Harlem is About to Be the New East Village.

This photo, courtesy of the very talented Martin Fuchs. Peep his sh*t, he's dope.

Thats it. Harlem is about to be the new East Village.

Don't think that the East Village would not look the way the it does without the assistance of NYU, The New School and the Medium Box fashion chain stores.

What the East Village has that Harlem does'nt are abundant owner occupied apartments and town houses. The EV also several blocks and areas zoned as historic.

I knew it was gonna happen. I just could not figure out how.


Then I saw this article and it crystalized for me.
City has built a dorm at 130 & St. Nick. Peep the excerpt below.

The scene might have been typical at any other university. But at City College’s 36-acre campus, it was an unusual sight, as students moved into the college’s new $56 million dorm building for the first time yesterday. The building, called the Towers at the City College of New York, is a beige-brick, ultramodern complex at West 130th Street and St. Nicholas Terrace. There are 164 apartments to house 600 students and faculty members.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that "Progress" is inevitable.

That is a major underpinning of property law.

However my question is allways, progress for WHOM?
Especially in Millionaire City!?!?!?!!?

A Blind Man can see that the evolution of Columbia and City College are going to be the two major forces that take Harlem beyond the tipping point.

Photo courtesy of Lina Polotta.

N*ggas ain't even useta go past Avenue A ten years ago. Unless they stayed there or if it was crack related.

Sh*t, when we usta go to Nuyorican's in '98 + '99 we usta roll kinda deep, lest we get caught out there onna late night. Hyped up from 3 hours of open mic performances.


Peep Jarett Murphy's dope piece in the Village Voice that brings all this issues together, tight, like a RZA beat.

What's more, you could end up working or studying in what will take their place in Manhattanville: nearly 7 million square feet of offices, research space, and housing for Columbia University. With scant wiggle room at its main Morningside Heights campus or uptown medical center, Columbia wants to move onto 18 acres roughly north of 125th Street and just east of Twelfth Avenue. To do it, the state's oldest college is asking the city for a special rezoning, scooping up parcels of land, and preparing to ask the state to invoke eminent domain if necessary.

Needless to say, not everyone in the area is thrilled with the idea. Residents, business owners, and some Columbia students have banded together to oppose the plan. The local community board is pushing an alternative development scheme. Civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel has signed on to resist eminent domain. A sign on a door in the area reads, "Dear Columbia: Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself."

In the constant evolution of New York neighborhoods, this sort of fight isn't anything new. And for Columbia especially, this is not a first. Thirty-eight years ago, the university's bid to expand into Morningside Park�coupled with outrage over the school's military contracts�touched off days off unrest on campus in which students occupied five buildings and, in some cases, clashed violently with cops. After the bloodshed, that expansion plan died. Columbia has pursued projects in the years since, but none were as ambitious as the vision for Manhattanville.

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Walt. I read this and I thought of you.

“We’re not rednecks,” Will joked. “We’re Appalachian-Americans.”

Contrast the excerpt below with the journalist normally cover the side show. Notice also the point made about how, if the ability to cruise is taken away, then the young bucks won't have anything to do.

“The kids ain’t gonna leave, I don’t care how many tickets the cops write,” said Laura Strother, 22, who had driven from Waynesville, a tiny outlying town with an odoriferous paper mill, she said. She was trolling Patton that weekend in her 2001 black Mustang — nicknamed Bullitt, after a favorite movie. Her cruising companion, Kelly Edwards, 17, also of Waynesville, who wore a tiny rhinestone stud in her nose, agreed: “If you take this away, then nobody has anything to do.”

For some teenagers on this side of town, cruising becomes a chance to explore, and define, their budding identities. Will Thompson and his friends proudly fly Confederate battle flags — “They say ‘Heritage, Not Hate,’ ” Will emphasized — and crank up old Conway Twitty albums on the car stereo while cruising Patton. Most nights, they set up lawn chairs that teeter in the bed of their pickups.

“We’re not rednecks,” Will joked. “We’re Appalachian-Americans.”

The Dixie vibe is readily apparent on Patton Avenue in the form of rebel-flag bumper stickers and decals. Still, it’s hardly universal. Many of the teenagers would not seem out of place in Santa Monica, Calif., with their Abercrombie & Fitch meets “The O.C.” look — baggy jeans, flip-flops, oversize surfer-style shirts.

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One man's heritage is another mans hate.

Thats some deep sh*t to being a week thinking about.

How was your weekend la familia de la blog.

I have an interview with an artist friend in the works.

What have you all been working on.

By the way. I hate when my innernet service gets interrupted.

Other than that. Life is bien!
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