Dec. 1 – On a sunny Saturday afternoon in East Harlem, Marketa 108, a local bodega, is buzzing with customers looking to buy fresh tomatoes, corn and avocados. The corner store has been open for over 20 years and many of the same customers have shopped in the small but diversely stocked space since it first came to the neighborhood.
Above the bustling bodega, however, four floors of residential space lie empty. Kim Kyung, who owns the small marketplace says the apartments have been empty since the early 1990s. Just across the street, Dr. Mark’s Optic Center sits below several stories of vacant apartments that, according to the New York Times, have also been empty for decades. Both buildings are owned by the private real estate firm Ross & Ross. Kyung laments the real estate stagnation in the area and claims she has lost business over the years because there are no new customers on her block.
Dr. Mark’s Optic Center sits below several stories of vacant apartments. (Photo Credit: Sky McCarthy)
The Kyung family’s store is one of dozens of examples of properties that line 3rd Avenue above 96th Street and extend along other avenues in East Harlem. A 2006 survey conducted by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer with Picture the Homeless found that over 24,000 apartments lie vacant in the corridor north of 96th Street. Of the vacant buildings in East Harlem, it is estimated that 94% are under private ownership. But progress to build up the area for commercial and residential use has slowed overtime. “What can anyone do? They [property owners] are continuing to make money and they won’t sell until they get more,” says Kyung.
On October 31st, Community Board 11 hosted its first “Haunted Housing March” that took participants on a 10 block loop past some of the most glaring examples of neighborhood warehousing. Board members, city council members, and residents of East Harlem carried signs that read “Stop Displacement Now” and “Spirits of Housing Past Demand Fair Housing for the Future.” “These landlords are greedy and I hope to support new bills that open these buildings!” says Cecilia Gaston, a long time resident, who works for a violence intervention center for victims of domestic abuse.
Community Board 11 hosts its first "Haunted Housing March" in East Harlem on Monday, Oct. 31st, 2011. (Photo Credit: Sky McCarthy)
A few onlookers cheered as marches passed, indicating their support. Andres Perez, a formally homeless New Yorker, attended the march and said he believes the city’s citizens are being denied a human right to housing. ”We’re trying to send a message that this isn’t right,” says Perez. “We got all these people out on the street and they need a place to live.” As the number of families on the waiting list for local NYCHA developments like the Wagner Houses and Jefferson Houses continues to rise, community members like Perez are looking to pressure the city to take action. But that fight pits longstanding financial incentives for the landlords against bureaucratic inertia and the realities of the Manhattan real estate market.
The urban riots following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. left many buildings in Harlem abandoned, and with a lack of willing developers, the city purchased many of these properties with the idea of fixing them up at a later date for profit. The New York City Economic Development Corporation, formed in 1991 oversees the sale of abandoned property to private developers. However, since the Corporation receives public and private funds, they are not required to release the names of a buyer when an EDC owned property is sold. The city passed tax abatements for buildings north of 110th Street that made it advantageous to warehouse. In 1996, the city also altered its rent stabilization code that allowed landlords to take control of bringing their properties out of rent stabilization through renovation or default destabilization with buildings that have a vacancy of 80% or more. According to Picture the Homeless, landlords keep properties vacant with a greater incentive to see values increase over time.
Today, critics of these private owners like Gaston believe they are holding on for one reason – gentrification. Large lot owners are looking to replicate the success of East Harlem’s $440 million East River Plaza. The once vacant square block in Central Harlem at 127th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard has now been developed into two residential high rises for $100 million. The rental price of a one bedroom apartment in the area has more than doubled in that past 10 years from an average of $700 to $1600. Property owners like Steven Kessner, former Board Member of Harlem R.B.I., complain that the area’s crime rate has not significantly improved to warrant fixing up his buildings for tenants who will likely pay more.
Several legislative reforms have been proposed by city officials who say warehousing slows economic or residential growth and infringes upon the potential to grant housing to low-income or homeless New Yorkers. Most recently, in 2009, Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, District 8, proposed Intro 48, a measure that would require an annual citywide census of vacant properties. At the march on October 31st, Mark-Viverito said, “These buildings are creating blight in the community. We’ve had some good conversations at the HPD about how to research and perform analysis in the communities but we’re still thinking about alternatives.” A similar initiative has been underway in Boston since 1997. The Boston Department of Neighborhood Development estimates that the survey allowed the city to reduce the number of publicly owned vacant buildings by 15% to 3% over 20 years. After months of delayed hearings, Intro 48 has yet to pass. A revised version is currently being proposed. One major road block has been the money required to undertake such a survey. But estimates from Hunter College and Picture the Homeless put the cost between $50,000-$75,000. Mark-Viverito believes it is important to be consistent in legislative and activist efforts. ”We’re raising awareness that is not only a concern in this district but it is a concern that is city-wide,” he says.
Store owners like Kyung say they feel they are in a tough spot. She has noticed fewer younger patrons in her store. At night, there is less activity which area store owners believe make the neighborhood more “uninviting.” “Obviously it would be nice to have more customers,” she says. “There are lots of possible apartment spaces. But nobody want to live in a place without more life.”
