VICTORIA HORSFORD

2012 USA  ELECTIONS

My last words on the Democratic National Convention in  Charlotte last week.  If First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech was a home run, then Bill Clinton’s speech was a grand slam.  I was most impressed by his laser-like delivery and the clarity with which he described  the Obama Presidency its ambitious agenda, its major accomplishments.  Clinton was equal parts teacher and effective communicator.  He succeeded in  making the case for another 4 years for Obama and making the case that we are better off now than we were 4 years ago, if anyone had doubts One good  DNC outcome is the Obama bump in the polls, which according to one at press time was a 5 point advantage.  President Obama still maintains about a 60 point  lead in electoral college poll watchers’ records.  In politics, everything is fluid. There  is still much work to be done, especially in swing states. The Obama campaign needs your  donations now! 

NEW YORK,

 September 13 is the NYS Senate and  Assembly  Primary. The Primary winners will run in the general election on November 6,  The offices for which the NY electorate will vote on 11/6 are the US President and VP; One US Senator; All members of the U.S. House of Representatives, of  the NYS Senate and of the NYS Assembly.

HARLEM

Harlem’s busiest commercial strip, the  West 125 Street corridor,  is being courted by many of the nation’s large retailers.  ShoeOlogy,  a national footwear chain, has rented  space at  351 West 125 Street, which opens this fall.  Almost next door,  ShoeOlogy will keep company with the tenants at the  shopping complex, under construction,  located at 301 West 125 Street on Frederick Douglass Boulevard (8^th Avenue.)  The new complex  will house Joe’s Crab Shack Restaurant;  Blink Fitness Center,  and DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse),  a discount shoe retailer, which recently opened an outlet on Broadway at 79 Street.

 Mist Harlem,  located at  46 West 116 Street is THE  new Uptown special events venue,  ideal for galas, weddings, premieres.  Located in the Khalahari retail footprint, Mist Harlem is a Black-owned  business.

OUT OF AFRICA

The 9/9 NY Times news analysis paints a dark assessment of  the social/political undercurrents in  West Africa, in the piece SUMMER OF SIEGE FOR WEST AFRICA AS DISCONTENT BOILS INTO THE STREETS.

Story can be compared  to  the Arab spring visiting Francophone West Africa, one season later.   The settings are Gabon, Togo, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, all nations which  have experienced a long, hot “ summer  of trouble” replete with anti-government protests and  riots. Mali is referenced in the analysis and how it “collapsed  like a house of cards earlier this year to the shock of  complacent outsiders”  Outsiders here means the West.   Government legitimacy, autocratic ruler,  poverty,  income inequalities are the engines of  this discontent, which shows no signs of diminishing.  Is Mali 2012 the model of prototype of things to come with  these 4 countries which are taking a lot of heat, not the fahrenheit type, this summer?

PEOPLE

Congrats to tennis great, Serena Williams, the north star of American  athletes.   In July, she won her 5^th Wimbledon Title.   In August, she won  Olympics Tennis gold  medal for the U.S.   On 9/9,  she won her fourth US Opens single title.   

REST IN PEACE: NY Attorney Joe Fleming died last week. A litigator, Attorney Fleming  had numerous criminal and civil law cases, which attracted relentless media attention.  His funeral was held at Abyssinian Baptist Church on September  10.

New Yorker Ray Charles, 83,  died.   Public servant who was an  assistant to  Governor Mario Cuomo and who was  NYS Commissioner of Workmen’s Compensation  Ray Charles was also a minister who worshiped  at the  Ephesus Adventist Church  and  then  at  The Riverside Church.  Funeral arrangements:  The Wake will be held  Mickey’s Funeral Home,  at  228 Lenox Avenue on  9/13 at 7 pm.   The next day, there will be a one-hour viewing at 9 am before the 10 a.m.  funeral service at the Christ Chapel at Riverside Church at 120 Street at Claremont Ave, in Harlem..

FALL./TIME OUT

SEPTEMBER 14:    The Riverside Church   hosts a talk about Ending Mass Incarceration and the Closing of Attica Prison to Commemorate the 41st Anniversary of the Attica Uprising.  Suzanna Ross moderates a panel of academics and community activists such as Dr. Cornel West,  Angela Davis,   Law Professor Michelle Alexander ; and  journalist Jazz Haydens.   The Riverside Church at  91 Claremont Ave. 120 Street,  Call 212.330.802

NOVEMBER 8: The  Harlem Business Alliance hosts its 32^nd  Annual Awards Celebration, at Mist Harlem, located at 46 West 116 Street,  Harlem.  Its distinguished  2012 honorees are The Honorable Carl McCcall,  SUNY  Board of Trustees;  Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Schomberg Center for Black Research;  Karen Witherspoon, City College of NY;  Dr. Reginald E. Manning, Harlem IHOP;  Herb Boyd, Amsterdam News; and Kenroy Watson,  Watson Piping and Heating, Inc. For reservations call  212. 665.7010 or visit www.hbany.org

A management consultant, Victoria Horsford is a NY based writer and pop culture historian reachable at 212.665.3003