Results tagged “harlem”

This week in the Times, Sam Sifton reviews the newly-opened midtown outpost of French mini-chain Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, which serves just drinks, salad, fries, steak, and dessert. "Women in French maid outfits serve the stuff as if they were characters in an early Preston Sturges film," says Sifton. "And you know what? It’s terrific." Meanwhile, the Times's Oliver Strand is in Williamsburg to rave about the gourmet sandwich shop Saltie, from veterans of Marlow & Sons and Diner: "It’s a lot of talent for one cramped kitchen. So they overachieve." (He also has kind words for Crosby Connection and Barros Luco.)

The Daily News adds a new detail to the "road rage" arrests of Dominique Sharpton and Kathy Jordan—the daughter and ex-wife of the Reverend Al Sharpton. Apparently 23-year-old Dominque was pulled over by cops after allegedly driving through a red light, so she called her mother who "rushed to the scene to find Dominique in the back of a police car, Sharpton's attorney said." The women argued with the cops, eventually being taken to the stationhouse and charged with "disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration." Their lawyer said, "It seems they were arrested simply because they asked why the ticket was being given." The Reverend Al, aside from his Tweets yesterday, remains quiet on the issue.

If you hop on the 2/3 train, and go back in time about 116 years, you might find yourself in the above setting. Harlem Bespoke found this photo of 116th Street by Lenox Avenue taken in 1893. They say: "Yes, those are cows standing around an open watering hole. The middle class apartment buildings can be seen encroaching on the once pastoral setting. The farmer was probably one of the last ones to sell out." It's also possible that there's currently a luxury condo development called the Kalahari in this exact spot. Which only means one thing: poltergeist ghost cows!

Someone at the 32nd Police Precinct in Harlem defaced a Post-It note with a racist lettering, but the NYPD didn't do much about it, one black officer says. Last month Officer Carla Thomas found that someone wrote "KKK" on a Post-It note she kept on a straw mat in her office; she had previously written on the note that the mat was "symbolic of African tradition and history." She filed a complaint with the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, but claims the office only investigated after others complained about the incident. Since then, the investigation was closed without finding out who was responsible.

The son of a Harlem landlord is accused scamming potential buyers by trying to sell a building he did not own. The commercial property, located on a triangular lot just north of Central Park at 21-41 Lenox Avenue, was entirely owned by another man. But alleged grifter Henry Vargas told buyers the man, Manuel Duran Jr., was just an elderly farmer from the Dominican Republic whose share was only 10 percent.

There has been talk in the past of saving the Sylvan Court mews, with some questioning why the Landmarks Preservation Commission has ignored them, when all other historic mews districts are preserved and landmarked in the city. Located on 121st Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, one neighborhood blogger notes that "mews are typically former 19th century stable yards that end abruptly in an alley-like layout."

    

Yesterday afternoon at around 4:20 p.m., a police cruiser traveling south on Broadway (between 135th and 136th Streets) struck a 79-year-old man who was crossing the street from a median. The man, Javier Jackson, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead two hours later.

A murderous Harlem man died in a hail of NYPD bullets last night, after apparently stabbing two men, one fatally. Police arrived at the West 144th Street building around 6:45 last night to find one victim standing outside with stab wounds to his hand and torso, and later discovered another victim stabbed to death in his apartment near his two-year-old, who was unharmed.

A new study by several professors at NYU and Yale has taken a close look at the purchasing habits of fast-food consumers in poor NYC neighborhoods with high rates of obesity. Researchers were curious to find out if the law requiring chain restaurants to prominently display their calorie information was influencing customers' choices, and what they found was probably not what the Health Department had hoped for when implementing the rules in 2008.

The landmark Corn Exchange Bank Building on 125th Street in Harlem used to be a picturesque structure, but now it's one of the most visible eyesores in the neighborhood. The building, "an 1883-84 Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival structure," according to the Times, will soon lose its top two floors; a decision recently made by the Department of Buildings who found it unsafe. A "fire caused by homeless folk" already aided in the roof collapsing, and there are trees growing inside, according to one neighborhood blogger.

