The Manhattan Times

by Mike Fitelson

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, appointed by Governor David Patterson last month to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, began her second full week on the job Mon., Feb. 2 with an early-morning meeting with dozens of the city’s Latino civic leaders at the downtown Manhattan offices of the Hispanic Federation. 

by Corinne Ramey

While football fans across the country were fixated on the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, Michael Tejeda and Hector Corporan were focused on a much more local goal: Washington Heights’ very own semi-professional football team. The new team, called the Washington Heights Outlaws, has a Western-style logo of a masked cowboy that seems to glare threateningly from the left shoulder of Tejeda’s orange and black jersey. But the two men insist that this football team isn’t just about being tough.

by Carla Zanoni

This spring Dyckman Deli at the corner of Seaman Avenue will be converted into a new Mamajuana restaurant, owners of both establishments confirmed this week. Jihad Ammar, who has owned Dyckman Deli for nine years, said that he approached the owners of Mamajuana with a proposal to sell the remainder of his lease of three and a half years to the restaurant group. The two are now in negotiations with the site’s management company to transfer the lease to make way for a new Mamajuana restaurant venture, which would be the third in a two-block stretch of Dyckman Street just west of Broadway.

by Adam Garrett Clark

In today’s economy, mangu is a valuable resource. Essentially mashed potatoes minus the potatoes and replaced with plantains, it’s a key component of the Dominican full breakfast, as commonplace as beans, rice and meat to most Dominicans, and filling enough to hold you over until Obama’s stimulus package kicks in.

by Daniel P. Bader

When you walk into the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center on Broadway near W. 165th Street, the first thing you see is not the beautiful marble colonnade and floor, or the interactive touch screen computers – it’s the bronze statue of Malcolm X, gazing out into the large, mostly empty space.

by Daniel P. Bader

Jorge Melo believes his landlord has been honest with him for the 24 years he’s run his grocery on W. 115th Street. But he realizes he’s one of the lucky ones. Many small business owners face an uncertain future when they renew their leases. Landlords can charge whatever they want from lease to lease. Some are accused of extorting money just to begin negotiations.

The following is a summary of some of the highlights of Community Board 12’s Jan. 27 General Meeting.

According to a Feb. 4 report on Crains.com, a well-respected business site and newsletter, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Medicaid-managed care plan, Community Health Plan, has requested state permission to cease operation at the end of March.

Neighborhood Blog Watch

These are a few of the Web sites and blogs that are helping to build online communities in Northern Manhattan.

Shhhh!

Briefs