Northattan

The Save Half for Later Campaign wants to help shrink northern Manhattan’s waistline, and more and more restaurants are joining the cause.

Once a month, the East Harlem Taste Trolley titillates Northattan’s taste buds, taking 45 hungry diners on a tour of the area’s gourmet restaurants.

The Dominican community of Washington Heights was dismayed by the news that a plot to bomb post offices and other targets in New York City was being hatched in its midst. Police charges that the alleged bomber was one of their own have been equally shocking to a community so rooted in this part of northern Manhattan. Morgan Radford went to Washington Heights, to gauge reaction to Saturday’s arrest of 27-year-old Jose Pimentel.

Jose Pimentel, accused of plotting to bomb New York City, in court. Photo by Jefferson Siegel/AP

While downtown officials revealed more details today about the investigation that led to Saturday’s arrest of a Dominican Northattan resident on terrorism charges, uptowners worried about how the arrest might affect two of the city’s large minority populations: Dominicans and Muslims.

“I’m his mother, how do you think I’m feeling right now?” sobbed Carmen Sosa, the distressed mother of Jose Pimentel, whom police have charged with plotting to bomb city post offices and police stations, as well as soldiers returning from war.

Sosa was addressing the media circus camped in front of her son’s apartment in Hamilton Heights early Monday morning. “I would like to apologize to the city,” said Sosa.  “I love New York, I’ve been here, since 1987. I’m very disappointed with what my son’s doing. I did not raise my son that way.

Pimentel, originally from Dominican Republic, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who recently converted to Islam, according to police. Officials in Northattan today praised the police investigation that led to his arrest. Among them was State Senator Adriano Espaillat, who commended the actions of the New York Police Department for “their swift and rapid response” to Pimentel’s alleged bombing plans that threatened the lives of city residents.

Ebenzer Smith, district manager of Community Board 12, joined in the praise, suggesting that the Pimentel case might help the community overcome some of its longstanding hostility toward police.

“We need to be vigilant in our neighborhood and work with the police department and give them any tips,” said Smith. “Not only terrorist but any criminal action cannot be tolerated in this community.”

Police allege that Pimentel planned to build bombs that can be easily made at home, with simple ingredients such as powder, Christmas lights and flashlights. The powder was made from scraped material off of match heads and used Christmas lights as the detonator. Pimentel bought the ingredients from a Home Depot on Exterior Street in the Bronx according to The New York Times.  Amelia Belucci, an employee at the store, said today that the allegations against Pimentel made her nervous.

“Nothing in the world is safe,” said Belucci. “What happened on 9/11 can happen anywhere. He’s not there in his head. Maybe he wants to hurt somebody,” she said.

Simon Islam, a software engineer who just moved to New York from Texas, lives a floor below Pimentel’s uncle’s apartment on 137^th Street in Hamilton Heights.  According to police, Pimentel was living with his uncle at the time of his arrest.

“We always saw him in the corner smoking all the time, like maybe late nights, at 1 or 2 in the morning,” said Islam, who – like police – described Pimentel as a loner. “He’s always standing and smoking,” he said.

Pimentel’s mother said that after his conversion to Islam, her son worshipped at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, the city’s largest mosque at 96^th Street and Third Avenue.

The imam there, Omar S. Abu Namous, worried today that Pimentel’s actions could raise a new wave of  “Islamophobia.”

“People don’t understand Islam,” said Namous. “We should not judge a person from their religion. You could be anything: Religion is one thing, and your character is another thing,“ he said.

Simon Islam, a fellow Muslim, said he also worried that the allegations against Pimentel could hurt Muslims.

“Islam is not about all of this. Definitely not,” he said. “Nowhere is Islam telling people to go do jihad on people who are innocent and not involved with anything.”

Equally distressed today were many Dominicans, who make up the majority in Washington Heights, and who wonder if now they will be objects of suspicion, as Muslims were after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.

While there was no real evidence of an anti-Dominican backlash, there was plenty of bewilderment among the Dominicans of Washington Heights.

“I never heard of a Dominican bomber before,” said 15-year-old Ariel Sanchez.

