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Daily News: Crown Heights Now a ‘Mixed Racial Haven’

Daily News

Twenty years after the riots, Crown Heights has become a mixed race mecca.

The Brooklyn neighborhood infamous for the 1991 riot between blacks and Jews has the second-most residents who identify as being both black and white, the latest Census figures show.

Crown Heights had 635 people in 2010 who said they were born to one black parent and one white. Harlem led the city with 776.

The neighborhood’s new population includes mixed race hipsters and young biracial families moving from pricier neighborhoods. Others identify as Jewish with a black parent who want a multi-cultural area to call home.

“This neighborhood appealed to me. I saw people of all different colors,” said hairstylist Chantell Carrtherol, 30, who grew up in California. “Walking around you see West Indians, Caucasians, Asians. It makes me feel at home.”

Carrtherol, whose father is white and mother is black, has lived in Crown Heights about a year. She said she left Bushwick because “it lacked diversity.”

Classon Avenue photographer Zack Helwa, 27, was born to a white mother and black dad and raised in Princeton, N.J. She wanted to live around other creative types of color.

“I think this area is trying to be accepting of everyone,” Helwa said. “People here don’t want tension,” an attitude Helwa believes stems from the ‘91 riots. “You later realize you want to get along now.”

Mixed-race Jews in Crown Heights said they still feel the divide between blacks and the Lubavitch Hasidim.

Nicholas Seresin, 40, who is white, said he moved his two biracial kids to Lincoln Place because he scored a $2,800-per-month three-bedroom apartment after paying the same amount for a two-bedroom in Park Slope.

“It’s still near [Prospect] Park,” said Seresin, who is married to a black Caribbean woman. “We needed more space. I didn’t pay attention to who was living here.”

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13 Comments

  • WhyLove

    I’d agree relations are better, but crime is way up and the black youth in Crown heights seems more disconnected from respecting Jews here as ever before.

    One other thing, I love Y LOVE, he’s AWESOME. But does he LIVE in crown heights? (no) so why is he part of this article??

  • real estate competition caused the riots

    “$2,800-per-month three-bedroom apartment …. We needed more space. I didn’t pay attention to who was living here”

    now the tension race-ologists blame real estate as a cause for the 91 riots!!

  • Tis article is about PARK SLOPE -not ch

    Classon Avenue photographer Zack Helwa, 27 … wanted to live around other creative types of color. ‘I think this area is trying to be accepting of everyone’”

    Is this article about Crown Heights or Classon Avenue??????

    I’m sorry mister media but your way way way off – there were no riots in 1991 on Classon avenue. Yes, it is an area of all types of poeple but no Hassidic Jews. You are mixing Black antisemitism in Crown Heights with “racial Tension” in park slope. Stupid media!!!

  • mishichist

    “Mixed race Jews”

    you mean the Messianic West Indies?

    First time hearing this term

  • yeshiva bucher

    “mixed racial heaven”

    who made up these terms? Is this what they are teaching kids in public school? Is this what you need to learn about to get a GED?

  • Mottel

    -Yeshivah Bucher: Mixed race isn’t a made up term, it’s an American reality for an increasingly greater number of Americans.

  • Bored

    If you need the publicity make a good record already!
    Stop stirring up nonsense.
    Stop trying to promote youselves.
    Crown heights will always be the same.
    if you want more move elsewhere.
    Good people are good and bad people are bad.
    As the kids used to say in school
    “The one who smelled it delt it”
    I guess those two are the angrey black men in Crown heights

  • Appauled

    I am utterly shocked by the nastiness of the comments posted here. Since when does the behavior of certain people from another group make it okay for Jews to be racist “back at them”? Just as there are horrible people in the African American community, there are incredible people , believe it or not. As frum yidden, we don’t want to be judged based on the actions of some people in our community. So seriously, why judge someone else? Racism is a HUGE chillul Hashem and frankly, it has no place in the holy life of a Jew. We are holy, educated people, and it’s time to start acting like it. Racism and baseless hatred towards a large group of people WILL NOT BRING MOSHIACH.