Northattan

A rat lurking in a Manhattan subway track. Photo AP

Is Northattan’s famous Harlem the borough’s “rattiest” neighborhood?

It all depends on which one of three recent, decidedly unscientific, polls you want to believe.

Poll Number 1, unveiled in a press release from the pest control company d-CON, claimed that Harlem has stolen the title of Manhattan’s “rattiest” neighborhood from the Lower East Side.

D-Con based that conclusion on interviews with a mere 200 of Manhattan’s 1.6 million residents, and the company didn’t say how it chose those it interviewed.  Still, an impressive 24 percent of the d-CON respondents fingered Harlem as the Rat Capital, followed by the Lower East Side and Northattan’s Washington Heights.

Poll Number 2 comes from State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, who recently published Have You Seen a Rat Today?, another unscientific survey distributed to 15,000 residents through mail, email and in person at subway stations in Manhattan’s 30th senatorial district.  Nearly 90 percent of the 5,000 respondents who reported to Perkins said that they have seen a rat on a daily, or at least, weekly, basis in subway stations in the district.

That was hardly news to Harlem resident Jesus Vasquez.  “There are a lot of rats in the trains, but everybody knows that,” he said.  Vasquez said he’s battled his own rat problem in his apartment on 147th Street and Broadway, claiming victory after poison put the kibosh on the critters.

But do daily sightings of rats make Harlem Manhattan’s rattiest neighborhood?

Not according to Poll Number 3, this one from nyc.gov, which recently issued its annual rodent complaint report showing that the largest number of monthly rat complaints is actually in Manhattan’s Community Board 2 – which encompasses Greenwich Village, SoHo and other neighborhoods.  Harlem came in number two.

The city’s survey also found that many other neighborhoods in Manhattan are besieged by rats.  The City Health Department is combating the problem with new tactics: rather than large exterminating efforts, rodent infestations are pinpointed by canvassing areas with particular problems and  focusing efforts on them.

Some say Harlem’s rat problem can be directly attributed to the neighborhood’s constant construction.

“If you open up an area, the rats have nowhere to go so they’re going to run into other buildings for shelter,” said Rob, a construction worker at a site near the 125th Street number 1 subway line, who declined to give his last name.

When Senator Perkins released Have You Seen a Rat Today? he proposed a ban on eating and drinking on the subway, similar to policies enforced on Washington D.C.  and Chicago transit systems.

“What we know for sure is the rats are not growing the food they are eating, nor are they shopping at Whole Foods or McDonald’s,” Perkins said in an interview with The New York Times.

Perkins mailed the results of the survey to the Metropolitan Transportation Administration, urging the agency to make the rodent problem in city subways a priority.  To date, MTA has had no official response.

The wildly popular Broadway musical, “In The Heights,” sets the lives of Dominican-American residents in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood to song. That play is in its final weeks. And now a new show that tells an older story of the neighborhood is just beginning.

It tells the story of Washington Heights just after World War II, when the neighborhood was home to the world’s largest community of German Jewish refugees – totaling around 25,000.

Today, those numbers have dwindled significantly, and Spanish-speaking immigrants make up the majority of residents. Some German Jews still live in the neighborhood, though, and Northattan asked three of them to tell their stories.

Martin Spier, 85, survived three concentration camps in Europe before coming to Washington Heights. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

Martin Spier, age 85

Q: What was your life like before you came to Washington Heights in 1946?

A: I was born in Rauischholzhausen, near Marburg, and I lived there in a small town of about 700 people until the war started. My oldest brother was sent into a concentration camp in 1938 on Kristallnacht, and when he was released, my family sent him and my other brother and my sister to England. There, they were picked up off the boat by a Scottish farmer. He wasn’t a Jew. And they worked on his farm during the war.

Me, I stayed with my younger brother, my parents and my grandmother. And in 1941, we were sent to a concentration camp, called Theresienstadt, in the Czech Republic. We worked there for two years, but my grandmother was in her 80s. She died there.

Q: After Theresienstadt, where did you go?

