When people think of the fast-growing New York City tech scene, they think Silicon Alley in the posh neighborhoods of lower Manhattan — not 125th Street.

Yet Harlem is getting a tech-led makeover, thanks to a new series of economic development initiatives aimed at combating the neighborhood’s infamous high unemployment rates and widespread poverty.

Silicon Harlem, a nonprofit community organization launched in 2013, is partnering with local and national politicians and entrepreneurs to help develop Harlem’s tech scene. They’re supporting tech education initiatives, building up the neighborhood’s broadband infrastructure and attempting to lure innovators to the neighborhood.

The first step: free Wi-Fi. Continuing an initiative started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayor Bill De Blasio’s administration is deploying the largest, continuous free Wi-Fi network in the United States — right in the center of Harlem. The network will cover 95 city blocks.

According to Banks and his fellow executive producer Bruce Lincoln, providing free access to the Internet is a means of democratizing innovation and education, and bringing Harlem into the 21st century economy.