Auntie M...I Don't Think We're in Harlem Anymore!

Reparation Tower
The Aspen 1955 First Avenue

Senneca Terrace 324 East 112th Street

El Marqueta Internacional Park Avenue 111th to 119th Streets


East River Plaza - 116th/119th Streets Above & Below


Second Avenue Subway Link to 125th St.

Harlem Tower
125th St. and Park Avenue




Harlem Park Tower 125th Street and Park Avenue

Harlem Park Development Enrique Norton
125th street and Park Avenue
Promise Academy
125th Street at Madison Avenue

Hotel
125th Street at
Fifth Avenue

Victoria Tower
233 West 125th Street

Harlem USA 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Columbia University 130th Street West of Broadway

Columbia Universiy North on 12th Avenue

Harlem Piers
Hudson River at 125th St.
The Dwyer Warehouse
18 Morningside Avenue
111 Central Park North
Museum for African Art Fifth Avenue at 110th Street

1405 Fifth Avenue

Madison Avenue at 119th Street

5th On The Park
Fifth Avenue at 120th Street
The Kalahari West 116th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues

Graceline Court
W. 116th Street
Brownstone Townhouses West 118th & West 119th Street
West of
St Nicholas Avenue

Larkspur Plaza
Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 117th Street

SOHA
2119 Frederick Douglass Boulevard

The Gateway
Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 114th Street

50 West 127th Street

The Walden
69 East 130th Street

The Lenox
West 129th Street at Lenox Avenue

Thurgood Marshall Academy
135th Street at Adam C. Powell Boulevard

The Marshall
222 West 135th Street
The Lofts
at Strivers Row
2605 Frederick Douglass Blvd.

Strivers North
202 West 140th Street
Fortune Society
625 West 140th Street

Bradhurst Court
West 145th Street and Edgecombe Avenue


The Langston
145th Street at Bradhurst Avenue

The Sutton
West 147th St.
Bradhurst Avenue -
Frederick Douglass Blvd.

NOISE IN THE 'HOOD

BRING IN DA' NOISE, TURN DOWN DA' BOOMBOX!

By Maggie Haberman / New York Post

July 10, 2007
Canarsie residents should stock up on earplugs.
The south Brooklyn area logged the most noise complaints with the city's 311 hot line both this past weekend and during the first week that the city's revamped noise code took effect, according to data released yesterday.

In fact, Brooklyn, had three ZIP codes in the Top 5, and helped round out the Top 10 list of noisiest neighborhoods for the weekend and for July 1 through Thursday.

The borough helped push the citywide total to 4,016 noise complaints made to 311 over the weekend - a 20 percent increase over the same two days last year.

The new code took effect July 1, and covers a wide range of sounds, from dogs barking to jackhammering construction crews to the din from bars and clubs to jingling Mister Softee trucks parked curbside.

In Canarsie, there were 115 complaints phoned in about noises in the neighborhood - ZIP code 11236 - on Saturday and Sunday, in addition to 161 from July 1 through Thursday, City Hall officials said yesterday. Figures for Friday weren't available yesterday.

Next on the list was Manhattan's Hamilton Heights, with 102 complaints.

The ZIP code, which covers the northern West Side of Manhattan, is 10031 - and it ranked third in complaints for the first five days the code was in effect, with 139.

East Flatbush in Brooklyn came in third for the weekend, with 83 calls in the 11203 ZIP code, while it tied for 10th, with 105 calls, during July 1st through Thursday.

For the weekend tally, East New York was fourth - 79 calls - while it was eighth last week, with 11 calls. Last weekend, The Bronx's Olinville also had 79, while Flatbush proper came in sixth, with 74 calls, and came in fifth last week, with 118. The 11233 ZIP code, which is between Crown Heights and Brownsville, was seventh for the weekend, with 72 calls, and ninth last week, with 106.

The Post recently reported that over the past four years, Hamilton Heights had the distinction of noisiest neighborhood, while Inwood and Washington Heights followed closely behind.

Officials at the NYPD and the Department of Environmental Protection did not respond to questions about how many summonses they've issued.

How do I make a noise complaint?

Several different agencies deal with noise, depending upon type. To complain about helicopter noise, call the Economic Development Corporation hotline at (212) 312-3964. If you have a different noise complaint, call 311. For more information on noise complaints, visit the Police Department's FAQ.NYC.gov and Other Resources:Police Department FAQ

Harlem's Social Diary: COPELAND'S CLOSINGLast Day: Sunday, July 29, 2007

It's with a great deal of emotion that Harlem One Stop informs fellow Harlemites and neighborhood visitors that one of the community's favorite restaurants, Copeland's will be closing on Sunday, July 29th.
The homestyle quality of it's food and the gracious manner of it's staff made it a frequent neighborhood stop. The restaurant's cafeteria side, "Reliables"... was just that, an ever reliable place for grabbing a great breakfast, lunch or dinner and for running into friends, neighbors and the likes of Peter Jennings, Starr Jones-Reynolds or Savion Glover.

Quite honestly, I can't think of a more comfortable or beloved place!... Mr Copeland, we will truly miss you, but we also want to take this opportuniity to thank you for all those delicious meals over many wonderful years. I know we speak for the village of Harlem in wishing you and your family all the best. Also, fond memories and kind regards go out to the staff, past and present, particularly Clyde, Evelyn, Wendy, Gertie, Jose and dearest Chris!

On a more personal note, our warmest thanks too, for your years of serving as the "home kitchen" to Harlem One Stop's "staff!"

