HARLEM

Chanting “SoHa! Hell No!” local activists carry the day.

Bill would fine people who cook up alphabet-soup neighborhood names.

Critics see “SoHa” moniker as another sign of gentrification run amok.

A Harlem condo board creates a handbook to help first-time buyers embrace homeownership.

Refund of inflated tax payments leads to a co-op’s rebirth.

Harlem property joins Rivington House in getting deed restriction lifted.

A co-op board had to overcome the fallout from a shoddy gut renovation.

The General Assembly's Committee on Housing is holding a public hearing on co-ops and affordable housing. Citizens can offer up to 10 minutes of personal testimony at the hearing, which will be held on Fri., Feb. 19 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the State Office Building (8th Floor), 163 W. 125th St. in Harlem.

The hearing will focus on three problem areas: co-op boards that disenfranchise shareholders; reserve funds that are dangerously low; and the high-dollar sale of co-ops that were intended as affordable housing.

If you wish to speak at the hearing, you can register by filling out this PDF.

Last week it was a public library in Brooklyn Heights and a chunk of a seminary’s campus in Morningside Heights. This week it’s a gas station in Harlem that’s being erased to make way for yet another luxury condo development.

Now rising above the statue of the famed abolitionist on Frederick Douglass Circle, at the northwest corner of Central Park, is Circa Central Park, a 12-story, 48-unit condo building. Positioned at the gateway to Harlem, its 1-bedroom apartments will start selling for about $1 million. Residents will have access to remote-controlled model boats for sailing on nearby Harlem Meer, and skateboards and bicycles will be included in the common charges. Ten of the 48 apartments will be set aside as affordable housing, to be sold through a lottery.

“The building is the conclusion of the story of trying to make the circle whole,” Anne Simmons, secretary of the Friends of Frederick Douglass Circle advocacy group, told The New York Times. While this retired public school art teacher is worried that the $1 million starting price will be steep for most residents of nearby Harlem and Manhattan Valley, she added, “For the neighborhood, this is a beginning.”

In July, the Second Friendship Baptist Church sold the horse stable-turned church building to a private buyer for $1.5 million. A couple of weeks later, the city approved the new owner's plan to demolish it. It's hardly a surprise that, in a city where the divide between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen, longtime residents have to pack it in because they can't keep up with skyrocketing rents — never mind the expenses required to maintain an old, charming building. But it is certainly always sad to see a rare old structure like this former horse stable get knocked down so a six-story building can rise in its place. The local block association seems to agree; it is still trying to save at least part of the church. "What we are hoping is to save the façade or incorporate the design of the façade into the new design," Cindy Worley, who has lived on the block more than 30 years, told DNAinfo. "I think it would be a benefit to have a set of condos on the street reminiscent of the carriage house. I mean you could call it the 'Stable House.'" Citing records, DNAinfo reports that "plans for a new building were filed [late last week] and have not yet been approved by the Department of Buildings." As for the new owner, mum's the word for now. In the meantime, the block association has its work cut out for it. Like savvy New Yorkers, however, they seem to have realized that if they cannot appeal to the new owner's sense nostalgia, perhaps they can appeal to the wallet: "By saving what is left of the stable the developers could benefit from tax credits, similar to the ones the developers of the Corn Exchange Building received."