What Will Happen to Harlem? A Debate of Strategies for Urban Revival

What Will Happen to Harlem?
A Debate of Strategies for Urban Revival

Although the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ) is supposed to help stimulate Harlem’s economy and job market, critics from grassroots organizations insist that citizens’ interests are marginalized by McDonalds, HMV, Gap and other major corporations that have opened up branches and are profiting from a cheap labor force.

“Harlem is being gentrified…with all these big businesses,” said Patrice Jackson, chairman of Harlem Fight Back, which advocates for parity in the construction industry. “And, on top of the gentrification, the people who live in Harlem who are being pushed out are not even allowed to benefit from their gentrification.”

UMEZ, founded in 1994 by a Congressional act, is a non-profit organization sustained by federal, state and city governments—each of which pledged $100 million over the course of 10 years. According to Kenneth Knuckles, president and CEO of UMEZ, the group has worked to attract businesses in high-growth industries that are likely to create the greatest number of jobs, such as retail, while also preparing small business owners to be more competitive and the workforce more employable.

“The mission [of UMEZ] is to facilitate private investment, to expand economic activity that will hopefully result in improvement in the quality of life, more choices and more services to the residents of upper Manhattan and, perhaps most importantly, jobs,” said Knuckles, who participated in a March 26 discussion titled “What Will Happen to Harlem?” held in Fordham Law School’s McNally Amphitheater.

Although Knuckles took pride in the fact that UMEZ has helped to create 4,400 jobs, he also admitted the need to more effectively communicate what the organization does and does not do.

Nellie Hester Bailey, executive director of the Harlem Tenants Council, a tenants' rights advocacy organization, criticized the effectiveness and intentions of UMEZ.

“This is not a new debate here, this is an ongoing debate in Harlem with respect to who is it...that has benefited most from the subsidies of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone,” said Bailey, who added that many unanswered questions pertaining to UMEZ activities have made the community skeptical about the group’s effectiveness. Knuckles dismissed Bailey’s claims, indicating that all the relevant information is available in UMEZ annual reports and the group’s effectiveness can be seen in many of the developed areas in Harlem.

Bailey noted the “ugly strip mall development of 125th Street,” which, she said, has eclipsed a historic neighborhood of great cultural importance to the black community. Knuckles countered her argument by noting the substantial amount of UMEZ resources allocated to non-profit organizations and small businesses, while pointing out that no new jobs would have been created without such efforts. He also indicated that UMEZ does not profess to be a socialist organization, but rather a business expansion effort that takes governmental dollars and leverages money in the private sector.

“At the end of the day, we can romanticize about Harlem and what it was, but what it was, aside from its glory, was underserved,” said Knuckles. He later added, “People have not had sufficient choices with regard to goods and services and they have not had sufficient access to capital.”

Visibly stirred, Bailey inferred a certain degree of red-baiting in Knuckles’ remarks.

“We all have to ask why the poor are poor and not let that false label, that mass politics of mass distraction, keep us from dealing with those at the bottom that need our advocacy, those at the bottom that need our support,” said Bailey. “And if we have to endure the injustice of such a label, then so be it, but let’s be firm as we march unbending in our support for those at the bottom.”

Moderated by Chantal Thomas, associate professor of law at Fordham, the event was cosponsored by the William & Burton Cooper Chair in Urban Legal Issues, the Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law and Ethics, Community Economic Development Clinic and the Housing Advocacy Project.

—Ryan Thompson