Washington Heights

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It’s not all Bachata and dominoes for the residents of this neighborhood as many internal and external forces threaten the culture of the area.

“One of the so-called crude forms of music was bachata. The definition of “bachata” meaning something like “a racous party.” The name itself implies so-called “low class” people with “loose” morals. Bachata was played by campesinos – or peasants – whenever a village would get together for a party. The party always included drink, food, dancing and music. These rich roots led the members of privileged classes to ostracize this musical culture from the mainstream. Until the 1980s, the music had the reputation of being “base,” and no self-respecting club would book such a band. Luckily, beginning in the 90’s, the music began to be tolerated, if not loved.” (Rutgers)

The main threat the that the neighborhood facing is one that many in New York are familiar with – Gentrification. This gentrification coupled with a decreasing Dominican population is promising to profoundly change the area. Whether this change will be for better or worse is yet to be seen.  The driving force behind gentrification is soaring rent prices. As prices in other parts of the city increase the Heights remains one of the most affordable places to live in. This has led to an influx of outside residents moving into the neighborhood and displacing the current residents. Many of these new residents are recent college graduates, a large majority from the nearby Columbia Medical School, who after investing in higher education have higher incomes than those who currently reside in the area, many of whom are older and did not have higher education. This is creating a positive-loop, since the more people that move into the area, the higher the rent prices become.  This has caused a decrease in the Dominican population as large number of them have moved to the Bronx where rent prices are lower, a change which can be seen by the fact that 40% of Dominicans in the city now live in the Bronx. One of the main things that has kept most of the Dominican population still in Washington Heights is rent-stabilized apartments but this too is being threatened as many landlords don’t want these types of apartments in their buildings but rather want to rent to whoever is willing to pay more.

  

 

 

 

 

Another cause for the decreasing Dominican population is increased criminalization of quality of life crimes. While this could be seen as positive because it has led a decrease in crime in what was once a very violent and dangerous area; it is a stark fact the Latino youths are one of the most affected groups of these crackdowns as they often lead to a large number of arrests of these groups. So the lower crime rates that make the area more appealing to middle class suburbanites are also making it lose the population that created this sought-after area.

Even as a large number of the Dominican population remains the area is still visibly changing, new businesses are constantly popping-up replacing old ones that had been in the neighborhood for many years. This becomes negative when the small “mom and pop,” independently owned businesses are replaced by chain businesses owned by large corporations as these do nothing for the neighborhood except for displace small business owners. However, this isn’t completely negative as sometimes the new businesses are also small, individually owned businesses just like the ones that they replaced but at the same time they are of higher quality than the ones they replaced. It’s these businesses that are allowing all residents of the area to now have access to organic foods, artisan clothing, and fusion cuisines which rather than destroying the culture of the area is enriching it.