A: In 1943, we were sent to Auschwitz, the death camp. We saw carloads of people coming on the trains from Poland and Hungary. They didn’t see daylight. They just went straight to gas chambers and were killed. I didn’t know my parents would be killed. But they were.

I was picked out of, I don’t know, 10,000 people. They sent us to work at another camp, called Schwarzheide, building military tanks.

I will never forget my parents, walking from the train into the camp. I’m a bad sleeper. I won’t sleep tonight with our talking.

Q: How were you liberated from the concentration camp?

A: In January of 1945, they started the death march. There was about 1,000 young people my age who left. We marched from the camp to Prague until May, when the Russians liberated us. By then, there were only 200 people. The Russians gave us heavy food, like beans and bacon. But we were sick, and another 100 died from the food. I weighed only 70 pounds.

I went back to my hometown, and two weeks later, my brother arrived, too. I didn’t know he was alive, but he was sent to work at another labor camp. We decided to come to America, because there was no future for us in Germany.

Q: What did you think of Washington Heights when you arrived?

A: I was disappointed with America. I thought everyone was rich. But that was not true. I got my first job in White Plains, working with a jeweler. But I left that job a few weeks later and took others. I worked hard to make money. Eventually, I became a house painter and owned my own business. It was called M&M Spier Painting Corp.

I met other German Jews at the Macabi Club House at 158^th and Broadway. People played tennis there. We had our own soccer team. It was a whole group of people. We were all the same.

Edith Rosenbaum, 85, came to Washington Heights as a young girl and has lived in this apartment for 59 years. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

Edith Rosenbaum, age 85

Q: Why did you decide to leave Germany?

A: My father was sent to a concentration camp in 1938 on Kristallnacht. He was sent to Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg. He was lucky, because he was an athletic person – a healthy person. Many of the Jews in the camps couldn’t do the things they were asked to do. He was released three months later with the condition that he leave Germany. My mother saw to it that he would get out immediately after his release. And he had to go without us because of the affidavit. So my father moved to New York in February of 1938. We came that summer, just before the war started.

Q: What was New York like for you?

A: We first moved to the Bronx then quickly relocated to Washington Heights, where I’ve lived ever since. I’ve lived in this apartment building for 59 years. What was it like? There were a lot of Jewish people. Our neighbors knew we had no money. Bakers brought us day-old bread. People gave us clothing. My mother bought cans of food ready for the garbage. That way, we could eat. We were not hungry.

Q: How did your family earn an income?

A: My uncle lived with us. He was a tailor and was making money. My father worked for the department store, S. Klein – they took in a lot of German Jews – for $15 a week. My mother knew how to sew and did alterations for money. We had very little money, but we were together. That was good.

Q: What did a life in the United States mean to you?

A: For me, there was a future here. There were other people like ourselves. The language eventually became familiar. We felt that we belonged. I was grateful I was in the United States. I was grateful for everything.

In Germany, we left family behind – my grandparents, everyone on my mother’s side, the children. They were all killed.

Q: What career did you eventually pursue?

A: I attended George Washington High School, where, among other things, I attended a dancing class with a German Jewish teacher. There, I met my husband, another German Jew, who became an engineer. I wanted to become a nurse, but instead, I eventually became an English as a Second Language teacher. I’ve mostly taught immigrants that moved into Washington Heights and speak Spanish.

Q: Did you feel like you could relate to them?

A: They had to relate to me. It was a real adjustment for them to learn English.

Eva Fiest, 91, worked as a maid in order to get out of Germany, before coming to Washington Heights. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

Eva Fiest, age 91

Q: Why did you decide to move to New York City?

A: My brother and I were the only ones to get out. He got out of Germany very early, and warned us, this was not going to end well. My father said, “I have fought for Germany, and we have always been Germans. I don’t see why we should get out. This will pass.” But it did not. So as things were getting worse, my mother was able to send me to England to live with relatives there.

Soon after, my cousins decided to leave for the United States. I was working as a maid, and I said, “If you go, I go.” So they managed to get me an affidavit almost overnight, and I left with them. It was 1939.

Q: What did you do once you arrived in Washington Heights?

