The event was part of the 200th anniversary celebration of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem. It was also an opportunity for Butts to publicly reconnect with members and supporters of the church who overwhelmingly supported Obama.

After praising both Clintons' work in education and health care, Butts said, “So, when I stand with the Clintons, I stand with them for good reason.” He went on, “And a man or woman of integrity will always do that, even at personal cost. However, that is not to say that I am not overjoyed at Barack Obama as president of the United States.”

Hillary Clinton broke with her custom of wearing pantsuits in favor of a floor-length dress. She jokingly told the crowd, “Even I could not have imagined that as part of the 200th anniversary celebration of this renowned house of worship you would time it to coincide with the election of Barack Obama as our next president.” The crowd applauded enthusiastically, and Clinton smiled.

When he spoke, Bill Clinton said the country faces enormous difficulties. But, he went on, it's those difficulties “that enabled the epic contest between Hillary and Barack Obama, which proved that two glass ceilings no longer exist in America.” He added, “It is that difficulty that gives us the ability to make a new beginning.”

Michael Bloomberg, Bill Thompson and Scott Stringer were also there.

But Obama's speech will likely be remembered for his calling on the black community to do its part to fight homophobia, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

Obama says in the speech: "We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them," and "the scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community," and "for too long, some of us have seen the immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity."

And while Hillary Clinton, in her speech honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this afternoon at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, emphasized the importance of "doers of the word," Obama made a point to argue of King's instrumental role in enabling the civil rights movement, "he did it with words."

Butts, With Clinton, Plays Down the Role of Race

Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts announced his long-assumed endorsement of Hillary Clinton in front of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Clinton had honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this afternoon.

In endorsing Clinton, Butts read a long statement emphasizing his strong relationship with Clinton and his high regard for her experience. ("I, too, join countless Americans in a collective desire for change, and I do so with a vital recognition that change and experience are not mutually exclusive," Butts said.)

Clinton stood nodding beside Butts as he read his remarks. Across the hanging rope in front of them, the assembled reporters hopped up and down, shivering after an hour-long wait in the aching cold. They sipped from paper cups filled with hot coffee, brought out on trays from the church by Clinton aides, and struggled to hear Butts' remarks over the din of competing Clinton and Barack Obama supporters gathered in the street.

(The Obama supporters chanted "We live here, they don't," behind a sign that said "Share the Dream. Vote for Obama in 2008." The Clinton supporters chanted "Hill-a-ry." Chet Whye, one of the Obama supporters, said "This is the battle for Harlem. That's why she is here.")

Earlier, in a speech from the altar, Butts seemed to echo a key Clinton criticism of her opponent, that Obama's talent for inspirational speech was not enough to qualify him for president. ("You don't just say, ‘save the hospital,’" Butts said. "You've got to work with senators and assembly persons, Chairs of Ways and Means. You've got to put this thing together in such a way because we live in the United States of America. One brother said that if you don't understand that, then maybe you need to live somewhere else.").

Outside, Butts added to his lengthy prepared remarks to address questions he said he had received by phone from his own Harlem supporters as to why he had, "as a black man in this country, decided to announce [his] support for a white woman."

"I would like to make one thing very clear," he said. "This was not, and is not, and will not, become a race-based decision for me. And I hope that it is not and will not become a race-based decision for you, either."

Speaking of Obama, he said, "I love him as my brother," and argued that a vote for Clinton was in no way a vote against Obama.

When it finally came time for Clinton to speak, she temporarily delighted the Obama supporters by paying tribute to the Illinois Senator, saying, "I have the highest regard and admiration for my friend and colleague Senator Barack Obama. He is an extraordinary human being."

Then she returned to her argument that she was best qualified to be president.

"This day means a lot to me personally," she said.

In endorsing Clinton, Butts read a long statement emphasizing his strong relationship with Clinton and his high regard for her experience. ("I, too, join countless Americans in a collective desire for change, and I do so with a vital recognition that change and experience are not mutually exclusive," Butts said.)

Clinton stood nodding beside Butts as he read his remarks. Across the hanging rope in front of them, the assembled reporters hopped up and down, shivering after an hour-long wait in the aching cold. They sipped from paper cups filled with hot coffee, brought out on trays from the church by Clinton aides, and struggled to hear Butts' remarks over the din of competing Clinton and Barack Obama supporters gathered in the street.

