Developers threaten historic Black community

Last year the crisis brought on by Hurricane Katrina exposed the shocking level of New Orleans’ racism and poverty, two forces that trapped people there as much as water. Driving these forces—and preventing people from returning to their homes—was gentrification, the desire of landlords and real estate players to push poor people out of their homes and get richer from the property.

Nellie Bailey speaks for Harlem Tenants Council. WW photo: Anne Pruden

While Katrina exposed and accelerated the process for New Orleans, the scourge of gentrification is demolishing communities in every city—some with all the power of a Level 5 hurricane.

Hurricane Katrina was mentioned frequently by the speakers at a recent anti-gentrification protest and tenants’ speakout in Harlem. The action, organized by the Harlem Tenants Council, was part of the group’s dynamic, people-based campaign of demonstrations, town-hall meetings, teach-ins and community speakouts designed to stop evictions and landlord harassment in this historic neighborhood. The campaign is calling for either a moratorium on evictions or a rent strike.

The July 19 action took place in a unique spot: outside ex-president Bill Clinton’s Harlem office, located on 125th Street, the commercial heart of Harlem. Clinton’s 2001 arrival in Harlem was greeted with much fanfare in the media. However, his pro-corporate policies as president—the elimination of federal public assistance, for instance—have made many of the community’s residents poorer.

Every pedestrian who passed by the protest was handed a leaflet with the title “President Clinton Can Easily Afford Harlem—How About You?” The text under that title said, “Illegal evictions, landlord harassment and soaring rents are driving African Americans out of the historic Black community of Harlem. While our first ‘Black President’ Bill Clinton can rent with relative ease in Harlem, so many poor and working families are barely able to make ends meet.”

The initial crowd was about 60 people. When the action ended three hours later, it had grown to over 100. Hooked by the leaflet, many passersby stayed to hear tenants’ testimonies and Harlem Tenants Council leader Nellie Bailey, who educated the crowd about the New York struggle against gentrification.

Bailey talked about the area’s increased real estate speculation; the corporatization of Harlem’s local economy; Columbia University expansion; the glut of luxury housing; inflated rents; illegal evictions; shrinking housing subsidies; and public policies tilted overwhelmingly in favor of landlords and developers.

“The established media has largely ignored the displacement and soaring evictions occurring throughout Harlem,” Bailey said. In fact, much of the media has sought to portray the gentrification in Harlem as a good thing.

A June 2005 article on The Real Deal, a website for real estate brokers and players, shows what’s been happening there. Reporting on the opening of a high-end health food store, the article stated, “The new retail isn’t just confined to food stores—residential real estate offices are also moving in.”

The article continued, “By summer, War burg, Corcoran and Douglas Elliman will all have Frederick Douglass Boulevard offices within a three-block stretch. War burg opened a 2,500-square-foot office in October on Frederick Douglass and 120th Street. Corcoran is renovating a 1,900-square-foot storefront across the street and plans to open June 1. Douglas Elliman plans to open its 1,300-square-foot office at 117th Street ... by July 1. The three offices have desks for between 15 to 20 agents.”

Elliman’s director of sales, Gary Can nata, who will manage the Harlem office, said, “We’ve looked at the corridor and the new rentals and condominiums there and we thought having a position in that lower part of Harlem was a smart move.”

Obviously these offices are not there to help current residents stay in Harlem.

Bailey said that in 2005 there were 17,413 residential eviction proceedings in Central Harlem and Washington Heights, and as of March 2006, a total of 21,991 eviction warrants had been issued in Manhattan Housing Court. “Harlem is a hotbed for real estate development and speculation,” said Bailey. “Without a doubt there is ample evidence that longtime Harlem residents are being pushed out and there is no relief in sight unless tenants take to the streets.”