Hello out there,

I created this blog because I'm seeking housing stories in Central and East Harlem. From 1978 to 1998, I worked for a housing agency, managing city-owned properties.

I began my career as a property manager and worked my way up the career ladder, finally becoming a director of crisis management, supervising other supervisors who supervised property managers. Looking back at that time, I think most of the buildings the city owned were in crisis and not just the troublesome ones in Central Harlem's Crisis Management Program but that's for another post.

During that time, I worked in a field office--meaning that I worked at site that supposed to be easily accesible to tenants living in my assigned territory. Of course, it wasn't. Tenants paid two fares to see me and my coworkers, only to be told we couldn't or wouldn't help them.

While I was working in East and Central Harlem, I met a cast of loveable and not so likeable characters. Some them worked as supers and porters. Others lived in the buildings I managed or worked along side me as my co-workers or they worked in ivory towers downtown. They might also be drug dealers and their customers or beat officers, social workers, Legal Aid lawyers, tenant associations, city marshals, supervisors, area directors, maintenance directors, maintenance men and mechanics.

You're probably thinking, that's nice but why start a blog? Well, here comes my pitch. I wrote a book called "Mr Jefferson's Piano and Other Central Harlem Stories." about my experience in property management. I read Carolyn Howard- Johnson's book, "The Frugal Book Promoter: How to do what your publisher won't," http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepres.com/. Then I read David Meerman Scott's "The New Rules of Marketing & PR," http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/. Both books said I should be using the internet to market my book so this is my first scary--very scary attempt to create a blog for that purpose.

I know that I'm doing this backwards. It's supposed to be blogs and media marketing first to create an audience then introduce the product--my book. What can I say? I'm doing the best I can with this. Oops, I forgot to include my publishers website where you can buy my book. God, it's hard to remember all this stuff. I'm a baby boomer from the television generation for Christ sakes! What do I know about blogging?

When I was growing up, we flipped a simple off/ on switch that connected us to a television where we could be couch potatoes if we wanted. We could buy a little pot, get high and make love all night long. Or we could march to protest something and hope to change the world. We certainly didn't sit around staring at a little monitor until our eyeballs turn red and burned like the devil while we tried to figure out what to say to people we never met and probably will never meet.

Sorry about that little outburst of yearning for the good old days Anyway, my publisher's website is http://www.alphaworldpress.com/

By now, I've either made you curious or turned you off. If you're still reading this, you probably want to know more about "Mr. Jefferson's Piano." At least, I hope you do so here's the description. Fictional character, Melba Farris, is a compilation of me and my coworkers who managed residential properties in East and Central Harlem for the city of New York. She meets plenty of interesting characters and stumbles into unusual situations as a young, idealistic Black woman trying to do good for her tenants who live in city-owned housing during the seventies, eighties and nineties.

When I spoke to my coworkers about the book, several told me fascinating stories of their own experiences in property management. That's when I realized there are many more stories out there about housing in New York City. My book as good as it is, barely scratched the surface. I started thinking how it would be great to hear from people who lived and worked here in the city as property managers or in fields related to property management.

I hope anyone reading this who lived in Central or East Harlem or worked for the city in the housing field during 1975 to 1999 will take a moment---well maybe several to jot down a good story or two about what she or he experienced.

I'd love to read them and I'm sure others would too.

Wilsonbluez