... click here for a photo from 8/1/2008 showing the 3 magic floors of 8, 14 and 17 where there is an "open terrace"

... F line vs J line

... click here for article about Harlem condo prices (Oct 08)

From here ...

July 1, 2007 HARLEM After a Grisly Shooting, Parkgoers Are Up in Arms By ALEX MINDLIN Two Fridays ago, a 27-year-old named Terrod Wright was shot in the concrete bathroom of Marcus Garvey Park in Central Harlem, right in front of his 5-year-old nephew. The two men who the police said shot Mr. Wright escaped after taking his gold chains and have not been arrested; the victim died several hours later. News of the killing has reverberated through the neighborhood, alarming parents who had already considered some sections of the eight-square-block park, which straddles Fifth Avenue south of 124th Street, off-limits. ÒI come straight to this playground,Ó said Shawn McCleary, who was watching her children drench each other with water at the park's northwestern corner. "I don't go anywhere else in the park." Some of the park's neighbors, who include affluent newcomers living in majestic brownstones, say the killing proves that the police have been lax about minor lawlessness in the park, setting the stage for major trouble. "People can light up joints in the middle of the park because they know that nobody will come by," said Joycelyn McGeachy-Kuls, an employment lawyer. "That is brazen. And what happened on Friday is brazen." At a community meeting on Tuesday, William Castro, the Parks Department's Manhattan borough commissioner, rejected any connection between quality-of-life violations and the shooting. "I do not believe that what happened on Friday is related to illegal barbecuing or anything like that," he said. And State Senator Bill Perkins, who represents the area, offered a historical perspective on conditions at Marcus Garvey. "This park has had a dramatic turnaround from what it was 20 years ago," he said. "Even the killers didn't want to be in the park then. This incident was very much an aberration." Nevertheless, visitors will soon see a fixed police presence in the park, which currently has none. Mr. Castro said it would be patrolled by five Parks Department enforcement officers, supplemented on weekend evenings by two police officers. At the park last week, some homeless people lay on cardboard mats near the gates, and the park's hilly upper portion, where few parents venture, was deserted except for a few watchful, solitary young men who stood beneath the trees. "There's a lot of young boys here that want to be gangsters Ñ they wear red or blue," Ms. McCleary said. Elsewhere, children splashed in the fountains, men played chess, and elderly people chatted or napped on a line of benches. "Since I grew up here, this neighborhood has come up a lot," Jeff Otero said as he watched his children play. He gestured to a line of houses. "All that stuff over there?" he said. "That was abandoned. When I came down here today, I was like, Wow."

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House doctor Grey's Anatomy co-star Chandra Wilson has gone to contract to buy at Fifth on the Park, the 30-story condo complex going up in Harlem. Sources say Wilson has taken a three-bedroom, two-bath residence with a terrace overlooking the 20-acre Marcus Garvey Park. When completed, the glass-and-brick building will have 150 condos, almost 50 rental units, a full-length lap pool, a landscaped garden, a complete fitness center and a screening room. The condos will offer a doorman and 24-hour concierge. And for the spiritually minded, the building will include a church with seating for more than 1,800 parishioners. Broker Ross Ellis of Halstead Property could not be reached for comment.