"Everyone is super excited about the Target." Everyone! Or at least real estate players like Jessica Armstead of the Corcoran Group, who predicts that the Target store finally coming to fruition in East Harlem will “totally change” the area’s lagging pace of gentrification. "It appeals to everyone," she tells the Sun. "You go in to get toothpaste and come out with three bags. It's amazing." Armstead is already luring condo buyers into East Harlem with the amazing, exciting shopping utopia to arrive any year now....

A teenager walking home from a party was fatally shot near West 127th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard around 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning. Nathan Allsbrook was shot in the shoulder, and the bullet traveled into his heart. Police suspect Allsbrook was was hit by a stray bullet. The NY Times says the shell casing "was found a substantial distance" from where Allsbrook had been standing and the Daily News suggests the shot was......

Two years ago The NY Times visited the changing landscape of Harlem; at the time Maya Angelou told them about her part-time neighborhood, saying, "The hope is there. The minute you look down a street and see a Dumpster, you know that's hope." Earlier this year the paper revisited 125th Street and focused in on long time residents and their apprehension about gentrification and the changes afoot that many cannot benefit from. This was around......

Red Egg: The glittering new Chinatown restaurant pictured above had its share of hassles before finally opening this week – something to do with the construction company failing to get the right permits – but after a six week delay, Red Egg’s staff is finally ready to get cracking. Executive Chef Mei Kun Chen was previously the State Chef for Guangzhou (not exactly a lightweight); second in command is Yu Hua Wu, who did......

Last night, the Reverend Al Sharpton participated in the monthly Critical Mass rally and bike ride. In his introduction of Sharpton, civil rights lawyer Wylie Stecklow noted Sharpton's relentless fight for civil rights and against unfair police practices. Stecklow also pointed out the Sharpton-led May 7 civil disobedience event was much more peaceful and was actually civil, compared to what many Critical Mass riders have experienced (the police didn't use orange fences to contain......

Photograph of police looking for evidence and witnesses in Harlem by David Karp/AP Harlem residents spoke out against the Monday night violence that left 10 people injured. Perfect Peace Ministry's Reverend Vernon William urged the community to come together, "We need to be out here in numbers calling for peace in our community. This type of going on, this type of saying it's alright for people to shoot one another, it's just turned another......

Late last night, a shooter (or possibly shooters) opened fire and shot at least seven people in Harlem. The gunfire started at Marcus Garvey Park at West 124th Street and then headed north to West 131st Street. There are different theories for the violence, like someone wanted revenge for being jumped in Sugar Hill or a fight over girls. One woman in the park told the Post, "All of a sudden, we saw these......

Yesterday afternoon, there were reports of a wall collapse or falling debris from a Harlem building on 116th Street, off Fifth Avenue. It turns out it was not quite a full wall collapse, but it looks to be more than the "construction debris" referred to by fire officials in an AP story. The incident occurred at the recently completed green condominium building, the Kalahari Harlem. "Two stucco-like surface panels"--about three stories high and maybe......

Yesterday at 7 p.m., a van jumped the curb at East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. The van, traveling south on Lexington, crashed into a 4, 5, 6 subway entrance and hit a number of people--including a child, who was pinned under the vehicle. It's unclear why the van jumped the curb, but witnesses ">said the vehicle wasn't forced off the road and suggested the driver may have passed out or had a heart......

Last night, a fire broke out in an occupied building at 560 West 144th Street around 8 p.m. Fire officials said the fire started in the six-floor building's fifth floor--which is under renovation--and the fire spread to the 6th floor, by way of a dumbwaiter shaft, with flames "going through the roof." According to ABC 7, there were "large chunks of flaming debris falling onto the street." The FDNY does not think the fire is......

Yesterday, the police were called during a charged meeting that saw the City Council approve Harlem rezoning in a 47 to 2 vote. Opponents of the plan yelled "sellout" and "liar," prompting their removal from the Council's balcony. The plan will usher in new development around 125th Street, with denser and taller buildings. City Council member Inez Dickens, who represents the area and decided to approve the plan after the Planning Commission agreed to make......

Yesterday afternoon, a Brooklyn man was apprehended after threatening a City College student and holding what looked like a gun--but turned out to be a pellet gun--against the head of another student. The police convinced him to drop the gun and Kirk Hanley, 22, who had also pointed the gun at his own head, was found with suicide notes and taken to St. Luke's Roosevelt for observation. The incident took place at City College's Harlem......

On Tuesday, a key City Council committee agreed on a rezoning plan for Harlem. The Zoning and Franchises Subcommitee voted 10 to 1 on a proposal that includes, the NY Times reports, limiting new building height to 19 stories (originally it was 29), creating a loan program for displaced small businesses, and $5.8 million to improve Marcus Garvey Park. Additionally, 46% of new housing units will be "income-targeted," to provide more affordable housing--an amount that......

An NYPD officer is accused of using his authority to sexually prey on and assault women. Officer Wilfredo Rosario has been suspended from his position at Harlem's 26th Precinct as he was arraigned on charges of first-degree sexual abuse, official misconduct, unlawful imprisonment and attempted coercion. The charges stem from an incident in which Rosario met a 27-year-old woman with her child while he was in uniform. He told the woman he could help her......

