[NativeNewYorker]

That's very true...but NY has *always* seen this kind of transformation...the Jews and the Irish and the Italians all had enclaves that blossomed and faded...why should Harlem's ethnicity be any different?

[durasell]

Everything should stay exactly as it is/was! Chinatown shouldn't have crossed Canal. I should still be able to hear an Irish brogue in the Bronx and get a decent knish in Flatbush!

[durasell]

p.s.

That knish shouldn't cost more than a quarter!

[durasell]

And while I'm at it -- what the hell happened to Nedicks and why can't I get a decent egg cream anymore? The world has gone mad!

[nopardons]

Harlem was originally populated by the Dutch and like the Bronx ( which was named for the Dutch family who had once farmed a huge tract of it, but whose name was Bronk..or some such spelling ) was way out in "the country".

In the late 1800s, Harlem was an all white community of middle and upper middle class whites, or varying ethnicities.

It wasn't until the beginnings of the 20th century that blacks moved there and it wasn't until WW II, that Puerto Ricans moved into a part of it.

Harlem has been in the midst of a white influx and a massive gentrification for about a decade or so, now.

Yes, N.Y.C. has ALWAYS been in the midst of some kind of strum&drang, with once VERY fashionable areas turning into slums and slums turning into posh places. It's the natural history of the city!