A DNAinfo article today reflects on a noticeable change in East Harlem that is bringing a new demographic group uptown in the past decade as rents increase downtown. The Chinese population downtown has pretty much been the one group that has stayed in one particular neighborhood for the past century but now there appears to be some movement towards uptown. East Harlem South saw an Asian population increase from 4.6 percent to 8.3 percent in the past ten years and many are fleeing north for the cheaper rents. Chinese groceries and shop are still lacking uptown so recent transplants still make the trip to Chinatown to get necessities and to also work with government agencies that are bilingual. Chinatown's Asian population saw a 15 percent decrease within the same time period so this is another group to watch out for in a changing Harlem. More in DNAinfo:
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Interesting. What about the Arab/Middle Eastern/South Asian population? To the casual observer those are the people I see in East Harlem who weren't there in big numbers a decade ago, I think. Or maybe they're just more noticeable to me...
ReplyDeleteA lot of the bodegas and delis are owned by Middle Eastern proprietors but many commute into the city and don't live in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteFascinating, I visit East Harlem often and would never believed an Asian population of 8.6%, maybe there is a specific area of East Harlem I do not go to.
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