Last year, I wrote an article about the gentrification of Harlem, noting that some of Harlem’s longtime residents didn’t want their historic community referred to as NoHa and SoHa (north or south of 125th Street). Old timers are thrilled to see their home values increase, but many don’t appreciate the presumptions taken by recent arrivals with deep-pockets and a sense of entitlement.
Sugar Hill, as seen from Edgecombe Avenue (Photo by Jim Cummins)
In that article, I tried to have a little fun. I also wanted to remain neutral and point out a few other changes, omissions, inclusions, delusions and passions that have occurred in Harlem:
●Sugar Hill used to be Coogan’s Bluff. Blacks arrived and changed it to SugarHill.
●Recently, some folks didn’t like renaming Colonial Park to Jackie Robinson Park.
●Why Jackie Robinson? At least Willie Mays lived on Sugar HIll, and not in Brooklyn
●George Washington owned slaves: write him out of school curriculums!
“Are you c%#* nuts?!”
●Hmmm. The Dutch owned slaves too. Will Harlem’s name be changed someday because a faction doesn‘t like how the Dutch treated blacks and Indians?
Last week, the New York Post ran an article titled: “What’s ‘NoHa? ’Real estate buffs rebrand Central Harlem as housing prices soar”
“Joseph Wardally, 60, a former data processor who paid $85,000 for his four-story brownstone on W. 127th St. in 1995, said he could now command a cool $1.8 million for it.
“People knock on my door all the time asking, ‘Do you want to sell your home?’ said Wardally. “I say ‘no.’ I am not putting it on the market. I like it here. I am not moving.”
This issue is not going away. If anything, it’s only going to grow in value!