Bed and Breakfast in Harlem, New York

History:
Sugar Hill

Gospel Music:
Sunday 11.00am Convent Ave Baptist @145th

Largest Cathedral in the World:
St John the Divine

Largest Cemetery in NYC:
Trinity Cemetery

Restaurants:
Baton Rouge
Londels
Covo
Java's Brewin
The River Room
Tres Pasos
Café Largo
Butterfly Blue

Or you can order food in from this website or call 212.281.8646

Dance,Music and Theaters:
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Dance Theater of Harlem
The Apollo
The Gate House &
Aaron Davis Hall
Harlem School of the Arts
Classic Theater of Harlem
St Nicks Pub
Parlor Jazz at Marjorie Eliot's
El Morroco Nightclub and Leopard Lounge
Cotton Club

Museums and Libraries:
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The Hispanic Society Of America
Hamilton Grange
Morris Jumel Mansion & Books
Sylvan Terrace
Studio Museum
Schomburg Library
The Cloisters
Jazz Museum
Jazz Foundation
El Museo del Bario
James A.Bailey House

Galleries:
Canvas Paper and Stone
Drum-TV
Wallach Art Gallery

University:
City College

Parks:
River Bank State Park
St. Nicolas Park
Fort Tryon Park
Jackie Robinson Park
Farmers Markets
Ralph Elison Memorial

Walking Tour:
Sugar Hill Walking Tour

Bicycle Rental:
Innovation Bike Shop

Shopping:
Woodbury Common.
It costs $40 each to take a bus there and back.You can rent a mini van for $85
You can also rent a mini van with a driver who will wait for you while you shop and drive you back.Door to door service is $200.A large 7 passenger SUV is $250. Carlos 718.490.3796
Ask Jeremy about transportation for large groups or smaller groups with lots of luggage, to, and from the airport.

More on Harlem:
Harlem One Stop

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Over the last 30 years, the IMF and the World Bank have pushed so-called developing countries to dismantle all forms of protection for their local farmers and to open up their markets to global agribusiness, speculators and subsidised food from rich countries. This has transformed most developing countries from being exporters of food into importers. Today about 70 per cent of developing countries are net importers of food. On top of this, finance liberalisation has made it easier for investors to take control of markets for their own private benefit.

Agricultural policy has lost touch with its most basic goal: that of feeding people. Rather than rethink their own disastrous policies, governments and think tanks are blaming production problems, the growing demand for food in China and India, and biofuels. While these have played a role, the fundamental cause of today's food crisis is neoliberal globalisation itself, which has transformed food from a source of livelihood security into a mere commodity to be gambled away, even at the cost of widespread hunger among the world's poorest people.

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We Americans love to say,"It's a free country."As if somehow our freedom is dependant on someone else.On a superficial level,certainly if you can't be sure that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are being respected by our government, it is diminished.But true freedom is something else and if we can find this freedom the other will come automatically.

True freedom surely comes from the truth and what could be more simple than the truth?There is only one other choice and that of course is a lie.Where do we find this truth?The truth is inside all of us.It is not buried deep if we can just allow ourselves to look we will find it.Therefore we must know ourselves.This means that we should know what our relationship with the world is,the world of ideas and people and personal relationships with your neighbors,with nature and with the things we possess.

How are we to be aware of anything?We see the birds and the trees and there is a response to a stimulus,we observe this ordinary process,and we don't need to study any books to see what takes place.Through identification you can have pleasure and pain.Our "capacity" is this concern with pleasure and pain,so long as we are looking to this "capacity" we will fail,because the understanding of ourselves does not depend on capacity.This is not a technique that you develop,but it can be tested by the way you talk and the way you behave.Watch yourself without any identification or comparison or condemnation.Most of our activities are unconscious and now you will be aware of these actions but without guilt or blame.

When I condemn something I do not understand it,so be aware with no sense of justification. We begin to understand ourselves,not just the superficial layers of our consciousness,but the motives,our hidden,confused demands,anxieties and fears.

