Dominicans Abandoning Washington Heights

AlterEgo

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NEW YORK: Dominicans abandon Washington Heights

By Antonio Espinal

NEW YORK. - The constant increase of the rents in Washington Heights / Inwood is pushing many Dominicans to move of that sector that historically has been its neighborhood, according to a report of the Institute of Dominican Studies of the University of the City of New York (CUNY)

The report represents the first part of a two-part study the Institute is conducting on the status of affordable housing in the Washington Heights / Inwood sector of New York City, written by Ramona Hernandez, Ph.D. Utku Sezgin and Sarah Marrara. Hernández is director of the Institute and professor of Sociology at CUNY.

The study-from which we obtained a copy-specifically examines the gentrification process, the rising cost of housing, and the decline of Dominican households in Washington Heights / Inwood. It also includes a section on policy recommendations after the analysis of the data.

Part Two of the study will focus more closely on evaluating the status of programs such as the Rent Increase Waiver for Senior Citizens (SCRIE) and the specific demand for Subsidized and Public Housing. The study will also examine de facto practices, such as preferential rent, that promise to reduce the cost of rental housing and the displacement of low-income residents, particularly Dominicans, from Washington Heights / Inwood.

The general goals of the two-part study are (a) to contribute to the discussion on the need to preserve and build more affordable housing for the working class, low-income people and immigrants; (b) expand the level of academic knowledge about the impact of an increasingly deregulated real estate market on long-standing vulnerable communities, and (c) arm those communities and their elected officials with tangible solutions to what has become a local growth as well as a national epidemic.

It is mentioned that in the 1990s and the first years of the 21st century, the demographic observers of the city of New York expected the seemingly inexorable increase in the number of Dominicans in the city, to continue unabated for the foreseeable future. With all the recent enthusiasm proclaiming the Dominicans as the largest Latino group in the city, with a population close to one million, the presence of Dominicans in the city and specifically in the Washington Heights / Inwood enclave can not be taken for granted. .

Gentrification, defined as the phenomenon of increased demand by young professionals for housing in a convenient and well-located neighborhood and the rapid increase in income that displaces the poorest residents in the longer term, is a problem throughout the city of New York. Washington Heights / Inwood, has not been immune. According to the Furman Center, Washington Heights / Inwood is rapidly becoming bourgeois; threatening their poor with displacement due to increasing rents.

The report explains that gentrification has been a reality in Washington Heights / Inwood since at least the end of the 1990s, following in the footsteps of similar neighborhoods that have undergone gentrification, Washington Heights / Inwood has slowly witnessed a resurgence of the growing population driven by the recent arrival of middle and upper class immigrants with high incomes. Unfortunately, the resurgence has come at the expense of the poorest long-term residents, who are having problems paying high rent increases and can not find housing in the neighborhood they can.

The present study adds to the consensus on gentrification in the literature. Many housing experts in the city agree that as gentrification takes hold of one desirable neighborhood after another, and as people with higher incomes have moved more and more into such neighborhoods, as a consequence low-income families They have been displaced in alarming numbers from the places they once called their home.

Although gentrification has been on the agenda of many legislators as a priority, currently, the gentrification process continues unabated. Low-income workers who live in those neighborhoods that have become attractive and desired by the affluents are unfortunately forced to experience the displacement of their homes and move once more.

The report states that because Dominicans have been the poorest and largest ethnic immigrant group in Washington Heights / Inwood for decades, they have been the hardest hit. Gentrification has pushed some people and brought others. As expected, these changes are transforming the character of the neighborhood. In the case of displaced Dominican families, those who leave also take with them their cultural belonging and the continuity of their historical legacy.

If current trends continue - the report warns - the displacement of people is likely to worsen. It will also mean the greatest elimination of the neighborhood's long-standing cultural identity. This will be a loss not only for Dominicans, but also for all New Yorkers.

computer translated from: http://usahora.com/nueva-york-dominicanos-abandonan-a-washington-heights/
 

Juan Bosch

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Dec 8, 2015
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Many have moved to the Bronx....this same thing happened in the Lower East Side of Manhattan at one time having a large Puerto Rican population...the trend will continue as the profit motive is king...
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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NYC sees constant change...

