In Between Holidays, Nothing Happens but Magic

clipped from www.nytimes.com In Between Holidays, Nothing Happens but Magic Damon Winter/The New York Times Visitors filled the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue despite the cold. Even ducks in Central Park had the capacity to inspire wonder. By MANNY FERNANDEZ On Tuesday morning, tourists from around the world and across the country trained their eyes and their cameras on a group of loudmouthed New Yorkers, some of the rare locals left behind this holiday season: the ducks at a Central Park pond. This is a week of suspended animation in the city, in between holidays, when the great systems of New York — the schools, the courts, the communications media, Wall Street, City Hall, the bodegas in Queens — slow to an administrative crawl or shut down altogether, when New York City belongs not to New Yorkers, but to Spaniards, Italians, Canadians, Germans, Californians. Tens of thousands of people have left town to go back home, while tens of thousands of others have left home to come to town. Damon Winter/The New York Times

Night Workers Lament Bus Cuts

clipped from www.nytimes.com Night Workers Lament Bus Cuts One night next summer, after the last reel unwinds and the time ticks past 2 a.m., Elaine Beverly might clock out of her job at the AMC Loews multiplex near Lincoln Center, head up Broadway and, as she has for months, wait to catch the crosstown bus that carries her home to the Upper East Side. If all goes as planned, it will never arrive. There are four buses that currently cross Central Park in the early morning hours, a longitudinal link that acts as the sole option for east-west transportation in the 50 blocks north of 59th Street. Starting in July, only one will remain.

Paterson Pardon Aids Soldier in Bid to Join Police Dept

clipped from www.nytimes.com Paterson Pardon Aids Soldier in Bid to Join Police Dept. By AL BAKER A soldier whose gun possession conviction barred him from joining the New York Police Department was given a second chance on Tuesday when Gov. David A. Paterson announced that he had pardoned him. The pardon, the governor’s first this year, means that the soldier, Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez, a former paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, can fulfill his dream of joining the Police Department or another law enforcement agency once he is released from active duty, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

In Harlem, Reflections on the Life of Percy Sutton

clipped from www.nytimes.com In Harlem, Reflections on the Life of Percy Sutton Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times The Apollo Theater paid its respects to Percy E. Sutton on Sunday. Mr. Sutton, an eminent politician, died on Saturday at 89. More Photos > By KAREEM FAHIM and STACEY SOLIE He was hailed as Harlem’s king or its chairman, the eloquent author of some of its prouder moments, the dapper mentor to its sons and daughters. As news of Percy E. Sutton’s death spread on Sunday, the sadness spanned generations and city blocks, from Mr. Sutton’s home on 135th Street to the doorstep of the Apollo, that cultural heart of Harlem that Mr. Sutton jolted to life. “He was a renaissance black man,” said Philip Bulgar, 45, an assistant manager at Manna’s Soul Food Restaurant, summing up a life too rich for anyone to fully recall. That did not stop everyone from trying. “They don’t make too many brothers like that anymore,” Mr. Bulgar said. Mr. Sutton died on Saturday at age 89.

A Warm, Safe Holiday for Homeless Youth

clipped from www.nytimes.com A Warm, Safe Holiday for Homeless Youth By SUSAN DOMINUS It’s hard to wake up teenagers in the morning. It’s even harder to wake up homeless teenagers. They stay out late. They sleep poorly. They have bad dreams. And they may have nowhere to go. The Overnight shelter in Harlem has a 9 a.m. deadline for its 18 guests, ages 16 to 21, to be up and out, and rousing them is one of the most stressful aspects of the job for her staff, said Liza Zaretsky, the director of the shelter, which is run by Streetwork, a division of the Safe Horizon victim assistance organization. Then there is Christmas. On Christmas, the shelter lets guests sleep as late as they like, in beds that are warm, clean and safe.

New Randalls Island Deal With Private Schools Is Rejected

clipped from www.nytimes.com New Randalls Island Deal With Private Schools Is Rejected By CHARLES V. BAGLI The Bloomberg administration’s attempt to revive a deal to allow 20 private schools to pay for exclusive use of public athletic fields on Randalls Island has been rejected by a State Supreme Court justice, who characterized the city’s position as “audacious.” Skip to next paragraph Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times The Dalton School’s soccer practice at Randall’s Island in 2006. A coalition of public school parents and students, community groups and park advocates had sued the city, arguing that allowing the private schools, which include Buckley, Chapin and Dalton, to pay $45 million to use some of the fields would essentially turn public parkland into a private domain. It was the second time in two years that the courts have rejected the city’s arrangement, and both rulings used particularly critical language.

