Welcome to Harlem’s Newsletter
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Lowballed
For generations, Black and Latino families have had their homes appraised for less than white families. An analysis of nationwide housing appraisals by ABC, more than 50 million home loans, and refinance applications in predominantly Black neighborhoods are nearly five times more likely to be under-appraised than in white communities. The analysis also found that…
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56 Years Ago (today)
56 years ago today, Mayor John Lindsay vowed to revitalize Mount Morris Park (soon to be renamed Marcus Garvey Park) . The west side of the park looked like this (image looking northbound towards the corner of Mount Morris West and West 124th Street): Mayor Lindsay vowed to revitalize and announced the project with a…
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Zoe Anderson Norris
Recently a New York historian – Eve Kahn – reached out to residents on East 126th Street regarding a former resident from the block – the reformer/publisher/writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Anderson_Norris https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/news/forgotten-gilded-age-author-zoe-anderson-norris-be-celebrated Zoe Anderson Norris lived at 57 East 126th Street around the turn of the 20th century. In addition, as an author, Zoe…
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Lost Church
The Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital, just east of Marcus Garvey Park (between 122nd and 121st Streets and Madison and Park Avenues) replaced a Harlem church (outlined in green below) The photo (below) shows the rock rubble in Marcus Garvey park before the depression era work to revitalize the park, with the church in the…
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Under The Tracks
(from Uptown Grand Central’s newsletter) “The overhead lights in the back of a public plaza in East Harlem, mounted on a rusty viaduct that supports the Metro-North Railroad, were not working. And Carey King was panicking. Ms. King, who runs the plaza as the director of Uptown Grand Central, a nonprofit group formed by local…
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Omo Sade Skincare
Local businesswoman Sade Tyler started to sell her products on a table in front of the old Tower Records building in East Village, Manhattan. Also, back when corporate brands did not offer products for women of color, she was the first to set up a beauty kiosk in Allby Square mall in downtown Brooklyn. This…
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New Majority NYC Endorses Inez Dickens to Represent Harlem in City Council
City and State has an article on New Majority NYC formerly known as 21 in ‘21, a women-in-elected office advocacy group that played a key role in bolstering the number of women represented in the City Council. Since its founding in 2017 the group has surpassed its initial goal two years ago when voters elected 31 women…
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Tomorrow! Meet/Walk with Al Taylor
Al Taylor is vieing to be Harlem’s next City Council member and here is your chance to meet him, and walk with him in the neighborhood. Meet him at La Marqueta – 115/Park – tomorrow at 2:30pm and walk up to 126th Street. Al Taylor is an assembly sponsor of a bill to legalize supervised…
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National Geographic Travel Guide to Harlem
National Geographic UK has a (mostly) culinary guide to Harlem which does highlight many of the places to see in our community: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2022/09/why-harlem-is-new-yorks-most-culturally-rich-neighbourhood [Note the prices in British pounds at the end.] One quibble is that the definition of Harlem is given as: Harlem, a 45-block stretch from Central Park to 155th Street — clipped…
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Meet Yusef Saalam
You are invited to join a virtual meeting with Yusef Salaam this Thursday at 7pm. After a district walk last Monday, Yusef has a good idea of East Harlem’s quality of life issues and concerns. We are hoping that after witnessing our street experience, Yusef will tell us more about what he intends to do,…
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Spatial Information Design Lab
Since 2005, Columbia University’s Spatial Information Design Lab has been exploring the geography of incarceration. In their project The Pattern, the Columbia University team looks at the relationship between impoverished communities and their physical infrastructure, racial make-up, community investment, and incarceration. The Design Lab’s resulting maps are fascinating explorations of how we have not only…
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New Trees Coming To Harlem
Look down. When you see these white brackets, outlining a rectangular spot on the sidewalk, you can be pretty sure that a new tree will be coming soon. The writing by the curb indicates to the contractor who will cut the sidewalk, and remove the rubble, what is to then be planted in this spot.…
