to having (e.g. Starbuck’s and NYSC). This wave of emigrants is a bit less tolerant or empathic to the plight of Harlem residents. This wave is not friendly, do not acknowledge their new neighbors and do not join forces with the local organizations already in place to help improve the neighborhood. This group of newcomers wants the new neighborhood to be a reflection of their old neighborhood but at a fraction of the cost. This group makes up the majority of the complainers who will strip Harlem of any cultural value. Balance…we need balance. The little bit of culture Harlem had needs to be preserved — and not in a museum or a hall where the people on the big red buses can come gawk and take pictures.
I’m not saying that this guy needs special treatment. IMO, he has abused his chances to do better and he needs to let it go and move to Brooklyn or Newark where he might be able to buy another year or two in business (though I doubt it). What I am saying is, we shouldn’t be quick to cast a wide net over everything and blend all the issues together. Take the time to get to the root of the issues at hand. Find out the history. One reader already gave the back story on this shop owner’s plight. I agree, the man hasn’t been responsible for his own fate. But others have so let’s turn our attention to helping them stay in business if they indeed offer a cultural addition to the area the isn’t comprised of Old Navy, H&M and other (cheap) chains.
This is a long one people, please read until the end.
Thanks…….Harlem Girl
“A common problem of Harlem (residential and business) is the mindset that longevity merits entitlement. Those at this townhall meeting will want it both ways, the right to assert longevity merits entitlement while also dismissing the merchant’s responsibility, the apparent absence of planning that all business must do. This is nothing more than a merchant who has failed to plan as a business owner.”
My Response:
The owner of the Record Shack has been there 35 years. Read the info below to let you know what doing business was like not only 35 years ago, but until about 2002.
From Wikipedia:
Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services, such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The most devastating form of redlining, and the most common use of the term, refers to mortgage discrimination.
It describes the practice of marking a red line on a map to delineate the area where banks would not invest. During the heyday of redlining these areas were most frequently minority inner city neighborhoods.
In the United States, the practice was fought through passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which requires banks to apply the same lending criteria in all communities.
The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA) is a United States federal law that requires banks and thrifts to offer credit throughout their entire market area and prohibits them from targeting only wealthier neighborhoods with their services, a practice known as “redlining.” The purpose of the CRA is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities to underserved populations and commercial loans to small businesses.
The CRA was passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1977 as a result of national grassroots pressure for affordable housing, and despite considerable opposition from the mainstream banking community. Only one banker, Ron Grzywinski from ShoreBank in Chicago, testified in favor of the act.
[NOTE: Even though the law was on the books, it was not followed and there was no checks and balance system in place......Harlem Girl]
In 1995, as a result of interest from President Clinton’s administration, the implementing regulations for the CRA were strengthened by focusing the financial regulators’ attention on institutions’ performance in helping to meet community credit needs. These changes were very controversial and as a result, the regulators agreed to revisit the rule after it had been fully implemented for five years. Thus in 2002, the regulators opened up the regulation for review and potential revision.
Finally……
2001 Starbucks comes to Harlem. Gentrification officially begins.
Back to the Record Shack owner and his not purchasing property.
As I think I have shown, there are several possible reasons. Let’s not forget that there are property owners in the community who refuse to sell to Blacks even when they have the cash.
Some people believe in sharing the wealth with their own and choose to sell to others from the same ethnic background.
Question for the original poster, based on the above info, do you still feel that the merchant failed to plan?
“Lots of businesses on that same street have had to relocate to other locations on that street.”
Most of the business that have relocated did not own their property. Their landlords owned several buildings in Harlem and moved some of the businesses that they choose to stay around to other locations to maximize their (the landlords) real estate opportunities.
An example of what they did was to basically move a business with two empty lots beside it to another location and combine the three lots to sell together.
Many of the businesses who have moved are still renters.
Also, what landlords are doing to the businesses that they don’t want to stay in the neighborhood is basically raising their rents to unaffordable amounts for the current tenants.
OK people, here’s another long one. Please stay with me…….Harlem Girl
“Small, independent stores have gone out of business all over NYC over the last decade or so because of high rents, not just in Harlem. The only difference is that when it happens in Harlem, it is labeled “economic racism” and “ethnic cleansing”. Constantly claiming victim status is so tiresome and making these racist accusations is completely divisive. Once again some people in Harlem want to be immune to the economic realities of the rest of the city.”
True, small independent businesses have gone out of business all over the city.
However, many of them were not located in Empowerment Zones.