However it is important not to accumulate the experience which awareness brings.It is important to be aware from moment to moment.We cannot approach a problem of relationship which is always new with an old pattern.

This passive awareness does not come from any form of discipline or any practice.It is just to be aware from moment to moment of our thinking and feeling and not only when we are awake but in our dreams.Thus we open the door into the hidden which becomes the known,and we must go beyond the door into the unknown.Reality is not a thing which is knowable by the mind because the mind is the result of the known,of the past and therefore the mind must understand itself and its functioning,its truth,and only then is it possible for the unknown to be.

Many thanks Krishnamurti for your words of wisdom.

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Everyone is a conspiracy theorist.It just depends which conspiracy you choose to believe.According to my understanding you are considered a conspiracy theorist if you don't believe the governments conspiracy theories,which may actually put you in the majority.

These organizations and programs listed below are not theoretical,they are real.So don't make excuses.Be a conspiracy theorist and wear the label with pride,there may come a time when you have to hide what you think,but that time has not yet arrived.


The Bilderberg Group , Council on Foreign Relations , The Trilateral Commission,
Skull and Bones, New World Order, Opus Dei, Knights Templar,
Project for a New American Century, Bohemian Grove

MKULTRA , Area51 , Operation Mockingbird, Operation Phoenix , Cointelpro ,
JFK MLK CIA Operation Garden Plot, Iran-Contra, Loose Change 911

9/11truth , Fema, The Military Commissions Act , Martial Law, HJR 192 ,

Trading with the Enemy Act, Internment Camps , Blackwater, The Carlyle Group,

Prison Industial Complex, Government Agents Immune from Prosecution


Livestock, Meat, Meatrix, Poultry, Corn, Monsanto, Cargill,

Orlando Bosch, and Luis Possada, Whitewater,

Reagan,Bush and Clinton and a small place in western Arkansas called Mena,


The Creature of Jekyl Island, The Money Masters, Fractional Reserve Banking,
Peak Oil, Zeitgeist, Passports, RFID, Family Jewels, Marijuana Tax Act,

Here at home in Harlem, GuineaPigKids,

Or just for fun watch this

And remember,you can always fight back
UCC 3-603, People's Rights, Statute of Limitations, Jurisdictionary, Cracking the Code,


Think on these things:

Ambition

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness.”

William O. Douglas

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Since October 2007,we have been using solar power at Sugar Hill Harlem Inn.This process took us about a year and a half to complete.In January of 2006,we started,to investigate the possibilities,of installing photovoltaics on the roof of our house.After searching for a contractor I found one right here in Harlem. Duce Construction. After taking measurements on my roof to make sure I have enough sunlight,we moved forward with the next step,which was applying to NYSERDA, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.They provide cash incentives for the installation of new solar electric or photovoltaic systems by eligible installers.

Most of this tedious paper work was done by the contractor.I was advised however that I needed a new roof and that would cost as much as the the solar panels.The good news was that I would able to get a low interest loan from Neighborhood Housing Services.This is a non profit bank that provide loans for repairs to home owners and that includes the PV installation.They also assist those in foreclosure.After getting the loan and getting off to a bumpy start with a roof contractor,I found a roofing company in Brooklyn called Greene Roofing.They did do a good job on the roof but I practically had to beg them to come do the work.

One problem that we encountered was Con Ed that pesky power company in NYC,that hates competition.As you may know, everything electrical must be UL rated,so everything from the panels to the wires to the inverter is UL rated,but this is not enough for Con Ed,they want the whole system to be UL rated as a kit.There is a company near Kingston NY,called SunWize that sell these kits so we got our PV panel kit from them.However as we approached the time of installation,Con Ed decided that this kit should be UL rated installed,which meant that they would need their inspectors to be able to check PV panel installation.But their inspectors don't know how to inspect PV installations,so they organized a special class for the inspectors to attend,in order to learn how to check the installed UL rating of a solar panel installation.The problem is that they made the class voluntary and nobody showed up.In the end we paid an outside contractor $1600 to come and inspect the installation.

The paperwork took 18 months and the installation took about 2 weeks.The contractor did a fantastic job and if you are a client of Duce,for Christmas you get a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne and an invite to their Christmas party.So don't forget that old adage,"act globally,shop locally"In this case it was a great success and we are very proud of our solar panels that will still be generating power long after I move on into the next dimension,unless one of those satelites that periodically fall out of the sky,happens to land on my roof.

The food that we serve at Sugar Hill is organic.No human growth hormones in our milk,no factory farm eggs.Our coffee and tea is fair trade.We have a delicious multi grain bread from a very well known gourmet food store on the Upper West Side called Zabars

There is a garden that is mostly composed of trash. Old wood beams and red brick from nearby construction sites that have debris left over from demolished buildings.We found a large table base made from angle iron that was made to cut rebar and then dumped on the sidewalk, outside a building site.Two weeks later we found a piece of glass leaning up against a lamp post 2 blocks away.It made a perfect table top. In order to create a garden,we brought in soil and some old tree trunks and bark, moss and plants that were taken from the woods in an area south of Woodstock in the Catskills.We have built a wall from tree bark that was striped from fallen trees and we are growing wild Virginia creeper on it.

All the food waste is put on our compost which is mixed with leaves.Almost any organic material is suitable for a compost pile. The pile needs a proper ratio of carbon-rich materials, or "browns," and nitrogen-rich materials, or "greens." Among the brown materials are dried leaves, straw, and wood chips. Nitrogen materials are fresh or green, such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps.

Two years ago I did a course on bio-sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica.My teacher was a man called John Jeavons .Unfortunately my garden is too tiny to grow much food but I learned a great deal about seeds and composting and I bought some heirloom seeds from him.Every year I grow cayenne prized for thousands of years for its healing power. Folklore from around the world recounts amazing results using cayenne pepper in simple healing and in baffling health problems.

As well as having worms in the garden we also have another type of worm that is kept in a container in the kitchen.This type of worm is called a red wriggler we feed these little critters scraps of food and the worms produce a very rich soil from their castings.Referred to as intestines of the earth, earthworms are one of the best soil builders on the planet. Earthworms consume one half to a total of their body weight in organic matter every 24 hours. Earthworms eat organic matter such as table scraps, yard and garden waste, leaves, grasses and manure. In its place, earthworms deposit a water-soluble, ready to use casting 5 to 11 times richer in nitrogen, phosphates, calcium and magnesium than the organic matter they consumed. The earthworms powerful gizzard grinds the matter while the intestinal tract secretes chemicals which release the major as well as micro plant nutrients and then deposit them directly into the soil where plants can readily feed. Redworms will not harm live roots or foliage, they will however, consume anything organic that falls to the ground and convert it into a wonderful fertilizer.

To clean our rooms,we use Mountain Green. This is a non toxic,green cleaner,that is used to clean the bathrooms kitchens, floors,and other surfaces.We also use Mountain Green,laundry detergent.These cleaners are never tested on animals. Green cleaning is using environmentally safe cleaning products, equipment, and methods that do not endanger our environment, employees, or the guests. Traditional cleaning chemicals are often made with chlorine, ammonia or other toxic chemicals. Traditional cleaning products have been linked with skin irritations, respiratory infections, and other serious health problems. Sugar Hill Harlem Inn offers eco safe cleaning products and green cleaning methods to ensure healthy, clean, rooms for our employees and guests.

