… It was a personal gesture. I had to sign for it personally, it had nothing to do with the Harlem Children's Zone. I would do it again. In a heartbeat, I would do it again.
City Limits Magazine
March 2010:
Hope or Hype in Harlem
The Brian Lehrer Show: Assessing the Harlem Children's Zone
Harlem Children's Zone: Effects on the Street
News Topics
Justice
Education
Housing and Development
Author
Helen Zelon
About | RSS
I was stunned by that, absolutely stunned by that. Obviously, everyone knows you've got gentrification going on in Harlem. You've got an influx of more affluent and white New Yorkers and others coming in. But to actually see the numbers, the way African-Americans were no longer the majority, was quite shocking, because it's happening so remarkably quickly. When you look at the data, the influx is really quite stunning.
Here is the challenge of people moving into Harlem: If you are upper middle class and you have children, you're not going to send them to the public schools. They are still not strong enough. Our population, the children of the poorer parts of Harlem, is still in the public schools. If this trend continues for another 10 years, will it have an impact? I think the answer to that is yes. But it does not impact us right now.
