Famous Ankles

Marcus Garvey Park is just south of 124th Street and is somewhat between 5th Avenue and Lenox (there are actually some smaller streets there whose names I can’t remember.  You can look it up under a mapping site if you’re really interested, though.

The area is pretty nice.  There are some apartment buildings (kinda blah), some older residential buildings and churches (also blah), and some brownstones (nice, nice, nice).

Anyway, I was looking through some additional photos from my recent Harlem jaunt and found the one in the above link.  It isn’t a particularly interesting picture, but the park has a link to a recent news story and I wanted to provide a little visual context. 

I wasn’t aware of it, but each Friday night for a very long time (from what the article indicated), drummers have gathered in the park to do weekly celebrations.  And share it with the neighbors.  The area is gentrifying big time and the locals have grown overly weary of the drumming.  Apparently, they’ve finally come to an agreement to push the drummers further into the park and give the residents some acoustic relief.

Good luck, but the park ain’t that big, folks.  And further in that park means higher.

-H

As I was walking around Harlem’s 123rd/124th Street and Lenox, I was taken by the sight of the local Seventh Day Adventist Church.  No particular reason; it’s just a standard NYC church building with some nice color.  I was walking on the other side of the street and noticed that Weichert Realty was holding an open house at about the same level as the church and, on a lark, stopped to see what was for sale.  I’ve done this before in Harlem, but haven’t really been tempted by what I’ve seen.

The realtor was happy to provide some information and I found a very nice little deal that I won’t be taking advantage of…at least for now.

Right next to the realty open house there was a set of “brownstones” (these are three to five story homes that are townhouse/rowhouse format, but generally are build with large local stones).  She pointed one of them out and said that they had it for sale and would I be interested?  I said my usual:  if I were buying again, Harlem would be high on my list.  However, I was just sort of checking in on the opportunities.  She was undaunted and proceeded to describe the place:  five floors, part commercially zoned, part residential.  Eighteen feet wide and 60 to 75 feet deep (the building) with the lot being 100 feet deep.  Okay, at 18x60x5 stories, that’s 5,400 square feet.  At 75 feet deep, that’s 6,750.  The price would be between $238 and $190 per square foot (if the measures were true and NYC brokers always overestimate square footage).  That’s a real bargain.

The downsides:  no parking, frontage on a major avenue (Lenox), and it needs a “gut renovation”.  That’s New Yorkish for “mega-bucks”.

The upsides:  the commercial part would benefit from the major avenue, “olde tyme” wonderful wordwork, and a first-rate view.

Here’s what the place looks like:

I only see four floors, but the realtor said there were five.  Whatever.  Unfortunately, the resident caretaker was taking an extended break and the broker couldn’t get us in.  I returned twice over a 90-minute period to see if he had shown up, but not luck.  I did take a look through the window and saw that the wood was really nice.

And here’s the view from the top step.  Pretty cool.  (Click the picture for the full view.)

-H

I’ve never been able to understand one item I always see on sale in Harlem.  Scented oils.  There are probably five to ten street vendors on 125th Street that sell it.  Not having much of a sense of smell, it’s a moot point for me.  The strange thing is that I don’t really remember seeing it for sale anyplace else.  Just Harlem.

Here’s a typical vendor. 

-H

Sylvia’s is probably the best known restaurant in Harlem nowadays.  She actually has two “Sylvia’s” restaurants right next to one another.  I’m not particularly fond of soul food, but she is a local legend and I feel the obligation to show a picture (I gotta use that new camera to prove that it’s worthwhile).

Sylvia’s is located at about 126th St and Lenox Avenue.  One thing that I’ve found interesting/pleasant/whatever about Sylvia’s is that a number of street vendors tend to group outside of her restaurant.  Last year, I bought a score of “Harlem” hats for party favors from these vendors.  It’s interesting, but you just can’t seem to find hats emblazoned with “Harlem” outside of NYC, so I was reasonably sure no one would have one already.

-H