Renaming of Upper Manhattan to Quisqueya Heights Scrapped After Community Backlash
By Jessy Diamba
Renaming a neighborhood can be messy, even if it’s meant to honor the history of some of its residents. That’s because the rest of the people who live there can feel left out.
So when U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY 13th district) introduced a resolution in Congress last February to symbolically change the name of three neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan, he got a lot of backlash.
House Resolution 77, would have symbolically renamed Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights and Inwood to Quisqueya Heights, a Taíno reference to the island that is currently shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
“My concern in renaming these three neighborhoods is that it only serves to further inflame tensions between Dominicans, who live here, and the rest of the neighborhood who lives here,” said Donna Filippone Leary, who has lived in New York for 40 years, and has made Washington Heights her home for the last 21 years.
Following spirited debate within the community, Espaillat reintroduced a revised resolution to honor the Dominican American community in Washington Heights and Inwood. Harlem’s Hamilton Heights will remain unchanged.
In a press release, the congressman said it was never his intention to legally change the name of any neighborhood to cater to one specific community. ”It was, however, always my intention to honor the contributions of Dominicans to this area and to reiterate my call to action to ensure the affordability of the neighborhoods that many Dominicans have called home for generations.”
The three neighborhoods make up the northernmost and second most-populated community district in Manhattan. A 2006 survey of the district found that just over 74 percent of the population identify themselves of Hispanic origin, 14.1 percent White Non-Hispanic, and 8.6 percent Black Non-Hispanic.
Dominicans have had a strong influence in the area, dating back to the 1960s, when many families left their island home for Washington Heights following the death of their leader, the dictator Rafael Trujillo.
Espaillat, elected in 2016, is the first Dominican-American member and first previously undocumented member to ever serve in Congress.
The previous proposal to symbolically rename the area was introduced by the representative and two Texas congressmen in February, none of whom hold the power to change the neighborhood’s name. Espaillat had introduced the resolution each of the three years he’d been in Congress, to no success.
“It’s Washington Heights, because we’re near the George Washington Bridge,” said Jane Becker, 59. She and her husband David, 69, have lived in Washington Heights for 41 years. “It also changes the way people view that neighborhood.”
The controversy spilled out into West Harlem, which has recently been dealing with identity in light of changing demographics and gentrification. “It makes absolutely no sense to me, and I’m a Dominican born in Washington Heights,” said Miriam Aristy-Farer, a board member for Community District 9, which held a public discussion earlier this month to discuss the resolution.
“The idea of naming clusters of a city after groups is just completely against unity and where we are as people in 2021. If anything, we should be looking back and renaming parts of Manhattan more Indigenous names.”
Bill Jones grew up in Harlem, but owns property in Sugar Hill and Hamilton Heights. Now in his sixties, he’s noticed a lot of changes in Harlem over the past 50 years, and sees a correlation between representation and ownership. “He who owns the real estate owns the land, and controls what happens on it,” he said.
While the representative’s office had stressed that renaming streets and neighborhoods are symbolic in nature, not laws, many longtime residents don’t believe it’s right to change the name of a neighborhood to suit one demographic.
“It’s always been a natural evolution of people living here,” said Hilary Rovins, 70, a longtime real estate broker who sells townhouses across Manhattan.
No action had yet been taken by the House regarding Espaillat’s previous House Resolution 77. Since its introduction back in February, H.R.77 had been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
