Subscribers

New York's Harlem is getting posh and it's getting pushback from poorer residents

The heartland of African-American culture is undergoing intrusive - and whiter - change, critics say

New York

IN 1969, Samuel Hargress bought his Harlem jazz bar and the surrounding building for US$35,000. Half a century later, he says real estate brokers keep pestering him to sell - for US$10 million.

Such is the breakneck pace of gentrification in one of the most storied neighbourhoods of Manhattan, for decades a heartland of African-American culture that critics now complain is undergoing intrusive - and whiter - change.

"All of my friends are millionaires now," says the 81-year-old Mr Hargress, sitting in the dimly lit family-run Paris Blues. "You couldn't imagine it - the situation then and now."

He moved to Harlem in 1960. Those were the days of the civil rights movement, of Martin Luther...

BT is now on Telegram!

For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes