Category Archives: Harlem

Central Park Conservancy and Jazzmobile present: Harlem Meer Social Hour

On August 11, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., locals have the opportunity to meet the musicians during Harlem Meer Social Hour, a Central Park Conservancy & Jazzmobile Collaboration. East Harlem native, percussionist Steven Kroon and West Harlem resident, trombonist Craig Harris will discuss their creative process, presence and influence of other cultures in their music.
So come out and meet the musicians who create beautiful music at the Dana Discovery Center, located inside Central Park at 110th Street between Lenox and 5th Avenue.

Imagine a food coop in Harlem?

Click on photo to launch video

Brooklyn has a food coop that is very popular and provides fresh organic fruits and vegetables for the surrounding area. Imagine if Harlem had something similar? It is not that far out of reach and there are a lot of Harlemites on Facebook realizing that by sharing the Pop-Up Co-Op video. Why are Harlemites passing along this information? Because it is a great food/grocery idea set out in different phases that will benefit Harlem now and for the long-term. Also, it is a well needed service for our community and locals want to see this idea succeed.

What is Pop-Up Co-Op? It is the first phase of several where the end goal is to have a complete food coop in West Harlem. The Pop-Up Co-Op will sell organic coffee by the cup from a takeout window with one full-time worker recruited from a local youth program. The next phase will be to integrate organic vegetables along with increased staffing and so on and so forth. This initiative is on Kickstarter and has ten days left to meet its goal of raising more than $22,000. If you want to help out and learn more about Pop-Up Co-Op, click here.

See and learn about Kidberry in Harlem


Listen up parents in Harlem! Are you looking for an educational center right here in the heart of Central Harlem for your kids? You may want to consider Kidberry, which is currently located at 106 West 117th Street in the Lenox Garden Condominium. If you are not sure who they are, check out this visual presentation. They beautifully mapped who they are and what they can offer your little pumpkins. Just watch the video. You’ll be impressed. I certainly was!

Milk Burger in East Harlem one degree separation from Anthony Bourdain

I tell ya! At the moment, there is no such thing as bad PR for East Harlem’s Milk Burger, the new hamburger hot spot at 2056 Second Avenue. After the little viral spat that happened a few weeks ago regarding Milk Burger allegedly burger-izing Shake Shack, who knew where Milk Burger was heading. Actually, I sort of knew its potential from that incident and now DNAInfo is reporting that Anthony Bourdain’s wife has given Milk Burger a thumbs up on twitter…to more than 18,000 followers! I guess this makes Milk Burger one degree separation from the Travel Channel star and Chef. Not bad! I am wondering now who will be next to step forward and so candidly and openly endorse Milk Burger? Any guess?

There could potentially be another ringing endorsement in Milk Burger’s future, but no one will beat this 140 character endorsement by Mrs. Bourdain: “I actually enjoyed my Milk Burger and I love that they deliver. Shake Shack is still my husband but Milk Burger can be my booty call.” Get that women her own TV show…and another burger!

The Money Series examines how East Harlem spends their money

In our Money Series,  it has covered spending habits for the Harlem areas of 10027 and 10030. The Money Series continues with the focus on East Harlem. The zip code used to come with the data for this segment of Harlem is 10029.

The top three household spending areas for the 10029 area of Harlem resulted in shopping ranking first, health & family is second, followed by house & home. If you compare spending for 10029 with 10027 and 10030, 10029 ranks identical to 10027 in the areas of health & family and house & home. Each of these spending categories ranked second and third out of the top three spending categories versus 10030, these categories ranked first and second. The interesting fact out of all three zip codes was that 10027 was the only part of Harlem that had food and drinks in the top three spending categories. Food & drink did not even rank in the top three for 10029 and 10030.

On a 12 month average, household spending for 10029 includes: $461 for shopping. Next is health & family totaling $452. Most of the spending in this area is dedicated to school & child care and insurance. House & home follows with a total of $432 with the majority of this portion going toward utilities.

If 10029, 10027 and 10030 are compared in their shared ranking areas, which are health & family and house & home, 10030 spends the most on health and family at $798 versus 10027 spends $552 and 10029 spends $452. In house & home, 10027 spends the most at $472 followed by 10030 spends $434 and 10029 spends $432.