We have done some research on grey water systems but we have found that automated systems for flushing toilets with grey water are complex and expensive. Flushing with untreated grey water will result in fouling of the tank and fetid anaerobic smells. Treatment is expensive. The $650 Homestead Utilities system (s16), which is the cheapest I’ve heard of, would take 23 flushes a day—if you had a restaurant it could earn its keep.Extreme economic unfeasibility can indicate extreme ecological unfeasibility; the earth would be way better off if I just waste the water than if I wasted all the plumbing, pumps, tanks, filters, and electricity needed to make this sort of system work.

Here finally is a list of green activities in NYC

Harlem walking tours. Click here
There are 3 theaters within walking distance of Sugar Hill.
Harlem Stage Aaron Davis Hall Classic Theater of Harlem
There are also restaurants and jazz clubs.I am not sure how that would benefit the environment,but having fun sure helps the atmosphere.
Bicycle tours.Click here.Or bicycle rental click here
There is a park on the block.
There are 2 botanical gardens,Brooklyn and the Bronx
For a list of free museums Click here
For green markets.Click here
Walking, whether it is a stroll through Central Park or a walk across Brooklyn Bridge is great fun and great excercise
Every Monday during the summer there are free outdoor movies shown in Bryant Park.

And lastly we have gospel music.The church that is nearby that we recommend is called the Convent Avenue Baptist Church .So if you are feeling that all is lost and we are not doing enough,you could always try praying.........and good luck with that option.It sure did not help our President.

Most all of these activities are done by the guests,without my input beyond advising them on the most earth friendly activities and for the most part are free,including many of our museums.

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Due to an overwhelming response to our opening of Sugar Hill Harlem Inn in September 2005,we have added 4 new rooms,each with a private bathroom, in another building 6 blocks north of here.The address is 408 Convent Ave between 147th and 148th street.

The whole building is light and airy and there is central air throughout. The house is similar to the 460 W141st location ,which was built around the same time.It is a limestone Victorian row house on a tree lined street,mostly Ginkgo. It was almost completely gutted and rehabbed in 2006,so the inside is more modern than the main house.Throughout the building all the hardwood floors are new,all the electric and plumbing and light fixtures are new as are all the bathrooms.

Unfortunately many of the original details are gone.There is only one fireplace,but the original staircase is there with some interesting details in the front entrance including 2 floor to ceiling mirrors and some stain glass windows.This main entrance floor is known as the parlor floor.It is a large room,15'x50' with high 11 ft ceilings and hard wood floors.

Although this is a large beautiful space, it is not used so much by the guests so we have functions there,for weddings,showers,parties and corporate meetings etc.There is a computer on this floor and a telephone,that is there for all to use.There is a small bathroom on this floor.A staircase leads downstairs to the garden floor where there is a dining area and a sitting room area, a large,fully equipped communal kitchen with a built in island table, and doors that lead out into a small garden.There are laundry facilities available also on this floor.Bamboo floors have been installed throughout.The house has 4 floors and 2 of the floors have 2 bedrooms on each floor,each with a private bathroom.One of the bathrooms has a jacuzzi,and one has a separate tub,the other bathrooms just have showers.

The address of the new building is 408 Convent between 147st and 148st.It is one block from the subway which is an express subway stop for 2 trains,the A train and the D train.If you click map you can see where each of these trains take you.The A train,the blue line takes you from Inwood all the way at the top of Manhattan down the west side past 42nd st following 8th ave.From the Sugar Hill and Convent Ave. to Times Sq takes only 10-15 minutes as the train only stops 3 times once at 125th and once at 59th,the bottom of Central Park and then 42nd st.By the way the subway is most always refered to as the train.The A train continues into the West Village,also called Greenwich Village,then on to SoHo and Canal St.,speeding along past Wall st and under the Hudson River to Brooklyn Heights into Queens and as far as Howard Beach where you can catch a free bus or pay $5 to take the Air Train to JFK.Yes you can actually get to the airport for $2,not too bad,but I still say FREE is much better and you can click here to read more about that idea

The D train,the orange line, follows the same path as the A train till it gets to 59th st.Then it turns east to 6th Avenue, (Avenue of the Americas),then it heads south passing Rockefeller Center,and Radio City Music Hall,42nd st,West Village,where it veers off to the East, into the Lower East Side,China Town and on into Brooklyn and eventually Coney Island.

