I grew up on the edge of Harlem and many of my friends (both black and white) lived there, even in the projects.
Prior to the riots in the 60s, Harlem was just a mostly poor neighborhood that was majority black, but had a fair number of well-off and middle class blacks because of the housing discrimination practiced in New York City (yes, that’s right!) at that time. However, you had to be employed and married even to live in the projects, which were just subsidized housing, and while they were ugly, they were clean and decent.
Once the Great Society came along and people no longer had to be employed or married and in fact you got brownie points and money for being never employed and a “single mother,” combined with the politically correct black separatism/racism promoted by the New York Times, Leonard Bernstein and other liberals, Harlem went right straight down the drain.
Harlem elected Charlie Rangel to replace Adam Clayton Powell. I would say Harlem has been in the crapper for a long time.
And having Bill Clinton’s office there hasn’t helped. Not by a long shot.