The Fog Rolls in on Harlem, by jschumacher at flickr Harlem resident met with city planners in a public forum yesterday afternoon to discuss whether a major rezoning plan will enhance the historic neighborhood or rip out its heart. The zoning plan, covering 124th, 125th, and 126th Streets, paves the way for condos, a 21-story office tower, a hotel, and more. Rezoning supporters say the plan instills order into the economic transformation the neighborhood......

Spitzer, Paterson, and Passion, by jschumacher at flickr Gov. Paterson appeared in Harlem yesterday, the place he calls home with his wife and the state senate district (30th) he represented before becoming Lt. Governor under Eliot Spitzer. The Governor was joined by a host of politicians--including former Mayor Ed Koch, City Comptroller William Thompson, Nassau County Exec. Thomas Suozzi, and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion--at Al Sharpton's National Action Network's meeting hall. His reception......

Complaining about the proliferation of bank branches in New York City has almost become cliche, but City Planning officials are taking steps to enact zoning restrictions along 125th St. in Manhattan that would limit the number of bank branches on the main drag of Harlem. The idea is that bank branches can have a deadening effect on pedestrian use of a an area because they take up space that could be used for arts, entertainment,......

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden was called a "rich, rich, rich horrible person" by an opponent of 125th Street rezoning. The City Planning commission approved rezoning for the boulevard, which means a 21-story building called Harlem Park, which includes new headquarters for Major League Baseball TV, will be one of the many new developments for the neighborood. Burden said the commission wanted to "maintain and enhance 125th Street's unique and varied character and its identity......

Photograph of 102 East 124th Street via WABC The Department of Buildings commissioner admitted her agency knew a Harlem building was in danger of collapse but somehow it got lost in the shuffle and collapsed on its own. On Tuesday, bricks fell off 102 East 124th Street, a vacant building, and a few hours later, the roof and top floor collapsed. Its neighboring building was compromised and authorities moved to demolish it, asking the......

State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell 4th, Democrat and son of the trailblazing Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was arrested for drunk driving on the upper West Side at 2:30 a.m. this morning. According to the Daily News, an unidentified woman passed out in the back of the car was so intoxicated she had to be taken to a local hospital. Powell failed a breath test at the scene by a small margin and, while......

A 29-year-old woman scheduled to testify in a kidnapping case today was possibly thrown from a Harlem building yesterday morning. Joy Blackman, who was a witness to a kidnapping and was also a witness against her accused rapist in a separate case, was found dead in an alleyway at 145 West 145th Street. The building's roof alarm had been triggered between 1:15 a.m. and 2:15 a.m., Newsday reports no one seemed to check the roof.......

There are some residual delays on Metro-North this morning after yesterday's East Harlem building collapse that led to the suspension of all service in and out of Grand Central. The trains' speed restrictions were lifted at 6:30 a.m. and there may be 5-10 delays. A crowd formed in Grand Central as commuters waited out the suspension or devised alternate routes to get home as the New Haven, Hudson and Harlem lines were all down. But......

Above images from WNBC 4, below right image from WCBS 2; bottom left image from Peter Haskell/WCBS 880 A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the......

Cops have recently arrested a suspect in the January knife-point rape of a 34-year-old woman in an East Harlem building's elevator. The alleged perpetrator is 21-year-old Kevin Rios, who police believe followed the victim from the subway to the building on 105th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves. Ironically, the woman held the elevator for Rios, who then put a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her. WABC News describes a different scenario, with......

The only way to save Harlem for the benefit of its longtime residents is to economically cripple the neighborhood. So says Dr. James Manning of the ATLAH World Ministry church. He's proposing an economic boycott of the area in Manhattan between 110th St. and 155th St., from the Harlem River to the Hudson River. The plan is that once interloper businesses have been driven out via bankruptcy, Harlem will become a less desirable place to......

Today marks the third annual Informal Presentation on the Art of Dance, a dance event put on by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble. The two troupes converge each year in a most unconventional space: The State Supreme Court of Manhattan! Arthur Mitchell (himself a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet in the '50s and '60s) co-founded DTB after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the......

Photo via Modern Mechanix. Thanks to Modern Mechanix we can now see what New York was supposed to look like by the year 2000, as seen from 1927. In that article "streets on five levels have been prophesied," but by 1931, two-level streets (pictured) seemed more realistic.A definite step towards the relief of traffic congestion on much traveled city thoroughfares by the construction of streets under streets is soon to be taken by the......

Photograph of Hamilton Grange by wallyg on Flickr More than 200 years after its construction, preservationists aren't sure which direction Alexander Hamilton's country house should be facing. Hamilton Grange, located in Harlem, has already been moved and reoriented once, but that was just a temporary relocation undertaken in 1899. Now preservationists want to give the Federal-style country house a more permanent and less cramped site, but can't agree on what axis to place it.......

The Wisconsin, Washington and Hawaii primaries have been going on today, and while John McCain is expected to further solidify his presumptive nomination, the Democratic race is tight as ever, with a Gallup pole now showing Clinton closing the gap on Obama after his string of eight straight victories. What’s passing for campaign news at the moment is a teapot tempest stirred up by the Clinton team, accusing Obama of plagiarizing Governor Deval Patrick......

Photograph of a Manhattan polling place by Daniella Zalcman on Flickr After the NY Times story revealed how NYC votes for Barack Obama appear to have been undercounted for the unofficial (yet official enough to be sent to the AP and other news outlets) results on primary night, State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem spoke out. Perkins, who supports Obama, told the Post: "Every election has problems, but in this case, all the problems......