The future of Washington Heights (New York, Amsterdam: real estate, housing, rent)

[SuperMario]

New Winds at an Island Outpost


STANDING behind the cramped counter of Los Guarinos, his bodega in Washington Heights, Joel Olivo deals not in big money but in small change. Jolly Ranchers candies, at a nickel apiece, are among his biggest sellers. Los Guarinos also sells cold beer and cigarettes, but on most days it is sweetness that prevails there. Neighborhood children ask for chocolate bars, and an arcade game in the corner fills the bodega with an electronic lullaby.

In Mr. Olivo’s establishment, in a modest storefront on Amsterdam Avenue near 161st Street, gambling is discouraged. Yet there is a running bet in the store that is a sign of changing times in this neighborhood: How many years will it take for Dominicans, who have dominated Washington Heights for decades, to become the minority there, and for whites to become the new majority?

Some of Mr. Olivo’s customers and friends say five years. Others predict seven. “I say 10 years,” Mr. Olivo said.

This is not your ordinary gentrification story. Washington Heights, the densely developed square mile that extends from 155th Street to roughly Dyckman Street, and from river to river, is to Dominicans what Harlem has been to blacks: a cultural capital with deep symbolic meaning. But over the past few years, this neighborhood of five- and six-story prewar apartment buildings has grown wealthier, hipper and better educated.

As the neighborhood has changed, a growing number of its Dominicans have moved to University Heights, Morris Heights and other neighborhoods in the west Bronx; some have left the city altogether. The wager at Los Guarinos is a lighthearted take not only on this exodus, but also on the questions it raises about the future of Washington Heights as a working-class Dominican stronghold.

The Dominican migration, powered by rising rents and other costs, is scattering families and friends who lived in the neighborhood for generations. This reshuffling is also fueling an uptown real estate boom, widening the gap between rich and poor, and realigning Dominican political power in the city. The shifts have even inspired an Off Broadway musical.

Mr. Olivo is confident about his prediction as to the neighborhood’s future. “I know I’ll win,” he said, “because everyone is moving.” But he does not believe that he will be around to collect. “The rent,” he explained, “will kick me out.”

Washington Heights has welcomed immigrants for a century. The Irish arrived in the early 1900s. European Jews, among them the family of Henry Kissinger, flocked there to escape the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, around the time that affluent African-Americans like the jazz musician Count Basie migrated up from Harlem. By the 1950s and 1960s, so many Greeks lived in Washington Heights that the neighborhood was known as the Astoria of Manhattan. Even as that label gained currency, Cubans and Puerto Ricans were beginning to move in.

The ’80s and the ’90s, however, belonged to the Dominicans.

Bremilde Ramos, a 29-year-old waitress with dark hair and a bright smile, remembers the summers: old men playing dominoes on tables on the sidewalk, the packed streets transformed into playgrounds. She also remembers the scary times, like the day in 1999 when a man was shot and killed inside her building on West 162nd Street. And she remembers that one apartment operated as a makeshift brothel.

Yet Ms. Ramos, who, like thousands of her fellow Dominicans, immigrated to Washington Heights with her family as a child, also recalls the vibrancy amid the grime. “You felt like you were in your own,” she said. “This was your own little country, you know, so many Hispanics were around.”

New York has many Hispanic enclaves, but only in Washington Heights did the size, density and visibility of the Latino population create a kind of sixth borough. From this high perch, visitors often wonder if they have accidentally stumbled into the 31st province of the Dominican Republic.

READ MORE:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/ny...omi.html?fta=y

[crisp444]

His estimate of 10 years may be right. It seems to me that the neighborhood is NOT changing quickly, but little by little. Although a Starbucks or wine bar might open on a few corners, there are still sooo many more bodegas and little Dominican restaurants than Chase banks and Duane Reads. Washington Heights is an overwhelmingly Dominican neighborhood and will probably stay Dominican for a long time. I see no problem with the neighborhood going from 80% Dominican to "only" half Dominican; the neighborhood will still retain its character. I have actually made a couple trips to Washington Heights from Downtown Brooklyn where I live just to buy ripe plaintains, and I would be saddened if I'd have to go all the way up to the Bronx if all the Dominican places closed up shop!