A Quiet End for Boys Choir of Harlem

clipped from www.nytimes.com A Quiet End for Boys Choir of Harlem Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times The Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble performed at the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church. By SHARON OTTERMAN For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London. December was always a busy month, as the choir toured the country’s premier concert halls and appeared on television Christmas specials. But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many. “Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said, “There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.” he choir’s last official performance was in 2007

clipped from www.nypost.com Pols save 5-minute 'grace' By SALLY GOLDENBERG and TOM NAMAKO Drivers and traffic agents now have a whole new reason to square off on city streets. Cars parked at Muni-Meters and along streets with alternate-side rules will be allowed to stay an extra five minutes beyond their allotted time -- after the City Council overruled Mayor Bloomberg's veto of the grace period yesterday. Hizzoner slammed the move, saying it would lead to "nothing but chaos" as drivers and traffic-enforcement officers argue over who has the accurate time. But City Council Speaker Christine Quinn defended the override, calling it appropriate especially in light of the weak economy. "It is something that is actually very implementable and will not create chaos," she said. "And it just gives people a little bit of a break in tough times." In another veto override, the council relaxed parking rules for clergy members.

Sugar Ray Robinson, Ultimate Fighter

clipped from www.nytimes.com Sugar Ray Robinson, Ultimate Fighter George Karger/Time & Life Pictures — Getty Images Sugar Ray Robinson in front of his club and restaurant on 124th Street in Harlem, 1950.

clipped from www.nypost.com Hou$ing ax freezes out 3,000 poor families By DAVID SEIFMAN More than 3,000 of the city's poorest families face a cruel Christmas because Section 8 vouchers they were given to find apartments are being abruptly yanked under a budget squeeze, officials said yesterday. The unprecedented move elicited howls of protest from advocates for the poor. "Oh, my God!" exclaimed Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless. "This is really upsetting." Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer demanded the resignation of the Housing Authority board, except for Chairman John Rhea, who began a couple of months ago, "so we can begin to mend the damage they've done." More than half of the 3,018 families now holding worthless pieces of paper were formerly homeless.

Holiday of White Conquest Persists in South Africa

clipped from www.nytimes.com Holiday of White Conquest Persists in South Africa By BARRY BEARAK PRETORIA, South Africa — The 16th of December was once a day of rival holidays here, two opposing flows of memory colliding at a junction. Afrikaners, the descendants of white settlers, celebrated the Day of the Vow, a covenant said to be made between their ancestors and God in 1838 that led to the slaughter of 3,000 Zulus. Blacks commemorated the same day on the calendar, marking the start of armed struggle against the apartheid regime by the African National Congress in 1961. With the arrival of multiracial democracy in 1994, lawmakers considered it wise to maintain Dec. 16 as a holiday, proclaiming it a Day of Reconciliation, a time for all races to come together in the spirit of national unity. But 15 years later, that happily-ever-after ending is a long way off, and the ideal of a rainbow nation now seems little more than a deft turn of phrase.

Stereotypes, the media and Black athletes who get into trouble

clipped from www.finalcall.com Stereotypes, the media and Black athletes who get into trouble By James G. Muhammad -Contributing Editor- (FinalCall.com) - Quick, name a professional athlete who received extensive national media coverage because of a sex scandal. Name two. OK, name a baseball player involved in a steroid use scandal. Did the names Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods go through your mind? How about Barry Bonds? While the mainstream media seems to be oblivious to the perception of a double standard or that they tend to focus on Black athletes who get in trouble, a lively discussion is taking place in the blogosphere. Topics like “How would the press treat a White Michael Vick?” and “The latest example of how White athletes are being protected by ESPN” are just a few of the headlines.

Georgetown students say campus satire is racist

clipped from www.ksl.com Georgetown students say campus satire is racist December 16, 2009 By BRETT ZONGKER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Georgetown University students are slamming a humor magazine for an online satirical piece they say is racist and not funny. The story in The Georgetown Heckler describes the official campus paper, The Hoya, holding a fictional cross-burning on campus and refers to "dark, human-shaped pinatas." A photograph with the story shows what appear to be Ku Klux Klan members in front of a burning cross. The Heckler was poking fun at troubles The Hoya ran into earlier this year when it published an April Fool's issue that students criticized as racist and sexist. Jheanelle Brown, president of the campus NAACP chapter, said a coalition of groups asked for an apology from The Heckler and a retraction after seeing the article.

clipped from gothamist.com Will Congestion Pricing Return From The Dead? Photograph by RGP on Flickr Even while haggling in Copenhagen, our politicians are still hard at work for us: case-in-point, Mayor Bloomberg did an interview with CNBC yesterday to discuss the MTA funding crisis, and alluded to the possible re-birth of his congestion pricing plan: "I don't think congestion pricing, or those kind of things, are dead. One-half of the legislature, the Albany Assembly, they tried to pass a bill to put congestion pricing around all of Manhattan and they couldn't get it done. The Senate didn't go along. Next time, come March, they're going to have to balance a budget and I think any kind of revenue source will be on the table...If we had done congestion pricing two years ago, perhaps they wouldn't be in this situation."

Welfare Rolls Begin to Grow Again, Modestly

clipped from cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com December 17, 2009, 9:01 am Welfare Rolls Begin to Grow Again, Modestly By SEWELL CHAN As the number of New Yorkers applying for food stamps, enrolling in Medicaid and checking into homeless shelters climbed last year, the welfare rolls presented something of a riddle: they continued to fall. But last month, nearly 355,000 people in the city received welfare payments, a 4 percent increase over the year before, according to city officials, who predict that if the economy does not recover, the growth will continue for at least 18 months. Read more…