From http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/nyez.html
The New York Empowerment Zone (NYEZ), created to revitalize Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx, is an economic development initiative which uses public funds and tax incentives to encourage private investments in these areas. The NYEZ is the only corporate entity of its kind in the nation with a public investment pool of 300 million dollars equally contributed from the city, state and federal governments. The NYEZ’s goal is to provide its resident with the necessary tools to revitalize their community and build new roads to economic self-sufficiency.
The Mayor’s Office of the New York Empowerment Zone manages the City’s interest in the Empowerment Zone (Zone) under the authority of the Deputy Mayor for Community Development and Business Services. Its mission is to work with the two local development corporations, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZDC) and the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC to coordinate private-sector investment and to facilitate in the navigation through City government. Along with $300 million in funding, tax benefits, and available City land, many businesses will have an opportunity to help create jobs in the Zone.
These incentives include wage tax credits, Section 179 deductions and bond financing. The NYEZ also provides funding, technical assistance, and support with regards to issues such as site location, procurement, and workforce development through its following partner agencies.
Harlem Girl Here Again:
How is it not Racism when over $300 Million dollars has come into Harlem in the last 10 years and you can probably count on all your fingers the number of long time Harlem businesses who recieved some of the funding.
Starbucks, Disney, HMV, Magic Johnson/Lowes, etc. are the ones who recieved funding.
How is this not economic racism?
Harlem Girl - My guess is that you tend to see racism everywhere you look and that you see race first in everything. Ever been accused of that before? I’d bet a dollar that you’ve been accused of that many times; if not to your face, certainly behind your back.
I think most people would be hesitant to even engage you in conversation on this because the inferences you’re drawing are SO tenuous and so out-of-left-field that it’s not worth the bother for the normal, rational person. Redlining? Empowerment Zones? $300M being distributed? Huh?
This seems like a very simple case of a local business owner who had a lease with an expiration date that he failed to consider. Most business owners don’t own their own space (they don’t consider themselves in the real estate business and want to have their money tied up in an illiquid asset), but this guy apparently didn’t even start to look for new space to lease. And let’s be honest: what record/CD distributor has not had trouble lately? Tower Records just went into bankruptcy and closed their store on the upper west side. HMV is struggling as well. This appears to be a situation of a guy who didn’t plan very well and a guy whose business is subject to the same market forces of the other people in his industry. Sad, but let’s not make this into something that it isn’t.
“How is it not Racism when over $300 Million dollars has come into Harlem in the last 10 years and you can probably count on all your fingers the number of long time Harlem businesses who recieved some of the funding.”
Harlem Girl: It would be helpful if you actually had some data to support your arguments. Otherwise, you are simply speaking in anecdotes, which is a dangerous thing especially when making such serious allegations.
To Anonymous,
The very words you use to express your emotions provide a clear example of the epitome of the ethos of the term “manifest destiny”. Your blatant disrespect in regards to the importance of what the Record Shack means to the African American/Black community does not amazement me because you obviously operate from a thesis that is comprised of a lack of general consideration of the point of views, cultural norms, etc. of other people. I say this in lieu of possible differences in race, class, or socio-economic position. Your words show that “ignorance is not bliss”.
As to “Mindful” if racism does not exist, how else do you explain the current socio-economic status of African Americans? If you are not an African American, what do you know? American social structure was founded on racism, exploitation, and destruction of a group of people who were here first. African Americans fought and died in every war this country fought here and abroad and came home to horrendous conditions. We have been redlined out of housing loans, fought for the empowerment zone only to have numerous conglomerates receive the majority of the funds. I can go on and on but I won’t. Racism is alive and well in American with African American still getting the short end of the stick. “Mindful”, Learn some History!
Great assessment Penny and thanks Harlem Girl for providing a very relevant prospective!
Pearl,
Get a grip! I’m not saying, nor have I ever said, that racism did not and does not exist. But you really think that a record store owner who failed to plan for what he would do when his lease ran out AND being in an industry that is faltering generally is the target of racism when he has business troubles - in Harlem!?! I mean, really!
And I resent the fact that you try to exclude everybody but blacks from a conversation on race. You obviously think in terms of “them” and “us”. Well, if only one side can speak about the issue, isn’t that just a lecture? And what do both “sides” learn from a lecture better or a conversation? I choose to have a conversation (which means I want to hear what you say as much as I want you to hear me) - so how dare you try to lecture me and tell me to shut up instead!
i know this is pretty unrelated—but remember the rumor that started up a while back about that building under construction on the corner of 126th and Malcolm X? the one that’s supposedly owned by the NBA? that it’s gonna be an espn zone? i walked by this morning and there are signs for a new M&T bank.
you can only imagine my disappointment.
above 125th - I saw the same thing. Any chance some of the upper floors will be used for an ESPN Zone? I guess that may be hoping too much…
aww come on…no espn zone!!! no disrespect to the previous topic. i was just really hoping for it.