(The Obama supporters chanted "We live here, they don't," behind a sign that said "Share the Dream. Vote for Obama in 2008." The Clinton supporters chanted "Hill-a-ry." Chet Whye, one of the Obama supporters, said "This is the battle for Harlem. That's why she is here.")

Earlier, in a speech from the altar, Butts seemed to echo a key Clinton criticism of her opponent, that Obama's talent for inspirational speech was not enough to qualify him for president. ("You don't just say, ‘save the hospital,’" Butts said. "You've got to work with senators and assembly persons, Chairs of Ways and Means. You've got to put this thing together in such a way because we live in the United States of America. One brother said that if you don't understand that, then maybe you need to live somewhere else.").

Outside, Butts added to his lengthy prepared remarks to address questions he said he had received by phone from his own Harlem supporters as to why he had, "as a black man in this country, decided to announce [his] support for a white woman."

"I would like to make one thing very clear," he said. "This was not, and is not, and will not, become a race-based decision for me. And I hope that it is not and will not become a race-based decision for you, either."

Speaking of Obama, he said, "I love him as my brother," and argued that a vote for Clinton was in no way a vote against Obama.

When it finally came time for Clinton to speak, she temporarily delighted the Obama supporters by paying tribute to the Illinois Senator, saying, "I have the highest regard and admiration for my friend and colleague Senator Barack Obama. He is an extraordinary human being."

Then she returned to her argument that she was best qualified to be president.

"This day means a lot to me personally," she said.

The tool seems to be a technique increasingly favored by developers of controversial projects, who negotiate with members of the community, agreeing to include in the CBAs provisions for things such as affordable housing and local jobs.

Panelists at the forum, which was organized by the Municipal Art Society and the Rockefeller Foundation and moderated by The Observer’s Matthew Schuerman, directed their harshest words about CBAs toward the process currently going on in West Harlem, where a board of elected officials and community members are hashing out a CBA with Columbia University. With Columbia exclusively talking with the board, known as the West Harlem Local Development Corporation, the debate has been essentially closed to the rest of the community, the panelists argued.

“It was removed from full control of the community, by people from the political sector getting involved,” said Ron Shiffman, a onetime city planning commissioner and former director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. "It was tantamount to zoning for sale,”

Reverend Butts joined in the criticism, saying he had met with Columbia about forming a CBA, only to have the university close the door on him in order to talk exclusively with the Local Development Corporation.

“We sent a plan that we thought covered all of the areas that you would want to cover, and immediately after that meeting—this is one of the real issues that I have—the representatives of Columbia cut off all communication. Not a word,” Mr. Butts said. “When the political establishment got involved, it polluted it.”

The solution, at least according to Messrs. Shiffman and Butts: have the city or state create policies around issues such as the inclusion of affordable housing and similar matters, taking them off the negotiating table for each individual development.

Last week, the Columbia CBA hit a bit of a bump in the road, as three members of the Local Development Corporation resigned in protest, saying they were being kept out of negotiations with the university.

In a very specific way, at least, the origins of Clinton's Senate career can be traced back to the 125th Street offices of Charlie Rangel, who, Clinton lore has it, was the first person to suggest she run for office. Rangel is also credited with finding Bill Clinton his uptown headquarters.

On the rainy Saturday afternoon, Rangel sat on one side of the church's marble altar and Bill and Hillary sat on the other.

"He loves being home," Clinton said of Rangel when it was her turn to talk.

"It's great getting off that plane and being able to come back to Harlem. Isn't it, Charlie?"

The audience was thrilled to have Rangel and Hillary on the same stage.

(So, apparently, was the Republican National Committee. As Clinton spoke at the podium about building a better future for America's children, a statement was sent out to reporters about the "Rangel/Clinton" tax hikes.)

The program started with remarks from local elected officials. When the Clintons arrived, the church's choir, standing in crimson and gold robes in the stained-glass lighted balcony above them, sang Happy Birthday to the senator, now 60. Then, reflecting the air of triumph surrounding the Clinton campaign more than two months before the first vote is cast, the choir immediately transitioned into a song with the chorus "Victory is mine."

Volunteers in the upper tiers held handmade signs with messages like "Harlem for Hillary." A supporter waved a placard that said, "A Clinton White House is the Right House."

The audience of parishioners and New York elected officials chanted "Hill-a-ry" and applauded euphorically from the pews at the sight of Bill Clinton.

Taking the podium, Rangel, in a dress shirt opened at the collar, spoke of Hillary as the candidate who could give the country a second chance.

"The nightmare is just about over," he said of the Bush administration. He then sought to reinforce the Clinton's uptown credentials: "Where else do you have a former president who has an office just down the block?" The line prompted loud and sustained applause. Rangel also declared that Hillary was "married to one of the greatest presidents our nation has ever seen."

Bill Clinton, dressed in gray pants and a blue blazer, spoke next, pitching his wife as the only candidate ready to do the job.

"She is the only member of the armed services committee" in the race, he said, adding "We need somebody who can win."

He said that the intention of her rivals to be more blunt in their attacks on her revealed that she was clearly the candidate to beat. "When all these guys that are running against her jump on her, I think they know something, don't they?" he said.

After more than an hour of speeches, Clinton herself spoke at the podium before a black grand piano and under silver and gold organ pipes. Dressed in a turquoise jacket and black pants, she started with some overtly religious language.

"On this earth God's work is our own," she said at one point. At another point she declared, "The spirit is with us.”

She spoke often about New York.

"So much about what matters to New York matters not just to New York but to the rest of the country and the world," she said.

"When Bill and I were leaving the White House we were so excited about coming here,” she said. “And the fact that he does have his office on 125th Street has been such a joy for him and for all of us."

Near the end of the speech, she said she looked forward to the day that "George Bush and Dick Cheney finally leave."

After the speeches, Loretta Faison, a 49-year-old welfare worker wearing a t-shirt that said "Praise God," said she planned on supporting Clinton.

"She is the best qualified right now and let's face it, she was there," she said. She also said she thought that Barack Obama would be ready in the "next election."

Outside, veteran Assemblyman Denny Farrell stood under a large white umbrella, providing yet more testimony about Hillary Clinton’s local bona fides.

"She is from New York and she is a New Yorker," he said. "That was validated with the vote she got last year."

Of the Clintons, he said, "They are New Yorkers first. United States people second, and world third."

Tomorrow, on the day Sean Bell's daughter turns four years old, Rev. Al Sharpton and others will silently march down Fifth Avenue to protest police misconduct in minority communities and press City Hall to implement changes they say were supposed to be in place after the killing of Amadou Diallo.

Sharpton said everything from the 50 shots fired at Sean Bell to a double parking ticket given to Rev. Calvin Butts weeks earlier are "indicative of a problem that is a pattern in this city" with the police department.

Butts referred to some officers as "ignorant savages" who are "culturally ignorant" and "racially insensitive."

Noting that the officers involved in the Sean Bell killing were black, Hispanic and white, Sharpton said, "If they were all black, we would be marching tomorrow."

-- Azi Paybarah

UPDATE: In response to the Butts comments, mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser said, "We don't dignifiy remarks like that with a response."

Panel discussions aren't always our kind of thing, but tomorrow night the estimable Leonard Lopate (WNYC, y'all!) hosts a very promising symposium on "The Role of the Arts in the Future of Harlem."

Why so promising? The choreographer Bill T. Jones will be there, hangout out with the powerful Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III (from Harlem's powerful Abyssinian Baptist Church).

Then there's Mr. Max Bond, an architect who spends his time these days worrying about the the World Trade Center Site Memorial. And for some bureaucratic zest he'll be joined by Kate Levin, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The free shebang is at the new Gatehouse--one's got to call 212.650.7100 for reservations. The release is after the jump.

- Max Abelson

Visioning Harlem: Art, Culture, Place.
A Panel Discussion on the Role of the Arts in the Future of Harlem

Date/time: Thursday, September 21, 2006, 6:00-8:00pm. The event is free; reservations required.
Please call 212.650.7100.

Location: The Gatehouse, Harlem Stage's new space at West 135th Street and Convent Avenue and the first new performing-arts facility built in Harlem in more than 20 years.

Event: Over the past 30 years, we have seen artists effect the transformation of New York City neighborhoods, from Soho to Williamsburg to the South Bronx. But as change has swept through these areas, the very people who spurred this evolution have found themselves displaced. This panel discussion will explore from multiple perspectives how arts organizations like Harlem Stage, as cultural cornerstones of newly revitalized communities, can help preserve a community's essential character while seizing opportunities for positive change. Tours of the Gatehouse will be available after the discussion.

