As a Harlem resident I can assert that Harlem is not even close to being gentrified - that’s a canard created by The New York Times in cahoots with real estate developers to increase rents on slums. Gentrification is what occurred in the meatpacking district, that was transformed from a sparsely inhabited quasi-industrial wasteland of transvestite prostitution to an ultra-trendy upscale neighborhood of expensive restaurants, hipster bars, outdoor cafés and cutting-edge clothing boutiques. Nothing like that has happened in Harlem. Harlem is enormous - its north/south axis starting at 110th St and Morningside Dr. and extending up to 150th St. Its east/west axis goes from Fifth Ave to Riverside Dr. A couple of new restaurants five Starbucks and a few new laundromats do not constitute gentrification. I lived in the East Village as an adolescent, before it was even called the East Village - I know what gentrification is.
For those who don’t live here: Washington Heights is the neighborhood north of Harlem, and Inwood is the neighborhood north of that, at the tippy-top of Manhattan.
I’m sorry but as someone who has lived in NYC since the early 70s, I know that the neighborhood has turned around. Why are you living there if it is so bad?