Devastating: Police have told the family of a 21-year-old East Harlem man that he was fatally stabbed in the neck Saturday evening at the Lower East Side Baruch Houses because of mistaken identity. Glen Wright, who by all accounts was a beloved young man enrolled at Borough of Manhattan Community College, was there helping his grandmother clean her windows. He was getting a breath of fresh air when a gang looking for revenge for an earlier attack approached from behind, and one man plunged a knife into the back of his neck. His grandmother, Lummie Wright, tells the Daily News, "He was running for his life. He made it all the way to the front door and they chased him [and] they stabbed him once more."

The Harlem Mega Millions winner who said that winning the $168 million has turned his life into hell is apparently eager to continue spreading the word and allowing people around him to share in the collective nightmare. A Fordham bodega owner near the one where Groves bought the winning ticket two weeks ago says he came in to buy a six-pack of Heineken and began bragging of the winnings and the fact that he was "not working anymore in my life!" The store owner who encountered Groves tells the Post, "I didn't believe him, because what would a millionaire be doing coming in here and buying candy and beer?" When Groves first revealed himself to be the winner after laying low for a couple weeks, he said, "It's a dream turned into a nightmare. Winning is the beginning. Living with it is pure hell." But now he seems to be in better spirits; the News talks to a liquor store owner in his neighborhood who said, "He came in and bought a bottle of Hennessy yesterday. He was so happy." The Harlem man says he doesn't plan on abandoning his regular spots because "I got my McDonald's and White Castle near me."

The mysterious man who won half of the giant Mega Millions jackpot a couple weeks back when he bought his ticket at a Bronx bodega has finally come forward—and now he might wish that he had kept quiet about it. 49-year-old Jimmy Groves of Harlem gave the Post the usual "I'm going to Disney World" quote, but also revealed a darker side of letting people know about his newfound $168 million. Groves says that his "family is in a position of jeopardy" and has been receiving 40 calls a day from people hitting him up for a hand-out. He tells the paper, "I wake up every morning, and everyone is on me like stink on shit. I know people say, 'Give me that hell.' Be careful what you wish for — you just might get it." Groves may have wished for a little too much attention himself—he was seen last week "toting a store sign bearing the lottery prize amount." He'll be toting an even bigger sign with it soon when the lottery officials confirm that Groves won and throw him a press conference to present one of those snazzy giant checks. The Post says Groves has already quit his job stacking chairs overnight at Madison Square Garden and just this year had defaulted on a credit card.

Earlier this year the Harlem home once owned by the late James Bailey (of Barnum & Bailey fame) dropped in price from $10M to $6.5M (soon after it was brought down to $3.5M). Now Curbed reports that the limestone castle on St. Nicholas Place and 150th Street has just sold for a $1.4M! Surely the gigantic price drop had more to do with economic climate than all the bad press for the circus he helped found. Regardless, the site points out that this could be the real estate steal of the year, going for around $170 per square foot; a "cold calculation [that] doesn't even include the Belcher mosaic glass, 12' high mercury mirror, French polished oak floors and all the other dramatic original details in need of a thorough dusting." Surely this selling price has Bailey rolling over in his grave like a well-tamed circus lion. Wonder how much he paid to have the home built back in 1888...

Police are looking for a man that they believe has committed three sexual assaults this month in Upper Manhattan. NY1 has newly released surveillance video of the man described as in his 30s, 5-feet-9-inches to 6-feet tall with a medium build. His latest attack came last week when he followed a 69-year-old woman into the elevator of her building at 158th Street and Riverside Drive and raped her—robbing her as well. The other two assaults took place in Hamilton Heights over the past few weeks, one also in an elevator at West 144th Street and Convent Avenue and the other in an alleyway at West 148th Street and Broadway. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "I would urge women to be particularly aware and alert when they frequent 24-hour shopping locations. We've seen this in the past, where people are lurking outside and following the women from the locations." One woman told NY1, "I have pepper spray on my keychain. I think my dog will let me know before I'm aware that [an attacker's] behind me. And I have something else that I'm not supposed to carry, but I carry it. That's basically it."

