Property Tales

"There's talk about Inwood becoming Manhattan's next hot spot, but I doubt it. Inwood's architecture—a mixture of Bronxy Art Deco Grand Concourse-style and faded tan brick seven-story buildings with fire escapes—doesn't qualify as charming. People don't say, 'Oh, this is gorgeous,' the way they did in Park Slope before it was 'Park Slope.' And, the neighborhood's dining and shopping leave much to be desired."

Jamie Katz, 53, deputy editor,

Vibe magazine.

Actually, Jamie Katz doesn't want Inwood to become a hot spot. He likes Manhattan's northernmost neighborhood as is—as it's been, more or less, since he moved there in 1977.

"I discovered Inwood from the deck of a Circle Line boat. As you go from Harlem into the Hudson River, palisades loom before you. A giant rock has a huge C—for Columbia—painted on it. I saw Manhattan's northwestern-most apartment building, and thought I'd like to have a corner apartment there. Several days later, I stood outside that building, gazing up at corner apartments. Serendipitously, the super asked if I wanted one," Katz recalls. "I said yes."

Katz appreciates Inwood's Manhattan cachet—the coveted 212 area code and 100 zip code that "make you feel like you're the center of the universe"—as well as its distance from midtown and downtown.

"Inwood is definitely Manhattan, but sometimes feels more like the Bronx. It's very neighborhood. People are friendly. Often, several generations of the same family have apartments in the same building," says Katz. "Best of all, Inwood Hill Park has Manhattan's last remaining virgin forest. From my windows, I see fields and hillsides and, although the George Washington Bridge pokes up behind them, I can momentarily sense what Manhattan might have felt like before it was settled by Europeans and became the Manhattan that we know. Sometimes, I even hear ducks quacking."

Inwood's rich history fascinates Katz.

"There was an Indian settlement, and a hill in the park is made of oyster and clam shells that Indians discarded as they feasted from the river. It took centuries for this oyster shell mound to grow. I find that delightful. I love that spot. On school trips, kids visit Indian caves and remains of a 17th-century Dutch farming settlement, including Dyckman House, New York's oldest farmhouse. A plaque commemorates an ancient tulip tree, and it's said Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan from local tribesmen at that spot," he says. "Imagine, if the Indians had deposited that $24 in a bank, they'd have a trillion dollars today—maybe enough to buy back Manhattan."

Katz pays about $1000 per month for his one-bedroom, rent-stabilized apartment. He guesses Inwood's coop prices have doubled recently.

"I don't want to put too much shine on the neighborhood," says Katz. "I fear skyrocketing prices may cause landlords to force out long-standing residents like myself. Fortunately, my landlord, Joe Moskowitz, is responsible and responsive. The super and his wife, Carl and Roberta Busch, are wonderful—like European concierges. They're really up to speed with the building. I'm very lucky."

That wasn't always so. Katz has been a neighborhood crime victim four times.

"During the late 80s, early 90s, at the crack epidemic's height, Inwood and Washington Heights' 34th Precinct had the city's highest murder rate—which was unsettling if you were raising kids, as I was at the time. My car was stolen, my apartment burglarized and I was robbed on the subway and in my lobby. That's an above-average victimization experience for New Yorkers. It was enraging. But I didn't think of moving. I wasn't scared, and I'm not the type of person to pick up and leave something because it's not entirely pleasant," he says.

And, he adds, because there were always plenty of good things in Inwood, too.

"I complain about Inwood at times, but the community continues to grow on me. I feel quite rooted," says Katz. "Many mornings, I go running up into the hills and the sun is bursting through the trees and the air fills my lungs, and I feel like a colt having a nice little gallop in the morning. I'm very grateful to be able to experience that in Manhattan." o