The Manhattan Times

by Daniel P. Bader

2008 was a big year for Northern Manhattan. A local kid won the 2008 Tony for Best Musical for a play he wrote about home. A jazz musician won a genius grant, a television producer won an Emmy, and a rising star from Inwood was drafted first round to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

by Elizabeth Lorris Ritter

Whether you realize it or not, your everyday grocery purchases, what you eat and where you buy it, is a deeply political act. Is it local? How did it get to you? What are the public systems, private market mechanisms and public/private partnerships that brought it to you? Is it organic? What does that mean? How is it regulated?

by Daniel P. Bader

2009 bodes ill for the national and, more specifically, New York City economies. There will surely be a trickle down effect, meaning what afflicts Wall Street will also impact the local economy.

by Adam Garret Clark

Mofongo — (Mo-fon-go) noun

1. A traditional dish from the Caribbean made of plantains, garlic and pork crackling.

2. A popular dish from Washington Heights that scares outsiders.

by Tom Stoelker

There are times when an art review is not helpful. In the case of “Derrotero,” Zoe Leonard’s installation at the Hispanic Society of America located on Broadway between W. 155th and W. 156th Streets, this might be one of those moments. The exhibit derives its name from a Spanish word for itinerary, or a ship’s route.

by Daniel P. Bader

Anyone watching the news about the current financial woes and the credit crisis might think this is not the time to consider refinancing their mortgage. Turns out it’s the opposite. It’s not as easy as it once was – but the money is out there and interest rates are lowest than they’ve been in decades.

A new analysis of the National Cancer Institute's cancer registry has found that as many as one in five older women experience delayed or incomplete radiation treatment following breast-conserving surgery, and that this suboptimal care can lead to worse outcomes.

by Luis A. Miranda, Jr.

What a year! For me, 2008 was euphoric and sad, complicated and simple, historic and mundane. It began with the notion that for my son Lin-Manuel, and by extension my entire family, success on Broadway was well within his reach. My entire family greeted the New Year in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico catching some warm island sun. We didn’t know that it would be the last New Year’s Eve we would spend with my father, but we did sense that 2008 would be full of surprises. My kids know that on New Year’s Eve we must all be together. The kisses and hugs from my family – as we ring in the New Year – are the fuel that keeps my heart going for a full year. It’s at that moment that we reaffirm family ties and commit to be with each other, through good and bad times, over the course of the New Year.