Amsterdam Avenue between 115th and 125th Streets is a road of contradictions.
Patrons at trendy cafés look out at red-brick public housing units. Students shop alongside residents of rent-subsidised public housing. And in the shadow of high-traffic Broadway, some proprietors have forged ahead, running successful businesses located between the edge of Columbia’s campus and Harlem’s main thoroughfare.
The Met Foodmarket located at 1316 Amsterdam Avenue, across the street from the city-owned Grant Houses, breaks socioeconomic barriers, according the store’s manager, who goes simply by Ray. “This is a good neighborhood. You get a lot of everyone here. People who live on Broadway, Columbia students, and people on food stamps,” he said.
Ray estimated that nearly a fifth of the store’s patrons depend on government aid, and his supermarket seems to internally mirror the neighborhood’s patchwork of cultures, which works out well for business, Ray said. “We’ve got a good mix. There are never any problems.”
Still, other nearby businesses seem to be closing weekly on Amsterdam Avenue. They leave behind a graveyard of vacancies and raise questions about the ability of store owners to pay rent in a time of noticeably lower patronage.
“So many places are closing on Broadway these days,” said Abraham Tekeste, manager of Massawa, an East African restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue and 121st Street.
Bob Radivojevic, general manager of Café Fresh on 121st Street, said, “You’re not going anywhere if you’re here,” adding that “Amsterdam does not take you anywhere. There is not much going on above 118th Street.”
“It’s hard to get people here,” Radivojevic also noted, citing the few transportation stops on the street.
Xueyu Pang, a School of Engineering and Applied Science Ph.D. candidate who will graduate in 2010, said of Amsterdam’s fare, “I prefer Broadway restaurants.”
But Tekeste said that his own restaurant and other Amsterdam establishments can sometimes enjoy rents that are somtimes as little as half of their Broadway counterparts, and that the eastern locale may be a benefit though they are not met with equally busy foot traffic.
“We cater to all segments of the population—sit down and take away—so there haven’t been many downs in the past eight years. The economy has hit us a little bit but not as bad as people may perceive,” he said of Massawa, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Amsterdam store managers also agreed that their avenue has become more attractive as the area has transformed out of a crime-ridden destination.
“It used to be unsafe to come up here,” Tekeste said as he watched the last of his lunch-hour customers finish off their tebsi beef and alitcha vegetables. “Many Columbia students are living here now. It’s much better for business,” he added.
Local residents agreed that Amsterdam has changed for the better. “It used to be that you had to go Broadway for food,” said Sai Jangjig, a resident of Morningside Drive. “There may not be that much going on, but security is good, especially because there are fewer people hanging out in Morningside Park at night.”
Though these stores and restaurants are only minutes away from undergraduate dorms, Tekeste said that his clientele is predominately local residents and graduate students. Teachers College and the School of Social Work are both located a block away.
“The neighborhood is nice. I feel at home here,” Lorna Beth Slee, TC ’10, said. Slee lives on 121st between Amsterdam and Broadway. She added, “There is a good choice of cuisine. I like all the places around here. I’ve been to all of them more than once.”
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