PATCH

By Nick Garber

Here's a taste of what's on tap in Harlem this week, including a popular night market complete with a trolley, ice-skating and lots of food.

HARLEM, NY — It's beginning to look a lot like the holiday season in Harlem.

With the lights on 125th Street officially sparkling, the neighborhood is filled with holiday events, from the return of a popular marketplace to multiple tree lightings to an unusual kind of "silent" dance party.

Here are a few of the most notable events happening in Harlem in the coming days.

Harlem Night Market at La Marqueta

The popular evening market beneath the Park Avenue train tracks is back for three weekends this year, following its well-received launch in 2019 and successful pandemic-era return last year.

The night market returns Saturday, Dec. 3, from 4-8 p.m., and again on Dec. 10 and 17 during the same times.

GOTHAM GO

By Lynn Lieberman

Kick off the holiday season in Harlem with the Harlem Night Market at La Marqueta, created through a partnership between NYC Public Markets (run by NYC EDC), Uptown Grand Central, TBo Harlem & Union Settlement. 

This season’s edition returns Saturday, December 3, with an expanded number of vendors across three blocks of the market under the train tracks at Park Avenue, plus neighborhood-favorite DJs Stormin’ Norman, Ted Smooth and friends warming up the dance floor. This year, the Event is adding trolleys and on the last weekend, an ice skating rink under the new light installation at 125th Street!

This year, there will be more family fun than ever before — including visits with Santa all three weekends, a bounce house and Harlem Night Market 360-degree photo booth.

On December 10, take a trolley from the market to El Museo del Barrio and the East Harlem Holiday Tree. On December 17, hop the trolley to our pop-up ice skating rink at Uptown Grand Central’s 125th Street community plaza, which now features a new light installation by NightSeeing called “Uptown Flash.” 

“Since its start as one of New York City’s public markets in the 1930s, La Marqueta has achieved a storied status as the heart of entrepreneurship for East Harlem and all of Uptown,” said Carey King, Director of Uptown Grand Central. “For nearly a century now, these blocks under the rumbling Park Avenue train tracks have launched thousands of entrepreneurs with great products and great ideas. It’s our honor to be a part of showcasing that vibrancy for the holidays.” 

WNYC

By George Bodarky

New York City is home to millions of people, each with their own story to tell. Stories about people or places that provide inspiration. Stories about love and loss. Stories of communities banding together in difficult times. WNYC is teaming up with the nonprofit, Street Lab, to highlight stories from neighborhoods across New York City. We recently captured a variety of voices at an Open Streets event outside of La Marqueta at 115th Street and Park Avenue in East Harlem.

WNYC / Gothamist

By Samantha Max

As elevated trains rumble overhead at the Metro North station on 125th Street in East Harlem, a team of street cleaners works 40 hours a week filling yellow garbage bags with discarded coffee cups, cigarette butts, and dirty needles.

“We’ve got to keep it safe and clean for our kids,” said Gary Linares, program director at the nonprofit Positive Workforce, which helped recruit the six-person street cleaning team. “We’re out here all types of hours, cleaning when problems arise.”

The East Harlem revitalization project, called Uptown Grand Central, recently received funding from the Manhattan district attorney’s office to pay people to beautify the area. It is one of 10 grants awarded this summer with the goal of preventing violence by investing in communities rather than waiting to prosecute crimes that have already happened. One group will use the funding to pay young people to paint murals in public housing and another will spend it on tech classes. Some recipients will spend it on restorative justice programs, healing circles, and mentorship sessions.

TIME OUT NEW YORK

By Rosilynne Skena Culgan

Grab a set of headphones and get ready to dance at this silent disco at the 125th Street & Park Avenue underpass in Harlem. You’ll hear original, commissioned sonic soundscapes from five artists that’ll be incorporated into a three-hour mix session by DJ Stormin’ Norman. When you need a break from the dancefloor, take a moment to have your picture taken by a pro photographer as part of a portrait photography series.

The event is led by the National Black Theatre with Uptown Grand Central. It's a part of the Turnout NYC initiative, a project of the Design Trust for Public Space and SITU. It's all about creating equitable arts access across the five boroughs.

