Word: harlem
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...bleak circumstances that envelop so much of the African-American community, a singularly heartening piece of good news has been overlooked. Black artists are now embarked on one of the most astonishing outbursts of creativity in the nation's history. Never before -- not even during the legendary great Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s or the bristling Black Arts Movement of the '60s -- have black artists produced so much first-rate writing, music, painting and dance. For them, and for their appreciative audience among both blacks and whites, it all amounts to a new black cultural renaissance...
Politicians do penance in places like Harlem and the South Bronx. They tour and deplore and promise, and very little ever changes. Last week it was Bill Clinton's turn. At a church in Harlem across the street from an abandoned building and down the block from a crack house, the master of empathy was strangely subdued. Perhaps because so much of his agenda is perceived of as dead or dying, the staple of such appearances, a litany of Administration accomplishments, was largely truncated. There was a bit of boasting ("We've done more in 20 months than anybody...
Given his muted remarks, Clinton seemed hardly aware that some in Harlem are already beginning to feel the effects of his presidency, a definite, substantive change in direction as, however incrementally, Clinton refocuses government spending and moves to implement proposals that have languished for decades...
...Along Harlem's main thoroughfare, 125th Street, business is booming, a function of indigenous forces mostly but of Clinton's policies as well. The vacancy rate for commercial property is less than 2%, and space is renting for more than $30 per sq. ft., about the same as in midtown Manhattan, an astounding surge. New stores will soon dot the cross streets, and nearby housing units are being rehabilitated. The private investment responsible for most of this growth is following rising incomes and the return of better-off families. Perhaps most important is the anticipated designation of the area...
Coming back and being back are different, of course. Harlem's depression is still staggering. Single female-headed households account for 63% of all households with children. Forty-two percent of the population has an income below the poverty line. Black men living in Harlem are less likely to reach age 65 than men in Bangladesh. The murder rate for males nationally is 10.2 per 100,000 people; in Harlem it's over 100. The area's infant-mortality rate is 60% higher than that of New York City as a whole and can be attributed largely to alcohol...