Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Lured by modest rents to Central Harlem, new faces are moving in and making long time residents feel that they are being pushed out.

The voices of those newcomers like Joe Friedman, 32, have often gone unheard. But to hear people like him is to listen to the story of a neighborhood undergoing a controversial transition from a different viewpoint.

Friedman, a guitarist that has played on tour with jazz legend Eartha Kitt, moved to New York from St. Louis in 1999. He lived on the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side and Hell’s Kitchen before moving to Harlem a year ago. He said his former landlord in Hell’s Kitchen raised the rent so high to force the tenants to move.

The Beginning
http://www.vimeo.com/2570596

A studio apartment in the SoHo/Tribeca neighborhood runs for at least $2,395 per month, a one-bedroom in the Lower East Side costs about $2,250, while an affordable studio in Harlem for those fleeing more expensive neighborhoods can be found for nearly $1,500 per month, according to data compiled for November by Citi Habitats, a New York City brokerage.

Central Harlem had only a small white population until recently. In 1980, white residents accounted for 1 percent of the population with just 672 people. From 1990 to 2005, the percentage of white residents increased from 1.5 percent to 4.3 percent of the population to a total of about 5,000 residents, according to census data. But many say that number has probably doubled during the past three years.

The Middle
http://www.vimeo.com/2570673

Even as the numbers of white people have increased exponentially in Central Harlem, it remains a symbol of black success and autonomy. The neighborhood has been among those newly gentrified communities most closely watched.

During 1990 to 2005, the percentage of black residents in Central Harlem decreased from 88 percent to 72 percent with a total black population at about 85,000, according to census data.

The End

Although Friedman laments that some Harlemites are not happy with the newcomers moving in to the neighborhood, he hopes that time will change things. Still, some long time residents of Harlem plan to continue their struggle to stop the displacement of families from their community through gentrification.

Yo brothas, did I tell you I was chilling out with Snoop Dogg on Monday in Harlem? Just me and Snoop… good times.. and well, okay, about another 15 people were there also chilling with him. But my points is, with only a couple of dozen other people there, it was practically just me and Snoop hanging out. Now how often does it happen that you get that close to a celebrity? When Jennifer Lopez visited Macy’s about a month ago, there were about a couple of thousand people there and I barely caught a glimpse of her. That was lame. But chilling with Snoop was cool! I just don’t understand what he got out of it.

Snoop’s visit to a liquor story in Harlem on Monday was the weirdest publicity stunt ever. Mainly because there was no publicity involved! His visit to Liquor Authority on 125th Street was hardly promoted (I just happened to see the small poster that had been placed on the store window), the timing was akward (Monday morning at 11 a.m.) and there was no media present! I only saw one guy with a huge camera who might have been a media person… but that was it.

Due to all of this, there were hardly any people there waiting to see Snoop. He was scheduled to come there at 11 a.m. to sign bottles of cognac, to promote a new congnac line, Landy Drama Liqueur. As any decent celebrity, he was fashionably late by 1.5 hours. Sadly, because of that, many of the about 30 people that had been there to wait had already had to leave. Hah.

Before Snoop got there, his entourage arrived at about noon. Consisting of about five promotion girls, five PR-people, a few huge bodyguards, a few normal-size bodyguards, some random people (seemingly nobodies) and a couple of dogs, there were probably more people in his possé than there were in the audience. That was pretty embarrasing.

Is this maybe a sign that Snoop’s career is down in the dumps? I mean, visiting an empty liquor store in Harlem on a Monday morning is hardly a sign of a booming career… Or was is that Snoop deliberately wanted to keep this appearance very low profile? If so, why did he bring an entourage of 20 people with him? I can’t see how this promotionary effort was worth paying for all those people’s paychecks…

Who knows. I guess we’ll never know what the rationale behind his visit was. All I know is that I came out of the store with a free bottle of cognac and Snoop’s autograph on a cool poster. So yeah, maybe it was a bad day for Snoop but it was a good day for me!

You weren’t allowed to take photos inside the liquor store (I guess Snoop really did want to lay low…), so I only managed to take a few of him outside when he got out of his car. He was listening to his headset during the whole 30-minute visit… maybe he wanted to imagine he was somewhere else, maybe in a concert performing to thousands of people instead of signing cognac bottles..

Snoop getting out of his car...finally!

Snoop and his little boyguard...heh.