The Manhattan Times

The New York Press Association, an organization of community newsweeklies from around the state, boldly proclaimed last week at a press conference held at the Brooklyn Metro Tech Center: “The community newspaper business is alive, well and profitable. Community newspapers are growing.”

It was more than a month ago when one of the worst earthquakes in history struck the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti. An estimated 250,000 people died in this tragedy and over 300,000 were injured: A saddening turn of events in a country that has not been able to catch a break since they became the first black republic. It has gone through centuries of discrimination, occupation, a dictatorship and natural disasters.

Dear President Obama,

I have to whole heartedly disagree with your statement: “And I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge success or wealth. That's part of the free market system.”

The Streets Where We Live

Last week's blizzard could have been a perfect excuse to bunker down in my Inwood apartment and bake nonstop batches of cookies (which I may or may not have ultimately succumbed to later in the weekend), but I took this latest round of the season’s historic snowfall as a call to action. It was time to take a walking tour of the snowy neighborhood. The icy fence on W. 215th Street led me to Inwood Hill Park where trees heavy with snow bowed to the salt marsh, a grandfather and his grandson careened down the steep hill toward a tree, the grandfather calling out laughing, “Arbol, arbol,” and a small family pelted one another with snowballs.

Presuming that the onset of entry into grandparenting is in a welcomed and traditional manner, there are still a wide range situations and occasions that will require thoughtful consideration and communication. If the mother is your daughter, much depends on your previous relationship as well as your relationship with the child’s father. If it is your son who is expecting his first child, your relationship with him and his partner will also be effected by your history.

Childcare. It’s one of the biggest issues personally and professionally. I will say, once the childcare piece is in place you can concentrate on the here and now, which is your baby.

Good. Food. Stories.

Good Food Stories is all about just that: good food and good stories. The site promises to provide “news, reviews, and tasty tidbits; demos, recipes, and things you can try at home; and people, places, and things that make being a good eater so much fun.” The best part is that Danielle, one of the writers, is dedicated to broadening the site’s coverage to the Inwood area, so much so that the home page’s word cloud (an image that illustrates the popularity of certain key words and topics covered on the site) boasts the word Inwood, albeit in a slightly smaller font size than most of the other words.

Reactions people have to becoming a grandparent range from being delighted to feeling devastated. The way in which most encounter becoming a grandparent is when their baby, all grown up, has a child of their own. But these days it’s not the only way.

Washington Heights is the unsung hero of Upper Manhattan, always second to Harlem. But to those who live in and grew up in the area, it is the only stretch above W. 125th Street that counts (much to the chagrin of Inwood, but that’s a topic for another time). Here, a few people write, share images, memories and thoughts on the place they call home.