A Harlem flower shop known for catering to the romantic bliss of its high-profile clientele was the scene of a stabbing yesterday when a man became enraged at facing a former love that had shriveled up. 33-year-old Jimmy Martinez spotted his former lover and her new flame outside Pollen Nation on East 125th Street. Martinez came at the pair wielding scissors and, according to the News, dragged his ex inside, locking the door of the store that provided arrangements for Jay-Z and Beyonce's wedding. Inside the shop, Martinez began beating the woman and said to the florist working, "You're gonna have to die — because you're gonna watch me kill her." Witnesses then saw Martinez bust out of Pollen Nation's back door chasing after the new stamen in her life, where the pair of men hopped over a barbed-wire fence and ran through the back door of a nearby apartment. Police eventually caught up with Martinez and arrested him on assault charges, telling the News, "We just followed the trail of blood."

One of the armed four men who tried to rob a Harlem store, only for the 72-year-old shop owner to fire at them, killing two and wounding the others, was released on $60,000 bond. Shamel McCloud headed from the hospital to court on Saturday and was charged with first- and second-degree robbery; his relatives in Pennsylvania put up their home for the bail. According to the NY Times, "The criminal complaint said one of the men who was fatally shot had hit a store employee with a 9-millimeter pistol. McCloud and the two others struck the employee with their fists and tried to restrain him with duct tape, according to the complaint." McCloud's lawyer said his client did not have a record, saying he was "good family kid." The Post went to McCloud's home to get a comment: "Outside McCloud's East Elmhurst house, one relative said, 'He's coming along, he's alive,' before a second relative threatened to toss a pit bull at reporters."

Yesterday morning, hours after he stared down four armed robbers, begged them to leave, and then fired at them when they started pistolwhipping one of his employees—ultimately killing two of the suspects and injuring the other two—Charles "Gus" Augusto was back at his West 125th restaurant supply store and repeatedly stated he was unhappy that he had to resort to violence. The Daily News got the first interview, and the other papers and news stations followed—the 72-year-old told NY1, "I did the only thing I could do at that time. Tried as long as I could not to, tried to get out of it; they wouldn't let me get out of it," while saying to the Post, "I did what I had to do. It wasn't my choice; it was their choice."

Black leaders expressed frustration yesterday after a grand jury voted not to indict Officer Andrew Dunton in the fatal "friendly fire" shooting of fellow Officer Omar Edwards one rainy night in Harlem at the end of May. The Black Law Enforcement Alliance called the decision "disturbingly predictable," and demanded that investigations of police shootings be independent of the Police Department and the district attorney’s office: "The relationship between the police and the local prosecutors is incestuous and threatens public confidence in the integrity of the process."

Two men are dead after a Harlem business owner fired at four people trying to rob his store. City Room reports that the owner used a shotgun when the four "tried to rob his restaurant-supply business... The business, the Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, at 523 West 125th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, provides parts and repairs for commercial gas and electric ranges. It was not immediately known whether the robbers were armed, or whether the business owner had a license for the shotgun." The owner is reportedly Charles Augusto Jr., who is 72.

Buyers at 111 Central Park North, what the Post dubs Harlem's "most expensive condo," are unhappy about a McDonald's making it way into the ground floor retail space. The Post reports, "Aghast at the potential grease stench, rodents, loitering and trash, not to mention plummeting property values, some say they would rather chip in and rent or buy the ground-floor space themselves than have the golden arches move in." Condo board president Gary Davis put it bluntly, "There's a stigma to... a luxury building having McDonald's as a retail tenant," and noted that many residents have terraces, "There would be a concern that every time you're out there, you would be kind of overwhelmed by a McDonald's smell or any fried food." The ground floor space's owner Tom Shapiro tells the Post if McDonald's moves in, "he...envision[s] a more upscale version of McDonald's similar to one in a Philippe Starck-designed condo on 23rd Street. That outlet has padded banquette seating, fancy light fixtures and a flat screen TV." Of course, that McDonald's was also derided.

Raise your one-gloved hand if you believe that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, only ever had one portrait of himself done in his entire lifetime. One couple is claiming they hold the one and only painting MJ ever posed for, and CityRoom reports that it's, unsurprisingly, now up for sale. It last sold nearly twenty years ago for $2.1 million, and it's now on display in a Harlem car showroom (at Lenox Avenue and West 129th) after being kept in storage in New Jersey. Classy! Just like the masterpiece itself. The portrait is by Brett-Livingstone Strong, a friend of Jackson's whose other work you can see here, and is currently owned by toy inventors Marty Abrams and John Gentilly. They say the painting hasn't drawn many crowds, because “we don’t put a big sign in the window, ‘Michael Jackson Painting Here.’” Speaking of New Jersey toy collectors with connections to Michael Jackson, under the June 28th entry here, a significantly lesser known musician discusses his dinner with the King of Pop at a toy inventors home in New Jersey.

