Would you accept a refund from the MTA? [NYT]
Kind of old…the Number 1 line is the best in the city. [NYT]
Weekend Subway Guide. [NYP]
Harlemites rally for the protection of local businesses. [AmNews]
Harlem resident calls Columbia U President a “Big Dumb Doofus” [NYMag]
Health insurance for all the kids? [NYP]
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Posted in: The Scoop
Mindful
August 12, 2007
Your last two posts are far afield from your original point: “This building boom we are seeing in Harlem will not put one dime the ordinary Harlemites pocket. All it is doing is pushing them out of the district by the high rents.”
By your own admission, many people are selling their brownstones (and putting $$ in their pocket) and moving south. Fair enough and good for them.
And I fail to see how, if what you say is true, that most rent stabilized housing is occupied by the elderly, that them living there until they die or move in with family or something is “pushing them out”. But I don’t know it to be true that “a person in rent stabilized is Elderly”. Do you have anything to back that up or is that just your personal experience?
I think the real issue here is the FEAR that people are being displaced rather than any objective data showing that is true. Or the FEAR that the longtime black residents of Harlem are facing a changing demographic. I think Harlem will always hold the historical and cultural significance that it has been come to be known for. But Harlem is no different from Chelsea or Hell’s Kitchen or Little Italy or Meatpacking in that change is constant – it’s just how you choose to react to that change that defines a community.
narmer
August 11, 2007
New York Post
THE ‘WHITE’ LIE
By BILL SANDERSON
August 10, 2007 — It’s time to stop talking about white flight from New York.
The city’s white population has increased in every borough but Queens since 2001, a Post analysis of new U.S. Census data shows.
Overall, the number of white New York City residents rose by 1.6 percent from 2001 to 2006 – jumping by 74,000, to about 4.76 million.
Manhattan has seen the biggest such growth, counting 39,000 more white residents in 2006 than five years earlier – an increase of 3.7 percent, the data shows.
At the same time, Staten Island’s white population rose by about 12,000, an increase of 3.2 percent, Brooklyn’s by about 24,000, or 1.9 percent, and The Bronx’s by 7,000, or 1 percent.
The numbers of whites in the suburbs has also grown, but more slowly than in the city – Westchester’s white population is up by 1 percent, and Suffolk’s is up by 0.9 percent.
But the white population declined in Nassau County by 3.3 percent, or 37,000 people, between 2001 and 2006 – almost equivalent to Manhattan’s white-population increase.
The reversal of the white exodus to the suburbs has been accompanied by a big increase in the region’s Asian population.
From 2001 to 2006, the number of Asians in the five boroughs grew by 11.6 percent, to just over 1 million. Most of that growth came in Queens, which got 45,600 new Asian residents over the five years – an increase of about 10 percent.
The suburbs are seeing more Asians, too – Nassau’s Asian population is up by 22,300, or 29 percent, and Suffolk’s is up to 56,600, or 25 percent.
The Census data also shows some trends in the region’s black population:
* The number of blacks in the five boroughs dropped by 1.4 percent from 2001 to 2006. The biggest such decline came in Queens, which lost about 19,000, or 3.7 percent of its black population.
* Staten Island’s black population grew by 4,700, or 9.27 percent, and the number of blacks calling The Bronx home went up by 4,500, or 0.75 percent.
* Many blacks have gone to the ‘burbs – Suffolk County’s black population was up 5.9 percent and Nassau County’s up 3.4 percent in the century’s first five years.
Overall, the city’s minority population grew by about 2 percent from 2001 to 2006 – a bit faster than the city’s population as a whole.
But minorities are still a minority in New York – the city’s 3.6 million non-whites accounted for 43 percent of the city’s 8.4 million residents, about the same as 2001.
bill.sanderson@nypost.com
narmer
August 11, 2007
[b]“but it seems to me that the number of people we should be most concerned about here, the poor and the lower middle class, are in rent stabilized, rent controlled or public housing. Right?”[/b]
A person in a rent stabilized is Elderly and once those apartments are available it is rehabbed and goes back to market rent. This also goes for rent controlled apartments. And the rules for the projects are about to change where a tenant must meet income requirements to get an apartment in the projects as it was back in the day.
In the past 5 years the Black population of Manhattan has decreased 3.33%, Queens 3.68% and Brooklyn 1.43% all due to gentrification and high rents. The Brownstoners are selling their homes and as you say “putting dimes in their pockets” and relocating South.
In a few more years, Harlem’s boundary will start at 135th and go North, as it was in the 40′s
Mindful
August 11, 2007
Free market rents may surely rise eventually, but it seems to me that the number of people we should be most concerned about here, the poor and the lower middle class, are in rent stabilized, rent controlled or public housing. Right? And for the ordinary Harlemites who purchased a home when they were selling for $30k and less are surely putting many dimes in their pockets…
Take a look at this article:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/08/gentrification_is_good_for_the.html
narmer
August 11, 2007
No! he has every right to broker the sale of those buildings. What i am saying is Why? out of a clear blue sky this company is getting business from top of the line realtors to purchase Harlem properties, who from “Downtown” is steering the business to him.
This building boom we are seeing in Harlem will not put one dime the ordinary Harlemites pocket. All it is doing is pushing them out of the district by the high rents. Next to come is the redistricting and rezoneing so the newly elected Caucasian politicians can start helping the new ‘SoHar’ residents gain a political foothold.
Mindful
August 10, 2007
Narmer,
Just trying to understand: do you think that Giscombe should not have sold his buildings? Or do you think that Kimco and Sigfeld Group should not have bought them?
I don’t know…it’s hard to argue against the economic system doing what it does. Wouldn’t it be much worse if the market in Harlem was stagnant and nobody was buying/selling? What would that mean for the area and the businesses and residents who live here?
narmer
August 10, 2007
This company owned by a “Black” Man is at the root of the problem. Go to his office and ask the questions you wish to receive answers for?
July 10, 4:41 pm
Harlem retail portfolio fetches $50M
112-118 West 125th Street
Commercial brokerage and development firm Giscombe Henderson recently brokered the sale of 16 retail buildings in Harlem for $50 million. The properties, located at 112-118 West 125th Street, 250 West 125th Street, 301-303 West 125th Street and 2331-2349 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, total 35,000 square feet. The per-square-foot price of $1,430 is the highest paid to date for retail space along 125th Street, according to Eugene Giscombe, president and founder of Giscombe Henderson.
The portfolio sold in two separate deals. A partnership of the Sigfeld Group and Kimco Realty Corporation, a real estate investment trust that develops shopping centers, bought 2331-2349 Frederick Douglass Boulevard for $30 million. This retail stretch will be demolished to make room for a block-long, four-story office building with ground-floor retail, Giscombe said.
The Sigfeld Group was the sole buyer of the properties on West 125th Street, which went for $20 million. Giscombe believes Sigfeld will keep the single-story retail buildings as they are. Sigfeld did not return calls for comment.
The properties were on the market for two months, according to Giscombe. Giscombe and Jeffrey Schettino of Giscombe Henderson represented the seller, MPL LLC; Elliot Jordan Enterprises represented Kimco. By James B. Kelly
Copyright © 2003-2005 The Real Deal
Kimco Reality Corp is a publicly traded stock (KIM) and can be accessed via a Google Search.
Mindful
August 10, 2007
“Harlemites rally for the protection of local businesses. [AmNews]”
Sounds like professional journalism – until you realize that the Amsterdamn the News headline is actually “Villagers say ‘NO’ to ethnic cleansing”