December 10, 2007

My plan for solving the mortgage crisis

There’s been a lot said about the so-called housing and subprime loan crisis. I’ve not yet written about it much, but my mortgage is technically subprime. Although I’m a prime borrower, I have one of the 1.5% of subprime loans that went to prime borrowers in 2Q07. (To an underwriter, my application is thus “Alt-A”.) Now according to my state’s junior Senator, a robotic and conniving woman named Hillary, I’m surely a victim of a “predatory” lender and as a victim, I deserve something. Call it HillaryCare for Housing. And it would be just as much a disaster as the original HillaryCare for health care.

As an alleged victim, I thought I’d offer my support for the three-point plan offered by Michelle Malkin:

Suck. It. Up.

I’m a homeowner only because of the miracle of subprime mortgage financing (which dates back to the even greater miracle of junk bonds), easy credit, and investors who were willing to provide easy credit. I was fully aware of the risks, as was my bank, who went belly-up a mere 10 days after making me my loan.

The problem with HillaryCare, Barney Frank’s plan, and even the Bush plan is that all would make it harder for me to get a future mortgage or refi from what I have. They’d also make it harder for people in my situation – mid-20s with six figures of non-mortgage debt – to become homeowners. And that would depress prices when I go to sell.

The “rescue” plans so far would impose penalties on mortgage lenders and/or investors, destroy the sanctity of contracts (such as Hillary’s 5-year “freeze”), or cause outright elimination of certain products, like the mortgage product I have. If Senators like Hillary want folks with subprime loans to be able to refinance when necessary, they need to continue to make credit available. This means supporting a strong dollar, not raising the capital gains tax (as Hillary begrudgingly admitted to Maria Bartiromo this morning), privatizing Fan and Fred, and most importantly, not placing huge restrictions on the functioning of the mortgage market. Too often government's knee-jerk reaction is to regulate something to death. They've already done it with Sarbox, and we see the predictable result that financial business is fleeing from New York to London, Dubai, and Hong Kong.

The best thing for the housing market right now is for those who took bad risks to Suck. It. Up. Homeowners who can’t afford their houses will have to become renters again. Suck. It. Up. Lenders who made bad loans will have to decide whether for foreclose or make a workout. Suck. It. Up. Investors in securities will have to decide whether to let the special servicers renegotiate terms or take foreclosure losses. Suck. It. Up. All the rest of the people who made millions during the run-up can ride it down too. Suck. It. Up.

The worst thing that could happen is for a Sarbox-like “solution” from the government—like all the major proposals so far would be--that would further restrict the availability of subprime loans to people like me. Some 94% of subprime loans, incuding mine, are paid early or on-time. Given that, it's hard even to argue that there is any crisis at all. I’m old enough to make mortgage decisions for myself, I know a sucker bet when I see one, and the last thing I need is for Hillary to come with a heavy-handed “rescue.” Suck. It. Up. You too, Hillary.

Posted by adrianjo at 12:29 AM

September 09, 2007

Most expensive Harlem brownstone ever?

The Harlem brownstone where I used to live until I bought the new condo has been listed for sale. It's about 4100 sf on four floors, with property taxes alone running $17,000/yr.

Here's a brief history of the neighborhood and the property, then the price. The property was built as the Harlem building boom was in full swing in the late 1880s. With crop yields in the area falling, the big Harlem farms like Alexander Hamilton's were auctioned off and the farmlands were taken-over by Irish squatters. The construction of the first train lines in 1880 opened the area as a convenient suburb of New York City. The wealthy came in droves, with famous residents including the Ochs family of New York Times fame. They even played polo at the original Polo Grounds at 110th & Lenox (now home to Harlem's most exclusive condo).

Built in 1888 as part of "Physicians Row", the place where I lived was presumably built for a wealthy family to be their mansion. A few years later, Harlem real estate prices collapsed. Another collapse around 1904 led to the first blacks moving into the neighborhood. As construction of Lincoln Center, Penn Station, the main Post Office, and Macy's forced blacks from those areas, and thanks to an entrepreneurial black real estate agent, Harlem became more and more attractive. By 1911, investment in the neighborhood had ceased, and the tipping point hit around 1920. That decade, 118,792 whites moved out and 87,417 blacks arrived. The Harlem Renaissance was soon in full swing. Langston Hughes wrote a few blocks away, and the greats of jazz were playing in the Big Apple clubs in the area.

But during the long stretch from 1929 until the late 1990s, Harlem gradually descended into being one of the city's most notorious neighborhoods. As building owners could find black tenants easily (they being unable to rent in other neighborhoods), maintenance wasn't a necessary expense. The Italian mob ran East Harlem, most notably from Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno's Palma Boys Social Club on 116th St. Five rounds of riots between 1935 and 1995 plus a drug rate 10X the Manhattan average further stigmatized the neighborhood. By the 1980s, fully 60% of Harlem real estate was owned by the City, presumably because it was abandoned.

Many buildings were converted to Single Room Occupancy, basically where a single room is rented without a kitchen or bathroom. The functional point of an SRO was to house the very poor or otherwise homeless, and SROs continue to exist in New York City. The 1956 Certificate of Occupancy of my former place shows that it was authorized as housing for 9 families in SRO conditions.

Against this backdrop, it's amazing that the house survived 119 years of this without being destroyed, as so many of the neighbors were. Dolores's late husband, whom I understand was head of the powerful Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (who included Malcom X), bought the place in the 1960s, though the title appeared to have been obtained in 1977 from the City of New York. Whether they bought in the 1960s or 1977, they probably paid a pittance, perhaps $20,000, though they were among the few Black/Hispanic property owners in Harlem. Dolores would live there until her death this spring.

The place is now one of the few in Harlem to have survived intact. Most Harlem homes by the 1990s were "shells"--literally empty buildings where the roof and floors had collapsed into the basement--or had been stripped of their original detail at some point. Perhaps this is what justified the astonishing price tag the estate has put on the house -- fully $3,087,000. This would set a new record for the most expensive Harlem brownstone ever. I was guessing it would be listed at around $1.6M, certainly not higher than $2M. I don't think that $3.1M will hold, but it will be interesting to watch. Here's the listing with pictures.

