Harlem celebrates Paterson's ascent to governor
Photo credit: AP Photo | South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits to having an affair and that was the reason why he was in Argentina for a week. He also announce that he is resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
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At Londel's, a Harlem power-lunch spot, owner Londel Davis has framed photos of all the leading lights of the city who have dined there. Michael Bloomberg. Rudy Giuliani. David Dinkins.
There's one above the doors to the kitchen that Davis points to with special pride these days: one with his big arms around David Paterson, who will be sworn in today as the state's 55th governor.
"I love that guy like a brother," Davis said as the Sunday brunch crowd trickled in yesterday. "A lot of times politicians come into office and forget where they came from. David's not that kind of guy. The staff loves him too. Big tipper."
Paterson's rise from the nation's black cultural core to the statehouse was not the typical political pathway, coming on the heels of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's stunning resignation after disclosure of his links to a high-end prostitution ring.
But that does not diminish the enthusiasm in Paterson's old stomping grounds.
"He comes out of the Harlem community, and worked in the community and has been moving forth ever since," said Herman "Denny" Farrell, who has served Harlem in the Assembly for more than 30 years. "It means there will be pictures on the wall of someone who looks like me. When I grew up, I didn't see any pictures of African-Americans on the wall unless you were in the post office."
On Lenox Avenue, which is also named Malcolm X Boulevard thanks to Paterson, hardly a cross word could be heard about the new governor.
"It's going to be beautiful," said Stephan Omarr, who said he was born in Harlem.
"He's blind, but he's got more vision than anybody."
Pascuala Rodriguez, owner of Pascuala's Beauty Salon on Lenox Avenue and 127th Street, keeps a photo of the Paterson family in her desk drawer.
"I love him," Rodriguez said. "His wife has been coming in here for 10 years to have her hair done. He is a good person."
At an overflow Palm Sunday service at Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Paterson's wife Michelle, is an active member, Rev. Calvin O. Butts III made a brief reference to the new governor as part of a sermon decrying people's sense of entitlement.
"I ask that your prayers come with me so I can bring them to him," said Butts, who will be attending the swearing-in today.
Harlem today is hardly like the neighborhood that the young Paterson knew. Today, high-end condos squeeze out long-time residents and tony new restaurants jostle for storefront space alongside hair salons and fried chicken and ribs joints.
Last week, the city's planning commission voted to rezone 125th Street, the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood, and late last year the City Council approved an expansion into West Harlem by Columbia University.
Both moves promise to shake the neighborhood up even further, and many doubt having a local in the governor's office would be enough to slow the pace of change.
"Harlem is suffering terribly, and no one should fantasize that David Paterson is going to buck the system," said Michael Henry Adams, author of "Harlem Lost and Found." "He is so clever and gifted and therefore could do so much good, but the great hallmark of his career is that he is willing to go along to get along."
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