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Yes there are a lot of white people in Morningside heights. Yes it is part of Harlem. It is a sub-neighborhood of Harlem.
Basically this. The lower boundary of Harlem is generally considered to be 110th Street on the West side. Morningside Heights runs roughly from 110th to 125th, which makes it a sub neighborhood of Harlem, like Hamilton Heights.
It's arguably the nicest neighborhood in Harlem and I'd say it probably "feels" more like the UWS than Harlem.
MH is its own separate neighborhood, distinct from either Harlem or the Upper West Side, and largely so because the presence of Columbia gives it an entirely different feeling than either of those two neighborhoods. Its demographics are close to those of the UWS and its geography is close to Harlem, but its really neither one. It's Morningside Heights --110th to 125th Streets north to south, and west of Morningside park to the Hudson.
Agree. This was true in my entire lifetime, and I have the sense even longer.
MH is technically a sub-neighborhood of Greater Harlem. Gentrification has obviously pushed that psychological boundary farther north.
And I was wrong when I attributed that quote about Harlem to Du Bois. It was Ralph Ellison who said: "Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem." As I said earlier, if that's the case, then there may not be a Harlem in 40 years.
I think it's a hybrid of Harlem and the UWS. But back in the day it was Harlem in all it's glory.
I've always been fascinated by the rebranding, invention/reinvention of neighborhood names and boundaries. I guess because it would never occur to me to go against years of history and start calling a neighborhood something different.
For example, Germantown is a neighborhood in Philadelphia. It was first settled by Germans and Quakers and then all types of people moved into the neighborhood after its establishment in 1683. The area is now predominantly Black. At no point in my life can I remember a petition to change the neighborhood to Blacktown. Each successive generation simply respects the history.
Agree. This was true in my entire lifetime, and I have the sense even longer.
For your lifetime perhaps. However it was considered a part of Harlem and was poor and Irish before the Columbia expansion started in the early 60's. It was known as White Harlem. George Carlin didn't invent that name but took it around the world so that people would know there was still a White section of Harlem. Manhattanville was also White and Irish and so where sections of Hamilton Heights. I remember him and Leslie Uggams a Hamilton Heights native discussing this on a late night talk show they both appeared on one night. George Carlin was a native and aware of the Columbian expansion and gentrification that was pushing the Irish out of the area at that time.
As Manhattanville added projects and Hamilton Heights became more Puerto Rican, Cuban and Black and in the first wave of Columbia's expansion in the early 60's they pushed the Morningside Heights name and tried to separate it from Harlem so that new students would feel comfortable coming there. Keep in mind the UWS was also just as dangerous as Harlem at that time. Heroin was king in upper Manhattan and the lower Manhattan only the area from 72nd to 14th east to west going downtown was decent, and you would not want to go west of 7th Ave. It was also the Era of White flight and the flight of anyone else that could afford to flee.
I was speaking to a young lady that was a teacher and so, obviously educated. She was born during the Crack Era and knew nothing about the Heroin Era that ended when the Crack Era came in. She is a liberal arts major working on her 2nd masters in somethIng related to sociology and breakdown of the family in NY minorityn neighborhoods , but the funny thing is she knew nothing bout Heroin and NY from the 50's to the 80's. From this conversaton I realize m many people under 40 are missing a big chunk of NY history
If they are teaching this way no wonder the city keeps making the same mistakes over and over. All they have to do is wait for a generation to die out, revise or omit the history, so that they can do the same thing over again and, those that can, will make money all over again.
For your lifetime perhaps. However it was considered a part of Harlem and was poor and Irish before the Columbia expansion started in the early 60's. It was known as White Harlem. George Carlin didn't invent that name but took it around the world so that people would know there was still a White section of Harlem. Manhattanville was also White and Irish and so where sections of Hamilton Heights. I remember him and Leslie Uggams a Hamilton Heights native discussing this on a late night talk show they both appeared on one night. George Carlin was a native and aware of the Columbian expansion and gentrification that was pushing the Irish out of the area at that time.
For my lifetime, definitely. Columbia points out very carefully - and often - that the campus is a in different neighborhood.
This had something to do with the student protests in the later 1960s ...? I am now guessing yes.
Should the thread be called "WAS Morningside Heights part of Harlem ?"
Because I was more responding to the situation right now.
Harlem is historically three neighborhoods -- east, west, central. Referring to just "Harlem" usually means central -- from Morningside Ave to 5th Ave. Morningside Heights is part of West Harlem; I'm pretty sure "Across 110 Street" wasn't referring to Morningside Heights.
Oh, and Philadelphians don't change the name of anything if they can help it.
Harlem is historically three neighborhoods -- east, west, central. Referring to just "Harlem" usually means central -- from Morningside Ave to 5th Ave. Morningside Heights is part of West Harlem; I'm pretty sure "Across 110 Street" wasn't referring to Morningside Heights.
In 1970, 100% of the residents of Census tract 197.1 (sandwiched between Amsterdam/Morningside Drive to the West and Morningside Ave to the East) were Black. By 1980, it was 54% Black. By 1990, it was 32% Black. By the 2010 Census, it was 0% Black.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nybbler
Oh, and Philadelphians don't change the name of anything if they can help it.
Where do you think the name "University City" came from?
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