Dismissed by Jane Jacobs, Harlem Reinventing Itself as a Mixed-Use Haven

So rarely did Jane Jacobs discuss race in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" that her biographer, Alice Sparberg Alexiou, felt compelled to cite this "glaring but seldom-mentioned shortcoming" in the introduction to "Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary." For this failing, contemporary liberals often attacked Jacobs. Indeed, the architecture critic of the Nation magazine, Walter McQuade, wrote in a 1962 review that Jacobs's ideas were "not even a semi-solution to the main problem of the city: saturation by low-income non-whites." Jacobs did write about black neighborhoods, particularly Harlem. At first glance, however, her words seem to reinforce the criticism. She disdainfully quotes a black political leader who called Harlem "the most attractive piece of real estate" in New York. He praised its hills, views of both rivers, good transportation, and lack of industry.

But for Jacobs, only planning theorists could come up with such a combination of characteristics and pronounce a neighborhood a success.

"From the time of its white middle- and upper-class beginnings, Harlem never was a workable, economically vigorous residential district of a city, and it probably never will be, no matter who lives there, until it gets, among other physical improvements, a good, healthy mixture of work stirred alongside and among its stretches of dwellings," she writes.

Both Harlemites and city officials, beginning with the Koch administration and continuing through the Bloomberg administration, appeared to take her perspective to heart — or perhaps they just came to the same conclusion on their own.

Harlem today is reinventing itself into a mixed-use neighborhood of attractive residences bisected by prosperous-looking commercial strips.

Probably no large section of Harlem has yet achieved the unqualified success Jacobs attributed to her own cherished Greenwich Village, but many blocks are on their way. Take Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 116th and 125th streets, an area so devastated in the 1980s that the city government owned nearly all of the properties.

Today, handsome apartment buildings — some newly constructed, others substantially rehabilitated — have opened on the boulevard itself, while the side streets are lined with renovated old brownstones as well as the new townhouses called Brownstone Lane.

Nearly all of the development is on land foreclosed by the city in lieu of taxes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most land lay fallow until the last days of 2000, when the Giuliani administration selected developers to build a range of projects. The city chose the Bluestone Organization to develop the mixed-use Harriet Tubman Gardens on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 120th and 121st streets. With 73 limited equity co-op units, nine three-family townhouses, and ground-floor retail space, Tubman opened in 2003 as an early anchor for the reinvigorated neighborhood.

One consequence of the new residential development is that the commercial corridor has sprung to life, with work — new and old — "stirred alongside and among the stretches of dwellings," as Jacobs urged.

Bluestone is landlord to the Harlem Vintage wine store, for example, owned by Jai Jai Greenfield and Eric Woods, both with Harlem roots. Both are also armed with MBAs — hers from Northwestern University, his from Columbia University. They developed a sophisticated business plan based on the assumption that uptown offered them a huge underserved market.

"On any given day," Ms. Greenfield said, "about 80% of our business is from Greater Harlem, which includes Columbia to the south as well as East Harlem."

But their Jacobin contribution comes from their Saturday wine tastings, which transform their block to a happening. "We have the music going," Ms. Greenfield said. "People come, they hang out, have a glass of wine, gossip, catch up with their neighbors. We have a cultural village of sorts."

Early next year, Harlem Vintage will open a wine bar next door. "We took a hard look at the financial model of a wine bar and figured someone will do it. Why not us?" she said. "We already have First Mover advantage by being here."

An excellent Senegalese restaurant, Patisserie des Ambassades, has a large sidewalk café that keeps the east side of the block between 118th and 119th streets lively for much of the day and well into the night. The restaurant has no liquor license, so — cultural village-style — it directs customers up the street to Harlem Vintage. A café and art gallery opposite, Tribal Spears, holds down the west side of the boulevard, selling coffee and sandwiches while also sponsoring special events, including an entrepreneur speaker series. A flier advertises a $25 admission, including hors d'oeuvre and cocktails, for a talk by the president of Barbara's Flowers, Tara Simone.

The gallery director at Tribal Spears, Spring Johnson, said the space offers "a platform for artists, both emerging and established." They have given the space a "homey-type feeling, making it comfortable for people who might be intimidated by art."

Despite their neighborhood-based efforts, merchants worry about Harlem's ever-rising real estate values. "Some of our customers have moved out," Ms. Greenfield said. "Washington Heights. New Jersey. Brooklyn. They say Harlem has gotten too expensive."

Indeed, just north of Harlem Vintage, a strip of property from 2331 to 2349 Frederick Douglass Boulevard sold last month for a record $1,429 a square foot. Broker Eugene Giscombe, who handled the sale and who is also chairman of the 125th Street Business Improvement District, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

A longtime Harlem real estate broker, Willie Kathryn Suggs, noted that a vacant 15-foot by 80-foot lot at 535 Manhattan Ave. is priced at $1.195 million. "You can see the rationale," she said. "Even if I paid $300 a square foot to build a 4,000-square-foot house on the lot, that's only $2.4 million — less than existing brownstones."

The upward trend is likely to continue, pushed by new development. Construction is wrapping up now on the SoHa 118, a 14-story building that will be the tallest structure between 125th Street to the north and Central Park to the south.

In no way does the development look like government-subsidized housing, but the SoHa is built on formerly city-owned land. Of its 93 condo units, 40 will be sold to families earning up to 80% of average median income, or $56,700 for a family of four. Another 53 units will be sold at market rate. Brownstone Lane, also built on city-owned lots, has sold 48 condo units, split evenly between market rate and affordable units, the latter available to those earning between 80% and 130% of median income.

Ms. Suggs said commercial development follows residential — not the other way round. "The people came, they asked for services, the good stores followed," she said. "Harlem Vintage wouldn't exist if people weren't here to buy those wines. We used to have to go to 67th Street. Now we can buy at home."

Buying at home, and from each other, is part of the new Harlem zeitgeist. A chic florist on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Harlem Flo, keeps a display of cards from the neighborhood — restaurants, bakeries, yoga studios, and shoe stores.

"If they're in this neighborhood and their card is there, they're good," partner Michelangelo, neck encircled with a blue scarf, said. Side by side are cards from Harlem Vintage and a store opened by one of Ms. Greenfield's former customers, the Winery. Asked about the competition, Ms. Greenfield said: "When we opened, skeptics doubted Harlem would support one good wine store. Now, a few blocks apart, we have two." Still, Ms. Suggs sees something missing: jazz and nightclubs, which were so essential to the culture of the original Harlem renaissance. Many clubs were hounded out of business by the Great Depression and the state's cabaret law, which forbids dancing by more than three people at a time in any bar and restaurant that lacks a cabaret license. Despite promises of reform, the Bloomberg administration has refused to champion the changes in the law that would help bring nightlife, and its accompanying jobs, back to Harlem.