A return to Harlem’s gloried past?

Harlem’s Frederick Douglass Blvd. (8th Ave) won Curbed’s 2010 New York City neighborhood of the year award. While some may question the designation of FDB as a neighborhood, readers of Curbed’s site overwhelmingly recognized it as an area better than the other 15 nominated. Surely the award is in recognition of FDB’s recent surge of development. The near one mile stretch of blocks between 110th and 125th Sts. now include a luxury hotel, a beer garden, a supermarket and a number of luxury condos. And according to Curbed, one of the largest sites for NYC real estate news, the area has even been designated the “Gold Coast”. Yet for some the award, the significant number of new establishments and the whites who patronize them are just blaring signals of a gentrifying Harlem. But is all this recognition simply a sign of return to Harlem’s gloried past? (click title to continue)