Posted by adrianjo at 09:52 PM

August 06, 2007

Some good news in real estate

Some good news today. The building where I bought my condo is now fully sold-out, which is good news for everyone here because there's no longer any inventory on the market. There are now fewer than 30 1BR or 2BR condos available north of 96th Street that cost less than I paid for mine. The second bit of good news is that rents in Manhattan continue through the roof, which is good for owners of real estate:

“The last time [it] was this tight was in 2000, and it wasn’t as unforgiving as it is now,” says Gary Malin, chief operating officer of Citi Habitats, which recently released a five-year study of Manhattan residential rentals. Save for a moment over the winter when the numbers inched up ever so slightly, vacancy rates have stayed well below one percent for a year, with Soho and Tribeca the tightest spots. In 2002, the average monthly rent for a Manhattan one-bedroom was $2,227; now it’s $2,737.

Posted by adrianjo at 11:25 PM

July 17, 2007

I never thought I'd make it this far

Exactly a year after the contract was signed, I finally was able to close on my condo. That’s 9 months behind schedule, bit it happened and it’s a huge relief to get on with my life. It is also precisely a year since I rejoined the firm, which means that half of my b-school debt has been forgiven.

I’ve been working like a dog lately, pulling 91 hours last week and working until 2am last night. Private equity clients are known for being demanding, though the more frequent unstaffed days partially make-up for the string of 1AM nights.

The closing itself was a circus of papers—probably 500 pages or more--and some characters I hope I don’t see again. There was me, my attorney, the sellers’ attorney, a title closer, and a lender’s representative.

Oh where should I start? My attorney was good. That’s why you hire a friend’s attorney and pay him more than what he asks for. But I’m remiss if I don't jump straight to the star of this show, the seller’s attorney, a grumpy old hag named Marlene from the firm Seiden & Schein. It’s unclear if she’s an attorney or a paralegal or an escaped mental patient. Indeed, she’s the bitchiest woman I’ve met since I was touring the former Soviet Union a year ago. Combining the worst of a bully and an incompetent fool, she was incredibly rude to my attorney, single-handedly raising the tension in the room as she insisted that everything be done exactly as she demanded. When my attorney, who’s about the most laid-back guy you’ll ever meet, pointed out that they weren’t handling transfer tax payments according to my contract, she wigged-out.

“Well I just don’t know how to handle it that way. That rider is wrong. I don’t know who wrote it that way!”

My attorney did, because he was smart. Score another for him: “Sorry, that’s what’s in the contract.”

“Well I just don’t know how to handle it. We never do it that way. I don’t know what to do; we’ll have to do it the way we always do.”

My thought: you’re supposedly working for a law firm. Maybe it’s an el-cheapo two-bit law firm, and maybe you’re one of the reasons that the project is 9 months behind schedule, but figure it out.

My attorney didn't budge.

She then stormed out of the room declaring, “I just can’t handle this.” I’m really not sure that this warranted a nervous breakdown—it's just a contract, and it's not your money at stake.

She wasn’t seen again for perhaps 20 minutes, which was as well with me, though I kept wondering if a real lawyer would turn up. Or maybe a professional who was in control of herself?

Meanwhile the lender has hired some random guy who’s on the phone discussing his fantasy baseball scores, burping, and declaring that if I forget to sign everything, “we can just forge it tonight.” I don’t know where they found this guy, but his closest analog would be Larry Burns, including the shirt with tie but the top button undone. There’s nothing that says “oaf” more than a guy who buys a shirt with too small a neck size and then wears a tie despite being unable to close the top button. That makes me really comfortable when this guy is writing out multi-hundred-thousand-dollar checks.

Seiden & Schien’s offices were completely covered in foot-tall stacks of papers. In two of the large windowed offices I saw, there was virtually no horizontal space not buried in at least 3 inches of paper. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such messy offices. No wonder identity theft is so easy.

The last character in all this was a title insurance woman, who was at least semi-professional and had her stuff mostly in order, though she turned up 15 minutes late. The shocking thing is that I’m expected to tip her $50 to $75, which is perhaps the most absurd tip request I’ve heard since I was in India six years ago. Here I’m paying $8600 to the title company (Judicial Title), who pays out less than 1% of premiums in claims, and I’m supposed to tip their rep? Get friggin’ bent. I tip taxi drivers, hair dressers, doormen, porters, waiters, barmaids, cocktail servers, bouncers, maitre d’s, superintendents, and baristas, all of whom have reasonably hard customer service jobs. Still, I don’t tip the shoe salesman at Bergdorf who gets a nice commission off my Ferragamos, and I don’t tip people to whom I pay their firm $8600 and only hire them because I have to. What ever happened to just doing your job?

Marlene, the old seller’s legal person, lost control again when we mentioned that the cherry floor isn’t done totally to spec (as I've been saying for two months), but she did finally a smile when she handed me the keys, which was a great feeling. It’s over. I’m moving this weekend. Then I’ll celebrate. I never thought I’d make it this far.

Posted by adrianjo at 09:34 PM

June 24, 2007

It's time to move

I was supposed to close on the purchase of my new condo on Friday, after 9 months of delays. It didn't happen, because the developers still don't have their stuff together. They're now so far behind schedule that one wonder if they'll ever get the building finished, and why it has taken so long.

Meanwhile the warm temperatures have brought a surge of violence in the neighborhood over the last three weeks. Start with last night. Within a 5 block radius of here, there were 6 shootings. From CBS:

Harlem Violence: 6 Shootings, 4 Blocks, 3 Hours

NEW YORK Harlem streets turned into a shooting gallery overnight as six men were wounded in four separate shootings.

The shootings happened within four blocks and three hours, but police say they don't appear to be related. All the victims are in stable condition.

The violence began with a double shooting at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue shortly after 10 p.m.

Within an hour, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old had been shot in separate incidents on neighboring blocks on Lenox Avenue.

Then there was another double shooting shortly before 1:00 a.m. Sunday at 124th Street and 7th Avenue. Police say they've taken a suspect into custody in that shooting.

The worst part of all this is that the victims refuse to talk to police, part of the "stop snitching" mantra. Sometimes people in this community are their own worst enemies.

And a gun battle at a fried chicken joint overnight Friday:

A fistfight escalated into gunfire in Harlem early yesterday, leaving an MTA employee dead and the shooter wounded by police who intervened, officials and witnesses said.

The alleged gunman, Daniel Israel, 20, opened fire on Warren Dandridge, 26, a subway conductor from Staten Island, outside a chicken take-out restaurant near the intersection of East 110th Street and Fifth Avenue around 12:20 a.m., striking him in the abdomen, buttocks and ankle, police said.

Israel also fired at two of Dandridge's friends who ran to assist him, wounding one in the arm and grazing the other, police said. Two police officers assigned to a nearby housing project heard the gunshots as they approached in a van and saw Israel running from the scene, a police source said.

