'For us it's a very warm community': Stories from Washington Heights

WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk and the nonprofit, Street Lab, are working together to highlight stories from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently stationed ourselves on West 164th Street between Amsterdam and Edgecombe Avenues in Washington Heights. Here's some of what we heard.

The transcript of the voices we collected have been lightly edited for clarity.

Charles LaSalle: "People tend to think of Washington Heights and think of the negative like violence, but for us it's a very warm community. I'm the founder of City Gym Boys, a fitness company that mentors inner city youth on the lifelong benefits of fitness and exercise. It's interesting because there's so many out of shape young people these days, kids, they don't know how to move anymore because there's no reason to move. Everything is, you know, I'll just bring it right to you."

Jarlin Bello: "I'm a kid who grew up in Washington Heights. I went to school here. I'm from immigrating parents from the Dominican Republic. Growing up in the Heights, it was always, either you were a drug dealer or played basketball. There wasn't a lot of things you could look forward to, but after I met Charles with City Gym Boys, I found that there were other things -- I found a passion for fitness. I've been with Charles for the last three years -- he's been mentoring me. I'm almost 21 already, and I could say I learned a lot through this organization. The biggest challenge I see is the fast-food restaurants. You see Wendy's, you see McDonald's, Burger King, Popeye's. It's on every corner. The resources are also a big challenge. If you go to the store, a lot of the things are healthy, but they cost a lot of money. That's a big problem in this community, a lot of the people don't have the income to even stay in a healthy life. They'd rather just go to McDonald's. If they want to go build a salad or get some vegetables, it'll cost them a lot more."

David Vines: "I'm an immigration lawyer. I work with unaccompanied minors at a nonprofit. I'm very fortunate that a fair amount of the work is remote. So, I get to, during my lunch break, take a nice little walk with my pup. It's a beautiful neighborhood with a really wonderful combination of families, young people, things to do, walkable, easy to get absolutely anywhere I need to go in the city with the subway. It's perfect. I really genuinely love it."

Veronica Santiago Liu: "I'm from Word Up Community Bookshop. Word Up is a collectively run, volunteer powered nonprofit bookstore and art space -- community space. We sell used and new books in English and Spanish and often other languages. We also host a lot of community events inside, outside, and online. You know, a space that's casual where you don't necessarily have the pressure to buy something, but you can gather over books or have this reflective space. I've lived here for more than 20 years. They're real things you need in neighborhoods. I find some neighborhoods in New York, you can't find a hardware store anymore, but you know, right on the corner of where Word Up is, within a block, we have every kind of school, every grade level. We have the post office, we have the hospital, we have a jail, we have everything right there. And that feels to me like a real space where real people live." 

David Cajigas: "I'm a mailman for this area here in Washington Heights. I'm very friendly. I'm a person who always smiles, greets people. So, every day's a different day. Sometimes you find people in need, you stop, you give them a word, maybe that makes their day, and you know, you keep on going. Maybe you help someone cross the street, an elderly person and stuff like that. You know, it's part of the daily day." 

Halie Baez: "My story is my mom surviving breast cancer. She's just always been there. She's always been like a role model in my life. She's been through so much since she was very young because my grandma is an immigrant, and they were very poor growing up. So, you know, seeing her go through something like that really like destroyed me. But it made us stronger, like our bond stronger. If you ever get mad at your parents, just remember that the day that they leave, you will miss them more than anything because when I saw my mom being so skinny with no hair, I regretted every time I was mad at her -- every time I yelled at her. So just be thankful that you still have your parents around because I'm thankful I still have mine."