I’ve been hearing a lot about the LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book and the LiveUptown.com Harlem Card that will soon be available to Harlem residents.
The LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book is being published to provide Harlem residents with an updated listing of the best Harlem restaurants. Harlem restaurants are selected for the book based on published reviews and personal recommendations.
The LiveUptown.com Harlem Card: cardholders are afforded discounts of 5 percent or more at local upscale restaurants and retailers, without the hassle of using coupons, reward programs or the addition of hidden fees. Cardholders simply present their LiveUptown.com Harlem Card when they are making a purchase and receive their discount right on the spot.
Both the LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book (20,000 copies) and LiveUptown.com Harlem Card (50,000) are distribute for FREE. To get yours, send an email to LiveUptownHarlem@aol.com.
Thomas Lopez-Pierre
May 18, 2009
P.S.: Your comment about: [new charming “boutique” Mexican Restaurant called “Lolitas” @ 112th & Lenox, directly across the street from THOUSANDS of public housing project apartments].
We tried to include “Lolitas” in our Harlem Restaurant Book but they do not have a website. We require all restaurants in our book to have a website.
We hope that when we publish our 2nd issue in August 2009 that they will have a website so we can include them in our book.
All restaurants are included FREE of charge. Restaurants DO Not pay to be listed in the LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book.
Anonymous
May 18, 2009
This is outrageous, a problem, & inconsistent with the historical spirit of UptownFlavor. 6 Points:
(1) This is a pure business model profit focused publication seeking $1K & $500 ads from merchants. This is not an unbiased fair and balanced service despite assuring inclusion to all restaurants with a minimal listing like a phone book.
(2) Have you read the website about this? Complete and total _Division_ and class warfare. Since when has UptownFlavor been in the business of promoting, supporting, and advocating division and class warfare in Harlem?
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From their website it says verbatim, “Over the past few years, thousands of upper income families have moved to Harlem. The LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book is being published to provide upper income residents of Harlem with an updated listing of the best Harlem restaurants (they do not pay to be included). Harlem restaurants are chosen based on reviews and personal recommendations. The LiveUptown.com Harlem Restaurant Book will be dropped off by hand on the doorsteps of Harlem brownstones and left in the lobbies of upscale rental and condo/coop buildings (10,000 copies of our 2nd issue). Our distribution network is designed to concentrate on the upper income residents of Harlem”.
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(3) Where is the evidence that “Over the past few years, thousands of upper income families have moved to Harlem” ? For this to be factually accurate and true, a minimum of 2,000 “families” would have have to moved to Harlem of a financial stratus that could reasonably be defined as “Upper Income”. There is not a single shred of evidence, data, nothing supporting this assertion that is presented as fact.
(4) There is a new charming “boutique” Mexican Restaurant called “Lolitas” @ 112th & Lenox, directly across the street from THOUSANDS of public housing project apartments. The decor, the charm, “Lolita’s” will appeal to upper income Harlemites, as it does to me,check it out yourself. However with it’s very reasonable prices, it’s very much within reach to the thousands of public housing dwellers directly across the street. The design and model of this publication intentionally does not recognize that market and intentionally does not serve those people. That’s tragic for Lolita’s and those people. They are underserved and this publication further places and exclamation point in illustrating how they are underserved. People that live in public housing projects have sufficient disposable income (in fact more than many under $100K earners since their rent is so low) to spend on dining at Lolita’s, or Melba’s, or “________”.
(5) I myself don’t live in a Brownstone or in an “upscale rental, coop, or condo bldg”. Yet am “upper income” on a Manhattan Standard. There are thousands and thousands of people that don’t live in the defined target dwellings that have the disposable income to dine in Harlem at Cuvo, or Cafe Largo, or wherever with some frequency. This publication does not serve us with intension.
(6) This is real bad on many levels and further divides and excludes. It says a “sector” of Harlem is worthy of being served, and another sector is not. The “Riverton” apartment complex on 135th and 5th Ave is not “upscale” rental by any standard of measure, but I certainly know 3 young professionals that live there, all earning over $100K/yr. In Harlem, people with sufficient disposable income to cater the new restaurants and bars live all over the place. There are dozens and dozens of “new condo bldgs with 12 – 24 units selling for $750K & up” placed right adjacent to and in between tenement buildings. The person paying the mortgage on that apt might not have an extra $ to spend dining out, whereas the rent in the adjacent tenament bldg might indeed be able to afford to drop $300 or so a month dining in Harlem due to their chosing to live in lower cost housing.
In conclusion, this whole thing smacks of class discrimination, exclusion, division, in a world where you have no idea of who has $$ to spend dining at a Harlem Restaurant. I know lots of people that spend $500/month dining in Harlem on food and drinks that live in some pretty crappy buildings.
And for UptownFlavor to promote this class division and discrimination, amidst the struggle of Harlem and the Nellie Bailey argument….. is shameful.