Both officers chased the suspect on foot for a short distance and fired at him, striking him once in the abdomen. A police source said that the suspect's gun discharged during the chase but that it was still being determined if he fired at the two officers. Dandridge was transported to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Dandridge was a subway conductor with the MTA's IRT division and had been on the job about 18 months, according to MTA officials. (Source)

Two weeks earlier there were shootings on the same corner of Lenox:

Four shot in Harlem shooting

(New York - WABC, June 10, 2007) - Police continue to hunt for the person who shot and injured four people in Harlem.

It happened Saturday night on Lenox Avenue between 126th Street and 127th Street.
The two men and two women were taken to Harlem Hospital and are all expected to survive.

So far, police say they have no suspects and no word on what sparked the shooting.

The shootings come a few days after seven people were left dead in a 24-hour cycle of violence in Brooklyn and Harlem. (Source)

And a few days before that, a shooting in the projects of Spanish Harlem. Notice how the news reports don't say that this is in the projects.

Double shooting in E. HarlemTwo men fatally shot

Two men were fatally shot outside an apartment complex in East Harlem this morning.

Eyewitness News has learned the victims -- ages 17 and 27 -- were both hit in front of 404 East 105th Street at 4:30 a.m.

Police say the 27-year-old man was shot numerous times, and the 17-year-old was shot once in the chest. They were both rushed to nearby hospitals and pronounced dead.

Witnesses tell police the suspects, as many as three men, were seen fleeing the scene on foot. No arrests were immediately made. (Source)

The good news is that these shootings are rarely random and usually stem from kerfuffles over drugs, lovers, or whatever. Still, isn't it time that I move?

Posted by adrianjo at 06:03 PM

June 05, 2006

Yet another death on Lenox Ave

I've written tongue-in-cheek before about the various murders (link 1, link 2, link 3) that happen on a regular basis in Harlem, but today's news is really tragic. At 122nd & Lenox, the nearest intersection to my apartment, a 30-year-old law student tried to stop traffic so his crutches-using girlfriend could cross. He was struck by an SUV and killed on the spot. The driver braked then accelerated and kept right on going.

It's not unusual for cars to speed down Lenox at highway speeds, and at 4.15AM, the only people driving in Harlem are either high, drunk, or mentally insane. With any luck, this driver will be brought to justice. Peace be upon the victim and his family.

What's wierd is that if the young lady is on crutches, why didn't the cab turn onto 122nd and let them off right in front of the house? It puts an extra 30 cents on the meter, but it's some of the best 30 cents that can be spent.

Posted by adrianjo at 12:05 AM

June 01, 2006

Shout-out from Harlem Fur

The guy who runs the blog Harlem Fur sent me a shout-out this morning. His blog covers Harlem much more extensively than I can, since I seem to be here so rarely. He even has regular postings about the various street shootings here. ("Street shootings" = crews shooting film for movies and TV shows, of which there's at least one a week in Harlem.) He's also had a couple of mentions on the venerable curbed.com. Check it out.

Posted by adrianjo at 10:15 AM

May 03, 2006

2004 was a quiet year

Tiffany and I went to look at a condo project today. I've been thinking it might be time to buy a place over the next year or so, and this place is a truly remarkable bargain. For example, the elevators are private and keyed, meaning that the elevator stops and opens directly into your apartment. It also has the granite counters and a built-in flat-screen TV in the kitchen.

The big problem with this project that it's in a far corner of Spanish Harlem a full three avenues from the nearest subway. Tiffany's "unsafe neighborhood" instincts immediately were activated, and she declared the area "even more unsafe than where you live right now."

Is it?

The New York Times website has a convenient google map listing all the homocides committed in New York City from 2003-2005. Select a boro, then zoom in and click the balloons for details on the homocide.

Here in Harlem, the council estates (i.e. high-rise housing projects) are quite obviously dangerous. The MLK projects on Malcolm X Blvd between 113th and 116th, where there was a murder last month, have at least a murder or two each year. There have been two murders within 800 feet of my current apartment over those three years, and they were both domestic disputes, so they're not too worrisome. My initial suspicions--that the Mt Morris Historic District is a relatively safe pocket of Harlem--seem reasonable, at least as a far as murders go. (knock on wood)

What about this new condo project?

At least 2004 was a quiet year.

Posted by adrianjo at 11:24 PM

April 10, 2006

Taxis spotted in Harlem!

Here in Harlem, and in much of the "outer boros", folks get around by calling a "car service." More typically, and less legally, one flags down an unmarked car on the street, haggles a price, then hopes the driver isn't totally loony. Either way, one winds up in an old Towncar bought on the cheap from the various limo services around town, then driven a few hundred-thousand miles more than any American car was ever designed to go. In fact, there are garages that specialize in keeping Lincoln Towncars on the road for a half-million miles or more. Overall I actually prefer the "car service" system to taxis, since the Towncars don't have that leg-room-eliminating partition and the fee is fixed--no cursing at the meter when the light turns red.

Recently, there have been some cabs sighted! Hell has frozen, and here is proof.

Posted by adrianjo at 09:54 PM

April 07, 2006

More murders in Harlem

Damn, two murders in Harlem last night, one of them just down the street.

MANHATTAN: TWO MEN DIE IN SHOOTINGS Two men were killed and a third man was wounded in two separate shootings in Harlem last night, the police said. ... In the second shooting, which took place around 9 p.m. at 114th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, Barry Miller, 34, was shot in the head, the police said. Three men fled that scene. There have been no arrests in either case.

Posted by adrianjo at 06:02 PM

February 27, 2006

Shooting Lincoln, in a different sort of way

The house was visited today by Harvest Films, who created the famous Bud Light skydiver ad--the one where they throw the beers out of a plane and the pilot runs and jumps out after them. By 6.30AM this morning, it looked like the circus had come to Harlem. The block was filled end-to-end with at least 25 production guys, multiple tents, fake greenery, a buffet cart, giant lights, screens, three director chairs, two extra-long movie-star trailers, and two Lincoln Zephyr cars. Meanwhile it was about 20 degrees outside and the film crew left the front door hanging open.

Dolores, the owner of the houes, has built a good relationship with various film crews, who like the curved front stairs and the fact that she leaves the front parlour empty. Toyota filmed a commercial here a few years ago, and Third Watch filmed for 10 days on the lower level. Apparently they found her by going door-to-door in Harlem (itself a dangerous proposition) and asking if people have houses with no walls from front to back.

