From the Inbox…

From Marty Collins, here are some events and meetings coming up in December:

Dear Neighbors – Please mark your calendars for the period ending Wednesday, December 17 for these events & meetings. Community input and participation is important and I encourage you to attend. Happy Holidays! Martin

12/04/08 – Health & Environment Committee 7:00pm meeting at CB12, 711 West 168th Street
• The City’s War on Rats — Dr. Robert Corrigan, Research Scientist for Rat Control, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

12/07/08 – Good Shepherd Church & Tree Lighting at 4:30pm
- Meet on Broadway & Isham St. Memorial Garden will be lit, followed by the church and the tree on Cooper Street near the rectory.

12/11/08 – Parks Dept. scoping meeting at 11:30am at Margaret Corbin Circle in Ft. Tryon Park
- Meeting is re: Ft. Tryon & Inwood Hill Park pathwork.

12/11/08 – Tree Lighting Ceremony at 5:00pm at Iylanka Pagan Park on West 157th St & Bway. -Schoolchildren, community residents & groups participate in this annual ceremony.

12/14/08 – RING Holiday Tree & Menorah Lighting at 4:30pm.
- Riverside Inwood Neighborhood Garden (RING) is the triangle garden at the intersection of Dyckman Street, Riverside Drive, Seaman Avenue and Broadway.

12/17/08 – Cloister’s Holiday Reception 6:00-8:00pm
-Northern Manhattan’s public officials host a community reception at the Cloisters, Ft. Tryon Park. RSVP required to govaffairsrsvp@metmuseum.org

Last Night at the Piper’s Kilt…

The Piper’s Kilt is my bar. It’s just that simple to me. I think everyone should have a bar to call their own, a place where they feel comfortable, at ease and at home. A place that waits for them at the end of a long day, a place of refuge, sanctuary, celebration, release and relief. For me, that place is the Kilt. So I knew that, one way or another, I was going to wind up there on Election Night.

I put the word out, invited some fellow locals to join me there to watch the returns, the speeches, see how it all ended. And then I was promptly late for the party.

Question of the Day

Um. Where does Indian Road start? In my move, I passed under the street sign for Seaman Ave. and 214th St. a bunch of times. But, I thought, isn’t that Indian Road? Or is it? Does anybody really know? Does anybody really care?

Scenes from a Move…

It’s apparently moving time over here at the Peak. After a rainy, rainy Saturday (Go, Lions!), Sunday was a perfect day for moving: sunny, crisp. This was my fourth move in two years, all within about a five block radius. This time I was going about six blocks north. It took me, a good friend, a man with a van (who was excellent, if you need a recommendation), three dollies and about seven hours going back and forth along Seaman Ave., past the park. Here are a few things I noticed:

 

-         The nice ladies I passed coming out of my old building and then about twenty minutes later coming out of my new building as they went for a nice Sunday walk…

 

-         The high number of people who held doors, offered to lift dollies and generally commiserated…

 

-         Making two trips to Dick’s Hardware and getting that brusque, sarcastic Old New York flavor when I asked for things that were right in front of my face. It was like being at my grandparents’ house…

 

-         VitaminWater from John’s Doo Wop…and Gatorade from the ice cream truck parked in front of the park…my sustenance for the whole day…

 

-         Stopping along the way to watch the ball games, a scorcher through the hole that hit a huge puddle in the outfield, left from Saturday’s rains…

 

-         Meeting my new, totally adorable 5 year old neighbor and his armful of big sticks from the park…he assured me there were more to be found there…

 

-         Instant business deals: outside of my old building, as I hauled my stuff, an unopened game of Risk caught someone’s eye. Sure, I might need it for another one of these, but, right then, not carrying one more thing was worth $20…

 

-         Realizing that these big old apartments up here are too, too tempting to a packrat like me…where the hell did I get all of this stuff???…

-    This is one good-looking neighborhood. Seriously, folks. Walking around on a nice Sunday, you see all kinds of hotties, all colors, races, combinations. Whoever you’re looking for, you can find it here. Trust me…

 

-         Saying quick goodbyes to my old neighbors, friends from the elevator and the stoop as I went in and out…

 

-         Getting through the last bits with one thought in my mind: the cold, cold beer waiting for me at the Piper’s Kilt…

 

-         And, most importantly, drinking that beer at the end of a long, long day…

 

-         Of course, now I have to unpack it all…But that’s always more fun…

 

All of that and more, in just six blocks on a fall Sunday. And people wonder why I don’t move out of the neighborhood…

Get Ready to Get Spooky!

I was at this U.M.E. event this evening and who should I run into but the very folks putting together the Haunted Forest and House in Inwood Hill Park! How fortuitious! I got a sneak peek at the plans, which are truly righteous and scary. But most important of all…(drum roll, please!)

I got my link!

They’re still looking for volunteers, so go check it out!

From the Inbox: Marble Hill Walking Tour

Local historian James Renner is hosting a walking tour of our neighbors to the north!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT (212) 795-7830
(917) 533-3252
JR6751@aol.com

Walking Tour:

MARBLE HILL

Marble Hill is the community of Manhattan that is landlocked to the Bronx. Come visit this bucolic last frontier of Manhattan with local historian James Renner. While walking through this pastoral community, find out why and how Marble Hill was disconnected from Manhattan and how the Harlem River Ship Canal was created with the re-routing and expansion of the Harlem River Creek linking Marble Hill to the Bronx mainland.