Yesterday afternoon, a 10-year-old fell through a sidewalk grate while walking with his family in Harlem. According to the Daily News, Aboubaca Meite had been running on Morningside Avenue near 125th Street: "The boy fell about 8 feet, hitting his head and landing awkwardly on his leg when he crashed onto the concrete under the former M&G's Soul Food restaurant." Yikes. A witness told WCBS 2, "I heard the father holler and jump down in there. They tried to get him out and everything. I went over, and we were going to get him out [but] he said leave him down there because he might be injured. So we left him down there till the paramedics come." Luckily, Aboubaca only suffered a sprained leg; the fourth grader told the News, "It just suddenly fell. It was dark in the hole [and] I was scared." The Department of Buildings hasn't determine whether the building owner will face violations. In May, 34 children were injured when grating outside a school collapsed (the children were posing for a photograph); the school was issued a violation for not maintaining the grate.

A motivational speaker from Long Island was found dead in his car yesterday morning. Jeff Locker's stabbed and strangled body was discovered in his 2007 Dodge sedan, which was parked on Paladino Avenue, near 124th Street, in East Harlem. According to the Daily News, his "his hands [were] tied behind his back and a cord [was] wrapped around his neck and tied to the headrest. He had been stabbed in the chest and robbed, police sources said."

The boss is never going to believe this one: A report just came in over the police scanners about an "unusual occurrence" in a parking lot at East 128th Street between Park and Lex, where police have been summoned because "people are unable to get to their cars due to 10-15 very large rats in the parking lot." And so it begins; the day we've all dreaded when a master race of rats form organized battalions to take over the city once and for all. Well, Gothamist, for one, welcomes our new rodent overlords, and we look forward to seeing them show the current administration how real rats run a city. Viva la Rat!

       

Last night, Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater was dedicated to the memory of Michael Jackson, one of the biggest stars to be discovered at the legendary West 125th Street venue. Impersonators and fans took turns showing off MJ moves. Here's video from USA Today of some of the highlights:

An observant Jewish senior at Mott Hall High School in Harlem is missing her graduation—because the ceremony takes place on the Sabbath. The Post reports that Li Morse, "who is one of just nine white students in the 400-person school and the only Jewish student in her grade," is really upset: "This is one of the most absurd situations in my life. I'm very angry." Morse's mother pleaded with the school's principal, pointing out that even her daughter's classmates made sure the senior class trip didn't conflict with Jewish holidays. But the school held firm, only offering a diploma ceremony at the school library on Friday. Morse's mother said, "She shouldn't have to choose between her religion and her high-school graduation," while the teen, who will attend the College of Staten Island this all, said, "It's my high-school graduation. I went through 12 years of school. It's a big life event, and I wanted to do it, and I can't." The school nor the Department of Education had comment for the Post.

An abandoned church in Spanish Harlem is, at least temporarily, re-opened and housing a new religious-themed art exhibit. Animal NY reports that St. John’s Episcopal American Catholic Church on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 102nd Street, closed in the '90s and is now the backdrop for Sacrosanct, a group exhibition produced by curator Sophie T. Lvoff.

Two potential witnesses who took cellphone video in the moments following last month's fatal cop-on-cop shooting in Harlem were told to leave by an officer at the crime scene, WABC reports. The two men, who showed the video to reporters but requested anonymity, say they were in a vehicle at a stoplight where Officer Omar Edwards chased the man who broke into his car. They didn't see the shooting because their view was blocked by another vehicle, but they heard the gunshots.

Sources tell NY1 that three witnesses heard the officer who fatally shot an armed, plainclothes off-duty officer In Harlem Thursday night identify himself as NYPD. Those three witnesses include the two other cops who arrived on the scene with officer Andrew who fired and the car break-in suspect that slain Officer Omar Edwards was chasing, Migueal Goitia. According to the Post, Goitia [earlier identified with the last name alias "Santiago"] has been hospitalized several times for unknown reasons since his arrest.