Submitted by E.M. D., Jul 26, 2007 11:18

When I first moved to West 151st street in Harlem in 1990, my wife would half jokingly say when she went shopping, ":Cover me. I'm going for milk." It was a dangeropus place to live. my building alone had three seperate drug related murders. All unsolved Back then the 30th Precinct was called "The Dirty Thirty" because of all the transfers and firing of officers due to malfesance and bribetaking. The neighborhood was the crack/cocaine distribution center for the entire northeast. Not so anymore.

Yuppies, Buppies and just plain regular folk flocked to harlem because of the excellent housing stock and cheap rents. Back then it was the only place in Manhattan a NYC teacher could afford to live. That too has changed. I could not afford to move to Harlem today. The denuding of rent stabilization has sounded the death toll for affordable housing in Manhattan in general and Harlem in particular. It seems that all upscaling comes at a cost and that cost is paid for by the poor and middle class. Even the name Harlem is threatened. Real estate people use names like Strivers Row, Sugar Hill, Hamilton Heihgts or Mount Morris Park to describe areas in Harlem. Recently, SOHA is being used to describe South Harlem near Central Park at 110th street. I guess the proud name Harlem is just too de classe for the new denizens across 110th street. Ain't progress a bitch.

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