Participants: Leonard Lopate, moderator: Mr. Lopate is a prominent voice in the New York community, addressing local and national issues weekdays on his program, The Leonard Lopate Show.

Bill T. Jones, artist: The co-founder of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Mr. Jones has choreographed and performed internationally and produced some of the company's earliest commissions with Aaron Davis Hall, Inc., precursor to Harlem Stage.

The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III: Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and President of SUNY College at Old Westbury, Reverend Butts was one of the founders of Abyssinian Development Corporation, a community-based philanthropic and economic development organization that has funded housing and commercial development in Harlem since 1989.

Max Bond, architect: a co-founder of Bond Ryder Associates (1969-90), a Harlem-based firm specializing in urban building, and now a principal of Davis Brody Bond, currently engaged in the design of The World Trade Center Site Memorial, Mr. Bond has been at the forefront of urban planning and architectural preservation issues in Harlem since the 1970s.

Kate D. Levin: Ms. Levin is Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Organizer: Visioning Harlem is organized by Harlem Stage under the supervision of Executive Director Patricia Cruz. Harlem Stage, formerly Aaron Davis Hall, Inc., continues the organization's tradition of providing resources and exposure to promising artists of color with the opening of The Gatehouse this October.

Directions: The Gatehouse is located at 150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street (across from Aaron Davis Hall). To get there by subway, take the 1 train to 137th Street. Exit and walk two blocks south to 135th Street, then two blocks east to Convent Avenue. For more information and directions, please visit www.harlemstage.org.

The Post reports that Republicans have abandoned hope that Tom Suozzi will help them in defeating Eliot Spitzer.

And the Times writes about Cory Booker's coronation.

—Nicole Brydson

Which thought-based group, exactly, was the target of a widely mailed flyer, colored in the green, yellow, and red associated with Africa, that was headed by the words "Join African-Americans for Bloomberg Today"?

The cover of the 8.5 by 11 inch piece shows Mike amid a group of black people, including public-workers' chief Lillian Roberts; inside are two pages of an African-American slanted take on Mike's record, stressing, for example, "improving the relationship between the police and our community," improving minority test scores, and "aid[ing] minority-owned businesses in bidding on City contracts."

The back features testimonials from Calvin Butts, Floyd Flake, and A.R. Bernard.

With the tag line "More Opportunity for Our Community," the piece was mailed to an, er, black-thinking family in my Brooklyn building.

Sources told The Observer that City Hall officials have asked Deborah Wright, president of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, to withhold funds from projects in which Mr. Butts or the Abyssinian Development Corporation, the development arm of his church, is involved. Ms. Wright helps oversee the distribution of $300 million in economic development assistance for the New York Empowerment Zone in upper Manhattan as well as the South Bronx. (Ms. Wright, through an aide, declined to comment. City Hall did not return calls seeking comment.) Mr. Butts and Mayor Giuliani have had a stormy relationship, and it reached its nadir last year when the cleric called the Mayor a racist.

City Hall's actions threaten to bring to a halt at least two major community development projects–the restoration of the Astor Row homes on West 130th Street and the construction of 80 units of lower- and middle-income housing nearby. The A.D.C. has played a role in both projects.

In addition, sources said that administration officials have suggested that City Hall will not approve Government grants and will not allow development of any city-owned land for any projects with ties to Mr. Butts or the A.D.C., which has attracted financial support for its work from private sources such as Chase Manhattan Corporation, General Electric Company and American Express Company. The A.D.C. is just completing work on a sprawling new supermarket in Harlem and was involved in a major renovation of an underused parking garage–a project that reportedly has been blocked by City Hall since Mr. Butts accused the Mayor of racism.

Mr. Butts and the A.D.C. are major players in the neighborhood's economic revitalization effort, which began when Harlem and the South Bronx were designated as Federal "empowerment zones" in the mid-1990's.

"We've just gone through a period of great tension–we've gone through a lot of misunderstanding and name-calling," Mr. Butts said. "In the end, we're going to find out that we can work these things through. If we can't, it won't be because I haven't tried."

The tension in Harlem comes at a time when City Hall is embroiled in racially charged complaints about police brutality, and when African-American leaders are complaining that the Mayor refuses to talk to them.

