Welcome to Harlem’s Newsletter
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HNBA Meeting (Zoom) on April 11, 7:00 PM
Hello Harlem Neighbors and Hello Spring! We’re looking forward to seeing you on ZOOM on Tuesday (April 11th) at 7:00 PM for our April HNBA community meeting. We’ve got two very interesting speakers on tap this month. First up will be Emily Chingay from Open Plans, a group that would like to help Harlem neighbors have…
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Marjorie Taylor Greene References Harlem’s OnPoint in Tweet
Seriously? 4.1 million people look at this woman’s Twitter feed? Seriously? Volunteers at Lydia’s Magic Garden A photo of some of the volunteers who helped clean up and prep Lydia’s Magic Garden on Park Avenue between 117th and 118th Streets for the upcoming growing season.
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Harlem’s City Council Candidates’ Forum
Make sure to register HERE for Harlem’s 2023 City Council Candidates’ Forum. The forum will be held on Thursday, April 27th at 7:00 PM and feature Assemblymember Inez Dickens, candidate Yusef Saalam, and Assemblymember Al Taylor. Our current councilmember chose not to attend the forum. All registrants have the option to send questions for the…
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129th Street Ferry
A 1908 postcard on Ebay of the Harlem ferry at 129th Street (on the Hudson or North River) that would take commuters and travelers to/from New Jersey. Note the paddlewheels still in use. View From the Water Another Ebay item, with a view from the water, looking inland at West 129th Street’s docks. Note the…
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Sign The Petition!
The Greater Harlem Coalition has just launched a petition on Change.org: New York State’s Assembly and Senate Members should reject The Safer Consumption Act, bill s399/a338, unless the following 6 Safety Guardrails are added to the bill. Harlem’s supervised injection site is located two blocks away from 9 schools with +4250 students and nearly 4000…
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My Dog Rinty
In 1946, a children’s book came out titled My Dog Rinty. The setting was post-war Harlem, and the plot centers around a mischievous dog whose frequent disturbances throughout the neighborhood are mistaken as bad behavior. As the book reveals, Rinty was simply alerting the neighbors to the presence of rats, and Rinty’s willingness to dispatch…
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Where Life Begins At Midnight
Ebay has a rare photo souvenir from The Palm Club at 209 West 125th Street. The tagline is ‘Where life begins at midnight’: Note that in addition to “Our Own Evelyn Robinson” – the club’s house singer, a photographer is also mentioned (as is his studio at 10 Lenox Ave). 10 Lenox Ave. today is…
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The Fires
Most Harlem residents know about (or lived through) the era of disinvestment, redlining, and white-flight that disfigured Harlem in the second half of the 20th century. Many also know that this time was a time of countless fires that started from squalid living conditions, unmaintained building systems, apathy, simple arson, and calculated insurance fraud. The…
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Sign The Petition!
The Greater Harlem Coalition has just launched a petition on Change.org: New York State’s Assembly and Senate Members should reject The Safer Consumption Act, bill s399/a338, unless the following 6 Safety Guardrails are added to the bill. Harlem’s supervised injection site is located two blocks away from 9 schools with +4250 students and nearly 4000…
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Revisiting The 2020 Black Lives Matter Mural
The Next 60 Years for Sylvia’s Restaurant Sylvia’s Restaurant, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in August 2022, is a testament to the values instilled by the founder and matriarch, Sylvia Woods. She cultivated a strong community around her soul food restaurant in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood that has continued to thrive, even after her…
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125th Street Viaduct
The Manhattan Valley Viaduct was built for the IRT subway line (now the 1 Train) and is actually a landmarked structure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission reports that it “is the most imposing and visually impressive aboveground engineering structure of the IRT subway system” and an “excellent example of a double-hinged parabolic braced arch structure. Supporting both the…
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MLB pitchers are busy training inside a Harlem storefront under an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese
This might be the best article heading of 2023. The article came out on ESPN, but Gothamist’s headline was what caught my eye. Here’s a teaser introduction: Adam Ottavino never expected The Lab to turn into this. The New York Mets reliever just wanted a place in the city to throw in the offseason, something that can be…
