Snarky Behavior

A quick post, perhaps.

Yesterday I wrote (facetiously) that I would like to learn the Harlem Shake as part of my experience at Columbia University. And the day before that I wrote about how deceivingly sexy libertarianism can appear as a political philosophy.

On the surface, these topics seem worlds apart. But the unifying link is my preoccupation with finding affordable housing in New York (interesting aside: the word preocupado means “worried” in Spanish but “distracted” in English. Not quite a false cognate, but an example of why it’s so fucking difficult to learn a new language, especially for gabachos like me.)

What does libertarianism have to do with Harlem? Gentrification.

Columbia University and West Harlem have a tenuous relationship at best. On the one hand, Columbia is an ivy-league institution that is struggling to compete with Harvard and Yale, because endowment money that could be used on attracting students or professors is instead being used to expand the campus buy snatching expensive Manhattan real estate. On the other hand, you have Harlem residents who are being subjected to a renters community with frenetic yearly competition by transients students, who are being bankrolled by educational loans through the University.

The libertarian might chafe at the unfair leverage which federally financed loads afford students, but otherwise would dismiss “gentrification” as a simple supply and demand scenario. The guilty liberal would lament the community displacement caused by wealthy students pricing out historically black residents of their own neighborhoods.

Now, I’m no stranger to the tensions of gentrification. I live on U St. – which at one point in time was known as “DC’s Harlem” for its night clubs and African-American cultural vibe. Around 2003, U St. opened up a tanning salon underneath the soon-to-be available “Ellington” apartment complex (named after “The Duke”). Tanning Salons are decidedly un-African American, as you might imagine. It was a clear sign to the community that change was on the way.

BUT HERE’S THE THING!

Lance Freeman, a professor at Columbia, has made a surprising discovery in his study of communities experiencing the transition of gentrification (notably Clinton Hill in Brooklyn and West Harlem around Morningside campus). Black residents are actually more likely to stay in their communities during or after the introduction of “gentrification” than they were before, despite rising rents. That is, these neighborhoods were more unstable before the influx of wealth, because many residents were just as transient, actively moving out.

So, while it certainly may not be the popularly held opinion, it seems, based on this research that many are willing to make the tradeoff of more expensive living (that is, a greater percentage of directed income to rent) for the added benefit of a nicer neighborhood. Even if it means a tanning salon instead of a barber shop.

Which makes me feel less guilty about potentially paying $1100 /mo for a 6′ x 8′ room in West Harlem.