Yuien & John
The Harlem Eye/Harlem One Stop

PS: We would appreciate and post your brief memories or comments on Copeland's.


July 23, 2007

Harlem Mainstay Survived Riots, but Falls to Renewal

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Calvin Copeland, 82, is closing his restaurant, Copeland’s, known for its Southern fare and gospel brunch.

By FERNANDA SANTOS / The New York Times

Calvin Copeland was there when rioters burned and looted stores in 1964, when crack cocaine and AIDS tore families apart, when brownstones were for sale for $50,000 and few outsiders dared move in. He endured fire and financial ruin, yet each time he picked up the pieces and prospered, as bold and resilient as the neighborhood around him. If he could be the master of his fate, he would live out his days in Harlem, Mr. Copeland, 82, said yesterday, serving soul food from the restaurant he has owned for almost five decades, Copeland’s, a relic of the past anchored in a place fast in transition. Gentrification has pushed away many of the black families who used to patronize his business. “The white people who took their place don’t like or don’t care for the food I cook,” he said. “The transformation snuck up on me like a tornado.” After falling behind on rent and bills a year ago, Mr. Copeland tried to hold on to his business, investing more than $250,000 of his savings, he said. Finally, in May, he acquiesced to defeat. Copeland’s, at 547 West 145th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, where Harlem is known as Hamilton Heights, will hold its last gospel brunch at 1 p.m. on Sunday and then close its doors for good.

“I just can’t do it anymore,” Mr. Copeland said. With its smoke-mirrored walls, L-shaped marble bar and carpet the color of honey, Copeland’s is at once cozy and démodé, a place where men in polyester suits and women in hats dine alongside European tourists who come to Harlem to experience American black culture. Yesterday, Fred Staton, 92, a saxophonist with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, which plays on Sundays at the restaurant, stopped by to wish Mr. Copeland well. A tour group from the Netherlands had brunch there. Others, however, walked out after learning that the restaurant was not offering its usual Sunday gospel choir. (Mr. Copeland said he was too busy preparing for the final brunch to schedule entertainment.) “The food here is delicious, and it’s so sad to hear they’ll be gone,” said Martha Marsh, who has lived in Harlem for 40 years and said she regularly eats at Copeland’s. “She’s picky,” added her husband, John Henry. “If she says she enjoys it, it’s because the food is really good.”

Mr. Copeland started the business in 1958 as a catering service, one of Harlem’s first, in a modest storefront on Broadway north of 148th Street. He had but one worker, Gertrude Clark, who still works for him. Mr. Copeland, who is black, baked and decorated cakes; Ms. Clark, who is white and grew up on a farm in upstate New York, did whatever else was needed, which often included preparing Southern fare. “I had never eaten collard greens in my life, and there I was making fried chicken and souse meat,” said Ms. Clark, 73. She is now Copeland’s banquet manager. Mr. Copeland eventually rented the store next door, opened up a hole in the wall, expanded the kitchen and started serving breakfast and lunch, cafeteria style. It was similar to the one in operation today next to the restaurant on 145th Street, which opened for business in 1980. In 1981, the restaurant burned to the ground and the insurance company went bankrupt before it reimbursed Mr. Copeland for the losses. “I lost everything, except for the liquor,” he said with a chuckle. “We had it in a separate room with concrete walls, and I guess the fire couldn’t get through.”

At the time, banks were not prone to lending money to restaurant owners, especially if the restaurant was in a place as volatile as Harlem, which had had two riots prior to the one in 1964, incited by the fatal shooting of a black teenage boy by a white police officer. But Mr. Copeland had many friends, and one of them helped get him approved for a small loan. The rest of the money came from Ms. Clark, who mortgaged an upstate property to help her boss. “If that thing didn’t go, she would have lost her property, she would have lost her job, she would have lost everything of value she had,” Mr. Copeland said. “She had a lot of faith in me, and I delivered.” Copeland’s became a destination for black families from as far as Philadelphia. Black entertainers and other notables would stop by when in town. Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican archbishop, ate there once, and so did Muhammad Ali and the comedian Richard Pryor, who threw money in the air when he left the restaurant so as to distract the crowd that had surrounded him, Mr. Copeland said. Natalie Cole is a regular. Michael Jackson came by once, but did not come in; one of the waiters took a plate of food to his vehicle, which was parked outside. “I never paid attention to this stuff,” Mr. Copeland said. “I was too busy cooking.”

Born in Smithfield, Va., Mr. Copeland started working at age 13, washing dishes at a Greek restaurant in Newport News, Va., where his family lived at the time. He moved on to shuck oysters and prepare shellfish cocktails, but in his spare time, he watched the chefs at work. Soon, he was helping make breakfast: sausage, home fries, eggs and grits.

Mr. Copeland moved to New York in 1945, and was married within five years. His wife, Rita Copeland, an Irish immigrant, was a waitress and he was a cook at a restaurant in Paramus, N.J. They kept the relationship a secret at first; at a time of racial segregation, they were convinced that they would lose their jobs if the boss found out they were together. Mrs. Copeland, 88, has Alzheimer’s disease, and Mr. Copeland devotes his afternoons to her, feeding her and brushing her hair while he tells her the day’s news, even though she cannot respond. He hired two nurse’s aides to watch over her night and day at their home in Hamilton Heights. Mr. Copeland said he would be able to devote more time to his wife once the restaurant is closed, but he is not thinking about retirement.

“I don’t believe in that,” he said. “I’ve got a plan in my head, but I don’t want to reveal it yet. All I can tell you is that I’ve got to have something going. I have to or I may as well not be here anymore. To me, idleness is worse than death.”