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DO NOT take the supershuttle.

It costs $60 to take a cab from JFK,including tip and toll.This is the easiest way to travel to Sugar Hill.It is also the most expensive.Unless you take a limo or a helicopter.

The cab will take you up the Van Wick Expressway to Grand Central Parkway.You are in the borough of Queens.There is little beauty on this road,as a matter of fact,this is about as ugly a drive as you could take anywhere.If ugly scenic drives are your thing, there are some industrial zones in New Jersey that are worse,and I can certainly show you how to find them.If you look up you will see a narrow concrete tresel bridge.This is the bridge for the Air Train.Instructions for taking this are below.

When you get to Grand Central you will see a large park with a lake on your right,this is Flushing Meadows Corona Park.The name Flushing has nothing to do with toilets.It was in fact taken from a Dutch word that hopefully means something else.Corona is a part of Queens whose claim to fame is that Louis Armstrong lived there.His house is now a museum.

You will soon pass by Shea Stadium on the right and then LaGuardia Airport.Hopefully the highway is just that,and not a parking lot, and all this passes you by like a blur.Soon you will pass through Astoria and start the steady climb onto the Triborough Bridge.If you look to the left you will see Manhattan looming in the distance,I am not sure what your feeling will be, probably excitement and awe.It does not matter how many times you see this sight,you cannot help but stare and perhaps wonder at humanity's madness,to create something so intense,so concentrated.

You will now be above Randall's Island and Ward's Island.On the left you will see Manhattan's Psychiatric Center,a scary looking building with bars on the windows.You will then pass through the tolls and enter Harlem.

You are now officially in Manhattan and more important,Harlem,the most famous district on the entire planet.Tell the cab driver to take 125th street,not 126th,because you want to go up Amsterdam Ave, not St Nicholas,or you will have to carry your bags across the 141street.Go straight along 125th past the Apollo on the right and make a right on Amsterdam.You are now climbing the biggest hill in Manhattan.At the top of the hill is City College.Make a right on W141.We are in the middle of the block.Look for the house with all the wood and plants.There is also a large pear tree outside.

If you are going to 408 Convent,you should take St.Nicholas Ave. to 149th.Make a left, go one block and then take another left on Convent.We are between 147 and 148th on the right side just on the other side of the bus stop.Please call us from your cell phone,when you reach Harlem to let us know that you are nearby,so someone can be there to meet you.

Do NOT take the supershuttle

If you don't have too much luggage and stairs are your thing,You can take the Air Train to Howard beach,$5,or there is a free bus that can take there, and then take the A train to 145th st.($2). The subway trip should take about one hour.We are a 5 minute walk from the subway.Walk up the hill along 145th st ,one block, to Convent Ave.There is a limestone church Convent Avenue Baptist Church on the left.If you like gospel music,you can go there Sunday morning at 11am.Make a left and walk down Convent Ave. to 141st.You will notice some beautiful brick and brownstone townhouses on the left.The house on the SE corner of 144th street is of particular interest.The movie,The Royal Tenenbaums was filmed there.You may see a yellow wooden house between 141 and 142, squashed between a large building and a church.This is a museum.It was Alexander Hamilton's country house,but the museum is closed and this house is going to be moved,in the spring or fall of 2008, to St.Nicholas Park,just one block away.
Make a right and we are in the middle of the block on the south side of the street.Look for the house with all the wood and plants and a large pear tree outside.You have arrived.

If you are going to 408 Convent,make sure you get onto the front of the A train and take the 147th street exit at the 145th street stop.Walk one block west to Convent Ave.Cross the street and make a right and walk until you see the first tree.This is a ginkgo biloba tree and it is right outside the house.

Did I mention.......Do NOT take the supershuttle

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