8 FEBRUARY 17, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ridgewood’s Cafe Moca aims to accommodate everyone
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Walking into Cafe Moca feels
like you’ve been transported
to a hip neighborhood in
Brooklyn with ivy strung over brick
walls and pink neon lights that Ridgewood
locals may feel are out of touch
with the rest of the area. However,
despite what some may say, Colby Rodriguez,
the owner of Cafe Moca on
Seneca Avenue, wants people to know
that their black-owned business is not
trying to change the neighborhood.
Cafe Moca opened just before the
COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City,
but Rodriguez and his family have
been able to secure their standing in
Ridgewood through the uncertain
times.
It was diffi cult, Rodriguez said. But
they built a client base that helped them
keep their doors open as competing
cafes in the area closed down.
“We were selling maybe one to two
cups of coff ee a day but things started
to pick up and people started coming
out more and more,” Rodriguez said.
Not only did the pandemic act as an
obstacle, but as a Black man, Rodriguez
said that he has had to work harder
than most to get where he is.
“For us, we don’t have a stepping
Owner Colby Rodriguez behind the counter at Cafe Moca on Seneca
Avenue in Ridgewood. Photo by Julia Moro
stone that everybody else has to get
a running start,” Rodriguez said. “It
takes more eff ort to make it where
everybody else is starting from.”
While QNS sat down with Rodriguez,
he pointed out the look of his cafe, saying
that locals were quick to assume his
business was part of the gentrifi cation
that has been pervasive across the city.
It’s no secret that New York City has
changed. Low-income neighborhoods
are inundated with new cocktail
bars or pricey coff ee shops that will
inevitably hike property values and
displace many long-time residents,
most of whom are minorities. According
to Urban Displacement, one-third
of low-income households are at risk
of displacement due to gentrifi cation
in the city. Unfortunately, Ridgewood
and the surrounding areas are not
unscathed in this issue.
“When we opened up Cafe Moca, a lot
of people automatically thought that it
was a gentrifi ed business because of
the style we chose,” Rodriguez said.
“We would hear comments like, ‘Oh,
that cafe’s not for us.’ But no, we are
here for you.”
Cafe Moca purposefully made their
prices affordable to accommodate
everyone in the neighborhood and
not just “one group of people,” as Rodriguez
put it.
Rodriguez and his family have lived
in Ridgewood for a little over a year
aft er opening the business but previously
lived in Buschwick. As someone
who’s lived in the area for some time
now, he said he’s personally seen the
shift in demographics over the years.
“Some people are not able to aff ord
to live in their neighborhoods, where
they grew up, and are feeling like a
part of their childhood or their life is
slowly fading away,” Rodriguez said.
“The neighborhoods are changing
over, and you see the Black and Latino
businesses shutting down and others
businesses opening up and losing the
representation of the people that still
live in the neighborhood.”
But as a business owner, Rodriguez
said he has to appreciate the opportunity
these changes bring for small
shops like his own. And aft er the initial
skepticism from locals in Ridgewood,
Rodriguez said he feels Cafe Moca
has received a lot of support from the
community.
Cafe Moca is located at 487 Seneca
Ave. For more information, visit their
website, CafeMoca.nyc.
Black History Month: Structural racism is a driver of health disparities
BY THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
This February, during Black History Month, the
American Heart Association is encouraging
Black women to Reclaim Your Rhythm and take
control of their mental and physical well-being. For
years we’ve been striving to ensure everyone has an
optimal, just opportunity to be healthy. But this is not
the reality for many people of color and others whose
health suff ers because of social factors beyond their
control.
In fact, in New York City, people in some under-resourced
ZIP codes have shorter life expectancies than
their neighbors just a few miles away. And around
the country, people in oft en-remote rural areas face
signifi cantly higher death rates from heart disease
and stroke.
COVID-19 has illuminated these unacceptable health
disparities and worsened the problems. The pandemic
and economic hardships have disproportionately
harmed the health of Black, Latino and Native American
people.
Structural racism is a driver of health disparities,
report declares
The nation’s history of structural racism must be
acknowledged as a driver of health problems and
shortened lives for Black people and other racial and
ethnic groups says an American Heart Association
report that seeks to spark action to fi x the problem.
The idea that racism adversely aff ects an individual’s
health is not new, said Dr. Keith Churchwell,
president of Yale New Haven Hospital, who led the
writing group for the advisory. For example, racism
has been shown to lead to stress, depression and longlasting,
cumulative damage to the body and brain.
“Structural racism has been and remains a fundamental
cause of persistent health disparities in the
United States,” declares the presidential advisory. It
off ers a summary of the historical context of structural
discrimination, connects it to current health
disparities and looks for ways to dismantle or mitigate
its continuing eff ects.
Structural racism refers to “the ways in which society
is set up in such a way that advantages and opportunities
are preferentially given to those of one race
rather than to another,” said co-author Dr. Mitchell
Elkind, immediate past president of the American
Heart Association for 2021-22, a neurologist at New
York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical
Center in New York City. “We have to change the
underlying structure that allows that to happen.”
We know things like high blood pressure, diabetes
and smoking lead to cardiovascular disease, Elkind
said. And higher rates of those problems in some
groups lead to health disparities. For example, Black
people in the United States are much more likely to
die from heart disease or stroke than their white
counterparts.
Structural racism is “an important, fundamental
driver” of such diff erences, he said. Which means
doctors, scientists, policymakers and others have a
role in addressing it.
“The consequences of racism in the past persist in
such a way that certain racial and ethnic groups still
live in poor neighborhoods that have less green space,
that have poor air quality, have a more dangerous environment
that may preclude exercise and healthy
behaviors, may have less nutritious food options,
and certainly suboptimal educational experiences,”
Elkind said. “These things have not gone away.”
The American Heart Association is committed to
advancing health equity — which can exist only when
all people can have the opportunity to enjoy healthier
lives. We’re removing barriers to health through work
in communities, scientifi c research, advocating for
healthy policies and more. Please join us on this critical
journey.
For information about the American Heart Association’s
commitment to health equity please visit heart.
org/healthequity.
Photo via Getty Images
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