http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/realestate/29reading.html
But they do have different quality-of-life issues.
Much of the housing stock in Reading comprises
worn but picturesque old row houses.
Crime is up in recent years, and more
than 11,000 of Reading's 17,000-plus students
last year moved at least once during, before or
after the school year, according to the schools
superintendent, Tom Chapman.
He said the constant relocation of students
was among the major obstacles facing the
school system. Dr. Chapman's modest goal:
"They have to be better when they
leave than when they came."
Gregorio Zarzuela, with his son at far left,
owns a bodega, as he did in New York.
Juana Toledo and her daughters,
Glenise, 21, and Sabrina, 8.
But if you're a Dominican family from a poor,
troubled neighborhood in, say,
the Bronx,
those problems are not a big deal.
"When people come from New York,
everything is good for them,"
Mr. Betances said.
"They're used to problems.
They say,
'If we can make it in New York,
this place can't be that bad.' "
And to some extent,
they can make the place into New York,
recreating Dominican neighborhoods
alongside the larger Mexican and
Puerto Rican populations.
There is a local radio station,
WXAC at Albright College,
that features a
salsa/merengue/bachata/reggaetón rotation,
and a Philadelphia Spanish station, WUBA-FM,
has been reaching Reading since August.
And, of course,
there are the small businesses
like bodegas that are the signature
of Dominican life in New York.
Mr. Betances said that
when he first arrived,
there were only a couple
of Latino grocery stores.
"The beauty salons, the nail salons,
the grocery stores, they all popped
up in the last three or four years," he said.
Indeed,
though many Dominicans
who had blue collar jobs
in New York end up working
in food processing plants
in the area,
others come with business plans.
That includes Henry Cruz,
a former mushroom salesman
from Queens and now the
owner of Rancho Merengue,
one of the few nightclubs
here catering to Dominicans.
He had long dreamed of owning a club,
but in New York it was prohibitively
expensive;
Rancho Merengue is a
modest space with a bar,
a pool table, some tables,
a stage and a dance floor,
a hybrid of a New York Latin
club and a neighborhood bar.
But it attracts big names.
One Saturday in September,
the place was packed with
Dominicans and Puerto Ricans
as he held a birthday party
for himself,
featuring the well-known
bachata singer Dominic Marte,
who performed his hit "Ven Tú"
for an adoring crowd.
A client of Mr. Betances,
Gregorio Zarzuela, is
another case in point.
Born in the Dominican Republic,
Mr. Zarzuela lived for 34 years
in New York,
first working in factories,
then restaurants, then bodegas,
and finally struggling with his
own bodega at Third Street and
Avenue D in Manhattan's East Village
while renting an apartment in Corona, Queens.
"Life there was hard," he said.
"The rent was too high."
Two years ago,
he and his family bought
a house for $99,000 in Reading.
Then,
he bought another building
and opened a bodega there.
"Living in Reading is just too good," he said.
"Business is slow,
but you can live from it.
Here I open at 7:30 a.m.,
and at 6:30 I head home to
have a barbecue or make dinner.
In New York,
it was 6 a.m. to midnight.
I love New York, but I can't go back."
Though the Dominicans who
move from New York might
have some regrets at leaving,
"they adapt pretty quick,"
Mr. Betances said.
"They adapt to the tranquillity.
They don't miss the traffic;
they don't miss the parking,
the hustle and bustle."
A more complicated issue is their identity:
are they Dominicans? New Yorkers? or Readingites?
Even the old-timers aren't quite sure.
"Where the heck am I from?" Mr. Betances said.
"I was born in the
Dominican Republic,
grew up in New York,
and now I'm in Pennsylvania."
|
