Shhhh! BlogWhat's happening in Washington and Inwood
Shhhh! Erik Roberto, owner of Erik barbershop on W. 207th Street, thought he was paying too much rent. At the end of each day, which sometimes didn’t end until two or three in the morning, he said he only earned just enough to pay his bills.
Shhhh! Self-proclaimed pizza guru and blogger Slice Harvester has dedicated 16 pages of the very first print edition of his zine of the same name to Northern Manhattan’s pizzerias.
Shhhh! Feb. 10’s blizzard is a perfect snapshot of how newspapers are coping with the 21st-century realities of publishing on pulp and online.
Shhhh! Even though the area around W. 168th Street is called the Columbia University Medical Campus it doesn’t feel very campus-like with its heavy traffic and crowded sidewalks. That discrepancy has been on the mind of Dr. Lee Goldman, the University’s executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine. During a Jan. 28 breakfast meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Washington Heights and Inwood at Coogan’s Restaurant, Goldman, one of the morning’s featured speakers, said softening the area around Haven Avenue by creating more gathering spaces was his top community-oriented priority. His second priority was working with community leaders to get improvements made at the 168th Street subway station. What does that tell you about the MTA when even mighty Columbia University has to solicit help before taking on the transportation agency?
 It’s a question that local community and business leaders have long asked each other: Why don’t our neighborhood institutions, businesses and restaurants enjoy the benefits of a more robust tourism industry? Up here we’ve got world famous artwork at the Hispanic Society of America. An unparalleled collection of medieval art at the Cloisters. Two of the city’s oldest buildings in the Morris-Jumel Mansion and. The fabled rock where Manhattan Island is said to have been purchased. Malcolm X’s memorial. An Olympic lineup of activities on track, land and river. Enough stories of immigrants starting over in the New World that we should anchor our own Ellis Island off Tubby Hook. Dyckman Farmhouse There’s no doubt that Northern Manhattan can weave countless narratives to entice legions of tourists in search of authentic cultural experiences.
 Shhhh! Perhaps it is the ongoing spat between the Food Network and Cablevision, or Bloomberg’s new plan to cut the salt content of what New Yorkers eat, or the collective craving of 200,000 Northern Manhattanites who suddenly find themselves on New Year’s resolution diets. Whatever the reason, most of the Shhhh! items that came over the wire last week were food related. While 2009 saw the closing of several of the community’s anchor eateries, the local food industry is ramping up for a series of high profile openings by some of our most successful restaurateurs. |
