clipped from www.independent.co.uk The fall of the Harlem Club It was once the powerhouse of black American politics. But a series of scandals among its leading figures has soured Harlem's reputation By Stephen Foley in New York When David Paterson, the Governor of New York, for whom the prefix "embattled" doesn't nearly suffice, made an emotional pledge over the weekend to "fulfill the mission in which God placed me", he did so at a Baptist church in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. He didn't do it in Harlem. The Manhattan neighbourhood is the historical and spiritual home of African-American culture and political power in the north-east, but, in terms of politics, its influence has been fading, and fading fast. With the looming end of Mr Paterson's disastrous stint as New York State's first black governor, and the ethics complaints dogging the area's legendary Congressman, Charlie Rangel, it feels like an era is closing.