New York magazine's annual Best of New York issue really exemplifies how slow Harlem has come in grabbing the attention of the rest of the city. Even with all the old time institutions in Harlem along with great new ones, the magazine still list the neighborhood as "above 103 street" with only 4 listings. Downtown and Brooklyn are divided into multiple sections and neighborhoods with multiple listings each. It is amazing that the northern region of Manhattan is almost proportionate to the downtown portion but it is considered 1 neighborhood.
Once more, Harlem Bespoke is trying to get a different view and be a connecting point for all the new artist, creative types, students, curious, culture seekers, etc...that are out there an can appreciate one of the only great undiscovered neighborhoods of Manhattan. Harlem is basically like the village with multiple regions. It has an eastern section that is "Spanish Harlem" and it has a dynamic central commercial section around 125th street. Mount Morris and Hamilton Heights are mini West Villages. West Harlem is really the mixed bag of cultures with Columbia drawing in students to the area. Some areas are more commercial than others as well as younger and student specific. Other areas are tourist draws or entertainment institutions.
So much here and much of it is still unknown to most people who live in Manhattan. Traveling extensively in my early career to London, I remembered going to a restaurant newly opened in a "dangerous" part of town. So much so that we had to make sure the taxi was ready to pick us up when we were finished so as not to walk around the streets at night. This was Knotting Hill in the early 90's just as the restaurants started to generate some excitement in the area. If one lives in Harlem, one lives in Manhattan. Strange as it is, people who move to New York city would rather have a Brooklyn address than go to northern Manhattan for more space or live in a brownstone.
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