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Residents battling for soul of Harlem street

Sikhulu Shange, owner of The Record Shack, a store that has specialized in Caribbean, African and gospel music for more than three decades, stands in front of his business in the historic New York neighborhood of Harlem in December. Like many residents, Shange said he fears plans to rezone the center of Harlem will destroy the neighborhood's unique culture. PHOTO: AP

Harlem's largest and most famous thoroughfare, 125th Street, has become the latest battleground between city planners and businesses who want to see it developed and local people who fear they will be forced out in the march of gentrification.

The road, which cuts across uptown Manhattan from the Hudson to the East River, has been dubbed the "Main Street" of black culture. Many of Harlem's legendary events took place along its route, from the appearances of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald at the Apollo theater, to the arrival in 2001 of former US president Bill Clinton, who set up his office there.

Plans to rezone the area along the street that were certain to be approved by New York city council this week would allow a huge investment of new building for shops and living spaces. The plans include hotels, 2,500 condominium-style apartments, a 21-story tower for offices and a possible home for a baseball team.

The city argues that the rezoning is in keeping with the nature and history of the area, a low-rise neighborhood of family houses, warehouses and office blocks.

Developers are being offered incentives to create spaces for music and the arts and a proportion of the new apartments will be rent-controlled for low-income tenants.

"Harlem has not prospered and 125th Street is not doing as well as it should be," said Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "It is pockmarked with empty retail stores and vacant lots."

But the rezoning plans come at a sensitive time for Harlem residents, who already feel under pressure from a US$7 billion scheme by Columbia University to expand into an area of 17 acres that crosses 125th Street at its western end. House prices have soared in recent years, with a typical Harlem brownstone now costing US$2 million and up.

Groups set up to fight the rezoning proposals liken the changes looming over the area to ethnic cleansing, saying that largely black small business owners and residents are being priced out. Vote People, formed last year as an opposition group, compares the gentrification in Harlem to what happened in New Orleans as a result of Katrina -- a change in culture, class and race "in one sweeping motion, but done by a swipe of a pen rather than a hurricane."

Last year 125th Street was named by the American Planning Association among its list of 10 great streets across the US. The judges commented on the street's ability to "maintain a strong identity through periods of tremendous population growth and infrastructural strain."
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