Harlem

When we walked into this apartment, I knew it was the one.

The brightly-lit unit is on the third floor of a brownstone in Harlem. It has hardwood floors, a large bedroom, open kitchen and cozy living room. The three windows on the front take up most of the wall. The two in the bedroom are the same. So a fairly constant breeze blows across the rooms.

The bedroom window leads out onto the roof of the building below us and can be used as a deck. I'm excited to be able to sit outside again without leaving home. Our last apartment, on the Upper East side, had no outdoor space.

Below the deck are the backyards of the houses behind us. They are dotted with large, old trees that provide coverage for them and create an arboretum for me. It's amazing that this extremely urban, highly populated corner of the city could be home to so many birds.

Many neighbors spend weekend afternoons on their front steps, greeting passersby. A clutch of retired men sit along a fence a few doors down on most afternoons. They always say "Hello."

My commute has improved tenfold. It only takes about 20 minutes to take the subway to work from here, as opposed to the 45 plus it took at our last place. The subway is about a block away on Lenox Ave.

Jasmine wasn't too bothered by the move. She woke me with her caterwauling the first couple mornings at dawn, but she's gotten used to it now. Luckily. I was thinking of killing her.

We've been here for just over a week now. So I haven't gotten to see as much of the neighborhood as I'd like. But we joined a gym that's just down the street from the famous Apollo Theatre. Too bad I wasn't living here when James Brown died. Thousands went there to view his body.

Harlem is going through some difficult changes right now.

Properties are getting more expensive elsewhere so people are moving here from downtown. High-rises are springing up on blocks within close proximity to public housing. At the same time, there are few dry-cleaners, restaurants and national-chain grocery stores. This is likely to change.

Most of the people moving into the new buildings make a lot more than Mark and I. Condos on 110th Street _ eight blocks away at Central Park _ are going for ridiculous amounts of money.

Some residents are probably worried that they'll be pushed out, others are probably happy that their property values are going up and that crime has been going down.

It's an interesting place to be right now. Time to explore.


Peace,
Tina
(I'll have photos next time.)