The reason 'The Dakota' is called such is because when it was built...
It might has well have been in the Dakotas, it was so far away from the main activity.


Now Wash Hts is close enough to attract people...
 
Sep 4, 2012
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......there are better and cheaper places in the USA to live ...than NYC.................

ANY place in the USA is way better, cheaper and safer than NYC to live, any. Most neighborhoods in NYC and some portions of NJ are rats holes currently hosting humans, so nasty!
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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......there are better and cheaper places in the USA to live ...than NYC.................

it is a matter of proximity to the jobs, in part. why ride Metro North for an hour , when you can live at 190 and Amsterdam, and work on Water Street?
 

windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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......there are better and cheaper places in the USA to live ...than NYC.................

ANY place in the USA is way better, cheaper and safer than NYC to live, any. Most neighborhoods in NYC and some portions of NJ are rats holes currently hosting humans, so nasty!

I cannot agree more. Been there and seen it first hand the exact locales to which you refer both on Manhattan and New Jersey. Just like being in Santo Domingo.
 

bob saunders

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I cannot agree more. Been there and seen it first hand the exact locales to which you refer both on Manhattan and New Jersey. Just like being in Santo Domingo.

Washington Heights is not very attractive. Most of my wife's family live in the Bronx or Danbury, Connecticut, and most people from Jarabacoa live on Long Island or Boston. We know various Dominicans scattered all over the USA- Atlanta, Raleigh, Orlando, Miami, Alabama (countryside), Kansas City, Portland Oregon, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia....etc.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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I cannot agree more. Been there and seen it first hand the exact locales to which you refer both on Manhattan and New Jersey. Just like being in Santo Domingo.
Like Miami being like a generic Latin American city...
 

cbmitch9

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Nov 3, 2010
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It's all about folks being close to their place of employment. Raise the rent because many wall street types and other professionals can afford to pay the rent and purchase the buildings in Washington Heights. I once knew of a lady who owned a piece of crap brokendown building in that are and she sold it for more than $4 million USD.
 

mofongoloco

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Feb 7, 2013
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Since when does the 1980’s count as “historically”. It became PUerto rican in the 50’s and slowly Dominican in the 80’s.  The boricuuas still talk about how the doms moved in and took over displacing them in “their” neighborhood. 

For some reason, lots of Peruvian people there.  35 years ago when I could barely speak Spanish I wondered “why are all these Chinese people speaking Spanish”?  I had a limited exposure to South Americans at that time and they looked Asian to me. 

How racist of me!
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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It's all about folks being close to their place of employment. Raise the rent because many wall street types and other professionals can afford to pay the rent and purchase the buildings in Washington Heights. I once knew of a lady who owned a piece of crap brokendown building in that are and she sold it for more than $4 million USD.

exactly. in the early 80s, when gas was cheap, and tolls were cheap, the people who worked in Manhattan commuted to work, some from as far afield as Pennsylvania. you could not give away a Harlem brownstone then. druggies and homeless people loitered in those areas, and slept in abandoned buildings.

try to buy a brownstone in Harlem today..
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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Is there a chance that subsequent generations don't hold WH is the same esteem?

It happened in Miami.

Once upon a time, Little Havana was where all the Cuban immigrants lived. It was the equivalent of Cubans as WH was.

The second generation lived there, too. They were raised there. Some moved closeby, like Hialeah and Miami Springs. That was a matter of space since Little Havana, unlike WH, did not have multi-family housing concentrations.

But a funny thing happened to the third+ generations: they don't live there. They travel back to see the grandparents, but they have moved on to Broward and Palm Beack...and further.

My wife's brothers moved to WH when they first came to the U.S. 35 years ago. Now none live there. ALL have moved to Long Island, some as far as Copiague and West Islip. Why? Less crime, better place to raise their kids, a more attractive area and much better housing values.