The name of Marble Hill was created in 1891 by Darius Crosby who had observed the massive deposits of dolomitic marble in the area. The marble quarried in Marble Hill was used for Federal Buildings in New York when it was the first capital of the United States. Presently some of this quarried marble is used on some of the Federal Buildings in Washington, DC.

Mr. Renner is a licensed Sightseeing Guide in the City of New York. He is presently a member of the following organizations; The Harlem and the Heights Historical Society, The American Association of State and Local History, The Organization of American Historians, the Association of Public Historians of New York State and the Guides Association of New York City.

Mr. Renner is an accomplished author of articles that represent a historical nature and are a written interpretation that correspond to his photographic collection which combines historic and contemporary subjects pertaining to Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill. These have appeared in community newspapers such as; The Washington Heights Citizen and the Inwood News, The Manhattan Heights Forum, the Washington Heights and Inwood Report and the Manhattan Times. These historical articles also appear on the Internet at www.washington-heights.us/history. Mr. Renner published a book in 2007 called “Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill” released by Arcadia Publishing.

The tour will begin at 12 Noon at 225th Street and Broadway in front of the Washington Mutual Bank on Sunday November 9, 2008. The cost of the tour is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students.

The location is easily accessible with mass transit. The #1 subway to 225th Street and the following buses BX7, BX9 and the BX 20 stop there too. METRO NORTH also stops at the Marble Hill Station which is on 225th Street, 1 block west of Broadway.

The Game is Afoot! The Hunt for the Haunted House continues…

So, since I posted this, I’ve seen a number of flyers around advertising the Haunted House and Forest in Inwood Hill Park. The flyers have a website on ‘em, www.hauntedhouseandforestNYC.com. Does this link work, you ask? Sadly, no. But your intrepid digger of dirt will not tire! I’ll find out the info and get it posted…

Ask and Ye Shall Receive…Sometimes…

As posted below, a couple of intrepid U.M.E. folks were wondering about what to do for Halloween. I’m not much of a Halloween guy myself, so I put it out there to the world. And lo and behold, a couple of things came back:

- There’s this, which some U.M.E. folks will be heading down to (h/t Lyana in the comments) …

- There will indeed be a Haunted House and Forest in Inwood Hill Park on Friday night (link to come…once I find one…)

- The always estimable George Espinal and the Friends of Payson Avenue are hosting their 2nd Annual Children’s Halloween Festival on Saturday, October 25th. You can purchase raffle tickets to help support it! Contact George at mngovt_at_yahoo.com for more info.

That’s just the beginning…

Here they come…

A couple of weeks ago, I was joking around with my friends, trying to figure out what fancy-pants name the real estate folks would dub Inwood once they decided to try and seriously sell it. That was even before this came out. You know how they do: take a neighborhood, a regular old neighborhood with a name that’s served it just fine for, oh, I don’t know, 125 years, then slap a “hills” or “heights” or whatnot on there and blam! Instant new hotness.

So I was kicking around what they would do to plain old Inwood, particularly the west of Broadway part, to gussy it up. I thought “Indian Hills” would be too politically incorrect, “Inwood Heights,” too clumsy, “WoB,” too silly. But then I thought, “Inwood Hills.” That’s got a ring to it. And apparently, I was right. It starts with one building…but before you know, you’re running into people saying, “I live in Inwood Hills.” And I die a little inside.

(h/t Inwoodite)

Speaking of noise complaints…

So…last night, after this, I walked a friend home, up on Indian Road. It was late and with the latest bump in crimes, it seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do. As we walked, we talked, as people are wont to do. And, somehow or other, politics came up. I ain’t one to shy away from my convictions about things and my friend ain’t either, so it got a little passionate. Not screaming, or calling names, but going back and forth, talking about regulation and responsibility, the needs of the many balanced against the needs of the few, that sort of thing. We stood in front of her building for a bit, talking.

Then all of a sudden, from above, we hear a voice: “You’re having an interesting conversation, but I can hear every word.” We’re both, like, “Huh. So? We’re on public property.” “I’m trying to sleep,” says our disembodied neighbor. Which is to be expected, it’s quite late (or early). “Okay, fine,” I say and we move across the street to Inwood Park to continue. There’re a couple of benches right there, so we sit and we continue our discussion.

After a few minutes of battling fiscal conservativism against near outright socialism, again, calling from across the street, we hear another voice, “People are trying to sleep!” Now, we’re, again, on public property. Talking. Not playing music, not even having a screaming fight. My friend, who’s a bit more combative than I, shouts back, “Call 311!” Which is, of course, the correct course of action. But, of course, the specter of being picked up by the fuzz for talking put a damper on our chat and I hustled my butt home, looking over my shoulder for the noise police.

Now, the behavior here, that is clearly a case for police intervention. But…is there a line somewhere? I mean, while this isn’t midtown, we are still in New York City. There are, what, 10 million of us here, living on top of each other. Some noise is just…well, gonna happen, right? Maybe because of abuse, our collective sensitivities are a little too…sensitive? Or maybe I should just keep my big mouth shut. Especially about politics.