Harlem’s newcomers struggle to blend in

Affluent newcomers in Harlem are sometimes at odds with longtime residents who fear that they are bringing gentrification and care only about their property values. Some say the return of high-income blacks is bringing Harlem full-circle. “You always had people that had means and people that didn’t have means in Harlem,” said Warner Johnson, an Internet entrepreneur. “If you were black back in the day and had money, there was nowhere else you could live. So we never looked at that as something of a dividing point.” Others say that long-term residents regret not buying property back when the Dinkins administration held lotteries to sell them at below-market prices to Harlem residents.