I didn't hang around for the Lincoln filming today, but apparently a couple of actors walked out of the house and into their waiting Lincoln Zephyr. In other words, it took a day to film a few seconds of footage. And it took at least 30 people to do it. No wonder it costs $200M to make a full-length movie.

Here's the scene looking down the street at 6.30AM after the circus arrived:

Notice that the car is missing a back door. That was left on the front steps. We'll have to wait for the commercial to air to figure out why they're advertising a car without a door.

Posted by adrianjo at 09:50 PM

February 23, 2006

More filming in Harlem

Film and TV groupies might be interested to visit my block on Monday, where some sort of filming will occur at the house where I live. Dolores, the owner of the house, doesn't even know what they're filming. She just knows that (1) "they're going to pay" her and (2) they're going to "take care" of her early-1990s-vintage Caddilac, which she drives maybe once a month and whose on-street parking spot she guards religiously. The last commercial filmed in the house was for Toyota, and (based on the signs warning the neighbors to expect disruption) I think this one is for Lincoln cars.

Posted by adrianjo at 12:06 PM

February 12, 2006

Snow day: the biggest snowstorm in New York history

Around 4PM yesterday, it started snowing in New York. By the time we went out to the clubs last night, the velvet ropes were covered in an inch or so of snow. At 5.30 this morning, thunder sounded and (according to the New York Times), lightning lit up the sky. Now, 22 hours after it started, this storm is still going strong, and there is over 23" of snow on the ground in Central Park. It's the biggest blizzard in 50 years in Manhattan.

I went for a walk around Harlem around 11AM today. I was surprised at all the white folks out walking. We all looked a bit stupid. It reminded me of a comic we heard last weekend. His routine went something like this:

It's not that black folks don't like white folks. Black people just think white people are strange. Look at all the dumb stuff white folks do. White people pay taxes. White people don't talk in the theater. White people buy food at the theater, don't sneak in their own bucket.

Add to this: white people go walking around in the blizzard. Here's what I saw on my walk. Click the pictures to enlarge.

123rd St was pretty much impassible.


There weren't too many car services or cabbies out today. This cabbie has the right idea. Sit it out and watch the India-Pakistan cricket match.

The city commandeers garbage trucks to act as snow plows, which means that garbage won't be picked up for a few days.

I wish the front-end loader here would turn its attention to the boarded-up buildings behind it.

These grates over the subway stop always cause trouble when I'm with a girl in high-heels, but today they are a welcome sight.

Update: Officially, this is the worst blizzard in history: 26.9" in Central Park, beating 26.4" in 1947.

Posted by adrianjo at 01:47 PM

February 10, 2006

Murder in Harlem

The guys at the office have a bet going over whether I'll be a victim of a violent crime whilst living in Harlem. There was recently a murder in broad daylight a little ways up Lenox:

[A] gunman entered the Dunkin' Donuts on 145th Street just west of Lenox Avenue in Harlem and demanded money, the police said.

Before he fled empty-handed, having been unable to open the cash register, he killed the manager, Joy Kar, with three shots from a handgun.

Witnesses said the gunman had entered with his face covered by a bandanna and pointed his gun at Mr. Kar and another employee behind the counter.

As others in the restaurant fled to the street or to a neighboring Hess service station, the gunman shot Mr. Kar in the back after he refused the demand for cash.

The gunman shot two more times as Mr. Kar attempted to run away, the police said. [more]

Posted by adrianjo at 06:10 PM

January 31, 2006

Breaking news in Harlem

There's some shit going down in Harlem. A police helicopter with a giant spotlight is flying over the house in circles. Last time this happened, it was 3AM and a guy was murdered 10 blocks away as I was coming home from the bars. Thank goodness I called a car service that night!

Posted by adrianjo at 08:36 PM

January 05, 2006

Need weed, need weed

A City Councilwoman in Baltimore is proposting to close bodegas that are havens for illegal drug activity, reports Convenience Store News:

In an effort to reduce drug dealing around corner convenience stores in residential neighborhoods, a city councilwoman is pushing for legislation that would give police the authority to temporarily close such businesses.

Illegal drugs? At bodegas? It couldn't possibly be! If they did this in New York City, I would immediately suggest they close the 123rd & Malcolm X bodega, where weed is smoked openly and a guy sometimes walks in circles muttering "need weed, need weed."

Posted by adrianjo at 03:33 PM

November 01, 2005

Airing dirty laundry

My scary ghetto laundromat on Fifth Avenue has been booted out by the landlord... maybe it has something to do with gentrification or something, so I guess it's indirectly partially sorta my fault, or whatever.

I fear I may have to buy one of those old lady push-carts to haul my laundry up to 129th St, since 7 blocks or about 0.4 miles is too far to carry a month's worth of clothes. Here is a message on the subject from another guy who lives in the house:

Yes, I just discovered the loss of our laundry. However, I found a new place at Lenox and 129th. I rode the bus looking for a place and discovered this place. It is on the east side of Lenox and is brand new. Open 24/7, it is bright and very clean although a little more expensive. You can walk there. They'll let you drink a bud as long as it is in a paper bag.

The real question: do they let patrons smoke bud?

Posted by adrianjo at 11:33 AM

October 24, 2005

Trick-or-Treat starts early

The Halloween Trio was trick-or-treating in Harlem this weekend: Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Freddy Ferrer. Freddy, the Democratic candidate for Mayor, trails Michael Bloomberg by some 30 points, and this was before Bloomy was endorsed by the far-left New York Times editorial board:

If he continues his record of accomplishment over the next four years, [Bloomberg] may be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in New York history.

...

Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, has run a creditable race, but his major campaign point - the existence of two New Yorks, rich and poor - actually argues Mr. Bloomberg's case. No mayor has devoted more effort to improving the schools, the poor children's lifeline. The city's public hospitals have been transformed in many neighborhoods. And if Mr. Bloomberg stole a page from Mr. Ferrer's playbook in his recently announced plan for building more affordable housing, it was a good page to hijack.

It's heartening to see that the Times picked-up on how improving schools, which entails providing school choice and battling teachers' unions--is a civil rights issue. Perhaps we might see others on the Left take-up the same argument.

As for the Halloween trio, it's hard to believe that anyone listens Revs Al or Jesse. After Rev Al decided at a BBQ party in my neighbor's backyard that Freddy was the lesser of several evils, a poll found Al's endorsement caused more people to vote against Freddy than for Freddy. From what I heard listening by my window, Al said that Freddy was an idiot but was blacks' only hope of keeping alive an "alliance" with Hispanics. If Al cared for Ferrer, he would crawl into a hole until after the election; Al is only talking for his own sake. Can Jesse--a political opportunist just like Al--have much different an effect than Al?

