From Destruction to Progression: New York City’s Riots and Gentrification
New York City is on the east coast of the United States and is a central immigration hub and has been for hundreds of years. People from Europe, Asia, and Africa have come into the city and created lots of diversity. The differences range between economic status, property ownership, and even race. All this variance, while helping make the uniqueness of New York’s culture, also creates conflict. This strife based on passionate beliefs sometimes get violent and develops into a riot. A riot can be defined as a group of people violently protesting something that is against their own beliefs or needs. As Luc Sante states, “Riots erupt when two constituencies come into conflict or one group protests against the status quo and it gets turbulent, or when the status quo decides to quash an insurgent group” (Sante 42). Riots are devastating. Most cause property damage and strike fear into the residents, as well as creating a sense of instability and danger. In my essay, I will highlight four devastating riots: the Tenderloin Race Riot, the Tompkins Square Park Riot, the Harlem Riot of 1964, and The Crown Heights Riot. These riots caused negative short term changes in the housing and businesses of the neighborhoods which created an opportunity for developers to invest in the aftermath of the riots to make a profit. This process of investors remodeling neighborhoods and drawing in higher income families from the outside is called gentrification. To many people gentrification seems like a great idea but it displaces many low income families and businesses which can create tension that could lead to future riots.
The first of these riots, The Tenderloin Race Riot of 1900, started when Officer Robert J. Thorpe was doing patrols and saw May Enoch waiting outside of a bar for her boyfriend Arthur Harris. He thought that she was a soliciting prostitute and tried to arrest her. Before Thorpe could do anything Arthur came outside to see May being arrested. Arthur then pulled out a knife and stabbed Thorpe three times in the abdomen. Thorpe was taken to the hospital where he died the next day. They held a vigil for him close to where he was stabbed. Later in the night people started to drink and get agitated. One of Thorpe’s friends, Policeman Thomas Healy, got into a fight with Spencer Walters. Walters then grabbed his revolver and fired off a shot in self-defense. The shot missed, but turned the crowd from a slur of drunks to an angry mob which then started the Tenderloin Race Riot. The rioters stormed through the streets attacking anyone that they saw wanting revenge for Thorpe’s death. After a while they started throwing rocks at saloon windows terrorising everyone inside. This went on for a while until the police stopped the crowd. The area had become a feared place. This bustling red light district had almost become a ghost town but it didn’t stay like that for long (Stahl). This is one of the only riots to have a fuzzy aftereffect on the surrounding area. The only thing that is for sure is The Pennsylvania Station, which is now destroyed, was built there. But slowly the Tenderloin district faded away into many smaller areas. The one place that still has many remnants of this area is the NoMad district. It isn’t as big and bustling as the Tenderloin district but is still a decent sized shopping district.
There have been three riots in Harlem but one in particular had caught my eye. That being The Harlem Riot of 1964. The Harlem Riot began much like the previous ones. It starts with an incident that brings the people to the streets. On July 16, 1964 Patrick Lynch, a landowner, sprayed a group of young boys, who were playing outside of his apartment building, with a hose. After he confronted the boys, Lynch entered the building with James Powell, one of the boys. Off-duty Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan watched all this go down and then chased the rest of the boys into the building. The officer showed his badge to the kids and he shot and killed Powell. He said that Powell lunged at him with a knife (Vignone). This riot was different from its predecessors in the aftermath. The crowds that protested were not only in Harlem but also in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This seemed to show “the actions in 1964 proved to be the beginning of an urban black protest throughout the country.” Harlem’s downfall and rise back up to power isn’t as apparent in this riot. Most of the area stayed the same with the buildings, streets, and stores. On the surface it seems to have stayed the same but it is the mentality of the people that has changed. The black population of New York City had now began to realize that people all over the city were getting persecuted and that they have a voice about something not in their borough.