A: I stayed with one of my cousins, and she said, “Now take your time and get used to New York.” But after three days, I had a job. I worked at first at a home for girls on 157^th Street. Later, I became a dietitian at a nursing home, which was more up my alley.

Q: How did you feel about Washington Heights?

A: Most of the refugees lived up here. My cousins lived on 163^rd Street, just off Riverside Drive. Another one lived off Broadway at 179^th Street. It was the place to be. Washington Heights was greatly occupied by German-born refugees.

Q: Washington Heights is different now. How do you feel about that?

A: Now, most of the people are not Jewish. Most of them speak Spanish. As long as they are decent people, I don’t mind. And so far, so good.

Q: Your parents did not escape Germany. What happened to them?

A: My father died before the war. But, my poor mother did not make it out. She was waiting for a visa to go to Israel, and it never came. Instead, I received a letter in German that said my mother had left the town where she was born. The Germans had a special way of writing about what happened to people. So that, to me, was obvious. She was killed.

Q: How often do you think about her?

A: Very often. In those days, I was young, and I’m still blaming myself. Why didn’t I get my mother out? But the only way would have been if she had come as a maid. And the thought that my mother should do that kind of work, it never came to me. You see, if you grow up in a house where you had everything, to think that my mother would have gone on her hands and knees and cleaned the floor like this. I couldn’t see this, at the time. I couldn’t see it.

The new Target that opened in East Harlem in August. Photo by The Daily News

East Harlem may be bracing for another new chain store, as retail giant Walmart is reportedly looking at the area to open its first New York City location. But some small business owners fear that Walmart’s addition to the community will further cripple their businesses, which have seen sales go down in the aftermath of the recent opening of two other large chain stores in the area.

John Albahri, the owner of a City Audio, a small electronic store on Third Avenue, said he would not be able to compete with Walmart’s prices.

“Walmart is trouble,” said Albahri. “Every single business here will close.”

He said that since the opening of a Target superstore this past summer, sales at his store have gone down by 15 percent.

DNAinfo reported two weeks ago that Walmart was considering East Harlem, Chelsea, and Queens among the sites for its first store in New York City.

This comes on the heels of a new Target superstore that opened this past summer and a Costco that opened its doors last year in East Harlem. Despite the recession, business at both stores have been brisk and some Costco shoppers recently expressed joy that a Walmart might open in the area.

“Walmart is a good because it sells things that poor people can afford,” said East Harlem resident Mina Echevarria.

Walmart has been silent on where exactly in East Harlem they might build the store. In the last year Walmart has been aiming to increase their presence in urban markets by building smaller stores, called Marketside stores. There are now four in the United States.

Despite Marketside’s smaller size, some small businesses fear that the amenities that Walmart provides will further put them at a disadvantage. David Ben, the manager of a clothing shop on 116th Street, says he understands why people prefer big chain stores.

“They go there because they have parking,” Ben said. “They come to my store and if they are not careful, they will get a parking ticket”.

Walmart has had a controversial past. The retailer has been attacked by union leaders for low wages and limited benefits. Walmart, along with Target and Costco, are nonunion stores.

Chain store supporters have pointed out that these stores help the local economy by hiring residents in the neighborhood, where the current unemployment rate, according to the New York State Department of Labor, is 17 percent. Also for many shoppers, these chain stores have huge inventories, which makes it easier to shop.

“Here they have everything, and its cheaper, that’s why we come here”, said Costco shopper Andrea Rodriguez.

However, Alibahri of City Audio believes Walmart is making a big mistake if it decides to open a store in East Harlem.

“There is not enough money in the area to support a Costco and Walmart” Alibahri said. “They are going to compete with each other and kill each other”.

At Manhattan's only Target, shoppers got an early start on Christmas shopping, as well as black Friday deals.

At a quarter to 4 of the morning after Thanksgiving, the line snaked around the second floor stairwell of East Harlem’s big box shopping center.  About a hundred people gathered here late Thanksgiving night to engage in a ritual taking place in parking lots and shopping malls across the country: the dawning of black Friday.

Manhattan’s only Target store is located just a few blocks from the No. 6 train on the banks of the East River and it is marking its first black Friday since the store opened in July. On this November night, Manhattanites braved the damp and cold to join in a tradition that has long been the province of the suburbs.

