The Dickerson Pondit: April 2009

Where is Charlie? The past two weeks I have been living in New York City! Generous friends of ours are allowing us to use their condominium on 116^th Street in Harlem while my wife is making daily trips to the hospital for ongoing treatments. My first visit to Harlem was in 1964. I had just graduated from high school in rural upstate New York and was living with my aunt and uncle in Jackson Heights while I worked at Con Edison on 14^th Street for my first summer job. The lure of $64 per week before taxes drew me from the beautiful Catskill Mountains to the pavement of Manhattan. I played on our office softball team where weekly games were scheduled after work on Randall's Island. One of the men on the team was afraid of traveling by automobile, so three of us took the subway up to 125^th Street and then walked across town to the softball field. The evening of one of those games was a night of rioting in Harlem. We actually made it to the game without any incident, but motorphobia or not, we took a car ride home from the game rather than walking back to the station on 125^th Street!

That was forty-five years ago! Since then Harlem has gotten smaller. Gentrification has moved the southern border of Harlem uptown, block by block. It actually penetrates no farther south than 110^th Street today. The upscale building we are staying in is on 116^th Street and although it is in Harlem, the neighborhood is changing. I do believe the current economic downturn will slow down any new gentrification for the next couple of years. So what is the neighborhood like in the eyes of a Bronx boy turned Westchester limousine liberal? On the up side, there is ample on street parking and not much traffic. There is a good supermarket, CVS and Dunkin Donuts right around the corner. The 2 & 3 train station is only a half block away and you can walk four blocks to the Lexington Avenue subway. Malcolm X Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards are wide avenues that make for a pleasant walk. Six blocks away is the north end of Central Park with a duck pond, skating rink/pool and Conservatory Gardens within a pleasant walking distance. To the east the shops and stores become more and more Spanish Caribbean and South American in nature, to the west Caribbean and then French African. Store front churches are everywhere. I have never seen as many barber shops as I have in Harlem. There are the delis of every kind, small restaurants and small soft goods stores everywhere. What are missing are many chain drug stores, fast food mega corporations, Starbucks and bars.

Late yesterday afternoon we were on a number 3 train heading north from Times Square. This train runs from Brooklyn to the northern tip of Manhattan. As the train clanked north the racial mix on the train became more and more homogenous. It was clear that most of the passengers getting off the train at 72^nd Street and 96^th Street were white. By the time we exited the train at 110^th Street, the only passengers left in our subway car were black. Last week we took the same trip on a number 2 train that continues out of Manhattan and into the Bronx. Although the train passengers were mainly black and Hispanic, there remained a mix of races all the way to 110^th Street. This is an observation, nothing more. What is very clear is the people living in the neighborhood are dependent on subways and buses for the majority of their transportation needs. Budget cuts affecting the MTA may inconvenience suburban commuters, but will bring hardships on this Harlem neighborhood.

Well, I need to stretch my legs. Maybe I will walk down to Lexington Avenue and get a mofongo for a light snack. [By the way, I reeked of garlic for four days after this Puerto Rican delicacy.] Enjoy the photographs.

Above was our Harlem "home".

There was no lack of places of worship in the neighborhood. The church above was directly across the street from 40 West 116th Street. Below is another store fromt church nearer to Central Park.