how is hamilton heights /152nd st /aqueduct court

You definitely don't know much about these areas if your comparing aqueduct court in hamilton heights to anything around 126th street in central harlem. Definitely move into the central harlem area....You can't go wrong, currently the two areas are already worlds apart and with all the development projects about to take place along the 125th st corridor....central harlem would be your best bet.

I personally much prefer Hamilton heights. Architecture is much nicer there. Also quieter.
Amenities will arrive before at the 125th/st nich area, so depends how long you wanna keep it.

Thanks for the comments. I get the idea that 126th will get the facilities first. Crime is a significant concern too. Any difference in that regard
Is the 126th/St Nick area pretty safe?
How about 152nd? It is near Convent and many people say that is good, or is the area of Convent that is good in some other section?

Your looking way too uptown...I wouldn't go beyond the Lenox which is located at Lenox Ave and 129th....although I understand that the 145th st corridor is getting cleaned up....but then again your looking at a very small and narrow stretch of land as opposed to an entire area like central harlem. Just think of it this way...everyone is being pushed uptown or out of town...so the further uptown you go the more likely you will find crime...although Harlem actually has one of the lower crime rates in Manhattan. Are you searching farther uptown due to price differential?

yes looking there because willie suggs, a realtor in the area suggested it -- price differential and she claims lower crime -- though the precint crime statistics do not bear that out.
The convent avenue area seems to have high sale prices as does strivers so it was not clear to me how things work just based on the prices. The 152nd st property (Aqueduct court) is just above where convent avenue meets 152, but I could not tell if Convent prices are high just near city college or all the way up in the 150s.
307 W 126th is the other choice and I dont think it is any more expensive than aqueduct -- they are close. But 127th/128th to 131st on Feederick Douglas and also 125 to 123 on Amsterdam have some large projects and I have heard of crime there. So, the real question is which one is less dangerous -- if you are walking to Columbia at night along there or taking the subway to 155 and Broadway and then walking to 152 and COnvent.
Probably no easy answer.

Joe I also commute to Columbia and was looking initially in both central harlem and hamilton heights. Ultimately I chose to buy in washington heights/inwood because the prices were lower and in general the neighborhoods are safer. The commute is a little longer - but the time difference once you are on the subway (the #1) between 155 and 215 (the last stop on manhattan) is 10-15 minutes - I timed it a number of times before buying. There is also A train service.

being closer to 125th st will obviously pay off upon resale.... the commute is great no matter where you're headed....you have your pick of trains and buses...including the MetroNorth and a bus that takes you staright to the airport. Lower crime further uptown? That's a bunch of crock. Anyway, the link below will take you to a map of many of the developments going on in Harlem....maybe it'll help.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111392867151867447516.00000112e70fc08a9dbd2&z=12&om=1

However, if you can't afford at least $500,000 - $575,000 for a one bdrm then maybe you should contiue to look further uptown.

Well, living near acqueduct court buildings.
Never felt threatened in any sort. Well, the neighborhood is mixed, maybe 50% latinos so if you don't mind sometimes some loud salsa/merengue during the weekend...
Long (longer) term, Columbia expansion should benefit the entire western Harlem strip (any heights).
As a whole, NYC is one of the safest cities anyway, and manhattan even safer regardless where you are.

thx all for the feedback... don't mind latinos. Loud at night is a concern. Crime is. I checked some of the maps and police blogs/stats. it seems that the crime is more in the Harlem precint than for Columbia and more for the Sugar Hill than harlem. Not clear how this translates. Definitely, choice of restaurants and attractiveness of the area is worse in both than for Columbia. Oddly the nature of grittiness is qualitatively different on 126th vs 152nd
MOre food for thought

Well reg. crimes, I don't remember how they present them, but you would have to adjust for density of population. You should compare crimes # per inhabitants instead of absolute numbers.
Reg. Restaurants well it is changing (fast enough for you?!). 3 more restaurants/lounges opening soon on 135th st, near riverside cafe...

is it a good place to raise a family?

It seems pretty simple to me...if you're somewhere near 125th street you'll have all the services you need both uptown and downtown. Central Harlem is farther along in terms of gentirification and from a safety and financial standpoint it's less risky than moving up to 152st which is an entirely different neighborhood. Look, if you can't afford Central Harlem move farther uptown... the thing is that you'll be waiting longer for the wave of gentrification and all that it brings (ie. financial stability, safety, quality of ife, services, etc.). However, if you have the cash I don't see why you would move that far uptown. Good Luck!

Funny, it seems to me prices are the same between west and central harlem, aren't they? (excluding "luxury" UWS-priced condos of course)

Thx all -- you are right as to the criteria for choosing between the two. By the way having restaurants open on 135th and riverside is not exactly refreshing the 152nd street neighborhood.
Price difference is not staggering. In fact these prices are not too different from the area right by Columbia -- Amsterdam/Claremont 123rd, so I am revisign the strategy to stay closer in still. 126th is still less nice looking than the area right by Columbia

Reg. Restaurants: Just showing a trend, that's it...!

