Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In the 70s, there was only one bank in Harlem....Carver! Now, every bank and every business is in that neighborhood! Harlem of 2012 is nowhere near what it was in the 70s!
Please, everyone calm down. Absent a declaration of fact with substantive source material, assume that everything regarding characterizations of neighborhoods is an individual's opinion, to which they are entitled, and are free to post. It may be refuted, discussed, or debated, but the TOS still apply, and personal attacks for having a different opinion are not warranted.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Harlem in the 70s was bad. How was it in the 80s? When did Harlem start turning around? After Bill Clinton set a foot there?
In the 80's the place looked just as bad as in the 70's even more vacant lots. The revitalization started in the early 90's with the "were not gonna tolerate this anymore" agenda, Giuliani as the galleon figure.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,029,399 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by citylove101
Please do not romanticize Harlem in the '70s, becuse when you do you are romaticizing drug wars, homelessness, high levels of random crime, extreme poverty, bad schools, horrible grocery stores, redlining, etc., etc, etc.
There is defintely a lot less of all of those these days and that's all to the good. I, for one, would never want to see 1970s Harlem come back. In too many ways it was a sad, depressing, and dangerous place when I lived there then. Very slowly, Harlem is evolving into a mixed income, mixed race neighborhood, with a growing middle-income and affluent presence, and a shrinking nunmber of black poor. That change has been stalled by the recession, but it will inevitably continue, fueled by people who want to live in the city but are priced out of downtown. It is a complex process and Harlem is a complex place. But whatever you do, don't romanticize the good old days there, 'cause in most ways, they really weren't very good at all.
I'm not really romanticizing the crime and stuff, just how the place looked and felt. I just like the retro feel of the 70s in general, and found this to be the case in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn to an extent moreso than Manhattan.
In the 80's the place looked just as bad as in the 70's, even more vacant lots. The revitalization started in the early 90's with the "were not gonna tolerate this anymore" agenda, Giuliani as the galleon figure.
Koch deserves also credit for this, in 1985 he announced a huge $4.4 billion city financed plan to build and rehabilitate 100.000 low and middle income housing units. Weeks later he expanded it to 252.000 units to be built and rehabbed by 1996.
The thing about Harlem is it could be very beautiful. The Architecture buildings are wonderful, the wide streets, the sense of community. But the area is Always full of litter on the streets, sidewalks, everywhere. Really quite sad. When I lived there, every morning I would leave my apt and it looked like a storm came thru.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
