Comments (0) Best Place to Wish You Could Still Sing Donny Hathaway's 'The Ghetto' - 2000
Harlem's West 140th Street
Chase Manhattan done gone and converted the majority of the tenements on Harlem's West 140th Street into refurbished, low-income housing. The block recently looked like Beirut, its bombed-out, fire-ravaged hulls a glaring contrast to its shining, pristine Italianate neighbors to the immediate south at Striver's Row. Today, the gulf within the block—between the restorations and a graffitied, bricked-up eyesore that's the lone holdout on the street's south side—still underscores the bittersweet half-life of dwelling in the Black Bottoms of urban America. Hathaway's first huge hit indelibly gave voice to that tension. Stand on the trash-laden stoop of the holdover building, and give thanks for what you got.