Jean Maracruz stayed up all night so she could be one of the first in line for the store’s 4 a.m. opening. ”I’m going to go in, get what’s on my list. Then I‘m going home and passing out.” Staking out black Friday sales is something of a holiday habit for Harlem resident Maracruz: “Last year I was at the Target in Queens, but I’m glad there is one here. It’s a lot closer.”

For other city dwellers, this was the first time they had ever engaged in the rite. “I never saw the point before” said Edwin Gutierrez, “but then I heard it was like, $500 dollars for a flat-screen television, and I thought, I’d lose sleep for that.” It helps that the Target is only a few blocks from where Gutierrez lives.

Apex Televisions were a popular pick for black Friday shoppers at East Harlem's Target.

At a 75 percent markdown, Apex televisions like the one Gutierrez wanted were practically flying off the shelves. “There is one sticking out of every other shopping cart,” said NYPD Officer Eddie Arroyo, one of a handful of police deployed to make sure things stayed calm both before and after the stores opening. “People were real chill, they waited, and then they walked in. There wasn’t running or pushing,” Arroyo said, adding, “this isn’t the burbs.”

Arroyo was referring to past incidents, like the trampling death of a Wal-Mart employee in 2008 in Nassau County. Since then, big box stores have gone to lengths to keep things running smoothly and securely.

Target even cordoned off its electronics section with a red velvet rope, adding a touch of class to the scramble for deals. But even behind the rope, people were for the most part calm.

While they don’t miss the mayhem, some Target employees were missing the crowds. “It wasn’t anything like we were expecting,” said cashier Inez Perez. By 7 a.m. there was no one in Perez’s checkout line.

That is a bit different than the picture across the country. Stores reported a much-hoped for uptick in the number of people thronging to black Friday sales. But even though the crowds may not have been as big as expected for this big box, announcements kept booming over the loudspeaker about the latest item to have sold out. The Apex televisions? One of the first to go.

When Target opened here last July, it was a cause for both consternation and celebration. Some local activists worried that it might be another nail in Harlem’s gentrification coffin, while others lauded the store for carrying ethnic products geared to the neighborhood and for hiring within the community.

John Griffith, executive vice president of property development for Target Corp, told the Associated Press that he expected 80 to 90 percent of the stores customers to be local. From a rough polling of the stalwart standing in line, that figure seemed to hold true on Friday.

Griffith also talked about the economic power of an urban big box, saying that the company projected this Target to make $90 million in its first year, as compared to the average $25 million a suburban store would generate.

Target used red velvet ropes to keep the early birds in order before the store opened at 4 a.m. on Friday morning.

But today, the urban Target may have been a bit barer than its smaller town sisters. Customer Fred Anderson said that while he got an Xbox for his son, he probably wouldn’t be back next year. “I’m still too full from all that turkey to be out in public.” In addition, Anderson is pretty sure he could have gotten the same deal somewhere else. “The guy down my block, he sells some of this stuff too. I mean his stuff might be stolen, but it’s better than waking up at 3 a.m.”

A can of Four Loko. Photo by Paul Sakuma/AP.

On a Saturday afternoon, Harlem is bustling with activity. A 16-year-old boy wearing a red cap and baggy pants is hanging out with friends on busy 125^th Street, not too far from the Magic Johnson Theatres. “Yeah, I’ve heard about them” he says nonchalantly. “They’re pretty popular with kids because most of the time, we don’t need an ID to buy them.”

The teenager, who asked not to be named, is talking about a highly potent and deceptively sweet alcoholic concoction, a combination of punch and alcohol, known around New York City as nutcrackers.

Unlike the controversial Four Loko, which combines caffeine and alcohol, nutcrackers are mixed at home and sold illegally in sealed plastic bottles for $5 or $10, mostly in bodegas and in barbershops. But much like Four Loko, they are very popular with teenagers.

