"We're the fly and they're the elephant," laments one Black small-business owner in Harlem. "Overnight, our clientele has been snatched right from under our nose. It's a problem and, to be honest, it doesn't help that the owner of a few of these stores is Magic Johnson, a wealthy Black man."

Johnson's investment is part of a movement by wealthy Blacks, such as poet Maya Angelou and singers Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, to invest in areas of Harlem. Johnson's entrepreneurial skill has opened the way for many Blacks, who otherwise might not support big chain stores, to grab a cup of coffee at his Starbucks or watch a movie at his theater because he is African American.

"It just complicates matters," the business owner adds. "How can any Black person be against Magic investing in the Black community? But if his enterprise continues to expand, he's going to kill many of these businesses."

Long before the commercial outlets came, Harlem, like other Black neighborhoods, was known for a host of Black-owned small businesses. But when property values began to soar, these businesses were forced to move elsewhere because they could no longer afford to stay put.

"You can't maintain these small businesses when larger businesses are coming into Harlem and people are not really shopping at the small minority-owned businesses," says Thelma Russell, executive director of the Harlem Business Alliance, a coalition of local businesses in Harlem. "These businesses are really suffering. They are trying to maintain themselves, but many of them are on a month-to-month lease and they don't know if they will be able to continue doing business."

But Russell and others are cautious to curb themselves.

No one who remembers the dilapidated buildings that stood vacant in Harlem throughout the 1970s and '80s wants to return back to those times. But community and business leaders are struggling to find a nice compromise that would allow the big businesses and the minority-owned small businesses to share in the local wealth.

"We need to co-exist, and I think you can have them both," Russell says. "Everyone has to stick together. We can't overlook the small businesses and go straight to the big ones. We need to support each other."