All figures are created from an online money management tool and based on ages from 18 to 65 years of age and above, all households (married with kids or without, male or female single with kids or without), and income starting at $20,000 to $125k and above.

Stay tuned as the Money Series will look into spending habits of Harlem residents versus other parts of Manhattan.

Harlem Real Estate Progress Report: Residential buildings in Harlem with swimming pools


This past weekend, The New York Times featured an article on NYC residential buildings with outdoor pools. The article stated,”of the approximately 150 pools in residential buildings in Manhattan, only about 15 are outside, according to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; some of those 15 are in private town houses.” As I read on, I wanted to know what residential buildings in Harlem offered indoor or outdoor swimming pools-if any. There are two condo buildings in Harlem that currently offer/or will soon offer an indoor pool as part of building amenities.

Fifth on the Park indoor pool

Fifth on the Park, located at 1485 5th Avenue, has an indoor pool. It is a 55 foot, heated lap pool. I have seen this pool. It’s not too shabby and I believe it is in the lower level part of the building. The only draw back is you can only swim when there is a lifeguard around and who knows the schedule. So depending on what the schedule is, owners probably have to schedule their lap appoints way in advance. Hey…there could be worse things in life. If you’re interested in an apartment with indoor swimming pool, there are apartments for sale in 5th on the Park ranging from around $400k to close to $2 million.

WA Condo indoor pool

The other building that offers an indoor pool is the WA Condominiums, a relatively new condo building located at 2201 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. According to StreetEasy and its website, an indoor pool is one of many amenities offered. However, both of these sites I mentioned do not show any past sales. So I can’t provide additional details at this time. Does anyone have the lowdown on this condo building?

So out of the 150 pools in NYC residential buildings, there appears to be two right here in Harlem. Can you imaging living in one of these buildings-especially during the summer. Not a bad way to live and beat the August heat!

Guess who received an A grading in Harlem?


It was only a matter of time before Red Rooster in Harlem would receive the top grading from NYC Department of Health. This past week, Marcus Samuelsson took to twitter to enthusiastically announce that his establishment on Lenox Avenue received an A grading from a C. In a July 10 post I mentioned how it was not going to take long for Marcus and his team to make that change and it certainly didn’t take long.

So if anyone out there was actually hesitating to go to Red Rooster in Harlem because of its previous health grade rating, which I seriously doubt there was, you can now head on over to the Rooster in Harlem and dine at a place with an A grading. I was at Red Rooster last weekend with a guest from Atlanta. We went over there after the Harlem Week kick off event. We had dirty shrimp and rice, oysters and Helga’s meatballs. And as always, it was perfection!

Yogurt store planned for Frederick Douglass Blvd in Harlem falls apart

I hate being the messanger of bad news especially since I only like blogging about things positive happening in Harlem.  However, I came across some reliable information about the planned yogurt store in Gateway Condominiums, located on Frederick Douglass Blvd. between 113th and 114th. Apparently, the deal for a yogurt place to open in the retail space of 2098 Frederick Douglass Blvd. fell through. A credible source tells HarlemGal the business person(s), who is from Westchester County, pulled out recently from plans to rent the commercial space in Central Harlem for a Baby Yogurt store. However, they are the same investor/business person(s) opening up the nail salon next door and those plans appear to be moving forward since construction is actively happening. So as of now, Harlem will not getting another yogurt place, i.e. Baby Yogurt, unless the parties involved reconsider. Total bummer. I was looking forward to that.

Progress being made on upcoming nail salon in Harlem

If you’re drop by Society Cafe at 114th Street and Frederick Douglass Blvd. soon, you may notice there is some construction happening next door. That’s where a new nail salon is moving into the retail space near 2098 Frederick Douglass Blvd., which you first learned about here not too long ago. According to workers on site, they are hammering, painting and nailing away because they’ve been given a deadline to be done in about one month. So stay tuned. We may have a new business opening up soon in this block!

20110804-115514.jpg

20110804-115619.jpg

20110804-115636.jpg

ArtCrawl Harlem to focus on Romare Bearden’s work

Don’t forget the annual ArtCrawl Harlem is happening this weekend, August 6. This year’s tour will focus on Romare Bearden’s life and work in Harlem. To learn more about the artist, visit his website. To see the Bearden’s art in human form, purchase tickets from ArtCrawl Harlem. The tour is from noon to 4 PM with dinner starting soon after until 6 PM.