Harlem residents have been trying desperately to bring the momentum of the Occupy Wall Street movement to Harlem, a neighborhood with a history of crime, poverty, and an unemployment rate that is typically twice the state average.
Daniel Alonso, CC ’12, and Dorian Bon, CC ’15, who were both serving as representatives of Occupy Columbia, were the guest speakers at Occupy Harlem’s Wednesday night general assembly.
“The University tries to isolate its students from the community. We are constantly being told to look in instead of out,” Alonso said. “We are gathering to condemn Columbia’s expansion activities and to stop it from invading and colonizing spaces in Harlem.”
Both students said that they would participate in an upcoming march to protest the University’s expansion into Manhattanville. The assembly in the basement of St. Phillips Church, at 134th Street and Seventh Avenue, the fourth held so far, was attended by about twenty people, who discussed gentrification and Harlem’s unique socioeconomic position.
According to Nellie Bailey, a member of the anti-Manhattanville expansion group Coalition to Preserve Community and a founder of the Occupy Harlem general assembly, the group has formed in order to perpetuate a bottom-up method of community improvement, looking to discuss issues and concerns directly with the people of the community.
“Harlem reflects the bottom of the 99 percent,” Bailey said. “The crisis of unemployment, the issues of police and state repression, it’s all happening right here.”
General assembly members expressed frustration with their own experiences with gentrification, as well as the public policies that dictate it.
Rebekah Schiller moved to Harlem three years ago, attracted to the area because of the low cost of living, but since arriving she has come to appreciate the distinct flavor of community that she said permeates the neighborhood. Schiller said that, while she enjoys getting to know her neighbors, some of her gentrifying counterparts don’t feel the same.
“A lot of people move to Harlem because it’s cheaper than downtown Manhattan, but there is also this great community,” Schiller said. “Many people I know in Harlem feel that white people are part of a group that doesn’t care about the community. I’m here to try and not be a part of this gentrification.”
Isaiah Imano, who lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, said he believes that the Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t doing enough to address the issues surrounding gentrification.
“The black population is decreasing where I live in Brooklyn, and it almost seems like a smoke signal,” Imano said. “If your population is decreasing, you’re basically being shown the door. I’m concerned with gentrification, that’s what draws me here.”
The group has submitted a proposal to the Occupy Wall Street general assembly in order to gain funding for the next 13 months. According to Bailey, the Occupy Harlem general assembly is adamant about continuing to organize in Central Harlem.
“We are independent of political parties, we cannot expect to raise money or even pay for the rental of this meeting place,” Bailey said. “We want to be here in Central Harlem, right in Charlie Rangel’s face, right in the faces of those who are the servants of the one percent.”
Bailey, also the co-founder of the Harlem Tenants Association, said she would like to see Occupy Harlem team up with the Tenants’ Association for an upcoming demonstration in front of the Credit Suisse Bank downtown, which she said is part of a predatory lending scheme that has resulted in the foreclosure of some Harlem apartment complexes. Credit Suisse has been at the center of several multibillion-dollar lawsuits alleging predatory lending, but the Swiss bank giant has denied any wrongdoing.
“In Harlem there have been the foreclosures of multiple dwellings where rent-regulated tenants are at risk because of predatory landlords,” she said. “Now it’s time to hit the street in action against the banks who are orchestrating this.”
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