Nutcrackers have been around for years, but Trymaine Lee, who covers Harlem for the Times and wrote about nutcrackers in September, says he first heard about them when a friend introduced him to a man who brews them at home. Lately, people in Harlem have expressed some fears about these drinks being illegally sold to minors, but nothing concrete has been done so far to address the issue. “I don’t think there’s outrage yet” says Lee,” but there is concern.”

The Harlem teenager said he buys his nutcrackers from a bodega around 135^th Street, but refused to be more specific. “Bodega owners never sell them to strangers; they have to know you to sell you one” he said.

But nutcrackers are also being sold from home. Jeff Trills, an entrepreneur from the Bronx, wholesales his nutcrackers to “earn some extra money.” He makes his with 160-proof Devil’s Springs vodka, 151-proof Bacardi rum and a large quantity of Hawaiian punch, before diluting the mixture, which he calls “slap yo momma,” with fresh water. Using the pseudonym “jtnutcracker,” he posted a video on YouTube in August of last year to explain how to make the drink from scratch; the video has already garnered more than 15,000 views.

Once an underground activity, nutcrackers have now gone mainstream.

“We’re not doing anything illegal, all we’re doing is making a cocktail drink,” says Trills. Actually, selling alcohol without a license is illegal, although he says he is in the process of acquiring one. And in the wake of a growing controversy, he maintains that his drinks, that he also calls “happy juices,” are harmless. “I don’t want to endanger my customers, which is why I created my YouTube video.” However, Trills does not give any sense of proportion in the video, and with what looks like one-third alcohol, it is unclear how potent his drink is. It is also unclear who he sells them to, although Trills mentions that he’s willing to ship his drinks to colleges or even army bases.

Rapper N.O.R.E's latest single is an ode to nutcrackers.

The nutcracker phenomenon has also hit the world of hip-hop. Victor Santiago Jr., a popular rapper born in Queens and better known by his stage name N.O.R.E. or Noreaga, recently released a single on iTunes called “Nutcracker.” He says he wrote the song as an ode to the drink after sampling different recipes. Noreaga, who is currently staying in Florida, said by telephone that he knows nothing about the controversy over the drink. “They’re not that bad” he says. “But if you drink two, you’ll be out of your mind. Drink three and you may go crazy. ”

Noreaga, who says he’s been buying nutcrackers for 10 years, has helped turn them into a household name, but he thinks their potential dangers have been blown out of proportion. “Nobody in their right mind will sell these drinks to kids, but will kids go out and try to find them anyway? Absolutely, and there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Instead, Noreaga says he’s proud to have helped popularize the drink. “I like nutcrackers the same way I like to cheer for the Jets, the Knicks, or the Mets” he says. “I’m a fan of everything that’s specific to New York and nutcrackers represent the underground of this city.”

Eric K. Washington, a Harlem historian, also says he had not heard about nutcrackers until he was approached by Lee a couple of months ago.

But he’s not surprised these drinks have hit the streets.  “Through history, people have always tried to make an extra buck by selling their own concoctions. Back in the 1920s in Harlem, snake oil salesmen would advertise potions designed to make you virile or to make your hair grow back.”

“This nutcracker craze has a romantic side to it, reminiscent of Prohibition days,” he says. “But because there is no quality control and no accountability, apprehension is naturally high.”

And since people are recreating a drink that has no specific recipe, Washington fears that someone will eventually get hurt. “So far, I don’t think there have been any known incidents involving nutcrackers, but one person getting sick is one too many.”

Despite the attention, nutcrackers remain an underground activity, which makes it harder for police to take action. In January, the New York Daily News conducted its own investigation in five spots in upper Manhattan. They found that under-aged kids were illegally being sold the drink in bodegas and barbershops without being asked for an ID.

State Senator Jeff Klein (left) and State Liquor Authority Deputy CEO Mike Jones unveiled details of an undercover operation which found Four Loko being illegally sold to minors at 11 stores in New York City. Photo by Linda Abi Assi/Northattan.

Mike Jones, Deputy CEO of New York State Liquor Authority, says a couple of bodegas were shut down as a direct consequence of the Daily News’ article. “We don’t know much about their potency since people put whatever they want in there” Jones says, “but it seems to be a seasonal thing that fades once summer is over.”