It will be the NBA HQ, the bank will be there too. It will not be an ESPN Zone, but indeed the NBA HQ.
so, offices?
Since the Record Shack conversation has all but been debated I want to also speak to the other item on the agenda. It is the drummers in Marcus Garvey Park. Due to the new noise ordinance (which should be welcomed in this city) the drummers need to be a little respectful to neighbors who do not wnat to endure hearing their cacaphony all day long. I hope they also do not play a race card since it has nothing to do to race, but to peace and quiet for everyone.
Harlem is changing. Lots of places change. It is unfair to point to race as a factor in a lot of these economic forces. Lots of new Harlem resident are indeed white, but they are far from rich and intolerant. Why are they moving to Harlem? Well first, Manhattan has shut the door down to them for any affordable places. AND well, maybe because they have finally understood that black people are normal loving caring and share the same values as they do!
New York is different. Look at some of the cities where “white flight” is STILL taking place. Here in New York, white people and black people probably live harmoniously more than anywhere else in the country. Yes, there is lots of work to do on our relations. Yes, there are still problems. But people - have you been to the parks or sidewalks lately in Harlem? Both of us are becoming frieds and neighbors, attending church, conversing, joining support groups and block associations together. It is a wonderful thing.
I welcome my new neighbors. I also welcome the new businesses and services that I have been waiting decades to arrive here.
Let’s put the rascist stuff to rest and focus on making Harlem the most special place in New York City (which it is fast becoming).
“Manhattan has shut the door down to them for any affordable places. AND well, maybe because they have finally understood that black people are normal loving caring and share the same values as they do”
_
OMFG. Black people were victimized across the board, community wide for DECADES by redlining, no amenities due to warehousing, even if we had the money Jews would not sell to Black people and let them take ownership in not infrequent cases. Systematically the City Government let drugs FLOW into the community and allowed criminals to run things FOR DECADES. Blacks were denied law and order, protection. Do you want me to go into the underfunded schools for decades?
None of these are excuses, I am pointing out realities and framing in context why some Blacks feel like saying “Fuck You Whitey” to this day. All Blacks know the White man wants Harlem back, that’s all, and you’re taking it. You want to act like it’s a brand new day and we all should be singing “we are the world”? Man fuck you whitey.
Lots of people are mad, pissed, angry and I understand it. Today there’s a cop on every block on Lenox Ave, sometimes 2. That’s because Whitey lives here now. That’s not for me, the Black man. When Harlem was all Black, the NYPD did not care, they let Black on Black crime flow, today’’s state of NYPD presence is appreciated, but it’s not for us, it’s for the White people and developers, let’s be honest.
Sorry if it takes a while to get over 50, 60, and 70 years of being underserved by and in all sorts of ways.
Your words are not too far off sounding like a German telling a Jew in the 50’s to “get over it already”.
NYC let Harlem decay and unravel. Blacks used to dress snazzy, have our own everything (dinner, dancing, amenities, etc.) then the drugs came in.
Tell you what, wanna turn over a new leaf and have happy Black people? Honor your side of the deal motherfucker and give me my 40 Acres and a mule bitch. I’ll take the East side by the Plaza heading south. Oh, what? You don’t want to honor the deal?
Harlem Proud said, “they have finally understood that black people are normal loving caring and share the same values as they do”.
2007 and you’ve come to this grand conclusion. We’re survivors, the product of a disenfranchisement of a people. You uprooted us, tore apart our families, our language, our culture, you erased our identity entirely. We’re survivors in your world, not doing as well as the recent immigrants who were spared such disenfranchisement, but doing better than the poor Native Americans, the only people who’ve been more F##’ed over by the White man than Blacks.
I know of no immigrant from India to be lynched, do you? We’re survivors. The cradle of our culture of the 20th Century is Harlem. That cradle rocks no more, has not rocked in a while.
You just don’t understand. the changing of the guard of Harlem taking place at hyperspeed is a bitter pill for many to have to swallow.
Enough already! Get over it.
#24. Folks are always telling “folks” to get over it. The problem is, you have no sense of what “it” is.
