In a conversation with my good friend Derrick Jones as we rode past the gutted view from the 1 train going North past the 125th street station, I took the opportunity to include him in this blog post to bring things current. His personal recollections add yet another important perspective which offers community feelings. Although the "landscape" depicted is one of cultural adaption and thriving communities which can be displaced, the architectural landscape being developed will encourage a "new" transient New Yorker. Certainly we can each be affected by retrieval cues which trigger memories. Derrick shares a few that jog his memory in his interview.
Interview with Derrick
Jones on Manhattanville - the Global Village
From what years did you live in this area?
From 1998 to 2002
What was the area referred to as
(neighborhood boarders/nicknames)?
Manhattanville
What’s your earliest memory of this
area that you cherish, what triggers that memory?
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2010
(www)
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Derrick recalls…Waking
up to the smell of fresh baked bread and people waiting in line to get a table
for breakfast at “FLORIDITA” Cuban/Dominican restaurant. Every morning
they would have breakfast but on the weekends there would always be a line of
people from, Cuban, Jamaican, French, British, Dominican and African American.
Just regular people that wanted a regular home cooked meal that was amazing;
mom & pop. Another awesome thing about this restaurant was that it was
joined to a bakery. You could get everything from freshly baked bread to
a beautiful freshly baked cake; you couldn’t get any better than that. When I
walk past bakeries in the Bronx where I live now, it has the aroma of fresh
baked bread dance past my nose it takes me back to that time in that little
area of manhattanville that was a part of the Global Village called
Harlem.
Where did you go for fun; nearby parks
or other, describe the environment?
Grant’s Tomb
Park... In the summer every Wednesday night at 7:30pm they would
have live jazz. Jazz Mobile was the most popular place to go, you would
see performances from Wynton Marsalis, Spyro Gira, and the list goes on.
It was awesome because you would see other famous jazz musicians and actors
even sport athletes come out to listen to their friends perform…Derrick
recalls Samuel L. Jackson, Malik Yoba, Cassandra Wilson, enjoying the sounds as
well as other locals who are now famous or walking the neighborhood.
Why did you/your
family leave the area?
Well what is called
progress or re-gentrification? Rent went up and Columbia University wanted the
area.
What was living like in this area for
you/your family?
Everything from college students,
immigrant families to people who family have lived in that area for 3 to 4
generations.
Do you feel the changes have been
beneficial to residents?
No and yes. For the
people who live in these communities that are not making 60 to 80 thousands
dollars, the change has not been good because rent is beyond what they can pay.
Food prices are soaring and treatment in this area by law enforcement has
gotten worse. For the new people that are moving into this area making 60 to 80
thousand, yes the change is good for them because to them the rent are
affordable and the food price are cheap.
How do you personally feel about the
changes taking place in the neighborhood?
Well I know everything
must change and there were people that would fight to make a positive change in
the Global Village, I as well as others wanted the people that lived in
this community to make the change not a corporation.
Are there any buildings or shops that have
been vacated, displaced or moved that you remember?
Storage build, which was a huge complex, is gone. The
building that was home to Floradita restaurant, that I spoke about
earlier is gone also, this restaurant had a bakery attached to it so it was a
half a block long. A block of buildings that had so many mom and pop
businesses in them are totally gone…
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(2011 www. [One banner
offers, “No
Columbia: No Forced Displacement”] At the center far right of this
image, the famous Cotton Club remains
standing.
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What
would be your “typical” New Yorker response to such changes?
“It’s not the same; the city is not
the same”. Funny thing is that it will be said again with every generation,
this statement; “IT NOT THE SAME”...
"People all over
New York City want positive change in their community. Sometimes I hear, and
know people who think the people in the community did fight for change or did
nothing, but this is totally false. There are people who lost their lives
fighting for change in this and other communities." Derrick Jones
*The Manhattan Institute’s Center
for Rethinking Development posted this digital newsletter regarding the
"Rezoning of West Harlem". MI
Newsletter 2004