Al and Jesse can't even keep their stories straight. Consider the Times' coverage:

Mr. Jackson ... [called Bloomberg] a "financier of the right wing of the Republican Party."

Mr. Sharpton argued that if Mr. Bloomberg wanted widespread Democratic support, he could have rejoined the party, which he left to run for mayor in 2001.

One bozo (Jesse Jackson) claims that Bloomy is a "financier of the right wing" and the other (Rev Al) claims that Bloomy is really a Democrat. No wonder more than half of blacks claim they'll vote to reelect Bloomberg. I don't think that black voters are as stupid as Revs Jesse and Al take them to be.

UPDATE: The latest poll shows that Bloomy is headed towards a landslide, gaining double the votes of Freddy.

Posted by adrianjo at 11:16 PM

October 04, 2005

It's getting hot in here

The Mt. Morris Historic District, the Manhattan neighborhood where I live, has been in the papers several times as rowhouse sale prices exceed $2M. I covered the move-in of a well-known film director recently. Here is an article from the Daily News with a typical tidbit:

In 1989, Humphrey Stephenson, a muscular, soft-spoken, 56-year-old printer, bought a brownstone on W. 119th St. for $65,000. It was a block plagued by murders.

Today he's refusing multiple offers for it, most recently $1.8 million. He wants $2 million, since the house across the street sold for that.

"I worked very hard on this place. In the '80s, no one wanted to live in Harlem," he said. Today, his neighbors are doctors and lawyers, most of them white.

"All of Harlem is hot, but some of it is scorching," said veteran broker Willie Kathryn Suggs.

Hamilton Heights and Mt. Morris Park are drawing black, white and foreign buyers hungry for big, historic houses with easy subway access to downtown, said Spencer Means, a vice president with Corcoran Realty.

Sounds like an internet stock.

Posted by adrianjo at 06:08 PM

September 12, 2005

Al Sharpton's dirty laundry

I came home from the laundromat on Saturday to find news cameras and trucks parked outside and Al Sharpton speaking in the next-door-neighbor's back yard. (Al's limo was double-parked in front of a fire plug.) The guy who lives next door is Al's attorney, a job that surely provides lots of steady business.

From what I heard while folding my laundry, Al was meeting in the back yard with nearly 30 black leaders to decide whom to endorse in tomorrow's New York mayoral election. As if it matters. Blacks here are in a pickle because the "black candidate" is last among four Democratic contenders. The leading Hispanic candidate, Freddy Ferrer, recently offended black leaders and gave up a large lead in the race with comments they considered insensitive. Freddy now finds himself neck-and-neck with some weenie. If Weiner actually wins, it will lock blacks out of City Hall through 2013, since Weiner would get the nomination as incumbent in 2009. Hence Al's having to chose between two evils: endorse foot-in-mouth Freddy or the loser "black candidate." (In private, Al calls African-Americans "blacks".)

The hour-long meeting was decidedly down-beat, since Bloomberg will crush whatever lamb the Democrats sacrifice. The most cheers were garnered when Al reminesced about the various marches he had done--"we marched on washington, we marched on Wall St., we marched on City Hall." The meeting started with Al invoking supporters to "maintain the Black-Hispanic alliance" and ended with Al's attorney charging his listeners to "stand with Rev. Al in supporting the black community" with "no dissent." Black leaders are great at organizing marches, but after blacks monolitically supported Democrats with "no dissent" for 40 years, what do they have to show for it? By contrast, Hispanics (who don't consider themselves in such an alliance with Al Sharpton) divide their vote and get kowtowed to by both major parties.

Throughout the meeting, I never heard it cross the mind of Sharpton that they might consider supporting the clear winner, Bloomberg--since, well, Bloomberg is a sort-of Republican. Better a lousy black candidate than a good Republican. This is how we get stuck with mayors like John Street, Harold Washington, and the numbskull who runs New Orleans. The discussion was which evil to choose of many, which candidate to endorse while holding a giant clothes-pin over one's nose. At least Freddy can gloss over Al's many reservations and trumpet the endorsement on his website.

Incidentally, Al urged his supporters "not to talk to the media outside." Too late. After I told the press corps that the meeting was occuring in the back yard, they giddily set-up listening devices and heard the whole thing first-hand. No wonder some blacks hate whites in Harlem.

Posted by adrianjo at 07:37 AM

September 07, 2005

The healthy version costs more in Harlem

Pathmark of Harlem has Doritos on promotion this week. Doritos, high in fats and sodium, are about as unhealthy as corn chips can get. In fact, Doritos' maker, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, dominates the salty-snack aisle and makes few products of great nutritional value (except for Tropicana and some recently-acquired businesses like Quaker).

I have generally been skeptical of claims that food companies are responsible for America's obesity crisis. Unlike cancer-stick makers, America's purveyors of junk food never claimed that their product was healthy. And recently, Frito-Lay has slowly introduced baked versions, though these products are sold at higher prices and have increased sodium per serving. (E.g. Baked Doritos have 220 mg vs. 200g for regular Doritos). Given their high sodium content, Baked Doritos are hardly healthy, but indulge me for a moment if I call Baked Doritos "the healthy version."

This week's promotion at the Harlem Pathmark might cause one to change his mind on the culpability of junk-food sellers for the obesity epidemic. Why? Because in very small letters is a note that the promotion "excludes Baked." (Here is a copy of the sales circular.) In other words, the market leader of a junk food category is in a poverty-stricken neighborhood like Harlem, where obesity is particularly acute, charging twice as much for the health version of its product as the unhealthy version. Meanwhile, the company touts "the important role that [PepsiCo] can play in helping people lead healthier lives" especially "in the Hispanic and African-American communities." (See also.) When in a market where most customers are poor and can afford few healthy foods, a company who charges twice as much for the healthy version may arguably be considered culpable for contributing to an obesity problem.

I see no reason to explain charging a high price for a healthier version of one's product. In a hyper-competitive aisle like salty snacks, it is highly likely that an allowance from Frito-Lay is behind the promotion. Cost of sales and distribution for a baked product might be higher, but cost of sales at the manufacturer level is very small in proportion to overall cost. Frito-Lay faces significant distribution costs because Doritos are sent DSD (direct-to-store), but distribution costs for the baked product are probably little more than for the fried product, depending on how fixed costs are allocated.

