Essay On Harlem

756 Words4 Pages

Harlem is a neighborhood in the northern part in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Since the early 1900’s, Harlem is known as a major African American community stretching from the Harlem River and East River on the east side, and from the Hudson River on the west side. The neighborhood of Harlem begins with 155th Street in the north, bordering right next to Washington Heights, and ending roughly on 110th Street west of Fifth Avenue. Harlem’s population is currently at 131,000 as of the 2014-2015 census with a median household income of $38.8k. The Racial-Ethnic Composition of Harlem currently has 28% White (Non-Hispanic), 22.5% Blacks (Non-Hispanics), 8.4% Asian (Non-Hispanic) and 38.1% Hispanic (of any race.) according to NYC Community …show more content…

Like Times Square in New York City or Walt Disney World in Florida and California. However, like every other place in the world, Harlem has its challenges as well. According to Dartunorro Clark in his article “Loss of Affordable Housing Increases Health Issues in East Harlem: Study” Clark discusses how the lost of affordable housing has more of an impact to Harlem’s residents’ lives. The New York Academy of Medicine conducted an in depth look into Harlem and cautioned that if more is not done to build and create more affordable housing, residents could be facing dangerous health issues. According to the study, “East Harlem has lost approximately 1,854 units over the next 10 years and a failure to develop more affordable housing will continue to lead to evictions, displacement, decreased housing affordability and potentially poor health outcomes.” There is more to the importance of our health than just worrying about health care and there is a bigger picture behind it. “East Harlem residents are already burdened by a number of health inequities. This is why we felt it was so important to connect this work with health and conduct this assessment. East Harlem residents have higher rates for a number of health conditions — including asthma, high blood pressure, infant mortality and diabetes — than in Manhattan and the rest of the city, according to the study. For instance, there were 75 …show more content…

“The issue raises difficult questions of economic development, planning, class conflict and politics that are common to many American cities. How do municipal officials balance caring for the desperate against helping poor neighborhoods regain economic vitality? At a time when homelessness and drug abuse are requiring crash building programs of shelters and clinics across the country, do these programs actually hurt neighborhoods? And what will be the political consequences of the bitterness and mistrust created by the programs ' unequal distribution?” New York City officials have acknowledged that many programs are concentrated in poor neighborhoods however they continue to deny that they are discriminating against these areas or conspiring to overload

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