Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

The economic crisis that has affected the United States in recent months has made many Americans poorer and more uncertain about the future. But for a small New York community of the Upper West Side it had a positive side. Revenge was sweet.

When the owner of P&G Cafe, a dive bar at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street, announced to his regular customers last summer that their favorite drinking spot had to close at the end of the year, some of them fell into a sudden depression.

P&G Cafe, the bar that boasts the oldest neon lights in New York City and one of the coziest spots in town, was going to close for good. The landlord had tripled the rent in an attempt to land a more upscale, higher-paying tenant, said the owner of P&G Cafe Steve Chahalis.

That night Chahalis, a cheerful dude who loves drinking as much as serving drinks, realized that he would really have to pull the plug of the neon “Cafe Bar” sign, 66 years after his grandfather George lit it up.

But Chahalis is not a guy who enjoys complaining. He put on a brave face, offered a round of Sam Adams, and said that it wasn’t the end of the world. The P&G Cafe would just moved a few blocks up to 380 Columbus Avenue.

But the regulars were not ready to surrender. They started a petition drive that netted nearly 4,500 signatures in support of this “old school” bar, as they love to call it.
Although it didn’t convince the landlord, something else brought justice to this institution of the Upper West Side: the economic crisis.

“Someone else was coming in,” said the Welsh barman Andrew Hurley yesterday. “But after the economic collapse the new folks didn’t get their loans. So this might actually be an empty space when we leave.”

The regulars smile.

The old neon lights glitter, buzz and make the sound of aged neon lights that don’t feel like changing their address. Chahalis eats ham from a plastic box and chats with his life long customers.

“I’m really excited about the new place,” said Chahalis while the old fashioned stereo played ‘Dazed and Confused’. “I am going to have a full kitchen and make awesome teriyaki garlic-saffron-rubbed burgers.”

When I mention to people that I have the Upper West Side as my beat neighborhood, most tend to say: “So basically it’ s just a bunch of rich people who don’t have any problems.” And yes, that does seem to be true to some extent, but there is definitely more to my CD than meets the eye.

The Upper West Side is an interesting district because of its diversity. The residents of the area represent a variety of income groups, professional backgrounds and ethnicities. While that is one of the strengths of the district, the problem is that the different income and ethnic groups live very segregated lives. In fact, the CD is practically split into two distinct neighborhoods. The southern and middle parts of the CD are generally considered the wealthy areas of the Upper West Side (59th Street to early 90s), populated mostly by well-to-do white people. The northeastern parts of the CD are the less affluent areas where Hispanics and African Americans outnumber whites three to one.

The US Census numbers from 2000 for show this trend very clearly. Two of the northeastern Census tracts, 189 and 193 (100th Street to 110th Street on the east side of UWS), have a combined population of 10,626 Hispanics, 5,491 blacks and just 4,331 whites. The median household income is a mere $23,836 for tract 189 and $34,360 for 193.

Completely opposite examples are tracts 157 and 159 in the heart of white Upper West Side, from 70th Street to 74th Street, Central Park West to Riverside Drive. A whopping 16,954 people are white, compared to 1,183 Hispanics and 608 African Americans. The median household income is $71,839 for tract 157 and $75,327 for tract 159. That is quite a noticeable difference compared to the northeastern tracts.

Jeanne Voltz, a food stylist and long-term resident of the Upper West Side, is also aware of the big income gap in her neighborhood. “West of Broadway is upper middle class white people,” she said. “The east is middle class to lower middle class.” Voltz said that economic issues “tend to be pushing the poor people out” from more expensive areas.

While there are many reasons why an income discrepancy as big as this one would be bad in a neighborhood, the main reason is that the rich community often neglects the poorer area. That is already happening in the Upper West Side.

One of the people that have noticed this is Matt Hecht, owner of SIP coffee bar and lounge located in the northeastern part of the Upper West Side. “People from 92nd Street and south don’t have a clue of what goes on at 99th Street and up,” he said. “We are being ignored.” Hecht said he thinks that the community board doesn’t pay attention to anything that is “outside their little community,” which in turn has led to a slow development of new businesses north of 92nd Street.

Hecht said the community board recently turned down a proposal for a street fair in the northeastern corner of the Upper West Side. “We really need a street fair up here,” he said, adding that it would help raise awareness of the area that is theoretically “a booming neighborhood.” At least that is what one might think since rent prices keep creeping up. “It’s just as expensive to rent here as downtown, it doesn’t make sense,” Hecht said (referring to the West 60s-70s as downtown).