It would seem reasonable that Baked Doritos sell at a higher price (i.e. are not in special deals) because Frito-Lay knows that conscious eaters will pay more for them. Unfortunately, in neighborhoods like Harlem, a promotion that pitches Doritos but excludes the baked version looks more like Frito-Lay is gouging the poor by making healthy eating prohibitively expensive. If Frito-Lay is to run promotions on Doritos, baked Doritos should not be excluded. A family that scrapes for every dollar, like most in Harlem, should not have to pay an extra $1.74 to eat a bit more healthfully.

PepsiCo has been invited to respond; I will post a reply if/when received. (Indeed, I note that I'm not anti-Pepsi: I defended Indra Nooryi after her controversial speech here at Columbia Business School in May.)

UPDATE 1: Christine Jones (no relation), PepsiCo VP of Consumer Relations, has written to say that she has forwarded the request for comment to her "counterpart at Frito-Lay."

UPDATE 2 (9/13): I received the following from an anonymous Consumer Affairs representative at Frito-Lay today. Forgive them for addressing me as Ms. Jones:

Dear Ms. Jones:

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your question about pricing on
Baked Doritos. Frito-Lay is committed to providing consumers with the highest
quality snacks and keeping our price levels as low as possible. As with all
consumer goods, the prices charged are influenced by raw materials and
manufacturing, as well as distribution costs. Since they were first introduced
in the late 1990's, the baked varieties of our chips remain more expensive for
us to make than our regular chips. As a result, the higher production costs
for Baked Doritos are reflected in the price to our consumers with a suggested
retail price that is the same across the country. Just so you know, there have
been a variety of reduced price events on the Baked products offered at all
Pathmark stores throughout this year.

Frito-Lay is committed to providing consumers with great tasting, superior
quality choices that cross the spectrum of nutritional variety. For years,
we've led the industry in research and testing of different cooking oils. In
early 2003, we completed a full conversion to non-hydrogenated cooking oils
virtually eliminating trans fat from our snack chips. Trans fats are
considered by the scientific community as among the worst types of fats because
research indicates that they raise the LDL (or bad cholesterol) while lowering
the HDL (or good cholesterol). Frito-Lay was also the first company to include
trans fat information on the nutrition label of its packaging - prior to the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration's final ruling in July 2003 requiring the
inclusion of this information by January 1, 2006. The company actively
followed the nutrition research on trans fatty acids and moved proactively to
include trans fat information in accordance with the FDA's interim guidelines.

Moreover, in our conversion out of hydrogenated oils, Frito-Lay switched to
using corn oil in brands such as Doritos, Tostitos, and Cheetos (Fritos have
always been made with corn oil). Corn oil is very high in mono and
polyunsaturated fats. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that
most fats/oils should come from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated
fatty acids such as corn and other vegetable oils. These fats are recommended
because total and LDL-cholesterol levels are reduced when saturated and trans
fats in the diet are replaced with unsaturated oils such as corn oil which
helps reduce the risk of heart disease. Therefore, Frito-Lay brand snacks made
with liquid vegetable oils are a healthy choice for all consumers. In
addition, Sunchips brand snack chips are made with sunflower oil - also very
high in unsaturated fats - and provide a full serving of whole grains.

Our snacks can be part of a balanced diet and part of a healthy, active
lifestyle. We are committed to continue to look for ways to offer consumers a
wide variety of choices and sell them at a price that represents a fair value.
Thanks again for your comments and the constructive spirit in which they were
offered.

Sincerely,

Frito-Lay Consumer Affairs

Reference #: AAAA-6FZSDP

To which I replied:

Thank you for your reply concerning the significantly higher price of Baked Doritos in low-income neighborhoods of New York and the contribution this makes to the national obesity problem. You claim that the cost of producing and distributing baked product is higher. I find it difficult to believe that this would justify a 100% price difference.

For a typical branded food product, raw materials, conversion, packaging, and distribution costs typically total around 20-30% of gross sales value. Thus, in order to justify a 100% higher price for Baked, the costs of Baked would have to be 4 to 5X as high. (This would produce the same unit margin per package.) While a Baked product will always be more expensive until it has the same volume as the fried product (because of overhead allocations), I don’t think that the difference is enough to drive the 100% differential in price observed in the Harlem Pathmark. Variable distribution costs, for example, are the same for baked and fried because they use the same DSD. (Perhaps you could provide some numbers to back your assertion of higher costs.)

Furthermore, your response does not address the claim that you charge more for a healthier version of your product because wealthy consumers are willing to pay more for the healthier version. Why else would you put “excludes Baked” in the half-off ad? If you are running promotions separately on Baked, could you please explain?

If food companies want to avoid blame for the obesity epidemic, they cannot charge premiums for healthier versions of their product in low-income neighborhoods like Harlem where people cannot afford many food options. The healthier product must be made just as accessible to the poor as the base product.

Posted by adrianjo at 09:23 PM

August 09, 2005

Burning down the council estate

Tucker Carlson is among the more moronic talking-heads, and here is an equally moronic debate over whether half of NYC housing project units should be smoke-free. The panel completely misses the point: if one is living in a home that is paid for by taxpayers like me, he does not have a right to do whatever he wants to that home. In fact, I think the bill doesn't go far enough; all housing projects should be smoke-free. If one wants to burn tobacco, let him buy his own house and do it there. Besides, anyone so poor that they are living in public housing ought not to be spending their public assistance money (again provided by me the taxpayer) on cigarettes.

generalgranthouses.jpg
The General Grant Houses, one of many NYCHA properties in Harlem.

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July 27, 2005

Forty lost years

When a Nor'easter shut down New York City in late January, I walked home to find a Harlem father in the street having a snowball fight with his two sons. I don't know why I found this scene so quaint. Maybe it was because it reminded me of my own childhood in Indiana, a bit of Norman Rockwell on West 122nd St. Or maybe it was because the scene was one of the few times in this neighborhood that I've seen a father tending his children rather than smoking weed at midnight outside the bodega at 123rd & Malcolm X.

City Journal's new Summer edition [via] has an interesting essay that covers the evolution of the family in ghettos like Central Harlem: "The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies." The essay argues that much of the reason for the existance of a permanent underclass can be summed up by noting two facts:

1. entrenched, multigenerational poverty is largely black; and 2. it is intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city.