About 20 years later there was another riot, the Tompkins Square Park Riot. The Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 was started by a group of people who really wanted what they believed in. The people of East Village wanted the curfew to be extended past 1am and to protect the homeless and low-income people of the neighborhood. It was mostly peaceful until the people started drinking. Some of the people started to get angry and frustrated with the police. They threw rocks and bottles at their shields. Once that started the police took that as an act of violence and started attacking the people (Moynihan). The previous two riots that I have talked about are no different than this one. The police are the ones to have caused the fighting. During this riot police obscured their badge numbers and turned their hats around to hide where they are from. This riot lasted for about a day until the police put an end to it. The area, ironically, changed in the opposite way of what the riot wanted. The curfew is now at midnight rather than being at 1 a.m. The pricing of the homes and apartments in East Village have gotten more expensive and more families have had to move out. But people have been mostly peaceful and the relations between everyone is pretty good.
The Crown Heights Riot of 1991 lasted for three days and started when a Jewish rabbi and his motorcade accidentally ran over a black seven year-old boy. Then a couple hours later Yankel Rosenbaum was surrounded by 20 black men and stabbed to death. After three days 152 police officers and 38 civilians were injured, 27 vehicles were destroyed, seven stores were looted or burned. All of these riots led to some devastation and destruction. A riot like this can leave people in shock and terror. They may want to leave their homes as soon as possible and find a safer place to live. Some companies that work in real estate, will scare people out of their homes and tell them to move somewhere else. They will then buy out apartment buildings and sometimes even whole blocks for cheaper than it would be if there wasn’t a riot.
With all the gentrification to these neighborhoods it seems like everyone would be happy. But they’re not. The landlords and homeowners may be happy but all the people that were kicked out of their homes aren’t. They can’t get their homes back and have trouble finding new ones because of the rapid gentrification of NYC. Because of this they can get angry and possibly cause another riot sending this situation full circle. One thing that could fix this problem is rather than making just one building for housing projects they could make multiple blocks be low income housing.
The first of these riots, The Tenderloin Race Riot of 1900, started when Officer Robert J. Thorpe was doing patrols and saw May Enoch waiting outside of a bar for her boyfriend Arthur Harris. He thought that she was a soliciting prostitute and tried to arrest her. Before Thorpe could do anything Arthur came outside to see May being arrested. Arthur then pulled out a knife and stabbed Thorpe three times in the abdomen. Thorpe was taken to the hospital where he died the next day. They held a vigil for him close to where he was stabbed. Later in the night people started to drink and get agitated. One of Thorpe’s friends, Policeman Thomas Healy, got into a fight with Spencer Walters. Walters then grabbed his revolver and fired off a shot in self-defense. The shot missed, but turned the crowd from a slur of drunks to an angry mob which then started the Tenderloin Race Riot. The rioters stormed through the streets attacking anyone that they saw wanting revenge for Thorpe’s death. After a while they started throwing rocks at saloon windows terrorising everyone inside. This went on for a while until the police stopped the crowd. The area had become a feared place. This bustling red light district had almost become a ghost town but it didn’t stay like that for long (Stahl). This is one of the only riots to have a fuzzy aftereffect on the surrounding area. The only thing that is for sure is The Pennsylvania Station, which is now destroyed, was built there. But slowly the Tenderloin district faded away into many smaller areas. The one place that still has many remnants of this area is the NoMad district. It isn’t as big and bustling as the Tenderloin district but is still a decent sized shopping district.
There have been three riots in Harlem but one in particular had caught my eye. That being The Harlem Riot of 1964. The Harlem Riot began much like the previous ones. It starts with an incident that brings the people to the streets. On July 16, 1964 Patrick Lynch, a landowner, sprayed a group of young boys, who were playing outside of his apartment building, with a hose. After he confronted the boys, Lynch entered the building with James Powell, one of the boys. Off-duty Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan watched all this go down and then chased the rest of the boys into the building. The officer showed his badge to the kids and he shot and killed Powell. He said that Powell lunged at him with a knife (Vignone). This riot was different from its predecessors in the aftermath. The crowds that protested were not only in Harlem but also in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. This seemed to show “the actions in 1964 proved to be the beginning of an urban black protest throughout the country.” Harlem’s downfall and rise back up to power isn’t as apparent in this riot. Most of the area stayed the same with the buildings, streets, and stores. On the surface it seems to have stayed the same but it is the mentality of the people that has changed. The black population of New York City had now began to realize that people all over the city were getting persecuted and that they have a voice about something not in their borough.
