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Harlem Success Story

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NEW YORK

Harlem's Second Renaissance

In the 1960s and 1970s, Harlem was in famously bad shape, plagued by high crime, drugs, abandoned buildings, poor health care, and soaring unemployment. But the City and community development corporations (CDC) worked together on a massive revitalization strategy during the past 20 years and have achieved highly visible triumphs in both commercial and residential development.

On the residential side, Harlem CDCs have built or renovated over 2,000 homes. On West 130th Street, for instance, Abyssinian Development Corporation worked with a variety of supporters and investors that included groups not usually thought of in these neighborhoods like the NYC Landmarks Conservancy, to restore 28 century-old brick row houses, triggering revitalization of many nearby properties. Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Inc. (HCCI), an inter-faith consortium of more than 90 congregations, invested over $42 million from a variety of sources in once-blighted 148th Street, turning it into a vibrant, mixed-income community with 290 renovated rental and co-op homes, a neighborhood park, and a new restaurant.

CDCs have been hard at work attracting commercial investment, too. Abyssinian, for example, was instrumental in bringing a huge full-service Pathmark supermarket to East Harlem in 1999. At the same time Magic Johnson’s development group was busy planning for a retail and movie-house complex just blocks away. These efforts in turn have brought an explosion of retail building and renovation along 125th Street, Harlem’s main artery.

To help bring similar growth to 145th Street, HCCI is building another Pathmark there, in connection with the creation of 125 market rate co-op apartments. Abyssinian worked with the New York City Department of Education to build the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change, the first new public high school in Harlem in 50 years—and the home of an International House of Pancakes franchise that trains neighborhood residents in franchise business management.

HCCI and Abyssinian are among the CDCs in Harlem that receive Living Cities funds through the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and The Enterprise Foundation. JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank have made substantial investments in New York neighborhoods, acting individually and as partners in Living Cities.