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The area is gentrifying fast so make your move before all the affordable spots are gone. Now that MTV has a reality show based there, it is bound to become the next hip area in Manhattan, leaving even less space on the island for poor and middle-class folk. Some people will tell you that west of Broadway is better than east, but in my experiences both sides are perfectly fine - much more stable than neighbourhoods to the south, but be aware that there is a huge drug scene there, and the neighbourhood is home to more than a few big-time traffickers. This is especially true for heroin.
LOl,you sound like a real estate huckster.
I guess it's all a matter of perspective( as in age maybe ?) but I can't imagine anyone thinking Washington Heights is gentrifying "fast". I've been hearing about and reading about this gentrification for at least 10 or 15 years now but really things haven't changed much at all.It's got some decent pockets for sure but most of Washington Heights has an abundance of the same quality of life issues it had 10 years ago.I'd call the gentrification process there painfully slow.
I agree...its not gentrifying fast by any means. It is a solidly Dominican nabe today, and will be 10 years from now (barring some sort of random mass airlift due to a terrorist attack, meteor strike, tsunami, or other such act of god). All those tenement buildings are well protected with rent stabilization...you are not getting anyone out unless they want to leave..and considering that population is a couple generations away from anything remotely close to "upwardly mobile status", they are here to stay. Indefinitely.
Watched "The Heights"--made it through the first 20 minutes of the premiere before saying, "No way can I watch this trash." Too bad because I liked the thought of a show set in our neighborhood.
There are sectors in Wash Heights that are gentrified like Hudson Heights.
Hudson Heights was not "gentrified". It was always a good neighborhood and never went down hill so there was/is no need for it to be "gentrified"."Gentrification" implies the turning around of a neighborhood that was down and out.Husdson Heights never needed to be turned around.
Is The Heights actually worth watching?
I live in WH now, and its not that bad. The express trains stop at 168 and. 163. There is smaller Dominican restaurants and stores, and there is bigger chains like CTown and Assosiated. I do spend most time in UWS though since no nightlife. (Although a bar opened up in Harlem at 149/Broadway which is great for those of us in the heights:-)
163rd is a local stop. The (A) stops at 145th, 168th, 175th, 181st, 190th, Dyckman, & 207th. (Though at times, it can be pretty slow for an express train, especially if there's congestion outside 59th Street)
I agree...its not gentrifying fast by any means. It is a solidly Dominican nabe today, and will be 10 years from now (barring some sort of random mass airlift due to a terrorist attack, meteor strike, tsunami, or other such act of god). All those tenement buildings are well protected with rent stabilization...you are not getting anyone out unless they want to leave..and considering that population is a couple generations away from anything remotely close to "upwardly mobile status", they are here to stay. Indefinitely.
I don't think gentrification is really the right word. It's been a mixed income area for a long time, probably always. Will likely remain so. I will say this, in Wash Heights, as soon as a Dominican family can't pass their apartment to someone or an older person croaks and the apt hits the market the landlords are in there rehabbing and the apartments easily fetch market rent once they hit. It's a process but it's ongoing. In 25 to thirty years it probably won't be majority Dominican neighborhood anymore.
Also I've noticed in your comments you say Dominican like it's a bad word. Watch yourself, some might get offended. Not that you care...
Last edited by NooYowkur81; 02-21-2013 at 07:39 AM..
Hudson Heights was not "gentrified". It was always a good neighborhood and never went down hill so there was/is no need for it to be "gentrified"."Gentrification" implies the turning around of a neighborhood that was down and out.Husdson Heights never needed to be turned around.
You know how it is, people just throw around that word willy nilly now.
Yeah, I guess gentrification was the wrong word for what I meant. It's a low-income, mostly Dominican area that is starting to attract higher income earners, young upwardly mobile people looking for cheaper rents in Manhattan, and a more diverse influx of residents fleeing the rising rents of other parts of the city. While it may not be true gentrification yet, give it time.
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