HARLEM, New York – A thousand people, including a few protesters, turned out to greet Bill Clinton Monday as the former president officially opened his new office in Harlem.
“Now I feel like I’m home!” a beaming Clinton told the crowd. “I am honored to be in Harlem.” Clinton has had his political ups and downs, but if election returns are any barometer, the people of Harlem have remained ever loyal to him.
Clinton, who was always popular among New York voters and the black community, almost sounded as if he were running for office again as he told the crowd, “You were always there for me and I will try to be there for you. And together we can be there for all of our neighbors around the block, around the country and around the world.”
“If we had our way, he would be re-elected,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, the Harlem congressman who helped Clinton find office space on 125th Street.
It was Rep. Rangel who persuaded the former president to come to Harlem, and he was clearly delighted when he took the podium and nearly shouted, “If there was ever a place for a second political comeback, this is the place for Bill Clinton to be!”
Red, white and blue balloons decorated the plaza where the ceremony was held outside the Harlem state office building, down the street from Clinton’s new offices. Supporters waved paper fans bearing a picture of Clinton’s face.
“Harlem Welcomes President Clinton!” read an enormous banner stretching behind the stage where Clinton sat with actress Cicely Tyson and black politicians such as former Mayor David Dinkins and state Comptroller Carl McCall.
In one of the more appropriate moments, the Harlem Boys Choir serenaded Clinton with Duke Ellington’s masterpiece, “Take The A Train.” If Harlem had an anthem, this song might be it — a piece that gets to the soul of this historic community.
Monday’s crowd also included several dozen protesters, whose noisy booing could be heard amid the cheers, prompting Rangel — and Clinton supporters who made up the vast majority of those present — to ask them to be quiet.
“Bill Clinton is no friend of Harlem,” said one protester, Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party. “Poor black men and poor black women will not have a home in Harlem any more because rents will be going up. … We are losing our urban inner-city that is ours.”
However, the cheers overwhelmed the jeers, and there was a joyous quality to the program, which also included a Dominican dance group. The event came off much more like a giant block party than a political rally.
Still, Clinton, retaining his touch as a masterful communicator, addressed the protesters’ concerns head-on and respectfully.
“I want to make sure that I’m a good neighbor in Harlem,” he said. “I’m glad the property values are going up but I don’t want the small business people run out because I’m coming in.”
He also read aloud one protest sign that asked what he had done for Harlem. “That’s a fair question,” he said, then cited statistics on lower unemployment and welfare rates and noting that a local federal empowerment zone created by his administration had attracted $600 million in private investment.
On a lighter note, he recalled that as a child, he dreamed of playing the saxophone at Harlem’s legendary Apollo theater.
“I ain’t dead yet,” he added. “I may play there before it’s over.”
Clinton shook hands and worked the crowd after the speech, then headed to lunch at “Sylvia’s Also,” a satellite of the legendary Harlem eatery.
“I’ll be at all the local places,” he said on his way in to be served hors d’oeuvres including fried chicken, bite-size barbecued ribs, teriyaki fried vegetables, teriyaki beef and sesame chicken on a stick.
Asked how his first day was, he responded, “Great! This is so awesome to be in Harlem. I’m so glad to be here.”
He added that he hopes to spur empowerment zones in inner cities and rural areas elsewhere, saying, “What we did here in Harlem we will do around the country.”
In his speech, Clinton also talked about the importance of fighting AIDS around the world, hinting at a new AIDS fund raising and education initiative that he plans to unveil Tuesday in Manhattan with the singer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.
After lunch, Clinton went to his new office at 55 W. 125th St. The former president’s staff moved into the 14th floor penthouse space last week but renovation of Clinton’s private office won’t be complete until September. The space offers stunning views of Central Park, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and even the Empire State Building.
Clinton said his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter Chelsea could not attend because his mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, was undergoing surgery in Washington D.C. on Monday to have a cancerous colon tumor removed.