“That guy is crazy,” said Johnny de Jesus. “I don’t think any Hispanic does something like that.”

Pimentel is being held without bail, and his lawyer was not available for comment.

Harlem’s first-ever Hair Expo wants women to love their hair, the natural way.

Harlem enjoys a glut of beauty supply stores, but only a few offer products made with natural ingredients. Even fewer of those shops are owned by the black women they serve. Harlem’s first natural hair expo sought to persuade black women that the “natural way” is better not only for their hair, but also for the wallets of black-owned beauty retailers.

“Parkour is just training your body to overcome obstacles,” says “Vert,” who teaches the acrobatic discipline four times a week in Fort Tryon Park.

Ydanis Rodriguez at a press conference on Wednesday. Photo by Tania Rashid/Northattan.

A day after he was arrested as part of the city’s crackdown on Occupy Wall Street, City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez demanded that New York City authorities investigate police treatment of the protesters who were cleared from Zuccotti Park early Tuesday.

Rodriguez, who represents Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill, was among some 200 people arrested as the Occupy Wall Street camp was dismantled by police, on the order of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He was released Tuesday evening but did not speak in detail about his detention until a press conference on the steps of City Hall Wednesday.

Rodriguez, sporting minor scratches above his eyes, told media and dozens of supporters who assembled for the press conference that he had been pushed to the ground by a police officer and beaten in the head with a baton just before his arrest.

While acknowledging that police need to “guarantee order in the city,” Rodriguez said police were heavy-handed in their treatment of protesters Tuesday morning.

“What happened yesterday morning didn’t have to happen,” he said. “I think participating in civil disobedience is the right of the citizens.”

Rodriguez said he went to Zuccotti Park at 1 a.m. Tuesday, after a text message alerted him that police had begun an operation to clear the park. He said that when he arrived, he saw police punching some protesters in the stomach. Protester Rhadames Rivera said he watched Rodriguez ask a police officer to act with restraint.

“Why did they run this operation like a military? This is not acceptable,” Rodriguez told the crowd outside of City Hall, in calling for an investigation of how police treated him and the protesters who were evicted from the park.

When Rodriguez himself was grabbed by police and pushed to the ground, he said he identified himself as a City Council member. Rodriguez said police ignored him and threw him in a van, where he was held for two hours before his transfer to One Police Plaza. He was one of only two city officials arrested, along with protesters who have occupied the park for three months.

Rodriguez said that despite requests he was not allowed to see a lawyer for 12 hours. “I didn’t want to be treated different, I just wanted to be treated with the rights that I know that I have,” he said, noting that though he and many others arrested were released before the end of Tuesday, some remained in police custody on Wednesday.

Rodriguez has been a strong supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protest. Last week he and other Northattan officials led union members, activists and other residents on an 11-mile march from Washington Heights to Zuccotti Park to express solidarity with the protesters. At his press conference, he called on supporters to rally behind a “Day of Action” march on Thursday, to help show that, despite the raid on Zuccotti Park, the OWS movement is still alive.

A sole protestor faces police at Zuccotti Park this morning. Photo by Isha Soni.

To occupiers at Zuccotti Park, Monday night seemed like any other during their two-month-old live-in protest; that is until they were awakened by bright lights and loud ruckus just after 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“A mass of police came in riot gear with big flood lights and ordered an eviction on the grounds of fire hazard, but I didn’t see any fire department there,” said 50 year-old C. J. Phillips, who has spent the past month camped out in a tent in Zuccotti Park.

About 200 protesters have been arrested in the crackdown, including New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who has been a vocal supporter of the Occupy Movement in recent weeks.

Many of those arrested were said to have chained themselves together as police closed in on the center of the camp, though such details, which were widely disseminated on the Internet and social media, were hard to confirm because police barricades prevented press and protesters alike from coming within two blocks of Zuccotti Park even into daylight hours earlier this morning.

The crackdown was ordered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg who expressed a shared concern with Brookfield Properties, the park’s owners, regarding the park’s sanitary and security conditions.

“Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others,” Bloomberg said in a statement released Tuesday morning. “There have been reports of businesses being threatened and complaints about noise and unsanitary conditions that have seriously impacted the quality of life for residents and businesses in this now-thriving neighborhood. The majority of protesters have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority have not been – and as the number of protesters has grown, this has created an intolerable situation.”

Many of the protesters complained that they weren’t given fair warning to clear the park, and that many of them were forced to leave belongings behind, including tents and sleeping bags, which were hauled off in trucks shortly after the eviction.

By 2:15 a.m. most of the occupiers were scattered in groups of between 50 and 100 on all sides of the police barricades. One faction of about 50 people was motivated to march towards Foley Square around 3 a.m. following impromptu suggestions by organizers like Wes Drexler.

“We’re going to march to Foley Square with our brothers and sisters. If you would like stay here,” shouted Drexler, referring to the police barricade on Broadway two blocks north of Zuccotti Park, “feel free to do so, but stay peaceful.” His message was echoed by the 50 or so around him.

As the crowd marched toward Foley Square, several dozen new arrivals blended in with the rest of the group, including Chris Cimi, a 20-year-old Pace student who heard about the eviction via social media.

“I haven’t stayed in the park overnight, but I’ve been down here a few times before,” Cimi said. “I thought it was important to come here tonight though and witness what was going on with my own eyes.”

By 3:45 a.m., the group had grown to roughly 200 people and began to settle in at Foley Square. Police helicopters circled overhead, while on the ground some 50 officers encircled the protesters as they began organizing an impromptu meeting to decide on their next course of action.

Around 5 a.m., several crates of bottled water appeared with newly arriving protesters and were distributed to the crowd. People began to make appeals for everyone present to tweet, text and email everyone they knew to come down and support the protesters.

By 5:30 a.m. the crowd had at least doubled in size, to roughly 400 people, many of whom had just arrived from other boroughs, New Jersey and Connecticut. Many said they had rushed to the area after hearing the pleas for support from the Occupy Wall Street’s live Web feed, posts on Facebook and Twitter and via text message alerts.

At one point there was a motion to move back toward the police barricades to confront police there, but after much debating, the crowd came to a consensus that it would be more productive to stay put in Foley Square until a more cohesive decision could be made.

“I think they just want to build a base here, which is good because everyone is just getting arrested” at the barricades surrounding Zuccotti Park. said Kaitlin Phillips, an English major at Columbia University. “I’d rather stay here because I can’t get arrested. I’ve got papers due.”

Five years ago, when she conceived the idea of opening La Casa Azul bookstore in East Harlem, Aurora Anaya-Cerda knew it would be no easy task. Despite the area’s rich cultural heritage, similar ventures have struggled in recent times.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda has raised $72,000 to open a new bookstore in East Harlem. Photo by Johnny Ramos.

The advent of new technology – think kindles, iPads, e-books – has played a major role, along with rising Internet sales. “The industry has already changed so much,” says Anaya-Cerda. “I still have each draft of my business plan – I’ve seen how it goes from 20 to 35 to 46 pages. And there’s no denying bookstores have closed in New York City. I’m very aware of that because I visited them before it happened.”

But Anaya-Cerda is in an ebullient mood. In early October, her campaign to raise $40,000 in 40 days closed with around $36,000 in private and online donations. An interest-free matching loan from an unnamed benefactor makes a grand total of $72,000 – and Anaya-Cerda says “every penny” is accounted for. “The next phase is looking for a commercial space,” she continues. “I’m aiming to open in a year, because I know it takes time with negotiations, landlords, permits and all of that.”

Her mission is simple: “To promote Latino writers, writers from Latin America, literature in Spanish, literature for teens and bilingual books for kids.” Another key goal is helping people get in touch with their Hispanic identity through reading. With a résumé that includes starting an online store, organizing a children’s book festival and hosting dozens of smaller events during the last three years, Anaya-Cerda is confident she can overcome harsh economic realities and find a sustainable business model that serves the needs of its community.