[SuperMario]

I wholeheartedly agree with you CRISP. A quick stroll through the heights would reveal to you many bodegas, dominican restaurants, spanish is spoken on every corner, music is blared loudly, dominoes being played etc....You feel like you're in the DR. Sure there are a few new stores here and there but not enough to signal a change. Washington Heights has come a long way, from the drug warzone in the 80's to 2007 having a comparable crime rate to the UWS. Washington Heights to Dominicans is like Harlem to African-Americans. It's where they have made there biggest strides and where there power lies. IMO, the Heights in 15 years will be almost all white (or for the wealthy)...with prices soaring, the people have no choice. The Dominican population in the Bronx as a result will pass the Puerto Rican one or get close too it.

Dominicans in the Heigths will be like Italians in Belmont.....a thing of the past.

[mead]

I definitely don't think that the Dominicans will disappear completely, but Northern Manhattan (both Washington Heights and Inwood) are ripe for gentrification in my mind.

Those areas have good infastructure, fairly cheap rent, a low number of housing projects, and good transit options. These are basically the prerequisites for a neighborhood to become gentrified. Don't be surprised if things end up changing in the Heights, but I believe we should be thinking in terms of decades rather than in terms of years.

[Guywithacause]

I agree that in 10 years it would be more like "only" 50% Dominicans...they will still have a presence there..but they will continue to move...and thats okay to,......thats how it goes in the city. They were not guaranteed a place in that neighborhood anymore than the Greeks before them, or the PRs, or the Jews before them, or the Irish before them..etc. Same goes for every neighborhood in the city...the only reason your group is currently here is because another group before you left!

[BXGUYY]

From 1990 to 2000, the Dominican population in Washington Heights and Inwood soared, from about 88,000 to nearly 117,000. But in the following five years their numbers dropped slightly, to fewer than 113,000. During those same five years, the total number of Latinos in the area also fell, from about 165,000 to 155,000, while the number of non-Hispanic whites increased from fewer than 29,000 to more than 30,000. Most of the new non-Hispanic residents are a mix of White AND Black. Still a little more then 1,000 is a pretty small number over a 10 year period. I doubt the Heights will be White in 10 years. It will still be very Dominican. More Whites are leaving New York City then moving in. The Dominicans really slowed down too so the area is more likely to loose population then change from one race to another. Perhaps the areas just along the Hudson will become more White if anything but that is the only thing that can happen.

[NJ Chutzpah]

When did the dominicans take over Wash Heights? I heard it was Greek once. What happened to all the greeks?

[mead]

Originally Posted by BXGUYY

From 1990 to 2000, the Dominican population in Washington Heights and Inwood soared, from about 88,000 to nearly 117,000. But in the following five years their numbers dropped slightly, to fewer than 113,000. During those same five years, the total number of Latinos in the area also fell, from about 165,000 to 155,000, while the number of non-Hispanic whites increased from fewer than 29,000 to more than 30,000. Most of the new non-Hispanic residents are a mix of White AND Black. Still a little more then 1,000 is a pretty small number over a 10 year period. I doubt the Heights will be White in 10 years. It will still be very Dominican. More Whites are leaving New York City then moving in. The Dominicans really slowed down too so the area is more likely to loose population then change from one race to another. Perhaps the areas just along the Hudson will become more White if anything but that is the only thing that can happen.

I don't know how exactly true that statement is anymore. The white population seems to have stabilized city-wide and is growing in some areas (like Brooklyn as I remember reading).

[NooYowkur81]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

When did the dominicans take over Wash Heights? I heard it was Greek once. What happened to all the greeks?

Dude where the hell have you been? Wash Heights has been known as a Dominican Neighborhood since the late 80's.

[SeventhFloor]

i've always known Washington Heights to be Irish in the 40's 50's 60's. Coogan's on Broadway is a well known Irish establishment.