| Alphabet City, Manhattan |
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EARLY HISTORY Like many other neighborhoods on Manhattan’s Lower East Side , Alphabet City has been home to a succession of different immigrant groups over the years. In the 1840s and 1850s, much of present day Alphabet City was known as "Kleindeutschland" or “ Little Germany ”. By the mid 19th Century, many claimed New York to be the third largest German-speaking city in the world, after Berlin and Vienna , with most of those German speakers residing in and around Alphabet City. In fact, Kleindeutschland is considered to be the first substantial non-Anglophone ethnic enclave in United States history. By the 1880s, most Germans were moving out of Kleindeutschland and relocating Uptown, to the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side . Eastern Europe ans replaced Germans as the dominant ethnic group in Alphabet City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time the area was considered part of the Lower East Side, and became home to Eastern European Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants. It comprised tenement housing with no running water, and the primary bathing location for residents in the northern half of the area was the Asser Levy bath house on 23rd Street and Avenue C, north of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town . During this time it was also the red light district of Manhattan -- with most of the prostitutes being Jews -- and one of the worst slums in the city, home to many pimps and gangs dangerously vying for territory. THE 20TH CENTURY Alphabet City is part of the East Village, which at the turn of the century was the most densely populated part of New York City. This density was a result of the area's proximity to the City's garment factories, which were the major source of employment for newly-arrived immigrants. After the construction of the subway system, workers were able to relocate to other parts of the city that were previously too remote, such as The Bronx , and Alphabet City's population decreased dramatically. By the middle of the 20th century, Alphabet City was transitioning again, as thousands of Puerto Rican s began to settle in the neighborhood. By the 1960s and '70s, what was once Kleindeutschland and the red light district had evolved into “ Loisaida ” (a Latinization of "Lower East Sider"). Alphabet City became an important site for the development and strengthening of Puerto Rican cultural identity in New York (see the Nuyorican Movement ). A number of important Nuyorican intellectuals, poets and artists called Loisaida home during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, including Miguel Algarín and Miguel Piñero . During the 1980s, Alphabet City was home to an eclectic mix of Puerto Rican and African American families living alongside struggling artists and musicians (who were mostly young and white). Attracted by the Nuyorican movement, low rents, and creative atmosphere, Alphabet City attracted a growing Bohemian population. The area also had high levels of illegal drug activity and violent crime. The Broadway Musical '' Rent '' portrays the positive and negative aspects of this time and place, though some say in a kitschy manner. In August 1988, a riot erupted along Tompkins Square Park between police, homeless residents in the park and their supporters. RECENT HISTORY & GENTRIFICATION The late 1990s has witnessed a sharp rise in housing rents and has ushered in a new, distinctly less Bohemian era for Alphabet City. Apartments have been renovated and formerly abandoned storefronts are now bustling with new restaurants, nightclubs and retail establishments. Crime has also decreased since the 1980s and 1990s at an even greater rate than elsewhere in Manhattan. The drawback to redevelopment has been that many families, artists and small businesses can no longer afford to remain in the neighborhood. Young professionals or Yuppies now dominate the area around Avenues A and B. Avenue C is still a transitional area, but rents are rising quickly and many long-time residents and businesses are being priced out of the market. Avenue D, home to a number of large low income housing projects seems destined to remain affordable for the foreseeable future, although plans have been floated in city hall which call for the eventual destruction of the housing projects and redevelopment of the waterfront along East River Park . As part of the Gentrification , the area lost a number of community gardens which were planted by residents in vacant lots. These gardens serve as valuable green space in the densely built neighborhood. A recent major loss has been the Charas community center. TRIVIA ''An East Village Wisdom'' (arguably no longer true):
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ALPHABET CITY IN ART AND ENTERTAINMENT
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