The Invasion of Harlem
This Rent Wars Special Report covers the Harlem Town Hall Meeting, Friday, March 16, 2001 which was
hosted by a coalition of over twenty groups from around the City. Due to the enormous scope of the story and
the extreme difficulty in selecting between various speakers we were only able to show snippets on the air.
However, we have provided extensive coverage of the meeting online. Including almost two hours of
free streaming multimedia that brings you the speakers in their entirety, along with additional
coverage . The issue of gentrification is one of our priorities at Rent Wars.

See below for Rent Wars "coverage of the coverage."

Here are the speakers covered on Rent Wars Online Radio:
Click here for the speeches


Rev. Charles Curtis
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church


Jim Haughton
Harlem Fightback

Nellie Hestor Bailey
Harlem Tenants Council

Derek Norville
NYC Public Housing
Residence Alliance


Adrienne Holder, Esq.
Legal Aid Society

Charles Barron
City Council Candidate

Ida Torres
NYC Central Labor Council

Dave Robinson, Esq.
Legal Services of NYC


Patrick Markee
Coalition for the Homeless

Hyung Lee
Committee Against
Anti-Asian
American Violence

Joyce Culler
National Council of
Negro Women

Mamadou Chinyelu
Author

Click here for the speeches

 

Coverage of the Coverage

The event was covered by major media outlets including ABC and CBS.


Both reported on the event itself with a few audience shots mixed with a few speaker shots on that nights
11 O'Clock reports.

CBS spent more time on the actual event, with a variety of people shots:
Black, Asian, and white. It also mentioned the influx of white renters in Harlem.

ABC gave an excellent report on gentrification with a great background report.
Although spending more overall time on the issue, the actual event was briefly mentioned.
The following Wednesday, at an earlier time, Bill Beutel did a second report that was
antithetical to the first. His report focused on the "revitalization" of Harlem, and he showed
a few clips of the meeting to contrast his report.

Both camera crews left after the second speaker due to deadline concerns.
Other networks and local broadcast media were absent altogether.

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