I’d agree that folks have allowed themselves to be paralyzed by their history and their own personal experiences. It prohibits them from seeing and taking advantage of opportunities that others who don’t share the same history and experiences see and jump on right away.
But I always caution folks who are so quick to tell folks to “get over it” and “move on”, to walk in their shoes for a little while and then see how quick your are to be so flip about it.
Divine-
Of course you are right. And while i agree, telling people to get over it doesn’t accomplish anything…i do feel that this real sense of hatred towards anything new coming to Harlem is also the sign of a real ill in this neighborhood. i think that “folks” see while “folks” as one huge wall of evil…and how will we ever overcome our struggles if we cant see each individual for who they are. We cannot insulate ourselves from white people and hope they go away and leave us alone. That is not the world we live in. if we can’t find a way to accept and integrate these newcomers into our neighborhood, they will run right over all of us. We have to step to them and bring them into OUR fold…
Additionally, we cannot expect that national chains will stay out of our neighborhood. Go to any town in America - there used to be the mom and pop shops, the small town diner, the hardware store, the butcher, baker, etc etc…But these days it’s home depot, target, Wal-Mart and Applebee’s. Every town America is now exactly that…no individuality and no diversity of business ownership.
If we truly convince ourselves that this is happening only to us, then we will continue to play the victim and never overcome.
This discussion started off so sensibly and then devolved into another blame whitey rant: for the schools (funded no worse than any other NYC DOE schools, thank you), for the drugs (who is selling them?), for the crime (who is committing it?). That’s right, all whitey’s fault. No doubt for the demise of the Record Shack, too.
This kind of thinking really hasn’t gotten anyone very far in the end, has it?
Neighborhood observer, you’re “observation” and knowledge of socio-economics is shockingly ignorant.
I wonder what people had to say about the Jews, Italians and Irish who dominated the urban criminal scene in the early 20th century?
#26 - I couldn’t agree with you more. Quite frankly, I don’t concern myself with what those folks think, say or do. I think we spend way too much time worrying about them. I’m a alot more concerned with what “we” think, say or do.
For example, I can’t get excercised the same ways others do about some of the changes in Harlem. In many ways I welcome some of the changes.
No reasonable person could have expected the Harlem real estate market not to change. It was only a matter of time before the market went up. And when residential values go up and development starts, big retail is not far behind.
The problem for “us” is that we didn’t anticipate this and plan for it. Individual non-profits did as much planning and development as they could, but were limited by capacity. There was little to no small business planning so when commercial rents went up, small businesses went out.
We live in a market economy and can never underestimate market forces and the power of capital.
So when it comes to being receptive to others, what comes across as intolerance is really masking our own failures to plan and act.
Others will only do what we allow them to.
amen, divine. simple truth. it’s beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time.
In reading the responses to “Saving the Soul of Black Businesses in Harlem” I was struck by the vitriolic views expressed by some along the line of ‘these folks are blaming whites instead of taking personal responsibility’. The blame game bamboozle is of course nothing new but has reached new heights to confuse and obfuscate the issues of race and class that are unavoidable in Harlem’s gentrification debate. Some of the most mean-spirited and sophomoric comments derided Harlem’s notable legacy, the great urban epicenters of Black struggle for racial and economic justice that continues unabated to this day. For those dismissive few, Harlem has no historic significance beyond the Harlem Renaissance. Of little interest, and I suspect, just plain simple minded ignorance of history, is the fact that an unprecedented concentration of people of African descent made their historic mark in Harlem despite all odds after centuries of forced labor, state sanctioned violence, racial discrimination, and population dispersal. Without a doubt it was the establishment of Black Harlem within one large and solid geographic location that made it unique in New York City’s history.
Rule one; avoid all discussion on gentrification and the forced removal of Harlem’s Black population with the justifications of Black stupidity, ineptness, and laziness. It’s a sure winner every time, even better if it comes through a Black windpipe. Remember, you can always sweeten the pie by working for white realtors. Celebrate your next deal of conning some old Black couple out of their home or a hapless owner of an HDFC apt by having friends over for apple martinis (the kool-aid cocktail for Harlem’s petty bourgeois wannabes) with no less a full banner American flag unfurled in the back yard of your garden apartment of which you can hardly pay the rent!
