In the uppermost part of the new york city borough of manhattan, Washington heights is located. Extending from 155th street to 200th street you can find numerous stores, delis, restaurants, convenience stores, bars, etc. this is the place where I was born and grew up making me call it home. as a young kid Washington heights was the best neighborhood you could live in, the school was only two blocks from my home, I had friends everywhere in my street to play with in the summer with balloon fights and water guns, and there were multiple stores around me to buy chips and sweet whenever I wanted to with the few dollars that my parents used to give me. summers in this neighborhood were like a dream for a kid, no robberies, no weird people that would “kidnap” you as your parents told you just to scare you from not doing bad things. there was indeed always a presence of crime and drugs in the neighborhood but for some reason, this ironically never impacted the lives of our neighbors.
In the early 1900s Washington heights was the home of middle-class citizens that were European, Irish, German Jews, greeks, Russians, and immigrants who fled their country to earn and achieve the “American dream”.they occupied this neighborhood until the 1960s and 1970s where there was a “white flight” due to blacks and Latinos moving into this neighborhood. After the white flight Washington heights became a dominant Dominican population.
As you can see from this chart there is a low amount of people that are under 18 which explains why the streets consist of many people ranging from the 30s to the elderly age. people that are under 18 usually go to pursue their education, but after 18 many adults tend to leave the city searching for a better life, new opportunities, a fresh start, and a safer place to live in.
After the end of the “crack cocaine crisis” in the 1990s Washington heights became a neighborhood considered to be safe, which explains why maybe I had such a good childhood. After the 2000s gentrification started to appear in the community, new fast-food restaurants, big store chains, and more businesses took over abandoned spaces that were once planned to be used for new affordable housing apartments or mom-and-pop shops. this gentrification made the rent increase in an aggressive manner leading to many people having to leave their apartments and move somewhere else where it was more affordable.
After 2013 there was a noticeable change in the community. there were more drugs being sold on the streets leading to more drug users being around the community. The streets were not safe anymore, kids couldn’t play anymore because either there were angry drug users in the streets, or they could accidentally step over the numerous used needles laying around on the sidewalks. Fast food places like Mcdonald’s where a kid could eat a happy meal and enjoy the toy that came with it are now only used as a pickup order because drug users harass people there for hours until you give them the dollar that they asked for after denying multiple times the chance for you to buy them some food.
There is still hope that New York City finds a solution to this drug war that is occurring and find solutions to help and treat the drug users that are roaming around the community and streets.
