Manhattan’s and America’s black capital, aka Harlem, is getting a major freebie via a grant and reaching a major milestone. Harlem is getting free wi-fi service and will soon be home to the nation’s largest wi-fi network.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday, Tuesday, that a specific section of Harlem will soon get a new outdoor public wi-fi network. The free wi-fi coverage will cover 95 city blocks, spanning from 110th Street to 138th Street.
“The public network will be funded for the first five years through a grant from the non-profit Fuhrman Family Foundation, led by former Goldman Sachs executive Glenn Fuhrman. The first phase is already underway, and the mayor’s office said the entire network will be completed by May of next year.”
Read more here.
HarlemGal Inc. 
“YOU” are getting free Wi-Fi in the most gentrified, that is, “So-Hoed” area of Harlem. See your very happy about that! The cultural integrity of the area is being slowly destroyed. This area is the part of the Village of Harlem that has been most aggressive in getting rid of indigenous Harlemites particularly Black Harlemites.
so do you think all of those beautiful brownstones in Harlem were built for the “indigenous” Harlemites or the Jews who originally settled here? this post is ridiculous.. New buildings are being built from empty patches of land and empty brownstone shells are being restored… who is getting rid of the “indigenous” people?
Your post is ridiculous and indicative of the attitude of the most “new people” coming to the Village of Harlem (thinking they are doing long time Harlemites a favor coming here) because it has cheaper rent then the area they were previously living in. Unfortunately, it has been easy for these “new people” to push their “So-Hoed” attitudes on a community they find cannot fight for itself like other well-heeled areas of Manhattan.
The un-affordable housing being built for new comers are not the long needed housing needed by longstanding indigenous Harlemites particularly Black Harlemites.
By doing this the Harlemites who lived in Harlem during the “hard times” and were forced to move because of landlords who did not “upkeep” the buildings so they became uninhabitable cannot move back into their neighborhoods.
Also, when Harlem Residents were able to purchase run down Brownstones the Banks redlined them so they could not get loans to rehab the buildings.
These processes have been disruptive to the long time indigenous Harlem Community and is actively destroying the cultural integrity of the Village of Harlem.
Of course this is great news to “new comers” who try to indicate by their presence that they are the ones who have come to save Harlem while pushing out long times Residents and/or making it impossible for those who were pushed out to ever return.
“‘This area is the part of the Village of Harlem that has been most aggressive in getting rid of indigenous Harlemites particularly Black Harlemites.”
Unless FOM is a Native American whose people originally lived on the isle of Manhattan this claim is ahistorial and absurd. By all means let’s go back to the way things were in ’88 when there was nothing around here but Micky Dee’s, KFC and vacant lots. That was MUCH better.
Your perception of “how things were” is much skewed. The development “powers that be” were not interest in Harlem at that time. These same “powers that be” “Redlined” Harlem Residents so they could not get the money needed to rehabilitate and fix-up the area and make sure it was income-targeted to the area. Now that areas outside of Harlem (in Manhattan) have become more expensive, Harlem has become “ripe” for the pickings and a major push to get rid of longtime residents is ongoing.
This Wi-Fi “so called” gift is just another ploy to make the Village of Harlem more appealing to “new comers” who want to pay rent which is less for them but more than the average Harlem Resident can pay. Hence the aggressive “push out” by landlords, realtors and “new comers.”
BTW, many Blacks in Central Harlem are also Native Americans.
Is Harlem technically a “village”? Little confused by this. I’m sure I’ll get grief for asking, just like the grief I apparently get for being a “newcomer”. Some comments are just so absurd.
One of the problems with “newcomers” to Harlem is that because they do not know the history of Harlem, they do not respect the “cultural integrity” of the Village of Harlem and always seem to have a smart a… comment to make. Please go back to where you came from and be a smart a.. there. Probably would not accept the attitude there so you bring it to the Village of Harlem because you feel the Community would not have the ability to defend itself from your smart a… comments. Get off your smart a… mouth and do some research.
So basically what you’re saying is that you’d rather pay for wi-fi?