So WH losing the Dominican image should be no real surprise.
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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Since when does the 1980’s count as “historically”. It became PUerto rican in the 50’s and slowly Dominican in the 80’s.  The boricuuas still talk about how the doms moved in and took over displacing them in “their” neighborhood. 

For some reason, lots of Peruvian people there.  35 years ago when I could barely speak Spanish I wondered “why are all these Chinese people speaking Spanish”?  I had a limited exposure to South Americans at that time and they looked Asian to me. 

How racist of me!

My Dominican friend Nelson took me to a Chinese fish restaurant in Manhattan. The type of place where you pick out your fish and they cook it for you. The Chinese woman serving us spoken fluent Spanish and not a word of English. Great food. Nelson lives on a rather upscale street in the Bronx. Owns his own house and the empty lot next to it as well as an apartment in Manhattan. Daughter works for the bank of America as a computer programer, oldest son teaches high school, and youngest son works as a hotel desk person. All three born in Moca and fluent in English and Spanish. American success story. He still plans on retiring in the DR. They like many others, have property and houses already in the DR.
 

mofongoloco

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Feb 7, 2013
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Is there a chance that subsequent generations don't hold WH is the same esteem?

It happened in Miami.

Once upon a time, Little Havana was where all the Cuban immigrants lived. It was the equivalent of Cubans as WH was.

The second generation lived there, too. They were raised there. Some moved closeby, like Hialeah and Miami Springs. That was a matter of space since Little Havana, unlike WH, did not have multi-family housing concentrations.

But a funny thing happened to the third+ generations: they don't live there. They travel back to see the grandparents, but they have moved on to Broward and Palm Beack...and further.

My wife's brothers moved to WH when they first came to the U.S. 35 years ago. Now none live there. ALL have moved to Long Island, some as far as Copiague and West Islip. Why? Less crime, better place to raise their kids, a more attractive area and much better housing values.

So WH losing the Dominican image should be no real surprise.



I’m the 1980’s a ound the time of the overtown riot i used to go to plantation Florida to visit my best friend. When she moved in there was one Hispanic her family, as white as snow.  The Publix was white and kinda redneckish. In five years it completely changed. No joke.  And the white hispanics were none too happy about all them Brown people moving in and taking over.  Cubans really think they own Florida and anyone’s else an kiss their  c@lo. 
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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I’m the 1980’s a ound the time of the overtown riot i used to go to plantation Florida to visit my best friend. When she moved in there was one Hispanic her family, as white as snow.  The Publix was white and kinda redneckish. In five years it completely changed. No joke.  And the white hispanics were none too happy about all them Brown people moving in and taking over.  Cubans really think they own Florida and anyone’s else an kiss their  c@lo. 
Just South Florida.

My dad had a car dealer in Miami until 1974. I spent a lot of time there, went to school there & moved permanently in 1970 (Tampa), still have dozens of friends and family in the S FL area.

I know dozens who left Dade for Broward & Palm Beach Co.

The initial Cubans were white & primariy post-Castro refugees. And, no, they did NOT like the riff-raff Castro purged from his prisons and sent to FL in the Mariel boat lift.

But fact is the third generations, many who could not speak Spanish, left for better areas. This could also account for WH losing some Dominican flavor.
 
Sep 4, 2012
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I cannot agree more. Been there and seen it first hand the exact locales to which you refer both on Manhattan and New Jersey. Just like being in Santo Domingo.

First time I was exposed to it and witnessed first hand, honestly, I could not digest how any human could place themselves through the perils os such living conditions?

Folks, the nastiness you have observed in movies and TV regarding NYC inhumane and unsanitary conditions are not the results of Holliwood imagination, rather, reality check for many whom most live under such conditions as their nemesis.

The Bronx, Queens and that place called Jamaica....my God!!
 

mofongoloco

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Feb 7, 2013
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Funny.  The reason I like SANto Domingo so much is because it feels like wash heights. Especially barrio chino.