On Nov. 8, the elders of that community were out in force at the Nuyorican Poets Café, a downtown venue that helped foster cultural identity for many Puerto Rican immigrants in the 1970s. The news about Anaya-Cerda’s fruitful fundraising is cautiously received. “I’ve been teaching Shakespeare for more than 30 years, and nobody reads anymore,” says writer and educator Miguel Algarín. As co-founder of the iconic café and a professor emeritus at Rutgers University, Algarín has experience behind his words.

Sery Colón performs outside the Nuyorican Poets Café, Nov. 8. Photo by Frederick Bernas / Northattan.

Sery Colón, whose own Latino bookstore, Agueybana, closed in 1998 after five years in business, agrees. “Seventy thousand dollars alone might just go into taking care of the location,” says Colón. Amid escalating gentrification on the Lower East Side, Colón says the rent on his space spiraled out of control – and when Amazon came along, he “just couldn’t compete.”

Colón tried again in 2007, when he co-founded Cemi Underground with Luis Cordero. Despite offering a broader choice – art, clothes and other merchandise, as well as books – and occupying a prime East Harlem location on Lexington Avenue, the venture was shuttered after just two years. “We did a lot there, but people were not supporting books,” says Colón.

Ed Morales, a journalist who also teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, says the Amazon effect should be a big cause for concern at La Casa Azul. “The distribution model is similar to music,” he says. “There are no record stores – people want to buy online and get those deep discounts. Right now, it’s very difficult for any bookstore to get off the ground.”

In late 2007, two established Spanish-language outlets on West 14th Street, Librería Lectorum and Librería Macondo, closed within weeks of each other.

Anaya-Cerda’s online donation drive was widely reported in New York media, and even made it to the Huffington Post “Latino Voices” homepage. But it was an article in the “Daily News” on Oct. 27 that caused one El Barrio business owner to react with frustrated surprise.

“A friend of mine told me there was a woman doing a fundraiser based on trying to open up the very first bookstore here in Spanish Harlem,” says author Deborah Cardona, sitting behind her front desk at the Deja Vu Book Lounge on East 116th Street. After five years selling street literature in the local area, Cardona opened this physical space in July.

“So I found her number, called it and told her, ‘Maybe you were trying to open up a different type of bookstore, and that’s fine,’” Cardona says. “‘But don’t tell people there isn’t a bookstore.’”

Anaya-Cerda says she only learned about the Deja Vu Lounge during that call. And Cardona is clear that she is in no way against La Casa Azul: “The idea is wonderful. I want my community to get back to reading. I don’t have a problem working with her, and I am open to collaboration.”

Jesús Papoleto Meléndez believes the new bookstore will raise awareness of Latino identity. Photo by Frederick Bernas / Northattan.

Nourishing awareness of cultural history among the local population is a call that resonates with Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, another elder statesmen of Nuyorican poetry. “When I was a kid, there were no Latino authors – we became those authors,” he says. Meléndez has worked with students of all ages in El Barrio and beyond, and he believes the new bookstore can become a valuable resource.

“My generation spent its time breaking through walls,” Meléndez continues. “We created a whole legitimate literary movement. Our quest was to identify ourselves in the context of this culture, which was a big unknown. The people who came from Puerto Rico at least had memories, but I was born here – I had a different reality, so I was really displaced from our own cultural identity.”

Meléndez believes the Nuyorican literary legacy holds wider significance in today’s changing America, and for other Hispanic communities. “We made a collective identity for ourselves and gave it a voice, so anyone else could attach to it, which is what they’ve done – even Latino immigrants,” he explains.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda is an example of this trend: Her parents arrived in the United States from Mexico when she was 5 years old. In addition to her literary pursuits, she works at El Museo del Barrio organizing family programs. “I believe a big part of educating children is teaching them about their identity, or at least making them comfortable in knowing their stories,” she says. “Celebrations and traditions are very important for children finding out who they are, so that’s what the bookstore will provide.”

Meléndez thinks the adult market will be tougher to crack. “You always have to focus on kids when it’s about books, because big people are into their customs or habits,” he explains. “The only opportunity to change their behavior is at child level – and it’s like a shark feeding frenzy when kids see book fairs at school. So, let this bookstore be a new candy store for children in East Harlem!”