I have lived on the upper west side my whole life. I live in a part where you can see Harlem and the 90’s mix. I live on 103rd and manhattan avenue. One block off of central park and a couple avenues away from Broadway. My community has a large hispanic influence, everywhere you look there is a Puerto Rican flags. On columbus avenue there is a strip of bodiga, hair salons and barbershops. Right across the street from my house is the projects (douglas projects). Recently my community has added a new development, now called Columbus Square. It is all new condos and penthouses, straight across from the projects. Its like a whole other world just across the street. On one side you have street there is Starbucks, Bank of America, Sephora, T.J.Maxx, Michaels, and even Whole Foods. Things that were never in the neighborhood before this “Columbus Square”.
In the projects they do not recycle at all, everything is just thrown on the side of the building. Literally everything, from tvs,boxes, food, diapers to glass bottles and cans. there is no where to compost, if they even wanted too. If you go across the street towards the condos you will not even see trash anywhere. Only on pick up days. the sidewalks are always clear. This shows the different privileges others are given based on where the live. If clean ,maintained streets and sidewalks are done for some, then it should be done for all.
In the projects they do not recycle at all, everything is just thrown on the side of the building. literally everything, from tvs,boxes, food, diapers to glass bottles and cans. there is no where to compost, if they even wanted too. If you go across the street towards the condos you will not even see trash anywhere. Only on pick up days. the sidewalks are always clear. This shows the different privileges others are given based on where the live.
This is the open space areas in the projects,not well maintained. There is trashed thrown everywhere, when the tree branches fell after hurricane sandy it took months for them to be picked up. But in columbus square if any trees fell they were gone by the next morning. The grass is not taken care of either, there is brown patches everywhere and also people let their dogs just go and poop everywhere. Trash is thrown everywhere.
This is the playground in the projects, the rim is completely off and has not been replaced yet. There is no real excitement, that draws children's attention. the park looks more a jail rather than a fun zone. There are gates everywhere, and everything is either made out of metal or concrete. Central Park is just one block away and yet you do not really see these kids there. In the projects they have their own centers, their own parks, day cares, thier own afterschool, and even their own sports teams. Almost like they are an isolated community inside of a community.
Starbucks is one of the main sides of gentrification in manhattan. This and Whole Foods, which also came into my community. The Starbucks brought in new types of people, the business class. Right above the Starbucks is a daycare. There is already a daycare right across the street, but this one seems different. It doesn't seem open to the public and more excluded. One this one block alone there is Starbucks, Verizon,Petco, Duane Reade, Crumbs cupcakes, and Chase Bank. That very same block use to be a park that neighborhood after schools use to go to and affordable housing for the community. across the street was a C-TOWN, small businesses and more housing. Where do those people go? its not they can just move back in, the rent is now double for the same area.