Four Loko, another popular alcoholic drink, is currently making headlines all over the country. Unlike nutcrackers, Four Loko, also known as “blackout in a can,” is legal and, because it also contains caffeine, more open to abuse.

The popularity of these drinks, which cause what is known as “wide-awake drunk”, has exploded over the last few months, and there have been reports of teenagers being hospitalized after drinking them.

New York, along with several other states, has already banned the sale of Four Loko. Retailers and wholesalers now have until Dec. 10 to clean out old stock and inventory.

Unlike Four Loko, nutcrackers don’t contain caffeine, are home brewed, and it is not clear how much alcohol they contain since dozens of different recipes exist. And with all the current attention paid to getting Four Loko and other high-alcohol, high-caffeine drinks off the shelves, nutcrackers remain under the radar.

The northbound ramp on Riverside Drive is back in business. Photo by Brett Teal

The last rebuilders left the Castle Village area in Washington Heights this month, five years after a massive retaining wall collapsed onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, destroying cars, disrupting traffic, and setting off a multimillion-dollar battle over insurance to cover the wide-ranging repairs.

The final step in restoring the heavily damaged area was the reopening of an on-ramp, which takes cars from Riverside Drive by Castle Village coop onto the Henry Hudson.

“It was a headache” said Carlos Pellecier, a local doorman at 1380 Riverside Drive, who drives to work from the Bronx and found his commuting time often tripled because of the blocked on-ramp. “Sometimes it would take me an hour to get home,” he said.

In 2005, the Castle Village wall collapsed, spilling onto the Henry Hudson.  Nobody was killed or injured, but the accident did cause millions of dollars in damages and months of traffic disruptions.

The Castle Village co-op was responsible for paying around $27 million for repairs to Kiewit Construction Company, a firm hired by the coop.  But the building’s insurance only covered about $10.5 million of that cost.

The rest was paid by individuals and families living in the community’s 585 apartments.  Costs varied depending on how many co-op shares an owner held, and in some cases, a family’s personal insurance policy covered the costs.

“A lot didn’t have to reach in their pockets at all,” said Gerald L. Fingerhut, the coop’s president.

But those without protection had to pay Castle Village up to $80,000, according to Fingerhut.

The scene at the Henry Hudson Parkway immediately after the Castle Village wall collapse in 2005. Photo courtesy of Joe Olivencia

“Some people felt the pain more than others,” he said. “People refinanced their mortgages and took out equity,” but none were thrown into bankruptcy by the financial burden.

Fingerhut, said Castle Village received the insurance money only a few months ago, after a lengthy battle with the insurance companies.

Now that the coop wall is reconstructed and other damage repaired, Fingerhut said Castle Village’s homeowners are taking extra precautions.

The coop’s insurance policies have been “dramatically increased” to protect residents, according to Fingerhut.  The plan now includes $200 million of liability insurance and has up to $20 million worth of protection for any future wall damage.

Fingerhut said he is unable to comment on the previous insurance plan for legal reasons.

Since the wall crumbled, Castle Village residents have been forced to live through five years of constant reconstruction and legal battles.  One battle involved the Castle Village owners’ insistence that the city restore a second retaining wall, just below the coop’s wall and running alongside the Henry Hudson Highway. Without restoration work, the coop owners argued, the lower wall might collapse, bringing down the Castle Village wall a second time.

The city eventually agreed to pay $14 million to restore the lower wall.

That project started in April, closing the on-ramp yet again, as was done frequently over the past five years.

Carlos Pellecier, the doorman on Riverside Drive, said drivers would often head to the ramp without realizing it was blocked off.

“They would be pissed and would curse,” Pellecier said.  “Just to get through is a pain in the butt.”

Drivers were then forced to U-turn and head back down Riverside. The next on-ramp was a mile away, via a detour on busy Cabrini Boulevard.

Local residents say that in addition to the driving inconvenience they suffered through years of thunderous construction noise.

“I’d wake up in the morning and you hear a lot of construction,” said Joe Olivencia, who lives just below the retaining wall.  “It’s irritating.”

But the job is over now, and Olivencia, who is retired and spends much of the day at home, can finally start to relax.