By now, these facts shouldn’t be hard to grasp. Almost 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers. Those mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor, even after a post-welfare-reform decline in child poverty. They are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children. Sophisticates often try to dodge the implications of this bleak reality by shrugging that single motherhood is an inescapable fact of modern life, affecting everyone from the bobo Murphy Browns to the ghetto “baby mamas.” Not so; it is a largely low-income—and disproportionately black—phenomenon. The vast majority of higher-income women wait to have their children until they are married. The truth is that we are now a two-family nation, separate and unequal—one thriving and intact, and the other struggling, broken, and far too often African-American.

Before the collossal failure called the War on Poverty began, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a prophetic report noting how the ghetto family was in disarray. “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" wrote a prescription for resolving the growing existance of a black underclass, but black pride and feminism prevented an adequate response.

More than most social scientists, Moynihan, steeped in history and anthropology, understood what families do. They “shape their children’s character and ability,” he wrote. “By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child.” What children learned in the “disorganized home[s]” of the ghetto, as he described through his forest of graphs, was that adults do not finish school, get jobs, or, in the case of men, take care of their children or obey the law. Marriage, on the other hand, provides a “stable home” for children to learn common virtues. Implicit in Moynihan’s analysis was that marriage orients men and women toward the future, asking them not just to commit to each other but to plan, to earn, to save, and to devote themselves to advancing their children’s prospects. Single mothers in the ghetto, on the other hand, tended to drift into pregnancy, often more than once and by more than one man, and to float through the chaos around them. Such mothers are unlikely to “shape their children’s character and ability” in ways that lead to upward mobility. Separate and unequal families, in other words, meant that blacks would have their liberty, but that they would be strangers to equality. Hence Moynihan’s conclusion: “a national effort towards the problems of Negro Americans must be directed towards the question of family structure.”

Over the course of the next 40 years, Moynihan's predictions proved themselves true.

Throughout the 1980s, the inner city—and the black family—continued to unravel. Child poverty stayed close to 20 percent, hitting a high of 22.7 percent in 1993. Welfare dependency continued to rise, soaring from 2 million families in 1970 to 5 million by 1995. By 1990, 65 percent of all black children were being born to unmarried women.

In ghetto communities like Central Harlem, the number was closer to 80 percent. By this point, no one doubted that most of these children were destined to grow up poor and to pass down the legacy of single parenting to their own children.

By the mid-1990s, the ghetto's problems finally bottomed-out as the national conversation turned to traditional family values.

All told, the nation is at a cultural inflection point that portends change. Though they always caution that “marriage is not a panacea,” social scientists almost uniformly accept the research that confirms the benefits for children growing up with their own married parents. Welfare reform and tougher child-support regulations have reinforced the message of personal responsibility for one’s children. The Bush administration unabashedly uses the word “marriage” in its welfare policies. There are even raw numbers to support the case for optimism: teen pregnancy, which finally started to decline in the mid-nineties in response to a crisper, teen-pregnancy-is-a-bad-idea cultural message, is now at its lowest rate ever.

And finally, in the ghetto itself there is a growing feeling that mother-only families don’t work. ...

If change really is in the air, it’s taken 40 years to get here—40 years of inner-city misery for the country to reach a point at which it fully signed on to the lesson of Moynihan’s report. Yes, better late than never; but you could forgive lost generations of ghetto men, women, and children if they found it cold comfort.

Forty years after the Moynihan report, perhaps we will start to see more Norman Rockwell in Central Harlem.

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June 21, 2005

It's not hard to be more friendly than most New Yorkers

The Society pages of the NYTimes note a recent arrival to this block of 122nd St in Harlem, documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles, who spent $1M on the brownstone that formerly was the residence of Harlem's well-known historian Michael Adams. He is also moving his film studio from midtown to a building at 127th & Malcolm X Blvd. There have been strange things happening at the house since I moved in--it seems to be under perpetual renovation--but word of the new arrival is quickly spreading around the neighborhood. As the NYT says:

Mr. Maysles, 78, is a seminal figure in the world of documentary filmmaking and is best known for works like "Gimme Shelter," about the 1969 concert tour of the Rolling Stones, during which his crew filmed the murder of a young concertgoer at a show at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco; and "Primary," which tracked John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey through the 1960 Democratic primary campaign in Wisconsin.

He has also spent more than a quarter of a century documenting the efforts of the artist Christo to create one of his projects in Central Park, which finally came to fruition in February. He is now editing the film, tentatively called "The Gates," and said it would be shown on HBO later this year.

Maysles is moving out of the Dakota, a stuffy and exclusive old building that is home of such folks as Yoko Ono and Luaren Bacall. The coop board there recently rejected Melanie Griffith, who was to buy Maysles's unit. Talking about his new digs in Harlem, Maysles says:

As for Harlem, Mr. Maysles said he is "delighted" with his new surroundings. Their house, which was built in the 1880's [by the same builder as my place], has fireplaces on every floor and the original woodwork. They have filled the house with artwork, much of it by their children. They have found an Ethiopian restaurant that they like.

One day shortly after moving in, he struck up a conversation with a neighbor and discovered that his current studio was near the woman's workplace. They shared a cab downtown. Mr. Maysles said he has found Harlem to be "more friendly than in the other parts of Manhattan."

It's not like the bar for friendliness is set very high in New York.

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June 19, 2005

Happy Juneteenth

If you lived in Harlem, you'd be hard-pressed not to know that today is Juneteenth. There are still some prime parade-watching spots available where my street meets Fifth Ave.

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June 17, 2005

Seen in Harlem: cops, cats, and conflagrations

If you remove the cars from my street, it could easily pass for being from the 1920s. This has made it popular with filmmakers, who occasionally block off the street, line it with old cars, set up big buffets, roll out RVs with stars on the doors, bring lots of white people to the neighborhood, and "do they thing." I thought that this was happening this morning, when I stepped out and saw that the street was blocked off and there were six cop cars on both sides of my house. I wasn't sure if I was walking onto a set, getting involved in a drug bust, or about to be served papers. It turned out to be none of the above, but I haven't figured it out.

In related news, here is a picture from an apartment fire last week. A unit in a pre-war tenement caught on fire, flames shot up a ventilation tube to the roof, and the smoke drifted down and into my windows. You can't see the fire itself, but the ladder is going to the 6th floor roof. The whole thing was annoying, but it brought out 6 hook-and-ladder and pumper trucks plus two brigade captains and most of the neighbors.

aptfireSM.jpg


In related news, here is a picture of a cat that showed-up outside my third-floor window. He went away after a few minutes.

