311 Complaints Spike On Gentrifying Harlem Block, Report Finds

HARLEM, NY — The number of quality-of-life 311 calls has spiked on one Harlem block and a new report says the influx of gentrifiers is to blame.

The city’s 311 service received about 3,000 quality-of-life complaints on the block of West 136th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive between 2015 and 2017, which saw just 130 complaints in the three years prior, according to a Buzzfeed News investigation.

Police showed up on the block on 623 different days between 2015 through 2017 — but only on 103 days between 2012 and 2014 — after receiving complaints that were predominantly about noise, according to the Buzzfeed analysis.

Thirty-year resident Hortensia Mata, 45, told Buzzfeed she feels frustrated by the increased police presence on her block and blames newcomers who are quick to judge.

“We laugh loud; that’s who we are,” Mata said. “We have a lot of new people moving here who come with new rules.”

Buzzfeed reporters discovered data that backs up Mata's suspicions: the jump in 311 complaints correlates directly with a recent change in local demographics.

The number of white residents jumped from 2 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2016 as home values leapt from $239,540 to $461,200, Buzzfeed reported.

And Michael Rapoza, 37, a white resident who recently moved onto the block, admitted to Buzzfeed that he called 311 when his neighbors blasted their music.

“There’s this tendency [among new residents] of people not addressing problems directly,” Rapoza said, adding he didn’t feel safe asking his neighbor to turn the music down.

“This used to be a bad neighborhood.”

Read the entire Buzzfeed report here.

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Oct. 2017