Critics charge that City Hall has been dragging its feet in general on zone matters. Mr. Giuliani's representative on the New York Empowerment Zone Board of Directors, Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, has twice canceled meetings of the zone board in the last month over what one insider deemed "non-economic-development issues." And, sources said, the city's procedural slowdowns on zone issues are now systemic. According to one, "the [Giuliani administration] just keeps coming up with these problems. When someone objects to four out of 10 of the Empowerment Zone's initiatives, you can deal with it. But when they object to 10 out of 10 because somebody didn't get a piece of paper on time, that's a problem. It postpones everything." The Empowerment Zone board includes Mr. Washington, Empire State Development Corporation chairman Charles Gargano, U.S. Representatives Charles Rangel of Harlem and Jose Serrano of the Bronx and Ms. Wright.

Mr. Rangel, a Democrat who helped write the Federal legislation for Empowerment Zones, complained that "there's just no excuse" for Mr. Washington's apparent snubs of his partners on the Empowerment Zone board. City Council member Bill Perkins of Harlem said that City Hall's actions were "acts of revenge," while State Senator David Paterson called Mr. Giuliani an "obstacle to the Empowerment Zone for a long time."

The criticism of City Hall from Harlem's community leaders contrasts with the kind words that many have for Gov. George Pataki and his allies for their work in the area's rejuvenation. Mr. Pataki would seem to be an odd champion of Harlem development, but his economic development czar, Mr. Gargano, and Randy Daniels, a Harlem resident who is a senior official with the Empire State Development Corporation, have garnered high marks for their efforts in Harlem. Mr. Butts, himself an ally of Mr. Pataki, said he has only "high complimentary comments" for state officials, adding that the Pataki administration "is doing more to help Harlem than anyone in the last 25 years."

A Local Hero?

Many sources placed much of the blame for the current difficulties on the very man who ostensibly acts as the Mayor's ambassador to the city's black constituencies, Mr. Washington. Several sources complained that Mr. Washington has been unresponsive to their needs and virtually inaccessible to representatives of the Harlem community. "It's inexplicable," said Mr. Perkins. "[Mr. Washington], the local kid, he should be our champion. But also you have to understand that our local champion is representing someone else: the Mayor. [Mr. Washington] won't even meet with black leaders."

Senator Paterson, who last year chastised Mr. Butts for "fan[ning] the flames of contempt" with his provocative criticism of the Mayor, said that he has never had a conversation with Mr. Washington about the Empowerment Zone, although he had talked with Mr. Daniels and Mr. Gargano. "To me, the state is fighting over a vision for the project [while] the city is fighting more over control of the process. Maybe the city has a vision I don't know about."

According to Mr. Daniels, the state has enjoyed some measure of success in the Empowerment Zone by maintaining a flexible attitude in dealing with its partners: "The Governor and Chairman Gargano are prepared to do whatever we have to do to make the Empowerment Zone work. At times we will have to compromise, and we will do so as long as our principles are not reduced in any way. It's really important that we compromise politically when we have to." Asked if Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Washington were attempting to freeze out political adversaries from the Empowerment Zone, Mr. Daniels said he would not "single anyone out and say that. But we will not accept that from anyone. I don't know what motivates some of the decisions that are being made. But it's really important to put politics aside. We will not support or exclude anyone because of political reasons. It's inappropriate."

Tensions are such that a source close to Ms. Wright speculated that she might step down as president of the development corporation because of strained relations with Mr. Washington and City Hall. That, said the source, would be "a disastrous blow to Harlem's hopes of working successfully with the city." But sources familiar with the zone said they've nearly resigned themselves to waiting for Mr. Giuliani to leave City Hall, either in January 2002, when his second term expires, or in January 2001, when he would leave office if he runs for and wins a Senate seat next year.

Apparent setbacks notwithstanding, there are some signs of progress. On 125th Street, ugly scaffolding covers what will soon be the gleaming new exterior of a long-awaited mall called Harlem USA. Nearby, on Lexington Avenue, a new Pathmark is set to open its doors, meaning that residents will no longer have to travel out of the neighborhood for routine grocery shopping. And Harlem will soon enter the company of some of Manhattan's most yuppified neighborhoods when a Starbucks outlet opens on the corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Mr. Perkins, the local Council member, remains upbeat about the New York Empowerment Zone's potential, saying it could have a "ripple effect" not just in Harlem but throughout the city.