THE AMSTERDAM NEWS

By Tandy Lau

This summer, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will hand out $20,000 to up to 10 nonprofits each for employing at-risk youngsters on projects pertaining to gun violence prevention. The fund was announced last week by Bragg at a press conference and applicants can send in proposals to CJII@islg.cuny.edu until June 27.

The plan is to put New Yorkers ages 15-26 to work from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, with at least three-fourths of each community organization’s fund going toward paying them. These summer jobs can be anything gun violence prevention-related, but one example floated by the DA was beautifying “hot spots,” or places where shootings statistically happen the most.

AM NEW YORK

By Dean Moses

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg selected Monday ten community-based organizations he plans on funding in hopes of reducing youth gun violence.

Bragg made the announcement at the 301 Henry Street Settlement’s indoor basketball court and says he plans on awarding each pick $20,000 to aid their battle in gun crime prevention. For Bragg, this means teen engagement, after-school programs, youth employment, religious teachings, and more designed to keep at-risk young people off the streets and a part of a nurturing group.

“They are essential threads of our public safety network. We need them, all our mentors, counselors, and clergy are incredible messengers and the work that you all do every day is an inspiration,” Bragg said. “I mean that’s public safety work in action, and we want to salute that.”

PATCH

By Nick Garber

Chronically-filthy blocks of 125th Street look cleaner than ever thanks to a city cleanup program — but new cuts may mean "going backwards."

EAST HARLEM, NY — A cleanup effort that has transformed the once-filthy blocks along 125th Street near the Metro-North train tracks has come to an end, as the demise of a citywide sanitation program threatens to undo what residents say has been the corridor's biggest improvement in years.

A series of blocks long strewn with trash, drug paraphernalia, and sometimes human waste have been spruced up, power-washed and given some much-needed love. The new look is thanks largely to the City Cleanup Corps: a New Deal-style pandemic initiative fueled by federal stimulus money, in which the city hired thousands of workers to wipe away graffiti, pick up rubbish, plant flowers, and more.

Now, as those federal funds dry up, the city says it is planning a smaller cleanup program to replace the Cleanup Corps — but Harlem residents fear that months of progress will still be undone.

In East Harlem, up to 40 Cleanup Corps workers have posted up since October on five blocks surrounding the intersection of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, spending seven days a week cleaning the chronically-grimy thoroughfare — and collecting up to 350 trash bags each week.

CRAIN’S

By Caroline Spivack

An arts initiative at the nexus of improving public space and creating new platforms for smaller arts organizations will roll out across the five boroughs during the summer.

The Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with architecture firm SITU, will launch Turnout NYC, a program that will work with community groups to transform five underused outdoor spaces into venues with programming to support artists, particularly those who are historically marginalized.

The venture, funded by a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to help small organizations in recovery from the pandemic produce public programming while simultaneously expanding arts access to underserved neighborhoods.

One organization in each borough — Uptown Grand Central in Manhattan, the Point Community Development Corporation in the Bronx, the Brownsville Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, the Queensboro Dance Festival in Queens and the Alice Austen House Museum on Staten Island — will each steward an outdoor space at or near its organization.

PIX 11 NEWS

By Steve Kuzj

The pandemic has been crushing for so many businesses, perhaps for none more than local restaurants, which have always depended on customers dining in. 

When health departments shut down indoor public spaces across the country, enormous amounts of business dried up immediately for our local restaurants.

Last year, New York State lawmakers put together a $25 million fund aimed at helping restaurants replace some of that lost business by paying them to provide meals to citizens in need. It was called the Restaurant Resiliency Program.

State officials say 175 New York City restaurants were approved for the program, but less than half that number, only 64 restaurants, was actually given a portion of the money. For those who were lucky to get funds, it was transformative.

“The RRP really helped Uptown Veg in a big way,” Jasmine Myrick, an entrepreneur at Uptown Veg, said. “We were able to feed a lot of NYCHA residents.”

A group of New York City restaurants, the food relief organization Food Stream Network, along with the state and local leaders are calling for the restaurant resiliency program to be refunded with another $25 million in the new state budget.