On the Harlem Watch: City Planning Passes 125th Street Rezoning Plan

11Mar08

In which The Gay Recluse applauds the news of uptown development.

Curbed has reported that the city’s plan to rezone 125th Street — a plan we fully endorse — has passed the important hurdle of the Planning Commission, and will now move to City Council for final approval. Curbed also links to local coverage of the event — notably in The Daily News and The Post — which no suprise trots out increasingly outdated racial stereotypes that are a disservice to those (of all ethnicities) who actually live uptown and crave the type of higher-end development our downtown (and Brooklyn) neighbors take for granted. (By higher-end, we mean something besides KFC and its downmarket equivalents across the retail and commercial sectors.) The Post, for example, interviews Shihulu Shange, 66, owner of the Record Shack, “a Harlem institution for 46 years….’The black community is devastated,’ he said. ‘The plan doesn’t count black people. Soon it will all be millionaires and the native people won’t be able to live in their homes. This city is run by a billionaire who is insensitive to people’s suffering. Soon there won’t be any black-owned businesses.’”

Look, we feel bad that the Record Shack is having business troubles — as The Times has also reported — but is it really a question of racial prejudice, or does it have more to do with the fact that sales of records and CDs have basically been eviscerated by the internet? (Tower Records went out of business, too.) We’re not trying to deny that racism exists — any more than we would deny the existence of homophobia — but the truth of the situation is that class is beginning to trump race in Harlem, which — say what you want about asshole millionaires — strikes us as more progressive than the reverse. In the end, it’s good news if you have money and bad news if you don’t. (Welcome to the U.S.A.)