While this is not a thread about NYC neighborhoods… As someone with equal NYC cred to lalemma (even having lived in harlem with my friends who went to Columbia) I can assure you that they are not unimaginably different. They also share a border so the culture of each heavily influences the other since it’s not like there is a big wall between Harlem proper and Morningside Heights with a sign that says “Harlem stops here, guys; just turn around and go back. No more harlem #sadfaceemojoi” It’s not East and West Berlin… it’s the upper west side. I’m not saying that EVERY part of Harlem is like EVERY part of Morningside heights. It’s not like Midtown East is identical to Midtown West. Or like Chinatown and LES are identical. Or like the east village and LES are twinsies. Yet mornigingside heights, harlem and Columbia have a shared location, history, and identity… it’s factually inaccurate to argue otherwise.
http://www.harlemonestop.com/organization/81/columbia-university-in-the-city-of-new-york
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/expansion-benefits-w-harlem-columbia-article-1.1476565
http://columbiaspectator.com/2009/02/23/columbia-harlem-and-question-expansion
“In my first column, I discussed Morningside Heights as a kind of border area that fits between Harlem and the Upper West Side. Without the presence of Columbia, it seems entirely possible that Morningside Heights would not stand out as a separate neighborhood but rather would have been absorbed by Harlem. But because the neighborhood is an area that has risen up around the University, it acts as a kind of bridge between Harlem and the Upper West Side.”
Columbia, Morningside Heights and Harlem are so close geographically and have so much shared history that to insinuate that there is this chasm between them is preposterous.
And harlem’s awesome… so not sure what the resistance here is about