Field Observation Results/ Harlem Tenants Council Conference on Gentrification

An observation was conducted of a prerecorded video of the Harlem Tenants Council having a conference with the main topic of gentrification in Harlem, with only part of the conference being observed. The main purpose of this field observation is to collect data on the effects of residential gentrification on Harlem residents. This conference took place on June 1, 2007 at St. Ambrose Church 9W 130th Street, Harlem, New York. There were many keynote speakers: Gil Noble, the moderator of the conference; Nellie Hester Bailey, the host of the conference; Sakuloo, a long term resident of Harlem and owner of Racket Shack on 125th Street across from Apollo Theater; Robert Fish, the author of the assassination of New York; and Bill Sales, chair of African American Studies Program of New Jersey. The conference provided information on how residents of Harlem are impacted by gentrification.

The Conference first begins with Nellie Hester Bailey introducing Gil Noble. Gil Noble begins with a speech describing who he is, how Harlem is a special and unique community, and the injustice and racism going on in the world. He then goes onto introducing the next speaker, Sakuloo. Sakuloo gives a speech on how gentrification is changing Harlem’s culture calling gentrification a “monster”. He states, “There are hardly any community based businesses on 125th Street anymore. There weren’t too many of them but the few that have been there have been eroded so fast.” He encourages all Harlem residents to fight against gentrification and for the preservation of Harlem. 

The next speaker, Robert Fisher, provides his experience growing up in Bronzeville, Chicago,connecting it to how residents of Harlem can learn from the changes gentrification had on Bronzeville. He says “The black buyers of Bronzeville real estate, often single mothers who finance their purchases with subprime mortgages, are having troubles meeting their payments. They are being displaced by better, capitalized white buyers. Second, and more dramatically, has been the clearing of public housing which was the main obstacle of rich white people.” He goes into more detail by talking about how many expensive highrise buildings and condominiums are being built in Chicago and how, out of the entire population of Robert Taylor homes, about 35,000 people have been displaced. Robert encourages Harlem residents to fight against gentrification to avoid going through what Bronzeville did. 

The final speaker Bill Sales states that gentrification is an integral part of the development of capitalist systems. Gil Noble then talks about a time when he and some tenants took a building a landlord had abandoned, and dug up and replaced old sewers, thus maintaining the building. When the law said it was owned by them the city took it away from them and gave to industrialists.

Survey Results/ Harlem Tenants

  An online survey of Harlem tenants was conducted from November 28th to December 3rd on the social media platform, Facebook. It was posted on Facebook Harlem community groups after requests to join and permission to post were granted by the groups’ administrator. Methods for this survey were detailed in the Methods section. The purpose of this survey was to evaluate if and how residential gentrification affects tenants by looking at how difficult they find paying rent, if the thought of displacement brought them emotional distress, and whether or not  Major Capital Improvements (MCIs) present issues to their living costs.

Our findings conclude that tenants are finding living costs to be somewhat difficult to pay in Harlem. Questions covered the topic of if it’s become more challenging to live in Harlem, and if and how strongly gentrification is perceived to be occurring in the neighborhood. The tenants who took the survey were asked in a rating scale question how difficult they found paying rent. Among the twelve participants who answered the question, 1 found it to be not difficult at all (9.1%), 1 found it a little difficult (9.1%), 3 found it somewhat difficult (27.3%), 4 found it difficult (36.4%), and 2 found it very difficult (18.2%). See figure 1 below:

Figure 1: 1= Not at all, 2= A little difficult, 3= Somewhat Difficult, 4= Difficult, 5= Very Difficult

Overall, most Harlem tenants carry displacement as a concern. Questions covered the topic of how increasingly challenging living in Harlem has become and the difficulty of paying rent in the neighborhood. All the participants of the survey were then asked if the thought of displacement has ever led them to emotional distress. Among the 12 participants who answered, 9 participants responded that it has (75%) and 3 participants answered that it hasn’t (25%). See figure 2 below:

Figure 2

Based on our findings, we’ve found that tenants and their livelihood were somewhat affected by Major Capital Improvements (MCIs). A question covered the topic of experience with MCIs. Participants who answered “yes” to having experience were then asked, in a rating scale question, if they perceive MCIs to present issues to their living costs. Data was only used from participants who had experience with MCIs as only tenants who were directly affected by the implementation of MCIs on their building could give a conclusive answer as to its effects on them. Among the 6 participants who answered, 1 hardly felt MCIs present issues (16.7%), 0 felt a little that they present issues (0%), 3 felt somewhat that they present issues (50%), 1 felt strongly that they present issues (16.7%), and 1 very strongly felt that they present issues (16.7%). See figure 3 below:

Figure 3: 1= Hardly, 2= A little, 3= Somewhat, 4= Strongly, 5= Very StronglyWhile the graphs above focused on the statistical data on the issues of gentrification on one’s mental health and its impacts on their standard of living, survey participants were also given the opportunity to explicate their own perspectives. When asked why participants felt that it had become more challenging to live in Harlem, many responded that rent was increasing and it was too expensive to afford. A long time resident of Harlem stated, “Escalated prices for everything! Rent 20 times higher than 30 years ago.” Another stated, “My landlord is trying to bribe me out of the apartment and raise the rent.” Survey participants were given another opportunity to elaborate on whether there have been efforts assisting tenants in Harlem, most responses concluded that there has been no effort. One stated, “There is only a care for the new people coming into the neighborhoods. If you have been there for years and need repairs you don’t get them. You are forced to live with broken down apartments while new apartments around you are made beautiful for people who only stay for 6 months tops.”