There is a cat that lives across the street; he's owned by a black family and named White Boy because of his color. He once got out, leading to the owners walking up and down the street yelling, "Here, White Boy! Where are you, White Boy?"

catonledgeSM.jpg

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June 11, 2005

Meeting in a pea patch

A friend recently sent a copy of Spirit of Harlem: A Portrait of America's Most Exciting Neighborhood. The title is a bit self-aggrandizing; there might be more exciting neighborhoods, but perhaps none more famous than Harlem.

Spirit of Harlem covers stories from living Harlemites, both life-long residents and recent arrivals. Evelyn Cunningham writes:

In 1960, Cuba's Fidel Castro stayed at the Hotel Theresa [at 125th & 7th], and Russian premier Nikita Krushchev came to visit him. ... I got a room on the same floor as Castro, and I ran up and down the hallway, with a pencil and paper, hoping to get an interview. One day, I came out of my room and there were dozens of chickes in the hallway. Live chickens, running and clucking. Castro's people had brought them from Cuba for him to eat. I interviewed Castro in the hallway for a brief moment before his guards rushed him along.

Isabel Powell, age 93, and first wife of Abyssinan's famous Rev. Adam Clayton Powell recalls:

There was a Jewish diamond merchant on the corner of 125th and 7th, right where the state office building named for Adam stands today. The owner liked Adam. He told Adam, he said, "You can either have a donation of a thousand dollars or this diamond ring." The man said he smuggled the diamond out of Nazi Germany in his rectum. It was five carats. Adam took the ring and gave it to me when he proposed, this very right I have on my finger. From the ass of a Jew to my finger. ...

Adam and I were married twelve years. I was never made so happy. But then Adam met Hazel Scott. She was a famous jazz singer and actress. I was hurt, not agnry. Fredi, my sister, insisted that I leave Adam when I found out. So I went to Reno and got a divorce. I never talked to him about it. I just went. I've got a copy of the Amsterdam News that shows me sitting at the train station. The headline says, "Going to Reno to Divorce the Best Husband in the World." I used to tell everyone that: "Adam's the best husband in the world." And he was. If I had a lick of sense, I would never have divorced him. People say to me, "But he had a woman on the side." I say, "What husband doesn't?"

There are several stories of people coming up from the South and seeing Harlem for the first time. Sylvia Woods, identified as a "restaurant owner," recollects how she met her husband of 57 years and later established Harlem's most famous soul-food restaurant:

In 1937, I met Herbert Woods in a bean patch in Hemingway, South Carolina. I was 11 and Herbert was 12. We were picking green peas, and had our eyes on each other all day long. ...

Herbert and I lived on opposite ends of a dirt road, so he couldn't carry my books home after school. We'd walk backward and wave frantically to each other. He'd smile and say, "Bye." I'd smile and say, "Bye." ... One time, I tripped and fell in a puddle. Herbert pretended like he didn't see.

Despite their parents' best efforts, Herbert and Sylvia got married during the War.

Not long after we settled in Harlem, Herbert got a job driving a taxi, and I applied for a job as a waitress at Johnson's Luncheonette on Lenox & 126th St. I told Mr. Johnson that I worked at a restaurant back home. But he knew I was lying. Mr. Johnson was a black man from Charleston, South Carolina, and he knew that Hemingway had just one restaurant, and it was segregated. He gave me a job anyway. I worked there for 8 years, saving and saving, before Mr. Johnson approached me one day. He said, "Sylvia, how'd you like to buy the restaurant from me?" That was 1962, and that was the beginning of Sylvia's.

I'll make another entry at some point with more recent stories from Harlem.

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April 20, 2005

Lessons learned

I should not have tried to find this product at a Harlem grocery store.

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March 02, 2005

Forget taxis

Forget the taxi--this is how I'm going to travel.

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January 10, 2005

The Sultan's Harlem

“Harlem, where I live, is iconic, mythic, larger than life, known throughout the world. It is the home of jazz and black culture. It is feared as an impoverished, crime-ridden ghetto.” Thus begins the paradox of Harlem as described by local historian Michael Adams. The one-time home of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Norman Rockwell, Langston Hughes, the Globetrotters, Marcus Garvey, DMX, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Maya Angelou, and Alicia Keys (a Columbia alumna) is today undergoing a controversial regentrification as New Yorkers "discover" its elegant brownstone rowhouses, bustling 125th Street, and affordable rents. Memories of 1960s race riots, when half of Harlem was burned to the ground, have started to fade. Community groups have lured in a Pathmark, Hennes & Mauritz, Old Navy, and Staples. There’s even a Starbucks a few doors down from Bubba's office on 125th St.

Not that this is without costs. Despite its having been declared "the capital of the black world" by Nelson Mandela, most of Harlem has never been owned by blacks: the homeownership rate is only 14% (vs 69% nationally). Soaring property values (caused by white migration) do not benefit renters (usually black). Hence the sometimes-strained state of race relations in today’s Harlem: Harlem is experiencing perhaps more positive and more negative change than any neighborhood in America.

To be sure, there are still plenty of difficulties in Harlem. A few nights ago there was a drug bust a few houses down, and a year ago there was a murder a few blocks away. The owners of a nearby café were mugged twice before opening. The landlady has a lot of street smarts from 44 years of living in Harlem and has taught me such urban survival skills as how to hail an unmarked taxi, how to prevent bums from pawing through my trash, and how to avoid the more-menacing streets.

I hope that this doesn’t deter visitors, who can discover the culture that made Harlem so legendary: bars that are a time-warp to the 1940s, Sunday gospel, amateur night at the Apollo (which gave rise to Chris Rock, among others), and even the new Starbucks for the Trixies. And, if not, it’s one express subway stop to Columbus Circle and two stops to Times Square.







The building where I live in Harlem, designed by Cleverdon & Putzel, 1888.

Detail of the brownstone portico

"Everytime a dumpster appears, there is hope." --Maya Angelou

At one time, much of Harlem was "shells" like this unit on 120th St, with the windows broken and roof fallen in. Until a few years ago, many were hangouts of prostitutes and drug dealers. Around 1980, a shell like this would have sold for $25,000 or less. Nowadays, shells can run $500,000 or more—completely unrestored.

The Apollo Theater has hosted virtually every major black performer of the 1930s and 1940s, including Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, and later Lauryn Hill and Michael Jackson.

Columbia’s campus is designed on a classical English plan. The campus was formerly located at what is now Rockefeller Center. Columbia is the second-largest private landowner in New York, after the Church.

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