Well...... had an incident today that may keep me away from both neighborhoods. We went to the 126th location and were chatting outside the building, when a woman who was passing by stopped in midstep, dropped her pants and took a protracted leak in the middle of the sidewalk, bare bottom and more. Cusses about how she got pee on herself and casually walks off. Time 1230 in the afternoon. Now I had seen what looked like human feces on the sidewalk or on the road a few times in Harlem, but seeing the actual act is another thing.
I realize that this is not your everyday/every hour occurrence in Harlem, but it does pose a discouraging welcome to the neighborhood. Probably will stay put in Morningside Heights -- and will make sure to look out for odd puddles or deposits even in my neighborhood from now on.
It makes me sad to think of the life of the people who are constrained to live in conditions that do not allow a modest level of modesty to evolve.
Yes, you can chastise me for being a spoiled, middle class person, the likes of whom represent the phoniness of gentrification and lack of caring for those less fortunate than myself. Likely, I'll explore ways to get involved in some community activity to address the situation...

Has this building started closing yet?

No, I went to scope the location out a few weeks ago on a weekend and it appears that the place is still under construction. The front doors were chained and padlocked. The ground level windows were broken and the papered up with newspaper on the insides. Oh and some graffiti on the walls. definitely not in a safe neighborhood. If I were someone who's under contract I'd be pretty annoyed.

joedavis, that was just a tourist from the Gold Coast of Chicago. She's gone now.

hypnotik - check the crime stats before saying off the cuff not a safe neighborhood. I've done that and there are more crimes per person in Chelsea than in this area. It's ignorance based on lack of information that folks love to spew. Ditto Joe Davis - I challenge you to identify human feces from dog feces. We should have a contest. It's not Park Ave up here but there are some really beautiful places in Harlem and some not so pretty - like almost every other neighborhood in the city.

joedavis- why are looking to move from morningside heights? Can you but there?

I wish I had seen this thread before I signed the lease on an apartment here. I should have worried when they kept changing their mind about things even BEFORE I signed the lease. The woman who showed me the apartment said I could rent on the top floor. She said I could have a two year lease. When it came time to put it in writing, things changed. No top floor apartment (they're saving that for buyers) and no long leases. Of course this was two weeks after I had seen it. The agent would say one thing. The developer another. One thing I made very clear: you will make repairs, won't you? That's your responsibility, right? Yes, of course, said the developer. Unless you take a hatchet to things on purpose.

My first night of move-in. I go back to the old apartment to pick up a few last things. Come back. The front door keys don't work. I call the agent. She never checked to see if they worked. It's the night of the tornado. The only one who will come in is 1 1/2 hours out on Long Island. Great. But the doors are so flimsy that I can open them with a credit card. Great. It takes them many days to address this security issue.

Next day. No hot water. No light in the bathroom. No water in the kitchen sink. No water in the fridge dispenser. No gas working on the stove. And I have to go to work. Front door buzzer doesn't work. No virtual doorman as promised in their website. The list is long of things that they have not checked.

Also, I have a key to the mailbox, but the mailman doesn't. Forget about the runaround I get trying to find out which post office I have to hunt down to find my mail. I still haven't gotten mail and it's the 19th of Oct. The Aqueduct Court agent said the week before last that the mailboxes have to be inspected and that should have happened last week. Also found out that the building has to be 40% occupied to receive mail. Management tells us 20%, but I've confirmed with two post offices that the number is 40%.

Basically, my fears of a minimally responsive management seem to have come true. I like the apartment itself. Love the neighborhood. Oh, and this is a doozie: I have hot water feeding into my guest toilet. And hot water and cold water pipes are switched in this bathroom. So I can scald my guests. And since I'm paying for all utilities, the bill will be wonderful. And in the master bathroom, the toilet doesn't have enough pressure to flush so it's unusable. Both times I've been told that these toilet/bathroom issues wouldn't be fixed. Now that I've complained enough times, they've relented, but have not given me any timing. They offered $250 discount off rent, which is hardly enough for all the discomfort, lack of security and extra time and expenses that I have incurred.

Be sure to ask LOTS of questions before you sign anything, is all I'm saying. And make sure things work. Just sayin'. Perhaps from a buyer's perspective, there's a much better viewpoint.

One other thing. I checked out the link posted above (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=479&street=west+152+street&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E) and found out that the temporary certificate of occupancy expired last week.

I called the NYC Buildings Department on Monday, Oct 18, and to their knowledge, no new certificate has been applied for. So technically, they don't even seem to have a current certificate of occupancy. Also, there was one curious notation on the certificate for a "non-commercial theater club" in the basement" with a maximum occupancy of 73 people. Have no idea what that is about.

Certify mail them your concerns, and if they don't fix it, stop paying rent, i guarantee you they'll get everything fixed.