About 20 years later there was another riot, the Tompkins Square Park Riot. The Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 was started by a group of people who really wanted what they believed in. The people of East Village wanted the curfew to be extended past 1am and to protect the homeless and low-income people of the neighborhood. It was mostly peaceful until the people started drinking. Some of the people started to get angry and frustrated with the police. They threw rocks and bottles at their shields. Once that started the police took that as an act of violence and started attacking the people (Moynihan). The previous two riots that I have talked about are no different than this one. The police are the ones to have caused the fighting. During this riot police obscured their badge numbers and turned their hats around to hide where they are from. This riot lasted for about a day until the police put an end to it. The area, ironically, changed in the opposite way of what the riot wanted. The curfew is now at midnight rather than being at 1 a.m. The pricing of the homes and apartments in East Village have gotten more expensive and more families have had to move out. But people have been mostly peaceful and the relations between everyone is pretty good.
The Crown Heights Riot of 1991 lasted for three days and started when a Jewish rabbi and his motorcade accidentally ran over a black seven year-old boy. Then a couple hours later Yankel Rosenbaum was surrounded by 20 black men and stabbed to death. After three days 152 police officers and 38 civilians were injured, 27 vehicles were destroyed, seven stores were looted or burned. All of these riots led to some devastation and destruction. A riot like this can leave people in shock and terror. They may want to leave their homes as soon as possible and find a safer place to live. Some companies that work in real estate, will scare people out of their homes and tell them to move somewhere else. They will then buy out apartment buildings and sometimes even whole blocks for cheaper than it would be if there wasn’t a riot.
With all the gentrification to these neighborhoods it seems like everyone would be happy. But they’re not. The landlords and homeowners may be happy but all the people that were kicked out of their homes aren’t. They can’t get their homes back and have trouble finding new ones because of the rapid gentrification of NYC. Because of this they can get angry and possibly cause another riot sending this situation full circle. One thing that could fix this problem is rather than making just one building for housing projects they could make multiple blocks be low income housing.
Works Cited
Nessen, Stephen. "25 Years After Riots, Community Relationships in Crown Heights
Are Complicated." WNYC. WNYC News, 19 Aug. 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.
Moynihan, Colin. "20 Years After Unrest, Class Tensions Have Faded and Punk Rock Will Be
Played." The New York Times. The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2008. Web. 15 Mar.
2017.
Sante, Luc. “Riot! Periodic Eruptions in Volcanic New York.” Nonstop Metropolis: A New York
City Atlas. Ed. Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. City: University of California
Press, 2016. 42. Print.
Stahl, Tess. "Today in NYC History: The Story of NYC’s Tenderloin Race Riot in
1900."Untapped Cities. Untapped Cities, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.
"Turf Wars of East New York." 99% Invisible. WNYC Studios and The Nation Magazine,
5 Oct. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.
Vignone, Cristina. "Harlem Race Riot (1964)." Uncovering Yonkers. Uncovering Yonkers, n.d.
Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
Nessen, Stephen. "25 Years After Riots, Community Relationships in Crown Heights
Are Complicated." WNYC. WNYC News, 19 Aug. 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.
Moynihan, Colin. "20 Years After Unrest, Class Tensions Have Faded and Punk Rock Will Be
Played." The New York Times. The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2008. Web. 15 Mar.
2017.
Sante, Luc. “Riot! Periodic Eruptions in Volcanic New York.” Nonstop Metropolis: A New York
City Atlas. Ed. Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. City: University of California
Press, 2016. 42. Print.
Stahl, Tess. "Today in NYC History: The Story of NYC’s Tenderloin Race Riot in
1900."Untapped Cities. Untapped Cities, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.
"Turf Wars of East New York." 99% Invisible. WNYC Studios and The Nation Magazine,
5 Oct. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.
Vignone, Cristina. "Harlem Race Riot (1964)." Uncovering Yonkers. Uncovering Yonkers, n.d.
Web. 16 Mar. 2017.