110th St between Amsterdam Ave and Morningside Drive is where New York meets New New York. And cue the sound of broken glass and hoodlums running away from your car.

Often found roaming around uptown between 96th Street and 145th, I like to stop by the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam between 110th and 111th—in business now for 35+ years, during times when the current owners will tell you that broken car windows were the least of your worries. Things have changed quite a bit since then. Students from Columbia walk around naively with their trapping of affluence adorning their bodies and bulging out of their backpacks. People with more money than you are purchasing new condominiums on Morningside and 110th, at the newly built gleaming tower, Avalon Morningside Park.

But some things stay the same, namely nightfall on 110th between Morningside Drive and Amsterdam Ave, where both east and west side of the streets are absent much activity in the evening. It is here on the north side of 110th that without exception, every time I stroll past, I witness the aftermath of numerous vehicular b&e’s. Piles of broken of glass can be found littering the sidewalk directly adjacent to the unsuspecting drivers who must be newcomers or absolutely clueless about urban life, parking their vehicles overnight on a street that sees cars broken into on an almost nightly basis. It is not uncommon in the morning to see six, seven, eight cars having been handled this way. Slightly awed and perplexed that dozens of cars meet this fate every week on one side of block, I've started photographing the aftermath.

It is here on 110th between Amsterdam and Morningside that New New York meets New York for the first time. It’s a cheap, easy lesson to learn.

Harlem World

• Columbia University: And All Ye Who Enter Morningside Heights Shall Be Pure Of Hearts And Of Service To Our Young Students. "With the exception of a few buildings, Broadway's storefronts are owned by Columbia and University affiliates between 111th and 123rd streets. On Amsterdam, Columbia owns the majority of storefronts between 115th and 122nd...In 2006, a store owner told the Spectator that the University requires proprietors to submit business proposals and comply with certain stipulations in exchange for their favorable rental terms...'Columbia considers a variety of local needs before making a decision on the type of business that can become a business tenant. Beyond that, we do not comment on our negotiations.'" <The Bwog>
  
  
• Washington Heights resident not blowing smoke, documents neighborhood air quality violations on his blog, becoming the lead in neighborhood's quest to remedy an egregious environmental problem under their noses. Exposing an oft overlooked side to urban living uptown, photographing the thick black smoke that pours out of 671 West 162nd, while other residents converse in the comments about what steps they can take, no doubt aware that people power will move the issue. "Officials and politicians? Not even footnotes in this story, which is about the aggregation of capital and the relentless rise of the metropolis."
  <The Gay Recluse>
  
  
• Some great fall shots of Upper Manhattan <Paz's New York Minute>
  
• Undiscovered Beach in Manhattan? <NY Daily Photo>
  
• Antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins are associated with a greater risk for wheeze, hay fever and eczema in preschoolers, New York researchers say. <UPI.com>
  

Mayday Mayday. Can Not Compute Press Release. Please Help Parse.

Fitch Downgrades 1 Class of LB 2006-LLF C5; Assigns Outlooks

"The Praedium Rental Portfolio's I, II, and III (8.0%) are primarily secured by 27 five and six story multi-family properties built in the early 1900's and located throughout the northern Manhattan markets of Hamilton Heights, Morningside Heights, and Harlem. The current sponsor acquired the properties in August 2005 and budgeted $19.5 million ($14,275/unit) in renovation costs to improve the portfolio. Based on mid-year 2008 financials, the properties have not experienced the increase in rental income expected at this point in the sponsor's business plan."

The above paragraph was really the only one NYC The Blog understood in this hot mess of a Press Release.

Curbed, The Real Estate, The Real Deal, Dealbreaker, Clusterstock...Are you there? Internets? Can any of you help us understand this barrage of numbers and math equations, and what it might mean?

Smart Car Watch In Harlem. (Is The Vespa Scooter The New Symbol Of The New Harlem?)

After a brief dry spell with a lack of sightings, the Harlem Smart Car Watch at NYC The Blog continues, with this smart looking red one, a popular color, spotted Sunday on 123rd St and Manhattan Avenue as it's owner prepared to open the hatch.

What might be considered more important however, and certainly was more exciting to me, were the two Vespas spotted during the same walk at different locations. The first one, an orange Vespa in the photo bottom right, was spotted parked on the sidewalk around the corner from the Smart Car, on 117th and Morningside Ave. The second one, a black model seen in the poorly lit photo bottom left, was parked on 110th btw Amsterdam and Broadway, an area better known as Morningside Heights. Blogger Harlem Fur came out of retirement in July to note his first sighting of a Smart Car, his headline at the time declaring, "Harlem Is Over: Smart Car Signals the End"

With Harlem declared over in July upon sighting of a Smart Car, two Vespa sightings in one day must surely mark a new chapter in Harlem's gentrification. I'd like to see Harlem Fur's headline for this one.

Harlem World

Hair on 125th Street, photograph by specialkrb.

• Harlem fire kills man, 90 <Daily News>
  
• Harlem's Apollo theater to create oral history <Newsday>
  
• Studio Apt. on 148th and Broadway, $950 <Univision Classifieds>
• Cash for Guns Today, $200 Bank Cards for Each Gun Returned <Uptown Flavor>
  
• Photos from the Morningside Height’s Farmers Market <Harlem Condo Life>
  
• Harlem Church Hosts Gay Wedding Expo <Harlem World Magazine>

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Latest Attacks On Columbia Students Raise Question, Is Race A Factor In Recent Assaults?

Last week NYC The Blog reported on a mugging of a young man in Hamilton Heights, describing the victim as a "petite Asian man," which prompted a commenter to write, "Good to know it was a petite Asian man. I'm a petite white man, so I can be confident it would never happen to me. While we're identifying races, can you say what race the assailants were?"

Though the comment was dripping with sarcasm, it appears that not being Asian might serve the commenter well considering the latest rash of assaults last Sunday night around 113th and Broadway. The Columbia Spectator reports that seven Columbia students were assaulted, with Fox 5 wondering if the race of the victims played any role, noting that six of the students attacked were Asian. The photo at right captures the assailants on security cameras.

UPDATE: The NY Post is reporting that four kids have been arrested and charged with the assaults."The suspects - Deshaun Busby, 16, of Brooklyn; Lawrence Jones, 17, of The Bronx; Quentin Cox, 16, and Jan Germosen, 18, both of Manhattan - were charged with gang assault for allegedly participating in five attacks in a span of 17 minutes."

These assaults bring to mind an attack earlier this year in the same neighborhood that ended fatally when Columbia University graduate student Minghui Yu was assaulted during an attempted mugging. He fought his attackers off and ran into the street in an attempt to escape, when he was struck by a car and died later from those injuries.

Are the victims being targeted because of their race? Are these assaults the result of class frictions or town vs gown animosity? Likely that are three considerations have a role, as 'greaser vs socs' is a universal lubricant for antagonistic relationships between groups in any neighborhood, whether predicated on race, class, gender, or sexual orientation.

Or maybe there is a simpler explanation, as one of 84 comments noted on the Daily News' site when they reported the most recent attacks, observing that "Getting popped in the mouth has been a right of passage for Columbia students for 30 years. It's a pretty fair exchange for a life of privilege after college."

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