Life in Harlem
I'm sill sick. White blood cell count is slightly elevated. Whatever it is, it's working its way through.
T-Rex and I have been living in Harlem for almost a year. It's different up here than in the East Village/Lower East Side, albeit still definitively NYC living.
The things I notice most are the people in relation to the news. In the East Village/LES, we have a very mixed community of people in terms of income, race (mostly Latino in LES, mostly white in EV), a lot of people in their 20s who like to drink and smoke. There's loads of places to eat. And the politics is mostly extremely liberal with fight between those who are there a long time and the gentrifiers who have changed the landscape. And, as usual, I fell somewhere in the middle. I am half Latina, half Jewish (another dominant group in the LES although less so as time goes on). I miss so many of my old hangouts, but liked when the Whole Foods opened up. I miss the bandshell in Tompkins Square Park and all the free flowing creativity and self-professed freaks that made the EV/LES so vibrant in the 90s. But I like that it's generally a safer place than it was. It winds up in the news a lot, and not just because of a random murder, shooting, or other crime the news enjoys reporting on. Well, lately it's about the street homeless, but that's more of a campaign against the Mayor than a real concern for the lives of people living on the streets.
In Harlem, you have a different mix. I am perceived as the gentrifier, and it can't be denied to some extent. We moved into a new building with a high rent. The same type of building that's viewed with disdain in the EV/LES. But there are so few wheelchair accessible buildings that aren't new, and that we could afford. That I am and am not one of "them" at the same time.
There are a mix of African and African American identities in Harlem. A real black diaspora. There are multiple Muslim-practicing communities here. Women in headscarves could just as easily be adopting a distinctly American form of Muslim head covering as cultivating an African-inspired look, as simply having not done their hair that day. And it makes me ever more aware of the ways in which these communities are Othered in the media. And when Harlem makes the news, it is invariably for some kind of "black-on-black crime" and rarely about anything else.
Yet, I often remark to T-Rex that it's almost like living in the suburbs up here. In the EV/LES you cannot walk down the crowded streets without being assaulted by smoke, the smell of alcohol (at certain times of night), addicts begging for change, out-of-towners (bridge and tunnel) coming to consume consume consume, ever expanding the boundaries of "Hell Square". There is a constant hum of noise, even if you are further east or further north of that particularly bar-dense area. In Harlem, when you step away from the main streets (like 125th) it's *quiet* here. Sure, there are people hanging out in front on hot nights. But the sidewalks are wide and there is night sky and there are restaurants but there aren't rows and rows of bars. Harlem has greatly benefited from the same drop in crime and investment that was made to the East Village and LES. And there are those who are fiercely protective of the Harlem identity just as the EV and LES identities.
How things will continue to change, no one can say. Will T-Rex and I ever feel like Harlem is really our home, having spent so long downtown? I cannot say.
For now, I remain a participant-observer taking the time to reflect and consider my place and our situation. The LES is in my blood. My grandfather was born there. My people emigrated there. The EV is in T-Rex' blood. The now diminishing Ukrainian community still has a small, quiet hold on parts of it.
T-Rex is regaining strength on a seemingly daily basis. He can stand up from the couch. He can walk with a walker. He has learned to climb stairs sideways. There is a real possibility he may not need a wheelchair at some point. And at that point, moving back downtown may become a real option. But I dare not count those chickens yet. With spinal cord compression, you can't predict the future. You can only be happy for every piece of progress. And happy we are for each new thing he can do.
T-Rex and I have been living in Harlem for almost a year. It's different up here than in the East Village/Lower East Side, albeit still definitively NYC living.
The things I notice most are the people in relation to the news. In the East Village/LES, we have a very mixed community of people in terms of income, race (mostly Latino in LES, mostly white in EV), a lot of people in their 20s who like to drink and smoke. There's loads of places to eat. And the politics is mostly extremely liberal with fight between those who are there a long time and the gentrifiers who have changed the landscape. And, as usual, I fell somewhere in the middle. I am half Latina, half Jewish (another dominant group in the LES although less so as time goes on). I miss so many of my old hangouts, but liked when the Whole Foods opened up. I miss the bandshell in Tompkins Square Park and all the free flowing creativity and self-professed freaks that made the EV/LES so vibrant in the 90s. But I like that it's generally a safer place than it was. It winds up in the news a lot, and not just because of a random murder, shooting, or other crime the news enjoys reporting on. Well, lately it's about the street homeless, but that's more of a campaign against the Mayor than a real concern for the lives of people living on the streets.
In Harlem, you have a different mix. I am perceived as the gentrifier, and it can't be denied to some extent. We moved into a new building with a high rent. The same type of building that's viewed with disdain in the EV/LES. But there are so few wheelchair accessible buildings that aren't new, and that we could afford. That I am and am not one of "them" at the same time.
There are a mix of African and African American identities in Harlem. A real black diaspora. There are multiple Muslim-practicing communities here. Women in headscarves could just as easily be adopting a distinctly American form of Muslim head covering as cultivating an African-inspired look, as simply having not done their hair that day. And it makes me ever more aware of the ways in which these communities are Othered in the media. And when Harlem makes the news, it is invariably for some kind of "black-on-black crime" and rarely about anything else.
Yet, I often remark to T-Rex that it's almost like living in the suburbs up here. In the EV/LES you cannot walk down the crowded streets without being assaulted by smoke, the smell of alcohol (at certain times of night), addicts begging for change, out-of-towners (bridge and tunnel) coming to consume consume consume, ever expanding the boundaries of "Hell Square". There is a constant hum of noise, even if you are further east or further north of that particularly bar-dense area. In Harlem, when you step away from the main streets (like 125th) it's *quiet* here. Sure, there are people hanging out in front on hot nights. But the sidewalks are wide and there is night sky and there are restaurants but there aren't rows and rows of bars. Harlem has greatly benefited from the same drop in crime and investment that was made to the East Village and LES. And there are those who are fiercely protective of the Harlem identity just as the EV and LES identities.
How things will continue to change, no one can say. Will T-Rex and I ever feel like Harlem is really our home, having spent so long downtown? I cannot say.
For now, I remain a participant-observer taking the time to reflect and consider my place and our situation. The LES is in my blood. My grandfather was born there. My people emigrated there. The EV is in T-Rex' blood. The now diminishing Ukrainian community still has a small, quiet hold on parts of it.
T-Rex is regaining strength on a seemingly daily basis. He can stand up from the couch. He can walk with a walker. He has learned to climb stairs sideways. There is a real possibility he may not need a wheelchair at some point. And at that point, moving back downtown may become a real option. But I dare not count those chickens yet. With spinal cord compression, you can't predict the future. You can only be happy for every piece of progress. And happy we are for each new thing he can do.