Rule two; reserve the best of your poisonous venom for the poorest of the poor residents in Harlem and those small mom and pop stores struggling to stay in business. You’ll need some live targets, so anyone in the public eye opposing windfall public dollars subsidies to major corporations (such as $11.3 million subsidies from the UMEZ to Harlem USA or Columbia University’s 17 acre land grab in West Harlem), just line up those targets so you can take perfect aim! The nerve of those folks (I am really curious about the ethnicity of this one) thinking they can wrap themselves up in their ethnic shrine talking about race, hummn!! Clearly this air head has no sense or empathy for what is going on in Harlem: rising evictions; Harlem’s shrinking African American population, the same for the City overall with the number one problem being housing affordability; and increases in the City’s shelter system population with African American female head of household with children under five years of age the fastest growing population (the greatest concentration coming from Central Harlem. Our most vulnerable residents, senior citizens, are being evicted at such an alarming rate the Civil Court of Manhattan was forced to institute an anti-eviction program.
Third, obfuscate the facts with the blanket lie that “trouble makers,” “cast of characters,” or “self style activist” (the most reactionary language of southern segregationists during the civil rights movement) don’t want to see Harlem revitalized with neighborhood amenities and housing improvement. Red baiting is the underlying subliminal message here, because this is where the issue of class intersects in the debate among Blacks. Suffice it to say, there are Black people of the upper income rung but mostly those just pretending to have means but are living from paycheck to paycheck that are loath to live in close proximity with poor Black folks. It simply doesn’t suit their notion of climbing the social ladder so these folks are quick to embrace the New York Times’ candidly racist cold blooded argument, ‘Hey it’s too bad, I know we are going to have some sad stories but pushing Blacks out of Harlem is an inevitable consequence of progress’. The truth is this progress is about real estate speculative profit, often times made illegally off the back of the working class in Harlem and throughout NYC. The racketeering lawsuit announced several days ago against the giant landlord group Pinnacle puts this monstrosity into context.
In 1885 the Black journal, New York Freeman reported, “The colored people of New York City suffer more injustice in the matter of rental than any other class of citizens.” It is as true today in 2007 as it was in 1885.
Nellie Hester Bailey, Director of the Harlem Tenants Council
200l Recipient of the New York City’s Union Square Awards
2001 Recipient of the national Alston Bannerman Fellowship
2005 Awarded a Proclamation from the City Council of New York for outstanding service to indigent tenants in NYC.
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Nellie, the award list at the end of your post suggests that you’ve done some great work on behalf of those who possibly need it the most.
However, you mentioned the phrase “obfuscate the facts” in your post and after reading it, I still can’t help but feel that most of the things you mention do exactly that.
When a commercial tenant enters into a lease, there is a start point and an expiration date (maybe with an extension right or two). The rent is set out (usually clearly) and it is specified when the rent increases. Most leases also call attention to a concept called “holding over” - whereby if the tenant keeps possession of the premises after the expiration date, rent goes up tremendously (usually something along the lines of +50% - enough to make the tenant want to get a new lease in place or move altogether).
This is a situation where the tenant appears not to have paid attention to the lease that he signed. He may have assumed that he could enter into a new lease at the expiration date (and therefore did not look to extend the lease or enter into a new one early enough in the process) or that he could simply hold on to it without worrying about the paperwork. Either way does not reflect how the real world works, whether you’re red, black, yellow or green.
I myself make a real effort to support local businesses and restaurants. However, I must say that I don’t really have an occasion to support a record store - I listen to the radio, turn on my cable to the music channel or play an mp3. When (honestly) before this “issue” arose did you go to the record store to buy anything? This is not something that he is alone in - as I think was mentioned above, how many music stores have declared bankruptcy lately?
So let’s not obfuscate this issue and make this something that it is not. What it is: (1) A lease that expired and was not renewed. Happens all the time, almost always for economic reasons (would you sign a new lease with a floundering business?). (2) The macroeconomics of owning a record store in an era of digital music.
What it is not: (A) A gentrification/socioeconomic issue. (B) A race issue. (C) An affront to the history of Harlem.
Furthermore, you have made a lot of baseless and incendiary claims and rhetoric. Given the fears (some legitimate and many not) that some people have expressed about the benefits and drawbacks of a rapidly changing community, I think parts of your email above are irresponsible at best and at worst, are intentionally harmful. Regardless of your or my thoughts on any of these matters, Harlem will continue to change in all sorts of ways (as the rest of the city will do too - as it always does). Motives should not be assumed and we should all avoid casting aspersions. After all, the one thing we all have in common is that we’re looking for the best possible places to live (and raise a family, perhaps). That Harlem is attracting so many new residents who are looking for exactly those things should be a testiment to Harlem’s history, its beauty and the quality of its current residents.